Tropical Paradise and a turtle that serves drinks ;o)

Hello everyone!

I am back with my new card for the Papercraft Challenges blog. This time the theme is "Tropical Paradise" and this always makes me think of palm trees, the sea and a beach. So this is what I came up with:

I used some slimline stackable dies by Lawn Fawn to create the background scene and the white border around it. For the sand and the water I used distress inks on a white piece of paper, because I wanted the gap between the two to be reminiscent of sea spray.
The stamps are from the beautiful set "Polynesian Paradise" by My Favourite Things. (I hadn't realized that they have gone out of business though. That is such a shame and derailed me a few hours from publishing this post, because I tried to find out what happened.)

All the images were coloured with Copic markers and I used another, slightly larger, slimline die to create the white strips at the sides. 

I hope you will join us this month with a "tropical" card or project and publish your creation to our gallery. Have a wonderful day everyone and happy crafting ;o)

Flower Power Card

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all doing well. Today I'd like to share a card I made for the current "Flower Power" challenge over at Papercraft Challenges.

There was a lot of masking going on with this card but I really enjoy the layered look without too much bulk. Also, because the layering took some time, I used the provided inside-stamp of the petals to stamp rather than colour them in. It gives a different look and I am not sure I would use it all the time, but with this design I think it worked.

I hope you are going to join us and share your flower project in our gallery. Have a fabulous day and happy crafting my friends!!!
Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "A Bunch Stamp Set" Waffle Flower (discontinued)

               "Happy Birthday Background" My Favorite Things

Cozy Christmas

Dear crafty friends,

I hope you are all doing well. Today I would like to share with you my newest DT work for the "Cozy Christmas" challenge over at Challenge Up Your Life:

For this card I used quite a few stamps by Purple Onion Designs. Their images are just so cute and I love colouring them, even though it takes a little longer than colouring other images because of the many little details. 

On the inside I stamped another image and the sentiment, because I felt like there was enough going on on the outside of this card. If you would like to join our challenge with your own "Cozy Christmas" creation we would love to see it in our gallery ;o) Have a fabulous day and happy crafting!

Stamps: "Christmas Tree", "Sugar Plum (bunny)", "Fireplace and Rug", "Buttons (cat)" & 
              "Sweets (mice)" by Purple Onion Designs
              "Background stamp Sweater?" by My Favourite Things

Super fun birthday (snowfight)

Hello everyone ;o)

It is the middle of the month and therefore I'd like to invite you to have a look at our newest challenge at Papercraft Challenges. The theme this time is "Anything Goes" so you can share with us your favourite project - no matter what theme it is. I decided to create a wintery birthday card and here it is:

I made the background using Distress Inks and a stencil I cut from thick cardstock in a curvy shape to create the illusion of hills in the background. The images are from My Favourite Things and I love that you can use some of the set for Christmas cards as well as wintery themed ones. Once the background was dry and I knew which images would go where I heat embossed the sentiment which always looks really nice I think ;o)

Colouring the images was really a lot of fun and quicker than I first thought. I added a few trees and snowflakes to the back to make it look more interesting and also put glitter on the snow and the snowballs. To finish the card I stamped loads of snowballs and the girl inside the card in a light blue shade, hoping this will surprise the recipient. 

It would be lovely having you join our challenge this time! Have a fabulous day and happy crafting, yours Maike

Stamps: "Snow much fun" by My Favourite Things

Dies: "Wonky Rectangle Die" by Avery Elle
         "Mini Snowflakes" by Lawn Fawn 

Merry Christmas from Henry - the ice-skating bear

Hello everyone and a very happy new year ;o)

I hope you all had a very good start to a happy, healthy and crafty new year! Today I'd like to share with you the card I made for the "Ice, ice baby" challenge over at Challenge Up Your Life. It was my turn to chosse a topic and I thought you could all share your wintery cards with us. Here is what I have created:

One of my new year resolutions is to create at least one Christmas card a month, so that I won't be too short on cards when the next Christmas rolls along... (I know, it may seem like a long time now, but when October comes around I usually get a little panicky and I would like to save myself from that this year.) For this card I coloured one of the cute Purple Onion images and created a shimmery and frosty looking background for the bear. It is ice-skating after all, so I thought it would fit perfectly. 

I hope you like this frosty Christmas card and that you are going to join us for this first challenge in 2023! Have a great day and happy crafting everyone ;o)

Supplies:
Stamp: "Henry - skating bear" by Purple Onion Designs
             "Winter Big Scripty Words" by Lawn Fawn
Dies: "Rectangle Peek-A-Boo window" by My Favorite Things
          "Mini Snowflakes" & "Winter Big Scripty Words" by Lawn Fawn
         

Hohoho Easel Card

Hello my dear crafty friends,
today I'd like to share my DT card for the current challenge at Challenge Up Your Life with you.

