Fröhliche Weihnachten (Santa und Rudolph)

Hello everyone ;o)
Today I'd like to share my newest creation for the Papercraft Challenges blog with you. Our kind sponsor Mirtillamente has provided us with some super cute images and will be sponsoring a prize (2 digis) for the winner as well!
Here is what I came up with for our theme "Under the mistletoe":

This image was a lot of fun to colour let me tell you ;o) I also added a lot of glitter and shine, but that isn't all to visible in the picture unfortunately. I felt like the image didn't need a lot more than just a sentiment, so I added "Fröhliche Weihnachten" (merry christmas) to the bottom of the scene and also added a blue border around the image, so that it would draw your eye to the window where Santa and Rudolph are hiding! I used the lightest blue marker (B29) I had used for the night sky to create the blue border, so the colours match perfectly!
I hope you are going to join us for our "Under the Mistletoe" challenge and I wish you a very merry christmas and a very happy new year also!
All the best to you and your loved ones,
                                                                            Maike

Supplies:
Stamp: "Christmas Home" by Mirtillamente

Walk in the fall (Lavender & Thyme)

Hello everyone,
today I would like to share my card for the newest challenge over at Papercraft Challenges with you! The theme for this month is "Fabulous Fall" and here is what I came up with:

The stamps are from Purple Onion Designs from their designer Stacey Yacula which I am a huge fan of. I just love the cute critters she always comes up with. The two critters are from her "Merriest City" collection but even though they were intended to go on Christmas cards I think the fit perfectly in this little wood with their jackets and the hat. 

For this card I focused on my Copic colouring. I wanted the colours to represent fall and think I nailed it. What do you think? I took ages but I thoroughly enjoyed the process. I glued the background piece flat to the card base and added foam tape behind the critters to give them some dimension. 

I hope you are going to join us with your own "Fabulous Fall" project! Until next time, happy crafting and all the very best to you my crafty friend!!! Yours Maike ;o)

Supplies:
Stamps: "Lavender & Thyme" by Purple Onion Designs

              "Woodland Background" by Purple Onion Designs

Challenges:
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Make Your Own Background" (Hope colouring it in counts...)

Send a Smile 4 Kids "Cute Fall / Halloween Cards for kids"
Gem of a Challenge "Wk 18 - Anything goes"

Alphabet Challenge Blog "L is for landscape"

Happy Easter (and lots of no line colouring)

Hello everyone!
Hope you are all doing great and looking forward to spring with better and warmer weather and flowers and Easter ;o) Over at the Papercraft Challenges blog we chose the theme "Easter" as our new theme for the coming month. This is the card I created for it:

I stamped the image with Ink on 3 Fadout ink and coloured this cute bunny by Gerda Steiner in immediately afterwards. Because, as the name suggests, this ink fades out over time and you won't be able to see the lines any more after a while. 

Next I got started on the background. It was time consuming but a lot of fun. I worked along a course by Sandy Allnock which was very entertaining easy to follow and I must say I really quite like the outcome. I hope you do, too!
After painting the scene for the background all I did was die cut a sentiment (which means Happy Easter in English) and coloured another egg before assembling it all. 
I hope you will join us this month and share your Easter projects with our fantastic community! There is also a surpise prize to win, so what are you waiting for?! ;o) Wishing you all a lovely spring time, happy crafting and all the best,
                                                                                                 

                                                                                                    yours Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "Easter Bunnies" by Gerda Steiner Designs 
Dies: "Small Stitched Rectangle Dies" by Lawn Fawn
          "Frohe Ostern" by Crealies 

I see..... soooo many candles ;o))))

Hello everyone,
today I'd like to show you my newest DT card for the Papercraft Challenges blog. The theme this time is "Carneval":

I do not have much use for a carnival themed card, but I have seen so many fortune tellers in this years Rosenmontagsumzug that I thought this would make a great card for the theme. Inside the sentiment goes like this:

