Holiday time and a gull saying hi

Hello everyone ;o)

I hope you are all doing great and enjoying the summer so far!  This time we have a wonderful theme for you over at Papercraft Challenges. Or at least I think it is a wonderful theme: "Holiday Time". For me a holiday is perfect, when I cann look at the sea and hear the gulls cry, so this is what I created for my inspiration card:

For my background I used a piece of design paper that I really love. I added a tag made of kraftpaper on which I had put some white ink and blue Distress Ink. I also added some white and brown dots to make it look even more like a beach. Next I coloured and adhered this super cute image by Create a Smile and stamped the sentiment "Moin!" next to it. Moin is a way of saying hello in the northern parts of Germany. There were only some finishing touches needed like the red tag and the tiny sea gulls and the card was done. I hope you like it.

I hope you are going to share your "Holiday Time" card with us in our gallery and thus have the chance to win a surpise prize ;o) Have a fabulous day and happy crafting everyone ;o)))

Supplies:
Stamps: "Möwen-Gang" by Create a Smile 

Dies: "Tag You are it" by Lawn Fawn

Have a dino-mite birthday

Hello everyone!

I'd like to share with you my newest creation. It was made for the new theme "For the Boys" over at Papercraft Challenges:

Our kind sponsor Dr Digi provided us with sum fun images and I chose the dino, because there are some birthdays for little boys coming up and for this the cute image is perfect I think. I created a background fpr the dino using a leaves-stencil and also coloured a piece of scrap paper with the same colours I used for the dino to cut the word "birthday" from.

Next step was to assemble everything on an orange-yellowish cardbase to fit with the beak and the bone plates. As a finishing touch I added Nuvo drops in two different colours. If you looks closely you'll see that each drop has a lighter dot in the middle which turned out really great in real life but gets lost a little in the pictures. Next time I want to try creating a rainbow dot that way...

I hope you are going to join us with a creation "For the Boys" and I keep my fingers crossed for you to win the 2 digis by our sponsor Dr. Digi!

Until next time have a fantastic months and happy crafting to you ;o))

Supplies:
Digi stamp: "Stacey the Stegosaurus" by Dr. Digi 
Stamps: "You rock" by Clearly Besotted (discontinued)
Stencil: "Leafy" by Create a Smile
Die: "Birthday" by Create a Smile

Spooktacular Halloween (Wizard & ghosts)

Hello everyone ;o)

I hope you are doing great today! I would like to share my most recent DT-work with you. This card:

was created for the newest "Halloween" themed challenge over at Papercraft Challenges. We were kindly sponsored by Dr. Digi and if you join you could win 2 digis from them. So why wait? ;o) I have used the image "Spells for beginners" and I really like this wizard holding his book. It was great to colour as well!

I started with a brick wall stencil on this turquoise cardstock that I have used as my card base. Using "Walnut Stain" Distress Ink I created the bricks and using dark blue to lighter blue shades I got the middle part kind of glowy - if you know what I mean. I wanted it to look like the orb was giving off a bluish light and would thereby tint the whole room kind of blue. 
Once everything was completely dry - I let it dry for over a day to be sure - I heat embossed the sentiment to the top of my card, added the wizard with some foam tape and also adhered the cute little ghosts around him. Did you know, that cute little ghosts really love glowing orbs? Well, I didn't, but here they are ;o) I heat embossed the images on vellum and put "Stick it" on them, so that it wouldn't show as much.

I hope you are going to join us over at Papercraft Challenges and I also hope that you'll have a fantastic day and happy crafting, yours Maike

Stamps: "Spells for Beginners" by Dr. Digi

              "Ghosts" by Lawn Fawn (discontinued)
Stencil: "Mauer" by Create A Smile (discontinued)

Happy Fall Fox

Happy fall to you all! :o)

Today is the first of the month of October so we have a new challenge for you over at Challenge Up Your Life. This time the theme is "Autumn Leaves" and this is the card I created for the challenge:

I love this 2 step stencil by Create A Smile and thoroughly enjoyed creating the background. What do you think about it? 

