Move it, baby!

Been waiting for a call to job interview all morning, but it seems it's not happening. Well, had to guess as much, I'm probably the worst application writer in the world (and besides they probaby got someone on internal transfer anyways). Means I'll unemployed for a bit longer. Which also means no early meanings, more time to craft and more time to loiter at home. Unfortunately it also means less income and with all that wonderful stash out there that's a bit of a drag...

I'm off to Helsinki today, my brother is moving flats and I'm making myself useful (now that's new!). Too bad I'm not likely to get to drive the van, I genuinely like it :) Since my aunt's birthday party is coming up on Saturday, I probably won't be bothering returning to Tampere before that. Even more exciting is the fact that I have to make her present (a minalbum) away from my desk and, yikes, stash! Since I don't want carry extra, I'll be trying to digiscrapping for the first time. Let's see how that goes...

Peek-a-boo - P*skarteluhaaste #3

This week's challenge in P*skarteluhaaste #3 was animals. I first thought of making a card especially for the challenge, but I've been suffering from a serious lack of initiative for the past month, so I'm bit pressed for time right now and decided to use a card I'd already made.

Stamps: Penny Black Tulip Jungle/Woodware Tiny Phrases
Ink: Versamark
Colours: Derwent Inktense/Pebbles Inc.
Vellum: Studiolight

I first thought of trimming the image into an oval, but it would have been too big for the card blank. No harm done, since I realised that this is a stamp that can be cut out without leaving the white edges, nice! Which also means that this probably would work perfectly when layered, have to try that sometime... I fixed the image with a foam pad and used Glossy Accents as glue under the image (have to use that more often, love how the paper doesn't buckle!), otherwise the vellum is loose (well, of course I folded it around the spine and fixed it there with double-sided tape, but...).

I've been wanting to cut windows into vellum to show the card blank underneath ever since I read a couple of Julie Hickey's books, so I finally did it here. Would probably be easier to cut the window before attaching the vellum onto the card blank, but hey, I make these as I go, so these things happen (more often than not). As it was, the window was bit too much on the right, so I had to snip a bit from the left edge, the result is A-OK. I added a dash of pink chalk behind the greeting to make it pop better.

Baby animals

I made these cards for my friend who needed two new baby cards. These were mystery babies again, so no blue or pink just to be on the safe side. My friend hinted that one of the cards could well sport zingier colours instead of the baby pastels, so that's what I did.

Papers: DCWV Pocketful of Posies/HOTP/Sense(?)
Stamps: Penny Black/Finnstamper
Inks: Versamark, ColorBox
Colours: Derwent Watercolour

Again a Penny Black image (they just are so darn cute), coloured in with watercolour pencils and water brush. I used a free template from SCP for the flower stem, but I didn't have large enough scalloped circle so I drew a bigger circle and fitted the scallops of a template along the rim. I stamped the greeting onto a snippet of the same paper as the flower stem, embossed it with clear embossing powder and fixed it onto a small tag, which I knotted around the stem. A piece of violet organdy ribbon finishes the card.

I also made two other cards for my friend to choose from. They had the same colours, but in pastel shades. These were a bit simpler. I used 3D stickers on puched white circles (cardstock and dotty vellum) and the same free templates for the flowers. Again the small tags, but this time I stamped and embossed onto the vellum, and the violet ribbon but this time grossgrain instead of organdy.

Papers: HOTP, Rayher
3D stickers: Eno Craft
Stamp: Finnstamper
Ribbon: Rayher

Quilty kitty

I stopped my friend from buying a birthday card for her friends girl, just innocently offering to make one. After bit of prying I'd learned that the birthday girl liked cats, so I knew just which the card to make. I found this cat from CMPC # 51.

Although the model cards used the template in 100% and 200% copies, they didn't work with this card (100% being too small and 200% too large), so I copied it in 150%. I cut the sections of the kitty from different patterned papers, inked the edges and pieced them together onto white paper. I drew in the details, used a circle cutter to make the ball and added a puffy sticker (I drew around with a black fineliner to make it pop out better). Panels of green patterned papers and fake stitching make the background.

Papers: Dovecraft Pheobe and Lilykate/ DCWV Floral Prints/Tiimari/Digital Scrapbook
Ink: Colorboc Cat Eyes (cocoa)

Lace 'em up!

