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

Sunny Smiles - CAS card

Hello everyone,

I love clean and simple cards - when others create them. Whenever I want to make one I keep thinking to myself "Maybe I'll just add some dots / splatters / embellishments / other images / a piece of coloured or designer cardstock /...". The list goes on and on and on. But this time the theme over at Challenge Up Your Life is "Clean and Simple" so I had to withstand my thoughts and this is what came out of it: 

So what do you think? And is it the same for you when you create a CAS-project? For this card I started with a white card base and added some light blue colour to the background using Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. Once I was happy with how it looked I grabbed a piece of paper and Salvaged Patina Distress Ink to get a straight horizon  line while darkening up the colour towards the bottom to create the illusion of water. 

When that was dry I stamped the sentiment and added the image which I had coloured with Copic markers. For some reason the darkest marker I had used (E47) was kind of - I don't know - sticky (?!!) after I had cleaned the marker and it created the bubbly look in the dark places of the bear. So the poor thing now has a bit of a sunburn... because I wasn't able to smooth out the colour anymore. A real shame and I am not sure what is wrong with my beloved E47. I made sure the cleaning liquid (isopropanol I think it was) never even got near the tip, but nevermind.

I would love to see our CAS-project in our gallery over at Challenge Up Your Life and I hope you'll have a wonderful time creating it! Have a fabulous day and happy crafting everyone ;o)))

Stamps: "Come On In" by Hello Bluebird

Waving hello - one layer card

Heya everyone,

the newest theme over at Papercraft Challenges was a real challenge for me. The theme is "One Layer Wonder" and I always have problems with one layer cards. For some reason, no matter which masking tape I use (and believe me I have tried at least ten different ones), it never really works. Often times I rip the paper and have to start all over again. The one thing that does sort of work is post-it-notes, but with them I only have a small area that is sticky. Ah well, I managed a card in the end and I am rather proud of it, so here it is:

I used some sweet images of Purple Onion Designs and stamped them with "Ink on 3" vanishing ink on my piece of Copic friendly paper and then... I had to hurry ;o) I masked all my images and created the sea and the sky with Distress Inks. Next, while I could still see the lines I coloured all the critters and the other elements with Copic markers. Towards the end I needed a reference sheet with all the images I needed and it was more guessing than actually seeing the lines, but I love the soft look of the no-line-coloring in this summer one-layer card. And I hope you do too ;o))
Have a wonderful day and please consider joining our challenge, especially when you do not like creating one-layer cards that much - in the end it is always very rewarding and a lot of fun, when one accepts a real challenge I find ;o) Happy crafting and I hope to see you soon, yours Maike

Supplies:
Stamps - all by Purple Onion Designs:
"Ida - rabbit", "Peony - mouse", "rocks, seaweed and coral", "Neptune - fish"

Challenges:
Simon Wednesday Challenge "Little critters"

The Paper Shelter "Waterwise"

Crafty Animals "Anything Goes"

Sweet Stampers Challenge "Add a Sentiment"

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

Squirrel having a pile of fun

Heya everyone,

so glad to see you here in my little part of Blogland ;o) Today we are starting a new challenge over at Papercraft Challenges. This time the theme is "Autumn Colours" and the winner will get a little surprise in addition to all the fun ;o) This is my take on the theme:

For this card I used the cute images by MFT stamps and started with stamping the pile of leaves on the already prepared background and quickly coloured in all the leaves in different colours and the "inside" of the pile in a dark green. It could either be that the inside of the pile is quite dark or that you can still see some grass underneath all the leaves. 

Next I stamped the squirrel and some extra leaves and coloured them in using my Copic markers again. This time I made sure I had a lot of contrast and depth to what I coloured. After that was done I die cut the frame and stamped the sentiment right next to the edge of the inside of the frame, placed the squirrel where I thought it looked best and then scattered some of the leaves around to make it look like the suirrel had just jumped into the pile of fun ;o) I hope you like the card and that you are going to join us in our "Autumn Colours" gallery. I would love to see what you create! Have a wonderful and cozy Autumn time, stay safe and happy crafting everyone, yours Maike ;o)

Supplies:

Stamps: "Piles of Fun" by My Favourite Things

              "Wonky Scalloped Frames" by Avery Elle

Challenges:

Sweet Stampers Challenge "Autum or Halloween"
Stamping Sensations "Autumn Glory"

Moving Along with the Times "Animals or Birds"

Shopping Our Stash "Happy Fall YÀll"
A Place to Start "Harvest Time - Use Red, Yellow and Green"
Aud Sentiments Challenge "Halloween / Fall Sentiment"

Hello (Reading Bunny)

Hello everyone ;o)

PINspirational Challenges has a new challenge starting today. Here you can see the new inspirational picture: 

For my card I punched out a circle from yellow cardstock and darkened the edges a little to give it more interest and placed that on a die cut scalloped circle. I wanted the white edge around my focal point, because I felt the patterned paper would have been a little too distracting otherwise. I stamped and coloured that sweet bunny reading its book and fussy cut it out. 