The background was supposed to be the star of the show, but I think this super adorable fox can hold its ground. I placed him on the polaroid die cut after adding a quick backdrop to that as well. The sentiment found a good place on the bottom of the polaroid and at first I thought I would add some glue dots around the fox but then I decided against it. I hope to see your project in our gallery over at Challenge Up Your Life featuring some Autumn Leaves, too ;o)

Supplies:
Stamps: "Fox - discontinued" & "Happy Fall"  by Gerda Steiner Design
Stencil: "Layered Leaves" by Create A Smile
Die: "Polaroid Stax - discontinued" by My Favourite Things

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag (Monochrom)

Heya my dear crafty friends,

I am a day late again, but again, I hope you'll forgive me, since I have been feeling poorly for the last few days. However, I would still love to share my make for the newest Challenge Up Your Life challenge with you. The theme is "Monochrome" and this is what I came up with:

I love this cute image and it was perfect for this challenge, because the animal itself only needed black and white to look good and so I could give it a lovely pink sweater and pair it with a light pink background.

The pink letters were coloured with Copic markers and the rest was stamped in jet black ink. I'll admit I added a little bit of colour with this heart I placed in the hand of my critter, but as it is so tiny and kind of neutral coloured I think I'll get away with it or what do you think? 

I hope you are going to join us in this month' challenge. We would love to see what you come up with! Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting to you! Yours Maike

Supplies: tba

Have a relaxing day (Upcycling)

Hello everyone ;o)
I hope you are all doing well! Today I'd like to share my project for the newest Challenge up your life challenge with you. The theme is "Upcycling" and I have used a brochure that I recently got at a health day in school. I liked the cover right away and thought it would be perfect as a birthday card. So here is what I made from it:

With one of my basic rectangle dies by Lawn Fawn I die cut the part I like best and also a decorative frame from red cardstock which I also used as the inner part of the letters I used for the sentiment. The rest was just a tiny bit of stamping and adhering the different layers together. I hope you like my idea of turning beautiful covers or pictures into cards. If you like the idea of upcycling you should definately visit the blog of my design team friends and get some inspiration from there as well!

Supplies:
Stamps: "Have a sweet birthday" by Lawn Fawn
Dies "Small Stitched Rectangle Dies" & "Scalloped Frame"
         by Lawn Fawn
         "Cool Cuts Cherry Lower Case" by Create A Smile

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:

Herzlichen Glückwunsch - Wedding card

Heya everyone ;o)

I hope you are all doing well and that maybe life has returned to a somewhat-normal for you. I am so happy you found your way to my blog and would like to share this simple wedding card with you. It was made for the newest challenge over at Papercraft Challenges, so if you have any weddings coming up we would love it if you could share your creation with us in our gallery:

I chose to go with a square card base, because for some reason that is my preferred format for a wedding card. No idea why, but let's roll with it for now ;o) I die the heart frame and the heart from some pearl cardstock which gives just a tiny bit of shine when you tilt it in the light. I glued both to a die cut banner cut from vellum and added the sentiment with stickers and another die cut. By the way for all the intricate die cut pieces like the frame and the word I always use "Stick it" on the back to make life easier for myself and also so that it is completely adhered and won't lift in odd places. I adhered the banner on the decorated card front and my card was almost done.

Because it was rather plain on the outside, I decorated the inside a little bit as well. It is all stamped, but makes it a proper wedding card as the outside could be a birthday card as well. I would love it if you would join us in this month challenge and am looking forward to seeing you again soon - somewhere in Blogland ;o) Have a fantastic day and happy crafting! Yours Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "Hochzeit Glückwunsch" by Klartext Stempel
Dies: "Heart Frame" by Avery Elle
         "Traditional Tag STAX" by My Favorite Things

         "Cool Cuts - Kleine Worte" by Create a Smile Stamps

Challenges:
Alphabet Challenge "E is for easy simple card"
Lil Red Wagon "Make it CAS"
Happy Little Stampers: Anything Goes with Dies

For A Loved One (Giraffe with heart)

Heya my dear crafty friends!

Today I would like to share my make for the newest challenge over at Papercraft Challenges with you. The theme is "For a loved one" and I love this cute giraffe by our kind sponsor Bugaboo:

I created a background using a stencil and a light pink Distress Ink and die cut the heart frame to help focus the eyes a bit. The giraffe was coloured with Copic markers and I coloured its hooves and the snout (?) twice so I could create something more 3D:

You can see it a bit better in this picture above. I only added two strips of paper to somehow center the image even more and stamped the greeting a bit below from where I wanted the image to be. I hope you are going to create something "For a loved one" and share it with us in our gallery! Remember you can win a lovely prize from our sponsor as well as making someone you love happy ;o))) Isn't that a win-win? Have a wonderful week everyone and happy crafting, yours Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "Giraffe Heart" by Bugaboo