Ever since I saw this card design by Enfys Cashmore in PI #53, I knew it would be a perfect card for my friend, since one of our best times together involved dancing Scottish folk dances in corsets (yes, you can survive dancing through a ceilidh without loosening your lacing, I'm a living proof of that). Unfortunately it was almost a year to her birthday at the time, so nothing else for me to do but wait...

I changed the colour scale to suit my supplies. This was the first time I actually bothered to get my sewing machine out and use it in a card, mainly because it's from 50's or 60's and thus not of plastic but iron and weighs a ton (I need one of those little plastic minimachines that are no good in real sewing but ideal for card making). The card blank follows the curve of the corset, although for some reason I had to leave the front cover a bit shorter than the back (probably just me being a miser). I've tried to look for more of that turqoise dotty paper, but to no avail, seems it's out of stock everywhere...

Papers: Rayher, CMPC
Ribbon, eyelets: Paprus

Have a goth day

I've been saying over and over again that I'm not too keen on 3D decoupage, but when I saw this one at my local craft shops's window I took it all back (at least for these designs). This time I even took the trouble of hiding cut edges with a black marker and even bending the pieces a little (normally I don't bother, but with people it's useful).

As a proper goth should, I went for a monochrome look. I wanted something bit rugged for the card, so I used a piece of bubble wrap to stamp a background for the boy and tore and chalked the edges (I used grey). Since straight edges would have looked dull on the stripy paper, I took the liberty to cut them with scalloped scissors (although it's not especially goth) and inked them with a white Cat Eye (like I did to the black card blank as well. Dymo was ideal for the greeting but I needed to make it pop from the card, so I backed it with white scraps from the decoupage sheet (a bit of recycling here as well :) ). Since a goth needs his studs, I fixed a piece of ribbon with silver brads.

3D sheet: Card Deco(?)
Paper: DCWV Black & White Prints paper stack
Scissors: Fiskars
Chalks: Pebbles Inc.
Inks: ColorBox Cat Eyes, Versamark
Ribbon: Reprint
Brads: Tiimari

Gecko greetings

I experimented with multiple inking here. I use Distress Inks for the background lizards and then dabbed different ColorBox Cat Eyes on the lizard. I think it would have been if I had started with random pink dabs and continued with different shades of green. As it is, the pink doesn't really show. I was surprised how little I managed to smudge the inkpads, good for me. To add some tecxture, I embossed the lizard with clear embossing powder and mounted it with a large foam pad.

Stamps: Finnstamper
Inks: Distress Inks, ColorBox, Fluid Chalk

21 again

I know women usually start turning the same age year after year at 29, but my friend obviously felt that to be a bit too much, hence the 21 again.

I chose gingham card blank to go with the party's garden party/picnic theme. I used cheery and summery colours with a hint of black to accent. I'd have wanted to use puffy and shiny letters, like thickers, but didn't have those, so I tried to make my own again. I cut them with Cricut from chipboard and coloured them black. I tried to achieve the puffiness with Glossy Accents, but one coat wasnt thick enough. Two coats didn't dry, the first coat just turned whitish, so I just had to peel Glossy away, re-colour th letters and start again. This time I used clear embossing powder, but since it wasn't UTEE, the result wasn't too puffy (although it was shiny). I used a black mini brad above the "i" to tie with the stars in the stamp

Paper: BoBunny Ella Butter Blossom
Stamp: PaperArtsy MN 28
Flowers: Prima

Missed you

A couple of my friends had been on working holiday in Down Under for almost a year, so when they finally returned from the other side of the globe, some serious partying ensued... I wanted to make a nice and cheery card to tell how glad we all were that they were back home.

I cut a freehand scalloped edge on one corner of the card blank and fixed stamped flowers on top with foam pads. I spelled the greeting with rub-on letters and since the inside of the card is visible, adhered a panel of pale green paper inside the card.

Papers: HOTP, Tiimari
Stamps: Inkadinkado Doodle Flowers
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black
Rub-ons: All My Memories

Par avion

Another balloon card for my pilot-to-be brother (I seriously need to think something else for him next year...), but I'll let it pass. The frog is actually a sticker, not stamped image, I'm again amazed how little the edges do show on the finished card. Of course the joy of colouring the image in is missing, but these stickers are quick and easy to use.