Next I cut down a pice of vellum and tore the edges a bit to make them more noticable and darker. I used letter dies to die cut the word hello twice and adhered it directly to the vellum. After adding a few enamel dots my card was done ;o) If you would like to join the fun, just click on the link here or click the inspirational picture to be directed to the challenge. I can't wait to see what you'll create! Have a wonderful week and happy crafting, yours Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "Zoey - bunny reading" by Purple Onion Designs

Dies: "Tall Alpha Die Set" by Altenew
         "Scalloped Circle Die" by My Favourite Things (discontinued) 

Challenges:
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes"
Crafty Gals Corner "Fall Colours"
Stinkin Inkers "Shades of Fall"
Moving along the Times "Animals or Birds"
DL.Art "Fall Colours"
Crafty Animals "Include an animal"
Daring Cardmakers "Inspiration Picture"

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"

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)))

Urlaubsfeeling

Hello everyone!

Wow, this time it worked out so that I got to post three days in a row to inspire you for different challenges ;o) Today I would like to inspire you to play along with our newest theme "Vacation Mood" at Challenge Up Your Life. It made me so happy to create this vacation inspired card, because we won't be going on holiday anytime soon it seems. Anyhow, this is the card I made:

This really takes me to the beach and I hope you'll join me there, if only for a brief moment ;o) For this card I used a background stamp from Purple Onion Designs and also the cute, cute penguins by My Favorite Things ;o) First Istamped a palm tree, masked it and stamped it again. Next I stamped over it with the background stamp and coloured everything with Copics. Once I was happy with how it looked I die cut the scene using a stitched rectangle (nothing too crazy, because there was a lot going on already) and added the fussy cut and also Copic coloured penguins. 

Lastly I added the sentiment and also stamped another penhuin on the inside of the card just to make that look extra special as well ;o) I hope you are going to join us at Challenge Up Your Life with a vacation themed project. Have a great day and happy crafting! Thank you for stopping by, yours Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "Penguins in Paradise" by My Favorite Things
              "Sand Dunes" by Purple Onion Designs

Die: "Wonky Stitches Elle-Ments" von Avery Elle

Challenges:
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes"
Stamps + Fun = Creativity "Ferien / Vacation"
Tuesday Throwdown "Anything Goes"
Paperminutes "Meer / Sea"
Basteltraum Challenge "Sommer /Summer"
The Crafting Challenge Blog "Bright Colours"

Big Hugs - Rainbow Background

Hallo everyone ;o)

I hope you are all doing fine and that you get to enjoy some nice summer days! Today I would love to share this super cute card with you which I made for the new "Create Your Own Background" challenge at the Crafty Cardmakers:

Even though it might look different there were only three Distress Inks involved in creating this background: Picked Raspberry, Mustard Seed and Peacock Feathers. I love how you can get a lot more colours simply by overlapping them. It still is magic to me ;o) Once I had the background piece ready I set it aside to let it dry completely and went on die cutting the sentiment three times. I glued the pieces together to make the word die stand out even more. 

In this picture you can see the effect quite well. I am lazy so I usually put "Stick it" behind sentiment dies. Do you glue them together differently? If so I would love to hear which adhesive you use, because all the ones I tried are too runny or too thick when I lay them down and my beloved snail glue doesn't work for me either... Well, back to this card ;o) I had stamped the image in a very light grey and coloured it in a no-line fashion. I thought it would work well on an elephant ;o) I added it to the sentiment strip, added an additional dot detail to the background and my card was done. I hope you like it and that you will join us at the Crafty Cardmakers ;o) Happy crafting everyone ;o)
And...

... to you all!!!

Supplies:

Stamps: "Adorable Elephants" by My Favorite Things

Die: "Big Hugs Die" by Neat and Tangled (Linked to Seven Hills Crafts)

Challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes"

Stamping Sensations "Make it Colourful"

Allsorts Challenge "So cute"

Kraftin Kimmie Stamps "No-Line Technique"

Sweet Stampin Challenge "Create Your Own Background"

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"