Whee!

Been smiling like a lunatic for the whole day, tomorrow I'll be starting work at postal service! Been wanting to go back there for these past 2,5 years I've been away and now it's happening! Whee! Yay! Haven't been so excited for... a long time. I think I might be a bit daft with my passion for sorting post, but just can't help myself. A bonus factor is that I don't have to finish an uninspiring training course I started and found out to be not for me after all... And won't be unemployed anymore and will get paid for a job that I love (at least for a while, the contract is temporary). And actually got some positive feedback (and a job!) on my application letter, which normally tend to be hideously unimaginative. So, all in all, it's been a good day :) Only downside is that I don't get to craft as much as I did when unemployed and that work starts at 6 am, but I can live with that :)

I think this little froggy is as happy as I am. The card was truly a quickie, conjured it up in 15 minutes before running off to meet friends, which is really unusual for me (I tend to ponder over my stash again and again).

Stickers: Penny Black 'Pondside celebration' / Upikit
Card blank: CMPC
Paper: DCWV

Lil' birdie - JCC #76

Been making lots of these children's cards lately, this one's for JCC #76. A nice sketch, which I modified a bit for a "normal" card blank instead of a square one. I also had a clear vision of a stamp design for the stamped image (now that sounds a bit awkward), so I changed the centre picture from circle to square. For the boyish look, I used punched stars and buttons, plus just one flower. The chipboard number was a spare from an earlier card, so again it paid off to save everything...

Stamp: Imaginisce
Colours: Derwent Watercolour
Papers: HOTP / Canson
Punch: Tiimari
Ribbon: The Paper Studio
Flower and brads: HOTP
Buttons: Artemio / Rayher

Hello, sailor! - Friday Sketchers #71

This week Friday Sketchers had a nice sketch from which to work. I really loved this one since it gives so many opprtunities, you can either make it really simple and graphic or ornate as you like, it suits both options well. I think my version is somewhere in between. The optional element was distressing, which was bit difficult in this card, but I sanded the edges of the paint sample ("frayed" nicely) and I guess you could count the number stamp as distressing (and as a sentiment!) as well...

Stamp: Inkadinkado
Colours: Derwent Inktense
Papers: Rayher/ Sadolin paint sample
Punch: Woodware
Ribbon, eyelets: Artemio

I used Inktense pencils for colouring in the image but they just don't seem to work for me, I usually don't get the results I'd want, so might actually be giving up with them. Since I found the perfect red button from my stash (actually just bought that morning), I went so far as to stitch it in place to echo the buttons in the image.

Cherry on top - P*skarteluhaaste #7

This week the challenge at P*skarteluhaaste #7 was to use both stripes and checks. I'm counting tartan as checks, and if you look close enough you'll see striped ribbon tabs. Don't like my handwriting a bit, need to somehow rescue the greeting. This was the first time I used Distress Inks to colour in the picture and I have to say I loved it (although the cardstock wasn't good, need to use watercolour paper from now on). The muted shades are gorgeous and a welcome change to my watercolour pencils. Still missing some shades, though...

Paper: Paperblock
Stamps: Penny Black / Fiskars
Inks: VersaFine / Distress Inks
Chalks: Pebbles Inc.
Ribbon: Tilda Crafts
Staples: Rapid
Rub-ons: Creative Imaginations

Blog Candy at Piia's

Piia is offering some delicious blog candy at her place till 8th October. She's a gifted card maker as well so be sure to take a peek at her blog. I myself like her style a lot.

Little princess - Friday Sketchers #70

I'm not a big fan of Magnolia's stamps. It's the same as with Moomins, their lack of mouths and muzzle-like faces are bit creepy. Having said that, here's my card for the Friday Sketchers' challenge #70, with Magnolia's little princess (I was rude and clipped her wings, I think the picture works better without them and I have issues with angels). It's a really girly card, with lots pink and pastels, flowers and pearls, and thus probably perfect for the little princess who's gonna get it on Saturday.

Papers: Tilda Crafts / Paper Adventures 'Baby Checks' / Tiimari
Stamps: Magnolia / Inkadinkado 'Artstamp Large'
Ink: Colorbox Cat's Eye 'Orchid'
Flowers: Prima / Tiimari
Pearls: BG Opaline
Flower brad: Sinelli
Liquid Pearls 'Pastel Raspberry', 'White Opal'
Glossy Accents

Drunken pike - Mojo Monday #105

This card was a sum of happy accidents. When I saw this week's sketch at Mojo Monday, I immediately thought "Fish scales!". Then I realised I needed a card for an eager fisherman. And finally, I accidentally finally bought alcohol inks last weekend, perfect for colouring some fish scales for my card. I aimed for the pike here, using mainly yellow and green, and added some scalish texture by rubbing the circles with a bone folder on wire mesh (need to practice that a bit more). Of course, I needed to practice with the inks and see the colours for real, so I used kitchen foil for that, and later punched a square from it to back my rub-on. I first tried to fit the rub-on to a square of cream paper but it simply wouldn't fit, totally the wrong shape for that, so I just rubbed it onto the paper and cut it out. Trickiest part was to find the right ribbon for the card as my stash failed me again, but in the end I managed to come up with a decent option, the dots on the ribbon remind of the spots on trout's back and sides.