Sticker: Penny Black Stickeroos Pond-side Celebration
Paper: DCWV Floral Prints
Greeting stamp and plastic tag: Morning Star Stamps
Ink: StazOn

Mum's favourite

My mum loves lilacs, so this die-cut lilac was perfect for a mother's day/birthday card (and it even has some gold for extra bling). I wanted to try something new, so I decided to fix the die-cut inside the card blank and cut out an aperture for it. The window on the card blank is a bit smaller than the one on the lilac paper, so the white crad blank makes a nice fram for the window. The paper flower has agreeting sticker as its centre.

Die-cut: Eno Craft
Paper: Tiimari
Flower: Prima
Sticker: Papercraft Inspirations

A tag album for grandpa

I wanted to make a handmade gift for my grandpa's 80th birthday. I tried with several ideas first, but as they didn't work so well and I had wanted to have a hand in scrapbooking for a long time, I decided to try and make a minibook. I didn't have many pictures of my grandpa, so I asked my aunt to send me some of hers. As the pictures weren't mine, I had no idea when or where they were taken, so I didn't use almost any journaling, just some nice patterned papers and few embellishments.

I scanned my grandpa's 70th birthday photo and used his signature as my title. The album is a sort of accordion album that can be tied together with ribbon.

The ribbon actually weaves through the tags (it goes under the patterned paper) connecting them. A bit tricky binding, so I probably won't use it again. I didn't have large enough eyelets for the holes in the tags, otherwise I would have use a book ring or some such to bind them together.

I tried to keep the colours equally muted and match them to the photos. I tried to select the embellishments to suit photos' moods, but didn't use them that much in this photo, so the pages look quite minimalistic. I had planned to loop ribbons through the tag holes, but eventually forgot to do it...

Present pocket

My friend had her birthday coming up and I had no idea what to get for her. I didn't want to buy something "useless", so instead I opted for a home made gift token (in the end she got a new pair of shoes). The patterned paper is from DCWV Pocketful of Posies collection and has just the right kind of hippy feeling and lively colours she loves. I even managed to find an assortment of different coloured fibres for the tag to match the pocket. I added some fake stitching (I obviously can't even fake a straight stitch, never mind sew one...) and eyelets to mimic a jeans pocket. I made the tag with HOTP tag template, instead of a real eyelet I used a fake peel-off eyelet.

Rock-a-bye baby

If both of the parents are metal fans, the new baby card needs to have some serious attitude as well. The design is from Heidi Boyd's Simply Beautiful Greeting Cards (p.78), but I altered it ever so slightly...

I cut a circle and halved it, edged the halves with scalloped paper border and assembled into a buggy. The wire that forms the handle goes through the button wheels as well. I'd like to find a more rockabilly style sticker for the buggy, but this jolly skull was the best I could come up with.

Black celebration

Finally I got to use Depeche Mode (one of my favourites) as a title :) Made this card about 20 minutes before heading for the birthday, so, again, a quickie. No idea where the papers are from, the tag and ribbon again from Tiimari. The greeting is from a patterned paper full of birthday greetings.

B for butterflies (and baby girl as well)

Another welcome card for a new arrival, this one a real quickie. I used recycled cardstock for the card blank, it has nice deep colour with natural speckles, a really nice find. To continue with the theme colour, I used a panel of embossed butterfly paper with gold accents (if I had to guess, I'd say it's Turnowsky's), added a piece of striped lilac organdy ribbon and fixed it with flower eyelets. My trusty Crop-A-Dile had some difficulties with them (the eyelet didn't always flare nicely and tried to buckle from the middle), but with care I got them set OK. Have to practice a bit more with those, or then use the universal setter (although I hate the noise that comes from the hammering).

Cardstock: Rapi
Paper: Turnowsky?
Ribbon: Efco?
Brads: Rayher
Stickers: Tiimari

Little boy blue

I love this dungarees sticker, it's so cute and the best thing is the pants aren't really blue but lavender, so with right papers it can go for the mystery babies as well. Here they are at work again, accomanied by bubble stickers to spell the little rascal's name and flowers with eyelet centres to $add to the boyish look.

Paper: Tilda Crafts
3D sticker: Pickup
Letter stickers, brads, eyelets: Tiimari
Flowers: Prima
Ribbon: The Phrase Café Baby Faces Zachary

Neon Knights

I think that the present that accompanied this card was tickets to Heaven and Hell's gig, so matching the card with the present was a good starting point for the design. I'm not 100% sure that the present actually was the ticket, but I know I matched the card with it somehow...

