Pun intended

Crafter's block (with copious whining)

2010-08-30T22:55:00.005+03:00

It's been way too long since I last wrote anything here, almost a whole year. After starting work as a postman I soon found myself too exhausted with work and all the classes I took last autumn that I simply didn't find time or energy to write anything. Besides scrapbooking and sewing classes I hardly had time or energy to do any crafting at all. Even though I left the job at Itella last spring, I sort of haven't managed to find the joy of crafting again. This massive crafter's block is starting to worry me. Even the surefire way of getting new supplies (always a real joy) hasn't been helping much.

It's not like I didn't have anything to do. On the contrary, I hardly know where to start (which actually might be part of the problem). I've loads and loads of pictures that need to be gone through, sorted and processed: friend's graduation, our wedding, a trip to Italy, my sister's confirmation party, a friend's wedding and bachelorette party... Then I have two throws in progress (have been for several years...), several sewing projects and people just keep having birthdays and other parties that require cards. Although I still like crafting (or I think I do?), I seem to be postponing it until last minute. I'm sort of drifting into becoming a real couch potato (well, I prefer armchair to sofa and reading to TV, but still...). And I'm not really happy with this. There's so much I'd like to do, if only I got started. I think I might need extra hours to my day.

Lately I've been thinking of getting rid of some of my stash. I just finished cleaning my desk (and the floor and the bookcase...) and the amount of stash just started to feel uncomfortable. My paper crafting has shifted almost exclusively from cards to scrapbooking, so I've found myself contemplating on selling some of the cardmaking stuff. But, being the materialist I am, I tend to cling on the oh-so-familiar mantra "But it's possible I might perhaps need it someday for something", so I'm torn between decluttering and "saving money" (I guess I'm afraid I end up buying the same stuff back at some point). Maybe if I just got one big box and threw all the stuff I don't feel like using enough in there and shove it in a closet or something. But I guess I have to face: I can't keep storing everything I might need as my patience with the ever-increasing amount of stuff seems to be ending.

Origami shirt - P*skarteluhaaste #11

2009-10-27T17:18:00.004+02:00

A superquick post since I already should be somewhere else, here's my entry for P*skarteluhaaste #11. This weeks challenge was to make a card for man/father, and since I had 5 cards to make for Father's Day, I chose somenthing quick: origami shirt with embossed greeting.

Papers: Tiimari / DCWV
Ribbon: Reprint
Stamp: Finnstamper

How low can you go?

2009-10-26T22:59:00.002+02:00

Pretty deep, if my day's is anything to judge by... Started with a colleague with whom I carpool oversleeping, continued with stupid mistakes at work, didn't get to deliver the mail till over an hour later than usually, a dog bit my leg (even these legends about postmen seem to be true...) and it rained the whole time.

My hardships didn't end with the day's work, started on a scrapbooking course today (the best thing that happened today, really), so needed some photos to scrap. Selected some yesterday evening and found that my camera settings over three years ago when the photos were taken were just shit, the resolution is way too low... so when I went to get them before going to the course, I ended uo with grainy, pixelated pile of crap. They had scaled the pictures to full size instead of keeping them the size I wanted. Well, partly my fault as well, but it didn't improve my day, going to the course without any photos to scrap. Besides, I also forgot to take my papers and albums with me, so even if I'd had the photos, there was pretty little with which to scrap...

And the final blow was to hear that they're gonna cease publishing Scrapbook Inspirations! That's my favourite craft mag and now it will be gone. I'm shattered. Didn't believe it at first, but after hearing the grim truth straigth from the horse's mouth... what I'm going to read from now on? And just when I'd renewed my subscription for the next year...

I'm off to bed now. Getting fined on riding my bicycle without lights or crashing with a car were just about the only thing missing from the day, not taking any chances them or something equally nice still happening ...

F is for Flying - ABC challenge

2009-10-20T23:58:00.004+03:00

Just a quick post for ABC challenge, I should be tucked in bed and in deep sleep by now... This week's letter was F for flying and here's my take for it. I had some serious trouble with this one and I'm not at all sure whether or not I like the outcome, I kept fiddling with bits and pieces and going through my stash over and over again, to no avail. And there might be a bit too much lilac in this card, but didn't find any other suitable papers from my stash (I probably was too tired). Love the Perfect Pearls on the butterfly's wings, though, it really reminds me of the texture of the real thing.

Stamps: Inkadinkado 'Garden Delight' / Aladine
Colours: VersaColor 'Violet' / Perfetc Pearls ' Interference Violet' /VersaFine 'Smokey Grey'
Paper: HOTP 'Icy Rainbow'
Diecut: Cricut 'Accent Essentials'
Flowers: Artoz
Rhinestones: BG

1, 2, 3 - P*skarteluhaaste #10

2009-10-19T22:12:00.005+03:00

Now, this definitely is not cool. Had such a busy week filled with action through and trough that I had practically no time to craft at all. If working's like this then I might as well give up... well, perhaps not, but I'm not happy with the current situation. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, either I'm neglecting crafting or I'm neglecting everything else (freetime, family, friends, housework (which I'm neglecting all the same...)). Not cool, not one bit. Where could I get some more hours to a day? Anyone?