              "tba" by Neat and Tangled

Dies: "Heart Frame" by Avery Elle

Stencil: "Polka Hearts" by Create A Smile

Liebe Grüße (Bear greetings)

Hello everyone :o)

It is Febuary already - well it has been for a day, but don't tell anyone, because I am a little late posting this card... I have created it for the "Hearts" challenge over at Challenge Up your Life. I am not a whole lot into Valentine's cards because my loved ones never throw those cards away I give to them - which is lovely and shows appreciation and all that, but they tend to pile up in our home, so I usually give other things for Valentines like a cake or some flowers or hugs ;o) However, I love hearts on cards, so even this is a perfect theme for Valentine's cards I created a "Hello" card and love how it turned out. I hoipe you do, too:

To get a bit of a shadow effect I die cut the hearts beackground die twice, once from white and the second time from dark red cardstock and glued the slightly offset together as you can see in the picture. Next i cut a wonky circle and two speech bubbles from the same red cardstick. I heat embossed my sentiment on the speech bubbles and afterwards added the faux stitching line with a white gel pen.

Next I die cut some copic friendly paper with the bear die, added some colouring and or shading to the individual pieces and assembled the bear back together again. The way I do this is to take the biggest die and colouring around it with a pencil. Next I will cut it out not on the line but rather a quarter inch inside of the line to give myself a piece of paper to glue all the individual pieces to. That way I can cover the big peiece with adhesive and don't have to worry about putting a tiny bit of glue on each and every piece. I adhered the bear to the wonky circle using foam tape on the top and regular tape towards the bottom to give it that angle to really make it look at you and also added the speech bubbles. I hope you are going to join us at Challenge Up Your Life. With the updated rules you can now post three projects to our challenge, sharing even more of your talent with us ;o) Have a wonderful day everyone and happy crafting ;o)
Yours Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "tba

Dies: "Cool Cuts Speech Bubbles" by Create a Smile

         "Big Picture Book Bear" by Simon Says Stamp

         "Fluttering Hearts Cover Plate" by Honey Bee Stamps

Merry & Bright (Huge Snowflake)

Hello everyone ;o)

So glad you stopped by! I hope this post finds you well and in good spirits :o) Many lovely people deserve a handmade Christmas hello and so I always need and create loads and loads of Christmas cards!

For this card I used the super cute image of Henry the skating bear and the huge and wonderful snowflake stencil by Create a Smile Stamps. Even though the image is rather small compared with the card size I fell that the big snowflake helps to tie it all together ;o) What do you think? Also it is made rather quickly, because there is only one time-consuming element in form of the Copic coloured bear. However, the card can be created withing 30 minutes I would dare say.

For the snowflake I used Distress Inks in Picked Raspberry and Wilted Violet and created a kind of ombre effect going darker towards the edges. To finish the card off I also added a bunch of sparkling sequins, the sentiment and also - of course - sweet Henry ;o) I hope you like the card! There will be one or two more to be found here until Christmas and I will choose cards that can still be made last minute ;o) Hope you'll stop by and until then I wish you a lovely time, all the best and stay safe! Happy crafting, yours Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "Henry - skating bear" by Purple Onion Designs
              "Jingle Greetings" by Mama Elephant
Stencil: "Snowflake" by Create a smile Stamps

Challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Christmas Critters"

Allsorts Challenge "Sparkle and Shine"

Crafty Calendar "Christmas Theme"

Sweet Stampin "Last Minute Christmas"

Cute Card Thursday "Anything Goes"

Fezziwigs Festive Frolics "Santas Says Last Minute Makes"

Modsquat Challenge "Bears"

2 Crafty Critter Crazies "Anything goes Challenge #45"

Liebe Grüße aus der Ferne

Hello everyone!

Today I am back with a new card for the "Dragon or Kite" theme for the Challenge Up Your Life blog and the month of October ;o) "Dragon" and "Kit" are the same word in German ("Drache") just in case you were wondering why we would pair such different things in a challenge.

I wanted nice big clouds as my background and because I didn't have a die or stamp that fit my idea I went with a patterned paper that I really love and have had stashed away for years now. The piece of paper fit my card base perfectly and all that was needed was a frame of some sort I though which is why I added the faux stitching line.