This time it is a  color combo:

For this card I stamped the cute reindeer, masked it and then stamped Santa over it. After colouring everything I cut the image out. I die cut the rectangle die from this fun snowy paper by Lawn Fawn and also from white paper which I then die cut two snowy hills from. That way I could have the stitching go around completely. 

Next I glued the snowy background to the cardbase and scored both pieced at once. I also adhered Santa to the snowy hills, making sure no adhesive went higher than the edge of the hill in the back and glued that piece to the bottom part of the snowy background. 

Depending on how you place the card you can either see the background but have Santa be lifted off it visually oder you can just have the hills with Santa on it visible. Really fun to play around with! 

To add a sentiment I die cut the "ho ho ho" from red and glitter cardstock and placed them over Santa`s head. The "real" sentiment was playced inside the card heat embossed on a small die cut which I backed with the same paper that I made the card base from. That way, when you use the sentiment to placethe card behind it, the bottom  part doesn't go all the way to the white paper (if you know what I mean). 

That was my card for today. I hope you are going to join us with a sentiment of your choice, only keeping in mind the beautiful color combo ;o) Have a fabulous day and happy crafting, Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "Santa" & "Laurel - reindeer" by Purple OnionDesigns

               "Sweet Holiday Penguins" by My Favorite Things 

Dies: "Cool Cuts Cherry Lower Case" by Create A Smile 
          "Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables" & "Stitched Hillside Boarders" by Lawn Fawn

Polka Dot Birthday Party

Hello my dear crafty friends!

Today I'd like to show you the card I made as an inspiration for the "Polka Dot" challenge over at Papercraft Challenges.

I created it for a young lady who turned 16 not too long ago. It was once mentioned, that she enjoys having her name on cards and such, because it is a rather unusual name and you can't easily buy individualised mugs or key chains for her. So I make an effort to add her name to the cards I make, because that is one wish I can fulfill for her. 

I used polka dots as the "wallpaper" and as decoration at the sides and for an envelope I created that was adhered to the back. The decorations and the cute critters are all, except for the tiny mouse, from one set by My Favorite Things which I totally adore and which is, in my opinion, perfect for birthday cards. 

The base for my box card was created without any dies. I just cut two pieces of cardstock to the same size and scored at 0,5 inches and 1,5 inches each. Than I chose one of the pieces to die cut the window from and added two "floor boards". For this I die cut two strips of paper that was 1 inch longer than my card is wide and scored each side at 0,5 inches and glued them to the sides, as you can see a bit better in this picture:

I hope you are going to join us with at Papercraft Challenges, I'd love to see you using polka dot patterns ;o) Have a wonderful day and happy crafting, Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "SY Sending Sweet Celebration Wishes" by My Favorite Things

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

Happy tropical birthday

Hello everyone ;o)

I hope you are well and happy! It is summer and so we felt a "Tropical" theme would be perfect for our newest challenge at Challenge up your life! I chose to create a card right out of a tropical jungle and here it is:

I used a stencil to create the background and had these wonderful leave dies which I backed with black, so that they wouldn't get visually lost on the busy background.

I love the combination of pink and green, don't you? It looks so fresh and summery... I hope you are going to join us for our "Tropical" theme and because it is summer we will take a short break and will be back with a new theme in September - which means that you'll have two month to join the fun ;o))) Hope you'll have a lovely summer time and happy crafting everyone ;o))) Yours Maike

Supplies:
Stanps: "Loveable Leopards" by My Favorite Things (retired)
             "Flirty Frames" by Lawn Fawn

Interactive card - camera and hedgehog

Hello everyone,

I am here with an interactive card today as inspiration for the newest challenge at Challenge Up Your Life: 

I have used the "Magic Iris Camera Add On" to create this card for a lovely person who loves photography and all things outdoor. 

There are many videos out there explaining how to assemble this wonderful die so I won't bore you with it, but I really like the decorated fronts for this "Camera Add On" and thought I would share some tipps and tricks in this regard. The grassy hill in the opening area of the camera gave me a hard time at first. I wanted everything to line up perfectly, but didn't want to glue anything in the circular opening area, if you know what I mean. So I figured a way out in the end: I decided to die cut the grassy part and then use the camera die to die cut it again, so it would match completely - stitches and all. That left me with a tiny piece of grass. So I glued some thin white paper behind the scrap piece of grass that was large enough that it could be adhered beneath the rest of the grassy front. That way the iris could still open and close. 

