Doodle Christmas

Hello everyone!

How are you all doing? I hope you get to enjoy some lovely fall days. Have you already started your Christmas card production? Well, for today's card I have done just that. (I always feel like it is too early to make Christmas cards when it is still warm outside, but then I notice it is November already and panic sinks in...) Anyways, this is my card for the new theme "Doodle" over at the Challenge Up Your Life blog:

I started this card by stamping stars in two different sizes, making sure they would overlap in some areas. Next I watched this fabulous video (click here) to find out more about doodle-ing. I filled in most of the stars, leaving the overlapping bits blank though, because I felt my design was busy enough as it was.

Next I die cut the letters I needed and the word die "merry" twice - once in red and another tim from gold cardstock. All that was left now was to glue everything in place and to give the word "Christmas" a little shadow so that it would stand out more from the busy background. Have you ever tried doodle-ing? Maybe you would like to give it a go? I found it very relaxing and fun. If you do, please consider joining our challenge. You have until November 27th to link your project to our gallery. Good luck to you if you do! Happy crafting to all of you and have a wonderful day! Yours Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "Lots of stars" by Simon Says Stamp (discontinued it seems)
Dies: "Tall Alpha Die Set" by Altenew
          "Merry Scripts" by Mama Elephant

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

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"

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

You are magical (unicorn)

Heya my crafty friends,

today is the start of a new challenge over at Papercraft Challenges. We would like to see a project "For the girls" and would like to thank your kind sponsor Dr. Digis for sponsoring the prize for one of you this time. This is what I created:

I love this funky looking unicorn - wouldn't you agree that it is indeed magical? ;o) 

I hope you are going to join us and share your project in our gallery until the 14th of July! Fingers crossed- maybe you will be our lucky winner ;o)

Have a wonderful day and happy crafting, yours Maike

Mermaid birthday card with lots of bling

Hello everyone ;o)

Today I'd like to share a new card for the Papercraft Challenges with you. The theme is "Add Bling" and that I did with this one:

You cannot see it too much on this first photo, but I have used shimmering blue cardstock as my background and added two layers of pearlescent vellum to emphasize the water idea. I also added some glitter glue to the edge of the vellum. In order to be able to add even more bling to my card I chose this adorable mermaid image and added glitter glue to all her pearls and some "Wink of Stella" to her mermaid's tail. 

I didn't want her to have to swim alone so I added the fish, shells and the cute sea horse. (Which, by the way, got glittered up as well....) I hope you like all the bling on my card and I also hope that you are going to join us for this challenge. Have a sunny Sunday and a fabulous week! Happy crafting, everyone ;o) Yours Maike

Supplies:

Stamps: "Under the Sea" by C.C. Designs (unfortunately it is retired)
Dies: "All Prettied Up" by Mama Elephant

Challenges:

Paper Dragonfly Creative Challenges "Mermaid"

Moving along with the times "Birthday"

Fab N Funky "Fantasy"
Unicorn Challenge "Include Bling / Pearls"