I tried to match the colours with this 70's photo (from the internet), so ended up using this stripy paper and used a photo corner punch to a) help with the retro feeling and b) fix the photo easily. I wiped brown ink on the edges of the photo to distress it a bit and slotted it in the panel. To break the straight lines and to add some interest, I fixed a couple of flowers onto the card (and the brads echo the stripes really nicely). I think any metal-loving birthday boy would approve them :)

Paper: Dovecraft Blush
Punch: Fiskars
Flowers: Prima Esprit
Brads: Lakeland

Lilac pressie

This was a quickie as the design is minimalistic and the focal point is a ready-made embellishment. It really didn't take much else than pretty paper, self-adhesive ribbon and stamped greeting to finish this card.

Paper: HOTP Icy rainbow
Stamp: Woodware Tiny Phrases
Embellishment, ribbon: Tiimari

The easy way out

Another birthday card made to order for a person I don't know, so I opted the easy way out and went with 3D decoupage roses. I used to like this picture because of the sketched rose background, but as my interest to 3D decoupage has dwindled, so has my liking of these pictures. Anyhow, it works, since it's showy, so I occasionally still use it. I used Glossy Accents for dew drops, added peel-off numbers and borders, deckled the edge of the red panel and chose a card blank with light sheen and speckling to add interest.

You're in the army now

A colleague got a new job in the air force, so a goodbye card was in order. I wanted to include the planes in the design in some way, so it didn't take me long to come up with this design and I truly like this card.

I did some research in the internet, trying to make a really simplified sketch (only the most essential features/shape) of a Hornet (because it's so well known here in Finland). I then made templates from the sketch and paperpieced the plane together. A bit of ink to the edges and tiniest bit of detail with a white gel pen and it was ready to soar into the sky, i.e. a panel of blue paper with inked edges.

I decided to make a "textual" card, so to add interest I needed different types of lettering. The white rub-ons were a must, nice and loopy, reminiscent of the streaks planes leave in the sky. I also wanted chipboard letters to add 3D feel, but didn't have any, so I made my own.

I cut the letters with Cricut (option "Shadow") from a piece of thin chipboard that had in its earlier life been the backing board of a note pad. It took a couple of trials and errors, keeping the chipboard in place with fingers (the sticky mat didn't hold it properly) and multi-cut (3 times) to get the letters, but in the end I managed to make them. Then I glued the letters diagonally on the back side of red-and-white stripy paper (to mimic those pouch-like flags in the airports), cut them out with a craft knife and sanded the edges smooth with an emery board. The paper was too bright and clean, so I distressed the letters by dabbing them with brown inkpad to tone them down. I added a punched clover leaf with a foam pad (on the card, not on the letter) for extra luck and drew the veins with gel pen.

The rest of the greeting went perfectly into a banner. I made a wavy banner shape using Word and changed the outline insivisible. I typed the greeting using wordart and tried to match the wave of the banner as close as possible, this involved a bit of tweaking and rotating. I added a slight shadow to the text, then printed it, cut it out and added it after the plane. A line of dots attached it to the plane.

Retro baby

This card is straight from CMPC's booklet, A card for all seasons (p. 35), but I was short of ideas and time... as always.

And as always when making cards straight from a model, I got too engrossed with the materials. The fact that I didn't have just that brown polkadot paper almost caused a crisis. As a proof of how sad a geek I am, I actually searched the internet for a suitable polka dot paper, downloaded it, changed the colour in Paint.Net (didn't have Photoshop on that computer) and printed it out. Since I didn't have thick enough wire for the handle, I took pliers and a coil embellishment and brutally mutilated it (unwind it a little). Another window for a crisis was that I realised I didn't have a mini heart punch, but that passed as I found some cut-outs from a heart border punch I had stashed away, just in case I might need them some time (See! Never throw anything away!). I didn't have letter rub-ons so this is a rare occurrence of my handwriting (and I did change the greeting).

I had this image of a milk carton gift bag in my head, so I hadto try to make one. It was a bit tricky, but in the end I manage to make it quite nicely. Since I had most of the brown polkadot paper left, I made a panel for the gift bag to coordinate with the card. I need more of those big peach flowers, they would be so useful...

Paper: Canson Mi-Teintes/internet
Punch: Fiskars
Flowers: Prima
Brad: Tiimari
Ribbon: Tilda Crafts
Chipboard tag: K & Company

Piggy in pink

I do have a soft spot for Penny Black cuties, and this little piggy is no exception.