I hope you like the card and also that you will join us over at Papercraft Challenges. One lucky crafter will win a prize from Dr. Digistamps who kindly sponsores this month' challenge!
Happy crafting everyone ;o)

Girl with saxophone (Happy happy birthday)

Hello and welcome to today's post ;o)

I would like to share my newest card with you which I have created for the new challenge over at Papercraft Challenges. It will be all about girls for the next four weeks and with this image by our kind sponsor Dr. Digi I have created this birthday card:

I really enjoyed colouring this cute girl with her puffy cheeks and after I had coloured her with Copic markers I fussy cut her out. in the stamp there is a dog standing next to her, but I only wanted this part of the image for what I had in mind. Next I prepared the cardbase and stamped a musical note stamp in all the colours of the rainbow because of the piece of background paper I wanted to place the gitl image on. 

The colourful background was created with alcohol inks and some felt pieces on my ink blending tool. It was quite a mess but loads of fun to create ;o) Lastly I added the sentinemt word strips I had heat embossed on black cardstock. I used black to get a really heavy contrast going and I really like the end result. I hope you like it, too and that you will share your "Girls" projects with us over at Papercraft Challenges! Don't forget, you could be the lucky winner and win 2 digis by our sponsor Dr. Digis!!! Have a fabulous day and happy crafting ;o) Yours Maike

Supplies:
Yupo paper by Ranger
Stamps: "Mood music" by Dr. Digi 

Sending Smiles

 Heya everyone ;o)

Today I would like my "Spring" card for Papercraft Challenges. This time we have a wonderful new sponsor and you could be the winner of 2 digital stamps from Mirtillamente. If you like the fun "flower" on my card you should definately go and have a look ;o)

I printed the stamp on Copic friendly paper and coloured it with Copics, creating a little hill scene in the background. Once the ink had dried I die cut the scene and added the sentiment with white embossing powder. To finish the card I added a fairy from "The Greeting Farm" which made a perfect pair with this adorable flower house.

I also stamped another fairy and the sentiment "Have a fairy nice day", but I didn't catch it on camera yet. We would love to see your "Spring" inspired creations in our gallery. Until then have a fabulous day and happy crafting ;o)

Stamps: "Fairy Tale" Flower House Number 2" Mirtillamente

               "Little Fairies" The Greeting Farm

Dies: "Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables" Lawn Fawn

Happy Birthday (Sweet Celebrations)

Hello everyone!

Today is the start of the 150th challenge at the Challenge Up Your Life blog and we would like to celebrate this anniversary with all of you. So it might not surprise you, that "Anniversary" is our new theme. I chose a birthday theme, because those are the cards I always need the most of:

I stamped the sentiment in different colours and added the starry background with a stencil to give it more of a fun and festive look and glued the panel to a rainbow coloured background. Next I added the adorable critters and my card was done. Most of the time creating it went into the colouring, but it was a lot of fun!

I hope you are going to join our 150th challenge and share your talent with us! Take care my friends and happy crafting! Yours Maike

Stamps: "Sending Sweet Celebration Wishes"  & "Happy Birthday Blend" by My Favorite Things

Ice Skating Fun

Hello my dear crafty friends,

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the wintery and hopefully cozy time! Perfect time for crafting, don't you think? ;o) If so, you will be happy to know that our new theme at Papercraft Challenges is "Winter Wonderland". This is my take on the theme:

Have I ever told you that I despise having to mask images? I don't mind the work, but I don't seem to be able to find a properly working masking tape that doesn't rip my paper once I am done with all the stamping and inking. That is why I love background stamps such as the one I have used for my card. 