Paper: Karen Foster Design 'Green Fish Pattern'
Snakeskin paper: Sinelli
Square punch: Craftime
Sheet metal: Folia
Alcohol inks: Adirondack 'Meadow Green', 'Butterscotch', 'Ginger'
Rub-on: Royal & Langnickel Brush Mfg. 'Fishing Collage'
Dotted ribbon: Tiimari

Home is where the heart is - JCC #75

I'd had this card idea in my head for quite some time, but hadn't really gotten round and making it. When a friend of mine bought a flat, I decided it was high time to get on with it. Besides, I noticed that this week's sketch in Jehkotar CardChallenge was really similar to what I'd been pondering. So here's my entry for JCC #75.

Die cut: Cricut 'Plantin Schoolbook'
Flowers: Prima/ Reprint
Stamp: Inkadinkado
Ink: VersaMark
Embossing powder: Ranger
Rub-on: Kaiser Crafts
Heart gem: Tiimari

I cut the city scene with Cricut from black and red paper. I only used part of the whole black strip and only one house from the red. The small heart was leftovers from a border punch. I stamped and embossed swirls on the red flower to echo the doodling and layered it with a couple of white flowers and a heart gem. I used wire to attach the key charm to the flower, no idea where I got that or the ribbon hiding the die cut's edge from. The rub-on was really hard to keep still while rubbing and I had to do some slight retouching here and there to hide the breaking points. I didn't quite stick to the sketch because I felt the card looked better this way, but I think stayed true enough to it.

A change of heart - Paperikierre, september challenge

Yet another challenge I came across with. Paperikierre has monthly challenges where you can use either the sketch or the colours or both. September's challenge colours are black and violet and those just happened to be the colours from a wedding card I'd made earlier. Not your typical wedding colours but hey, it's a refreshing change to your ordinary choices. So, here's my entry for the September challenge.

Stamp: Freebie from CMPC
Ink: Ranger 'Emboss It!
Embossing powder: PSX
Punch: Woodware
Embroidery floss: DMC
Diamonds: BG 'Bling it'

I stamped and embossed the heart onto vellum and backed it with a black paper. I punched the panel's corners, wound embroidery floss around it and secured the crossings with diamonds for a bit of bling. I used same paper on the card blank together with purple paper. Diamond lace hides the edges and small triangles finish the corners and help to frame the card.

Bingo nostalgia - P*skarteluhaaste #6

Another challenge card, again for P*skarteluhaaste. This was a fun challenge. In P*skarteluhaaste #6, first you had to make a bingo by choosing a row from a bingo grid. I tried to decide whether to choose an easy row or a hard one, but then my supplies took over and decided it for me. I wanted to try a new stamp plus I'd yet to make a vintage card so, with these as my starting points, my row was ribbon - blue - flower.

Stamps: Inkadinkado 'Garden Delight', 'Letter'
Inks: VersaMark / VersaColor 'Atlantic' / Anna Griffin 'Nina'
Chalks: Pebbles Inc.
Card blank: Folia
Paper and brad: Tiimari
Flowers: Prima
Ricrac: EK Success
Pearls: Artoz

I stamped the sprig first with the turqoise and then with the darker blue to achieve the shadow effect, then dabbed and buffed blue chalk on the edges. The paper was a bit too light and plain, so I dabbed different shades of blue chalk (plus a bit of taupe) onto it and stamped text onto it with VersaMark. The card blank had the embossing around the aperture, so I cut the paper to fit it and sanded the edges. I guess you can count lace and ricrac both as ribbons. Three pearls balance the design and add to the vintage feeling.

Shaker card with recycling - JCC #74

I seem to really have taken into these challenge blogs, this time I made a card for Jehkotar CardChallenge. The JCC #74 was to make a shaker card. Now, I've been wanting to try and make one for ages so I jumped at the chance here. I first thought of making an autumn card again, but somehow shaker card reminded me of snow globes and I switched to a winter card instead.

Stamp: Inkadinkado
Punch: Tiimari
Die cut: Cricut 'Accent Essentials'
Chalks: Pebbles Inc.
Tag: HOTP 'Earth's Palette'

I didn't have acetate and, to be honest, wasn't too keen on fiddling with it and foam tape, but I remembered a tip that some products come with plastic packagings ideal to be recycled for a shaker card. I had (of course!) stashed some clear plastic boxes from brads and found one that was just the right size. I took the lid and base apart and used the base here. It really was made for this project as it was raised into square dome shape and had flat edges (man, this is hard to describe...), so no need to use foam tape or pads to raise it, normal double-sided tape was enough.

I couldn't find a suitable paper for the card so I made one myself. I used peel-off snow flakes as masks and dabbed white acrylic paint, diluted with water, around them with a make-up sponge. I trimmed the paper to size and measured and cut out an aperture for the plastic dome. I marked where the plastic's edges were on the card blank (they naturally extended a bit further than the window on the snowflake paper), and stamped the image in the middle of the square.