I hope you are going to join us with an interactice project of your own. They are always so much fun, don't you think so, too? Have a wonderful day and happy crafting everyone ;o))) Yours Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "Happy Hedgehogs" by My Favorite Things
Dies: "Magic Iris" & "Magic Iris Camera Add On" & "Small Stitched Leaves"
          by Lawn Fawn

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

Happy Birthday, Gnomie!

Hello everyone ;o)

I'd quickly like to share my card for this month' theme over at Challenge Up Your Life with you. The theme is "Under a hat":

I love the "Next Door Gnomes" by Hello Bluebird, so this was a perfect opportunity to break it out. I used polaroid fames to make it look like you were looking through openings to this magical world of little gnowmes when holding the card. Also I liked the white space underneath the opening as the place for my sentiment. For the background I used a card base in purple and a wonderful design paper by Lawn fawn to match the colour and mood. I hope you like the card and I also hope that you will join us in May at Challenge Up Your Life! Have a wonderful day and happy crafting, yours Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "Next Door Gnomes" & "Party on The Farm" by Hello Bluebird Stamps

Dies: "Wonky Stitches Elle-Ments" by Avery Elle

         "Precious Polaroids" by My Favourite Things

Challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes"

Seize the Birthday "Anything Birthday Goes"

Aud Sentiments Challenge "Use a Birthday Sentiment"

Sending Birthday Sunshine & Rainbows.... (Bunny and chick)

Heya everyone ;o)))
Has spring arrived where you live already? It has over here and I am so grateful for it. I hear the birds sing in the morning and it is already light when I leave the house for work. So, when we were told our new Papercraft Challenge theme "Rainbows" and kindly given a bunny image from our sponsor Gerda Steiner Designs I immediatly knew what kind of carrd I wanted to create:

I'll admit it is a rather unusual birthday card, but I always felt that this bunny was giving the carrot to someone to make them happe, so I chose the sentiment "Sending birthday sunshine & rainbows" and added "... and Möhrchen" (which is carrot in German) on the inside. Plus I added a tiny little carrot there as well. I so hope it will make someone smile in the near future. 

For the background I chose a patterned paper featuring some cute clouds and added two grassy hills die cut from some green paper. I added the cute chick tucked behind  the first layer and I just love this surprised look. I bet the chick is very happy to have cracked the egg early enough to attend the birthday party ;o) Both images, as well as the rainbow were coloured with Copic markers. The sentiment was stamped on in black ink and then I heat embossed over it with clear embossing powder to give it a more shiny and raised finish. I hope you like this card and if you love the images and just find them half as cute as I do I recommend you play along this time and maybe you could be the lucky winner of a $15 gift certificate to Gerade Steiner Designs. Have a wonderful time and happy crafting, yours Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "Easter Bunnies" by Gerda Steiner Designs
Dies: "Rainbow Whimsy Die" by My Favourite Things
          "Meadow Borders" by Lawn Fawn

Challenges:
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "A Bit O' Green"
Animal Friend's Challenge "Hasen / Bunnies"
Send a Smile 4 Kids "Anything Goes 4 Kids"
Sweet Stampers Challenge "Easter or Spring"

Merry Christmas (Skydiving Santa)

Hello everyone,

let me start today's post with saying "After Christmas is Before Christmas" and I do hope you'll agree. It seems that every year there are less cards in my stash than I would actually like to send, so again I vowed to keep creating Christmas cards all year long. And so here is another one I made and would like to share with you:

I created a slider card for the newest theme "Heat Or Dry Embossing" over at Papercraft Challenges with this super cute skydiving Santa by our kind sponsor Dr. Digis. You could win 2 digis from their online store if your entry numbers wins! Isn't that fun? For my card I started by heat embossing the text backround on to a piece of white cardstock and added the clouds through a stencil after it was cooled down completely.

Next I added the sentiment towards the bottom of the card and figured out how long the slider "tunnel" could be for Santa not to fly too high or land on or over the sentiment. I added a piece of foam tape to the back (around where his head is) and stuck this piece through the "tunnel" I had cut into the embossed paper. From behind I added a coin, so it would have enough weight to move. Have you started on a new Christmas card stash already?

I hope you are going to join us at Papercraft Challenges and I wish you and your loved ones all the best and as always happy crafting, yours Maike ;o)

Supplies:

Stamps: "Skydive Santa" by Dr. Digis

              "Christmas Background" by My Favourite Things

Dies: "Merry Christmas" by My Favourite Things (unfortunately discontinued it seems)