Be merry - in July

Heya my dear crafty friends,

how are you doing? I hope you are having a fine summer so far. Now that I have mentioned summer you might wonder why, oh why is she showing us a Christmas card today?! Well, let`s just say I will always panic when December comes, because I don't have enough Christmas cards to send out, so I vowed to create some in the summer. Though to be completey honest, I usually just colour images over the summer, so that the creating part goes quicker once I get in the mood for Christmas cards. However this time the Challenge Up Your Life blog helped my by having a "Patterned Paper" challenge this month, so I thought, why not use this gorgeous wintery paper and get started:

I love this huge snow flake die cut and decided to have it be the focal point of my card. I die cut the patterned paper twice: once to give it the scallopped edge and another time to create the window. I put some pearlescent vellum by Lawn Fawn behind the snowflake, because I wanted be able to see the pattern behind it still. 

I used some really cute critters from Hello Bluebird to add some "life" to the card so to speak. I love how the bear looks at the recipient of the card. It is almost like it is wishing them to be merry. I also added the tiny blue bird to the top right to balance out the scene a bit more and also to have another pop of blue incorporated. 
Do you have any patterned paper sitting in your drawers that you have always wanted to use? Now is the time. Join us at Challenge Up Your life this month and share your talent in our gallery! Have a wonderful day and happy crafting, yours Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "Christmas Tree" by Hello Bluebird
              "Winter Big Scripty Words" by Lawn Fawn

Dies: "Alicia Snowflake Wafer Die" by Simon Says Stamps

          "Winter Big Scripty Words Lawn Cuts" by Lawn Fawn

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"

A shabby and chic birthday card

 Hello my dear crafty friends,

today I am sharing a very unusual card for me. I needed to create a "Shabby Chic" card as an inspiration for the Crafty Cardmakers blog and it took me several attempts and a few hours to come up with this design:

And to be completely hinest with you, I am still not 100% sure it matches the theme, but I wouldn't have known what to do differently :o) Is there a style of card that doesn't seem to find its way onto your craft table try as you might? In the end I really like what I came up with. It is very different from the cards I ordinarily create, but there are also some stages I went through that might find a way onto my craft table in the future. Like the matted elements for example. 

The two cute critters made the difference for me in the end. They gave the card a more up-beat feeling I thought and the eye something to focus on. As sentiment I used the bingo-card I had adhered and both the chick and the goat stand around it to make sure it gets noticed ;o) I would truly love to see all your glorious takes on the theme "Shabby Chic" and am going to check out our gallery at the Crafty Cardmakers frequently ;o) Until next time, please stay safe and happy crafting, yours Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "Party On The Farm" by Hello Bluebird 

Challenges:
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Animal Antics" (Vintage Look)
Dragonfly Dreams "Happy Birthday"
Crafty Gals Corner "Autumn Colours"
Crafty Catz "Anything Goes"
Crafty Friends "Autumn Colours"
Send a Smile 4 Kids "Fall Card 4 Kids"

Älter? Besser! (Cat)

Hello everyone!

This card was made as inspiration for the newest theme "Woodgrain Background" over at Challenge Up Your Life:

I used a card base by Lawn Fawn and added all the other elements directly on top. This card is meant for a man so I kept it fairly simple and kept the colours more neutral than usual. ;o) I wanted the cat to have some kind of frame, but didn't want to take away from the background so I decided to go with a vellum circle behind it.

The cat is an image by Gerda Steiner Designs which I really love a lot. You can customize it with a sentiment or another image and for this card I decided to use the sentiment "Älter Besser!" which means "Older Better!"

The tiny star stickers are from Create a Smile and are perfect to add a bit of embellishment. I hope you are going to play along with our challenge this month! Have a fabulous week and happy crafting everyone, yours Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "Cat holding sign - Digi" by Gerda Steiner Designs

Dies: "Scallop Circle" by My Favorite Things (discontinued it seems)

Frohe Weihnachten (Bunny in the Snow)

Hello everyone

and welcome to our first Papercraft Challenge of the year. We have decided to run the challenge monthly now to give you even more time to create a project and share your talent with us. The new theme is "Use at Least 2 Designer Papers", which is always a real challenge for me, but also perfect, because (after tidying up my craft room over the Christmas break and realizing just how much paper I really own - way too much let me tell you-) I vowed to start using more patterned paper on my cards and this was my first attempt of that:

Yes, okay, they are very subtle patterns, but a girl has to start somewhere, doesn't she??? ;o) I love this little bunny by Hello Bluebird having fun in the snow. I used the white frame to put a focus on the little scene and also to have enough space between the scene and the pattern if that makes sense... The lovely red die cut which means Christmas in German is by Create a Smile and was just perfect for this card.

I hope you are going to join us for our "Use at Least 2 Designer Papers" challenge and maybe I find new ways to combine papers to be able to use more of the lovely papers I have neatly stashed away in my craft room ;o) Have a lovely week everyone and happy crafting, yours Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "Skating Party" by Hello Bluebird

              "Yeti for Christmas" by Mama Elephant

Dies: "Weihnachten x3" by Create A Smile (also available in English: "Christmas x3")

          "Wonky Stitches Elle-Ments" & "Wonky Scalloped Frame Elle-Ments" by Avery Elle

Papers: "Sparkle Cardstock Pixie Dust" & "" by Lawn Fawn

Challenges
Sweet Stampers Challenge "Winter / Snow"
Use Your Stuff "Anything Goes"
Try it on Tuesdays "What a Cutie"

Through the Craftroom Door "Anything Goes"

Stamps and Fun = Creativity "Anything Goes"