I punched snow flakes from textured iridescent paper but wanted something else as well. At this point I didn't remember I had snow flake spangles in my stash (did found them later but by then it was too late). Would have used them otherwise, since the paper is too light weight. I found some largish silver heart and star spangles (freebies from a mag), though, and decided to have a go at punching these (I find spangles diffult to incorporate into projects). Stars didn't have large enough area where to punch, but hearts were easier. I turned the snow flake punch upside down, positioned the spangle by tapping and tilting the punch lightly and when happy pushed the punch knob against the table. It took a lot of pressure (almost all my body weight, to be precise) and the punch jammed every time, but in the end I managed to punch my silver snow flakes. I had to press the cutting edge back up from the underside and occasionally fish the spangle bits from the punch, so it wasn't exactly easy, and this may break (or at least dull) your punch, so don't try with your best and most expensive one. Mine was really cheap, and I was quite surprised that it didn't break.

Next I had to assemble my shaker box. I fixed double-sided power tape onto card blank where I had marked the edges of the plastic dome to be, piled my punched snow flakes and some clear micro beads in the middle of the stamped image, carefully peeled the backing from the tape and pressed the plastic dome onto the tape. The dome's edges disappeared under the patterned paper, which I fixed with the power tape again. I cut the white snow flake with Cricut, rolled it through Xyron and coated it with white/iridescent glitter. The plastic mesh ribbon had to be streched taut to narrow it enough, and my mistake was that I didn't attach it before fixing the patterned paper onto card blank. Stupid, stupid, stupid... It took a lot of battle to actually manage to hide the fraying ends, and it'll definitely be a while until I use it again. To finish, I chalked around the edges of the dome, fixed the glitter snow flake with a foam pad, wrapped a piece of silver ball chain around the foam pad and secured by locking the balls against each other, and added the greeting tag.

I need a job!

Oh dear, I've been a naughty, naughty girl for the past week. First, I splurged (yup, that's the word to describe it to a tee) ginormous amount of money onto stash when in Helsinki, then I've been steadily spending on second-hand stamps and other stuff for the past week. It seems that even my ever-so-patient better half is getting frustrated with me spending away... So I need to get a job to better justify why I need to get this or that supply. So far, my excuse has been my birthday, but I think people will start to wonder it at some point (luckily it's soon Christmas time...). For my defense I have to say I was a good girl today, too, and didn't order a lovely dress from Collectif... so that I could use the money on new stash. Sad, little me...

Here's another birthday cake card, I just love this cake stamp by Savvy Stamps. I meant the folded corner to extend a little further, but estimated it wrong. It's not too bad as it is, it's just that I had a different vision in my mind. The lovely cake paper was a freebie from a mag, and I finally got to use cut-out Tilda borders I'd bought ages ago, the patchwork had all the colours I needed. The doodled frame didn't come out at all like I wanted it to (now when do I learn to sketch with pencil first?!), but adding several layers of chalk to tone down the background in the "text box" saved the day.

Stamps: Savvy Stamps / PSX / Doodlebug 'Birthday'
Ink: Colorbox 'Cocoa' and 'Lime'
Scissors: Fiskars
Letter stickers: Upikit
Border: Tilda Crafts
Flower: Prima
Acrylic sticker: Accessorize

Pink & Brown - P*skarteluhaaste #5

I missed last week's P*skarteluhaaste, and was determined to make it this week. The challenge #5 was to use pink and brown, so I followed it to the letter.

Stamps: Savvy Stamps / Finnstamper
Inks: Distress Ink 'Walnut stain' / Fluid chalk
Paper: Basic Grey 'Blush' / Tilda 'Seaside'
Ribbon: Tilda
Punches: EK Success / Woodware
Die cut: Cricut Expression 'Plantin Schoolbook'
Brads: HOTP

I cut the big flower shape with my Cricut, nice to put that one into good use, usually it just collects dust on its shelf. I wanted rounded corners for the dotted paper, but that was a bit problematic, since it's actually the card blank. So I made a template from a square piece of card by rounding its corners with a corner punch, traced around it onto the reverse of the dark brown paper and cut the centre out. I used the edge here to frame my card and give the central panel the corners I wanted, the cut-out centre I can use in a future project. I was going to use more silk flowers on this card but couldn't fit them into design (they are from a cherry branch I bought on sale and have gorgeous shades of pink), but I only managed to use one and even that was difficult, should've glued the central flower more to the side... Another hard decision was how to add the greeting. In the end, I just cut a leaf shape freehand and stamped the greeting there.

Autumn leaves

I've been meaning to take part in the weekly ABC challenge for some time, but haven't been able to find time until now. This week's challenge was D is for Die cuts. The challenge classes punches as die cuts, so here's my entry with punched leaves.

Stamp: Penny Black 'Swirling Leaves'
Ink: VersaMark
Chalks: Pebbles Inc. 'Basic brights'
Punches: EK Success / Make me / Woodware
Patterned paper: DCWV 'Pocketful of Posies'

I wanted to get softly blended muted colours for the leaves so I stamped the image with Versamark and randomly dabbed and buffed green, orange, yellow and red chalks on it. This also gave the image a lightly coloured background, I just used rubber to remove some extra colour.