When my crafting mojo leaves me I find that I am able to find it again after colouring a few backgrouds and that way I do have quite a collection gathered by now. As for making this card there was "only" a lot of colouring involved but not a lot more than that. I felt that it was good enough as it was without any more embellishments. By the way: Do you guys have a good Copic colour combination for foxes? Mine became a bit too reddish for my taste, but I could do anything about it anymore once I had noticed. If you do, please could you let me know in the comments? I'd be most grateful ;o)

Hope you will join us in our gallery with your own "Winter Wonderland" ;o) Have a wonderful weekend and happy crafting to you all! And please take care! Hugs, Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "Henry (Bear)", "Grace (Fox)" & "Mountains large" by Purple Onion Designs

Winter Fun (Fox in the snow)

Happy New Year Everybody!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, a relaxing last couple of days in 2021 and a great start into the new year! I wish you all the best, time for all the things you'd like to do, a hard working muse and good health!!!

Now onto today's card-> I created it for the newest challenge "Winter Fun" at Challenge Up Your Life:

This cute fox in front of the still christmassy decorated house is an image (or better are two images) by Purple Onion Designs and I had a great time colouring them. Besides colouring I only added some sparkle to the lanterns and the wreath to the front of the door, but kept it simple otherwise. I felt there was a lot going on in the images already and wanted to let them shine.

Because I kept the outside rather plain I also decorated the inside of the card:

I hope you are going to join us with some "Winter Fun" projects and wish you happy crafting and lots of fun being creative ;o) Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "Rupert (Fox with snowballs)", "Wilson (Bear with snowball)", "Front Door"
               & "Door Decor #1" by Purple Onion Designs

Driving Home For Christmas (Old Betsy)

Hello everyone!
Today I would like to share a card with you that I have created as an inspiration for our newest challenge over at Papercraft Challenges. The theme is "Driving Home For Christmas". I hope you might have guessed it even without me saying so ;o) A car is rather unusual on cards of mine, but this image is just so super cute - I just love the happy bear in its truck!

All the stamps are from Purple Onion Designs which are all just adorable I think. Sometimes I hesitate to use them because they take a little bit of extra time to colour for me, but everytime I do use their images I just love how the cards turn out. For this card I started by airbrushing on a light blue (B91) and then took it from there. I didn't have a stamp saying "driving home for Christmas", so I thought with the presents in the back I'd let "Old Betsy" speak for "her"-self ;o) Old Betsy is what the stamp of the car and the bear is called ;o)

I hope you are having a wonderful time now and around Christmas and I wish you all the happiest of times with your loved ones and your family. Maybe you'll have the odd spare moment and if you do and you'd like to craft a little then, I'd love it if you would share a project with us in our gallery.

Stamps: "Old Betsy", "Toy Store Background", "Bakery Background" by
              Purple Onion Designs

Herzlichen GLÜCK-wunsch

Hello my dear crafty friends,

I don't know about you, but life has gotten way more hectic over the last two months in my little corner of the world. That is why you haven't seen a lot of new cards lately and I am afraid more than two or so a month won't be managable for me right now. However I do hope you still come by every now and then. Today's card is for the "Fortune, Good Luck, Mushrooms" challenge over at Challenge Up Your Life. In German the theme of the challenge is simply called "Glückspilz", which is the name of a person who has a lot of good luck and "Pilz" is the word for mushroom, so that is why you will see a giant mushroom on my card:

With the wonderful stamp set "Always bring a smile" by MFT I created this little scene. My idea was that it is the foxes birthday and the turtle is about to bring a flower as a gift. The sentiment "Herzlichen Glückwunsch" means congratulations and is used to wish someone a happy brithday over here. 

The whole scene was coloured with Copic markers and when everything was completely dry I added the sentiment. The word "Glück" is stamped in "Lime Green" ink by MFT and then covered with a clear embossing powder. 