Oh dear, should've given the poor piggy at least one if not two mats to sit on, but I obviously forgot to do that. I coloured the image with watercolour pencils and added some Cosmic Shimmer on the heart for a bit of bling (which, of course, is not visible in the photo *sigh*). I used deckled scissors for the edge and added pink chalk as well. The patterned paper, dotty heart brad and self-adhesive ribbon continue the pink theme.

Stamp: Penny Black
Colours: Derwent/Cosmic Shimmer
Paper: DCVW Floral prints
Ribbon, brad: Tiimari

'Cause age doesn't come alone

This card/tag accompanied a Hangover survival kit, which included a Hangover pack and other bits and pieces that help to make the morning after bearable (my friends complain that the older you get, the worse your hangovers will be, alhtough mine have always been rather incapacitating...). I think the theme is very fitting :)

I haven't done much (if any) paper piecing but it was nice and surprisingly easy (now why did I think it might be hard in the first place, silly me) and I'm really pleased with the result. I used HOTP tag templates to help cut out the tags as well as the shapes for the plaster (I took a banner as a starting point and stretched or shrunk it as needed. The white dots I scavenged from my ordinary office hole punch. Again, some ink on the edges for definition. I used my trusty Dymo for the greeting, but there was a catch: it does not include an aposthrope. After a bit of pondering I took a piercing tool and use it to press the marks like Dymo would. This was my first time with staples as well and I found them actually quite nice. Must make a mental note to use them more often.

Two flowers, a stamp and patterned papers - P*skarteluhaaste #2

Ok, so the title is a bad imitation of a title of a TV series, but couldn't really help myself there... I've never taken part in any challenges before, but as I was making this card for my sister's birthday (she's not gonna read this, so I wont be spoiling anything... I hope) I realised that I could actually fit it into this P*skarteluhaaste #2. The challenge was to use 3 flowers, 2 patterned papers and 1 stamp. Here's my take of these ingredients:

Ok, maybe I am interpreting the rules a bit my way... Both of the patterned papers are actually cardstock weight, but I think the pattern was the crucial point here. I also used only total of 3 Prima flowers and layered two of them, since had I layered the one in the upper corner also, I'd had to find a place for a third flower and that was bit too much to ask. The sheep stamp is by High Hopes, and I coloured it in with Inktense pens (and actually managed to make shadowings, go me :) ). A bit of colour to the edge with Distress ink, 3 red brads, a piece of ribbon and a greetings tag to finish, since nobody said anything about using additional stuff in the card.

I've been having mixed feelings about Inktense pencils. I wanted them, but now that I have them , I haven't be able to use them the I'd would have wanted. There are no light shades included in the set, which is a bit of a bother, and I don't get the shades I want. With this card, I've seemed to found a way of working with them: instead of colouring the picture and applying water, I take little colour straight from the pencils and apply it with a waterbrush and if there's some extra, I dab it away with a tissue. I find it easier to control the intensity of the colour and shade this way.

CD desk calendar and birthday quickie

Well, to be honest, the calendar doesn't use CDs but an empty cd case. I got the idea from here. The calendar was a birthday present for a friend and it turned out to be rather quick to make.

I discarded the cd holder part of the case, removed the front cover and reattached it reversely so that it will stay upright and display the current month. The rest of the months can wait their turn in the back cover where the cd holder was. I chose different handmade papers for each month, printed a small calendar from the web (can't remember where I found it from) and cut an pasted the months to the papers and added small sitckers and embellishments for each month. I cut the papers to 12x12 cm so they can be slipped onto the front cover of the case and inked the edges.

For the card I used stuff that I don't often use (and justified having lots and lots of stash: "See, I knew I'd need this at some point."). I cut the numbers from two different papers with Cricut and layered them a bit askew for a 3D look. I chose handmade paper for the card blank to give a little texture and cheered it up with glittery star embellishments.

A quick calendar

I decided to make calendars for Christmas presents and, as always, started the project a bit too late, so I had to cut some corners. I bought "insert-photo-here" calendars for base but they didn't have any room to write notes on the days, so I went on a quest for free downloads. Didn't find what I wanted, so I considered other options. In the end, I used Word to create a calendar. Each month had horrid graphics, but the grid was good, so I deleted the pictures and only printed the grids. A bit of cut and pasting and I had nice calendars waiting to be decorated. Like I said, I was (again!) pressed for time, so I went with minimum decorations, mostly patterned papers with occasional stamping and small embellishments.