Summer Vibes Card and a huge sorry

Gosh, I have just noticed, that none of my posts have been published since December! I am so sorry! Having said this I would love to share my June card with you, because I really like it. So here it is:

For the background I used a kraft cardstock and added white ink and Distress Oxide Inks in different shades of blue. I also used a white gel pen and a brown marker for the splatter and I think that makes a big difference.

For my images I used stamps from Purple Onion Designs which I really love. They sometimes are a little more time consuming to colour but I think it is always worth the extra effort.

I hope you had joined our challenge over at Papercraft Challenges, but if not I hope you have still enjoyed my summer card ;o) have a fabulous day everyone and happy crafting!!!

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"

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

Make a splash - summer slim line card

Happy Sunday, dear crafty friends, 

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the summer time. Over at  Papercraft Challenges we have decided to let "Summer" be the theme of our newest challenge. This is the card I've created:

I used some of my favourite summer / beach type stamps by Purple Onion Designs for this card. First I created the background with the rocks and the little dock and added some "hills" to the top. Those hills are actually icebergs that I simply coloured in different shades of green to make them look like hills. The next step was to create the sea and for that I masked off the dock, the rocks and the hills and used three different shades of blue to be able to blend them together nicely and have some illusion of depth. 

Next I coloured the different images with Copic markers and cut them out with a tiny white boarder around them so that they would stand out against the background a little better. I added some shimmer to the water and also to the fish as well as covering the glasses of the bear and the bunny with Nuvo crystal clear to give them a more realistic look. The placement of the different elements kept me busy for quite some time - not only because I put them in a hundret different places on the card but also because I had four more images coloured in - but this is what looked the best I feel. Lastly I added the sentiment and glued everything in place. In hindsight I would have preferred it if I had given the rainbow letters a white edge or something as well. I hope you like the card and also that you will join us over at Papercraft Challenges. All the best to you, have a fabulous time and happy crafting,
yours Maike

Supplies:
Stamps: "Iceberg", "Shelly - bathing mouse" and all the other images are from the "Sunshine Lake Collection" by Purple Onion Designs. 

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge "Shimmer and Shine"
Unicorn Challenge Blog "No Design Paper"
My Time To Craft "Summertime Waterplay"

Gem Of A Challenge "Anything Goes"

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

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"

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

Have a BERRY sweet birthday (mouse and snail)

Hello everyone,

today I am back with a brand new card for Papercraft Challenges. This time the theme was "Fruits, Food and Vegetables" and this is what I made:

When I was making this card I looked outside the window and saw a rainy grey outside and really craved for some warmth and most of all sunshine and spring. I think you might feel it when you look at the finished project. It is so bright and quirky and so much more "in your face" than my cards usually are... Looking back I would definately have put vellum behind the designer paper and my cover and also switched the papers for the "berry" part of the sentiment. However I still like how it turned out, but thought I should let you know what I would change if I were to make it again. ;o)

To create the card I started by stamping and colouring in a whole bunch of strawberries, because I wasn't sure how many I would need in the end. (Now I have around 10 of them left, so you might see some tiny strawberries again in future projects...) Next I stamped and coloured the cute mouse and the sweet snail and die cut the letters and the front cover. The latter was cut twice: once from white cardstock and another time from the same red cardstock I used as my card base. I adhered them together after I had trimmed of a tiny bit of both one short and one long side from the red cardstock. This way you get the shadowed effect very easily. The assembling of the letters and the straberries took a bit of time, but when I was happy with the placement I stamped the rest of the sentiment and also adhered the two critters. I hope you like the card and even more so that you will play along with us at Papercraft Challenges this time! Have a lovely day and happy crafting my friends! Yours Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "Dotty" & "Garden Bugs" by Purple Onion Designs

              "" by Gummiapan

Dies: "Cool Cuts Cherry lowercase" by Create a Smile 

          "Circle Panel Die" by Your Next Stamp

Challenges:
Sweet Stampers "Lots of Layers"
Addicted to Stamps and More "Birthdays"
Unicorn Challenge "Include an Animal"
Make My Monday "Checks or Plaids" 

Dots and a fairy ;o)

Hello everyone ;o)

Welcome to my blog and today's post! I am so happy about this card because I love how fun it turned out (even though there were some hurdles to overcome when I made it) and the colours remind me of spring and flowers. We have had the first two sunny days over here and I really loved bathing in the sun and having the dinner on the balcony ;o) Yeah!!! But back to today's card. It was made as an inspiration for the newest challenge over at Challenge Up Your Life and here it is:

The theme is this wonderful moodboard:

The colours are gorgeous and it will probably not be the last card I made with it ;o) Dot backgrounds are always fun I find and so I started the card by stamping such a background using inks that came at least near to the colours from the inspiration pic. When I coloured the cute little fairy I used the colours as well, but left out the reddish pink tone, because I felt, that it overpowered the other two colours on the background a little. That way it helped balance it out.

I put some gold glitter glue on the fun banner piece  to tie it in with the whole "fairies and wishes" theme, hung it from a piece of baker's twine, stamped the sentiment and my card was done! I hope you like it and that you are going to join us for this month' challenge! Happy crafting, everyone ;o) Yours Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "Flynt" & "Everyday Marquee Sentiments" by Purple Onion Designs

Die: "All Prettied Up" by Mama Elephant

Challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes"

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"

Be merry (pine trees and Santa)

Heya my dear crafty friends.

I hope you have started well into December. Christmas is just around the corner, so I would love to share a Christmas card with you which I have made as an inspiration for the newest theme "Pine Trees" over at Challenge Up Your Life:

For this card I started with stamping the trees in the back and colouring the sky as well as the trees themselves with Copic markers. I also added a bit of light blue in a hill shape to give the large white space a bit of interest. I think it makes the snow scene look more interesting that way.

Next I stamped and coloured an older but beloved Santa image stamp. It has just the right size to almost fill a card but still leave enough room to fill in whatever you like. I used this image and the two similar ones that also come in the set loads of times. 

Next I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment "be merry" by Lawn Fawn and also cut it out with the matching die. I thought it would be the perfect sentiment for this scene. I hope you are going to join us this month and share your lovely designs with us and the world. Happy crafting everyone and please stay safe! Yours Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "Here comes Santa Claus" by Sugar Pea Designs

              "Festive Tree Trio" by Purple Onion Designs

              "Winter Big Scripty Words" by Lawn Fawn plus matching die

Die: "Small Stitched Rectangle Stackable Dies" by Lawn Fawn

Challenges:

Simon Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes"
Bastel-Traum Challenge "Winter"

Creative Craft Cottage "Christmas / Winter"

Sweet Stampers "Christmas"

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"