Wonder what the foy will think about that sweet gesture ;o) I hope you like the card and I wish you the happiest of days and happy crafting of course! Maybe you like to create something that fits our theme?! It would be wonderful to see your creation in our gallery! Yours Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "SY Always Bring A Smile" by My Favourite Things 

              "Glückwunsch" von Create A Smile

Dies: "All Prettied Up" by Mama Elephant

I would like to share my card here:

Hay Chick

Hay everyone ;o)

Every second Tuesday is very PINspirational - or so I find ;o) We have a new challenge for you over at PINspirational Challenges today and this is the inspiration picture:

I love the chicken images I have by Purple Onions Design, so I immediatly thought of them when I saw this picture. I started my card with the die cutting part (rectangle and next the peek-a-boo windows) to have an inkling on where I would have to place the images I wanted to use. I had cut a piece of Copic friendly paper to size and made sure you could still see what I wanted to be visible when I placed the window piece back on top - I hope that makes sense ;o)

When I had the scene stamped and coloured I added the sentiment "HAY CHICK" with letter stickers by Create A Smile Stamps in yellow and light green and also that cute little chick and then used foam tape to pop the panel up. Lastly I added the speech bubble, just to add another fun element to the card.In order to really draw the eye towards the chicks I decided to use a yellow panel under the blue one as well and that finished my card. I hope you like it and that the chickens or anything elso in the picture inspires you to create a card or other crafty project. If so I would love to see it in our gallery at PINspirational Challenges. 

Supplies:

Stamps: "Flo, Mo & Bo - 3 chicks" & "Eloise- hen"

Dies: "Peek-A-Boo Windows" by My Favorite Things (discontinued)

If you like the images, maybe you like this card as well:

Challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Oh so cute"

Send A Smile 4 Kids "Anything Goes 4 Kids"

Ike's World "Three of a kind" (windows and chicks)

Sweet Stampers "Outside Fun"

Digi Doodle Studio "Things with Wings"

The Crafter's Cafe "Dots and or Stripes"

Crafters Castle "Anything Goes"

Aloha friends

Heya my dear crafty friends!

Great to see you today ;o) Can you believe it is August already??? July somehow just flew by in a blink of an eye... Well, the beginning of a new month always means that there is a new challenge at Challenge Up Your Life. This time it is "Faraway Contries" and at first I was really stuck, but then I looked through my stash and found the Hoola-girl by MFT and thought that she would be just perfect. So here she is:

Making this card was bitter-sweet, because travelling is not an option for me right now with Covid19 going on and I really miss it. However, I really like the Hawaiian feel of the card, the sand and the palm-trees and it made me miss the beach a tiny bit less. ;o) I started this card by stamping the palm trees using the masking technique and next I added the "sand" using Distress Ink. After drawing in the sandy hill I cut away everything that wasn't needed and was left with a beautiful beach scene. 

I added the cloud patterned paper behind it and also matted it with a rainbow coloured paper to match the skirt of my hoola-girl. I had coloured her with Copic markers (for her skin tone I used E17, E13 and E11) and when it came to making the decision about the colour of her skirt I didn't want to use green, yellow or brown (which for me would have been the obvious choices) I could deice on just one colour and went with all of them ;o) For her hair I used markers from the E40ies and also a Y21 to give the hair a yellowish undertone. I hope you are going to join us and create a layout or card or whatever that reminds you of a "Faraway Contry" that you have visited or would like to visit ;o) Stay safe and happy crafting everyone ;o)) Hugs, Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "Polynesian Paradise" by My Favorite Things 

Die: "Stitched Rectangle Stackables" by Lawn Fawn

Challenges

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes"

Alphabet Challenge "I is for Island Fun" (ends 13.08.)

Colour Crazies Challenge "Anything Goes" (ends 15.08.)

Double D Challenges "Let's Go To The Beach" (end 03.08.)

Sisterhood of Crafters "Anything Ocean or Beachy" (ends 10.08.)

Try It On Tuesdays "Summertime" (ends 04.08.)