For the dragon I chose to go with some bright and fun shades of blue. After stamping the sentiment several times (at least the huge one) to get a really nice and dark impression I adhered the dragon right onto the paper - except for its left wing which I lifted up with some foam tape. It enhances the 3D feel of the dragon a little bit more. Now my card was done! I hope you like it and that you are going to join us at Challenge Up Your Life with a dragon or kite themed project of your own ;o))) Have a lovely month of October, stay safe and happy crafting! Yours Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "Me and My Dragon" by Mama Elephant

              "Aus der Ferne" by Create a Smile Stamps

Challenges:
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes"
Cardz 4 Guyz "Dragons or Dinosaurs"

Shopping Our Stash "On Trend - Slimline"

Sweet Stampers "Things With Wings"

A Fairy Nice Day

Hello my dear crafty friends!

I hope you are all doing fine and that you get to enjoy some sun outside or some light over your craft desk ;o) I happen to have an idea for the latter: How about joining us at the Crafty Cardmakers with a "Things With Wings" themed project this fortnight??! I had so much fun pairing this cute fairy with the beautiful "Bloom" stencil by Create A Smile Stamps:

It is a rather simple card but I do love it for the vibrant colours. Also when you look at it for some time and focus on the fairy's feet the card gets a more dimensional look. At least it is that way for me. 

For the "Blossom" itself I used three different Distress Inks (Mustard Seeds, Pink Raspberry and Peacock Feathers) and made sure they overlapped quite a bit, to get all the other blended shades too. I didn't want the sentiment to take anything away from the background so I decided to just stamp it there using the MISTI tool to get a really deep black line. I hope you are going to join us for some fun with "Things With Wings" and would love to see your project in our gallery ;o)

Supplies:

Stamps: "Little Fairies" The Greeting Farm

Stencil "Blossom" by Create A Smile Stamps

And if you like fairies, here is another card I made using the same stamp set:

And a whole bunch of fairy goodies for my dearest "Klosterschwestern" in 2018. The tree log contained a special rubber to help when one made a little booboo ;o)

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"

Liebe Grüße aus der Ferne - Butterfly

Hello there,

hope you are all doing great. This card - that I made as an inspiration card for the newest challenge "Geometric" at Papercraft Challenges - is the perfect card to just say hello to any friend whom you might like to make smile I think. This is the card:

The image-stamps I used are from a small German company called "Stempelschmiede" and are rather old, so that unfortunately I can't link you to the same ones, but I will link you to the shop if you are interested in having a look what other stamps the offer ;o) I love this cute butterfly in the rainbow look and I hope it brings a smile to your face as well ;o)

I am aware that I paired the images with a rather unlikely background, but I had that one laying around and I really liked the look of the purple and pink geometric pattern paired with the colourful images. What do you think? Would you have liked a green background better? I would love to see which geometric pattern you will create and hope to see many of your makes in our gallery! Have a fabulous week and happy crafting everyone ;o) Take care, yours Maike!

Supplies:

Stamps: "Aus der Ferne" by Create A Smile Stamps (available in English as well "From Afar")

Stencil: "Stencil Triangles" by Create A Smile Stamps 

Challenges:

Sweet Stampers Challenge "Something beginning with B" (Butterfly, Background, Blume)

Moving along with the times "Things with Wings"

Shimmering Butterflies

Hello everyone,

for the newest challenge at the Crafty Cardmakers with the theme "Butterflies" I created this card as an inspiration:

Using a stencil I created the background in an ombre fashion and went on die cutting all the butterflies next. I die cut the big butterfly from some sturdy vellum and die cut the intricate design from the shimmery cardstock next. I did put "Stick It" behind the paper before die-cutting because I am really not good at adhering down tiny things.

I really love the effect the paper gives. Depending on how you tilt it in the light it catches the light differently and thus the card never really looks quite the same... 

I added the small butterflies as extra-embellishment and in order to give the eye something to move along with - and yes, I admit it, because I love the paper so much and wanted even more on my card! I hope you are going to join us for our "Butterfly" challenge at the Crafty Cardmakers! Please stay safe, have a wonderful week and happy crafting!!! Yours Maike

Supplies:

Stamp: "" by Simon Says Stamp

Dies: by Memory Box, though they don't seem to have the exact one I have used any more...

Stencil: by My Favorite Things (discontinued)

Challenges:
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Animal Fun"
The Sisterhood of Crafters "Birds, Bees, Butterflies"