If you like these images on a card, here are two more cards I made with them:

Girl and turtle (July 2018)

and   

Warm Wishes & Sunny Smiles (July 2017)

Happy crafting everyone ;o)))

Have a great day - picknick bears

Heya everyone ;o)

I hope you had a great summer so far! Here in Germany it was a constant up and down in temperatures and rain was a constant companion on most days. Not our usual summer at all... So I decided to send my two beary friends to have a lovely picknick for this inspiration:

I started by creating the background with blue and green Distress Ink colours. I made sure to leave a bit of a gap between the two colours, so that it wouldn't get all muddy. I didn't want a harsh edge or I would have used a mask, rather I wanted it to be a bit hazy (hope that is the correct word) to look very bright and softer somehow. 

All the images on this card are from Purple Onion Designs and I just love that they always work together in size and style. I coloured them with Copic markers. The sentiment strip and the "blanket" were cut from some ppaper scrap I had lying around and I die cut it with a die by Lawn Fawn to give it the fancy edge ;o) The bubbles from the bear on the right were stamped in a very light blue ink and I filled them with Nuvo dops in a clear blue shade. I didn't think that the ink would sink in completely, but it did. Makes it look a bit more realistic, but also the edges look a bit wonky... However, I still like how the card turned out in the end and I hope you do too ;o)

It would be great to see your creation in our gallery at PINspirational Challenges. Until then have a great week and happy crafting! Stay safe everyone, yours Maike ;o)

Supplies:

Stamps: "Garden Bugs", "Bear Johnny", "Jackson & Bubbles"& "Watermelon & Goodies"
              by Purple Onion Designs

Die: "Fancy Scalloped Rectangle Stackables" by Lawn Fawn

Challenges:

Coloring in Scrapland "Anything goes wit option Summer" ends 30.08.

Basteltraum "Anything Goes" end 14.07.

Paper Funday Challenges "The Great Outdoors" ends 31.07.

Try It On Tuesdays "Summertime" ends 06.08.

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge July ends 31.07.

Catcher of Beasts - Male card

Hello everyone

and welcome on my blog ;o) Today I would like to share my inspiration card for the newest challenge at the Crafty Cardmakers with you. Our theme this time is "Male Cards" and so I thought I'd go with a blue and grey colour scheme as well as with a geometric background design. But have a look yourself:

I got to play with my first set of Kindred Stamps this time around, because I thought the image resembling the main character from "Phantastic Beasts" would be perfect for a male recipient. I hope it will make them feel like a nifty wizard ;o))) I gave them both a piece of metallic looking vellum to stand on, so that the background is still visible but it adds just a hint of magic to the card too ;o)

For the background I have used a new stencil which I thought would look good with the theme as well as give me a chance to introduce a bit of colour to the card. I decided to go with an ombre look in blue-green colours and have used Distress Inks to create it. I hope you are going to join us for this fun theme and happy crafting, yours Maike ;o)

Supplies:
Stamps: "Catcher of Beasts" by Kindred Stamps (linked to Stempelbar)
Stencil: "Falling" by That Special Touch Mask (linked to Stempelbar)

Challenges:
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Something Metallic"
Aud Sentiments "Anything Goes + Sentiment"
Cute Card Thursday "Masculine"
Dragon Fly Dreams "Make it Masculine"
Catch The Bug Challenge "The Man, The Myth, The Legend"

Have a happy birthday (elephant)

Heya everyone,

just a quick post today because I am late as it is and the last days have been soooo busy - so I hope you'll forgive me if I don't elaborate too much ;o) This is my inspiration card for the newest Papercraft Challenges challenge ;o) The theme is "Spring" and we are kindly sponsored by Gerda Steiner Designs:

I printed the digi stamp on Copic paper as a watermark so that I could only barely see the outlines, because I wanted to go with a light, no-line style for the "Spring" theme. After I had coloured everything in and had added a nice grassy hill and blue sky to the image I die cut the scene with a rounded rectangle die.

I chose a yellow paper for my background to draw the eye towards the birdie even more and also added the lovely tall letters by Altenew which I had die cut from a rainbow patterned paper. I hope you are going to join us at Papercraft Challenges with a "Spring" related project! Please stay safe and have a wonderful weekend everyone! Happy crafting, yours Maike

Supplies: tba