Managed to squeeze in just a tiniest bit of crafting, though, my ever-so-patient better half had a birthday and I just needed to make a card for him. Bought him a Transformers robot (yes, we're both grown-ups, at least by the years...), so of course the card needed a robot, too. I was inspired by robots in Finnstamper's Sari's blog, but I tried not to copy (now, how many different ways can you make a robot?!). This is also my entry for P*skarteluhaaste #10, where the recipe was to use 1 patterned paper, 2 ribbons and 3 brads. Nobody said anything about using embossed metal or corrugated card, though. I used ball chain as my second ribbon and added screw-shaped brads for a bit of a tech/mech feeling.

Stamp: Finnstamper
Ribbon: Artemio
Brads: You Do

Red and green - P*skarteluhaaste #9

2009-10-12T18:17:00.002+03:00

My crafting and blogging has been suffering from working, even though I knew this would happen I'm still a bit surprised that I have diifficulties of finding time to do everything I'd like to do. A pity, but on the other hand, I have at least some form of income and I do like my work (I'm a bit daft) :) I think part time job might suit me best, then I'd had more time for my hobbies than with a regular job... But I definitely shouldn't complain... let's see what happens next year...

Here's a card for P*skarteluhaaste #9, this week's recipe was to use red and green, but there's a catch: even though the time of the year and the colour scheme scream "Christmas!", the card may not be a Christmas card. I decided to make a general congratulations card. The ladybug stamp has been sitting in my stash for ages and never been used, so I made a conscious effort to use it now.

Stamps: Tiimari
Colours: Promarkers
Paper: Canson
Ribbon: Tilda Crafts
Punches: Woodware / Craftime / EK Success
Stickers: PI
Cuttlebug 'Swiss Dots'

Kittycheers - Mojo Madness #107

2009-10-11T23:04:00.004+03:00

Been visiting the parents for the weekend, needed to get a tripod for my photo course next week, but no luck there, couldn't find the one that they were supposed to have. Good trip anyhow, but a short one, so the kitties stayed at home. I liked the layout in Mojo Madness #107, so I decided to use it for a joint thank you/ instructions card for a friend who was kindly taking care of the beasts.

Stamps: Stampcraft / Woodware 'Tiny Phrases'
Papers: BG 'Blush'
Cuttlebug 'Swiss Dots'

Poppy for Pop - JCC #77

2009-10-07T23:34:00.004+03:00

This week's challenge over at Jehkotar CardChallenge was to make a Father's Day card using either a tag or a bookmark. Here's my version of it. I wanted a distressed vintage feel for it, so I cut the tag shape from paper, crumbled it, and dabbed with Distress Inks. The colours were first a bit too bright, but applying a light wash of clear water with a waterbrush helped a lot. It also helped when I ironed the tag out again... I backed the tag with cardstock to stiffen it and raised it with foam pads. Small peel-off butterfly and 3 brads add the finishing touches.

Stamps: Penny Black 'Poppy' / Inkadinkado 'Letter'
Colours: Derwent Inktense
Inks: VersaFine / Distress Inks
Brads, ribbon: Tiimari

E is for Embossing - ABC Challenge

2009-10-06T17:14:00.006+03:00

Made another card for another challenge while playing with my new toy, this one's for ABC Challenge where E stands for embossing. I wanted to keep the design simple to show off the beautiful flowers. I distressed the paper and its edges with sanding block and paper stresser (love that thing!). The fairy stamp echoes the swirls on the embossing folder, with a darker borders to frame and lift it. I stamped my greeting onto a tiny plastic tag which I attached with silver embroidery floss and a jump ring.

Stamps: Finnstamper / Morning Star
Inks: Distress Ink 'Dusty Concord' / StazOn
Embossing folder: 'Stylized Flowers'
Paper: BG 'Lilykate'

Gothmetal - P*skarteluhaaste #8

2009-10-06T16:51:00.004+03:00

This week's challenge at P*skarteluhaaste was to use metal, and preferably be clever with it. This was a fine excuse to have a trial run with my latest gadget, Cuttlebug. My earlier goth boy was still missing his date so I made another "attitude card" by putting together the goth girl (these two might be the best 3D sheet ever) and backing her up with embossed metal sheet (dabbed a bit Stazon to tone it down). I used scraps to make the label for the text, don't know yet what to put there. Didn't have right pink paper for it, though, but luckily I found what I needed from the back cover of an ad! The metal skull is the "clever" part, it's actually a button from a pair of trousers I didn't like (the button, I mean, loved the trousers). I'd snipped them off and saved for a later date (never throw anything away!), glad that it found its place here.

3D picture: Craft Deco
Embossing folder: 'Spots and dots'
Ribbons: Artemio / CMPC

Whee!

2009-09-30T22:12:00.004+03:00

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

2009-09-29T23:28:00.004+03:00

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

2009-09-29T22:50:00.006+03:00

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

2009-09-28T22:44:00.005+03:00

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

2009-09-24T11:13:00.002+03:00

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

2009-09-24T10:27:00.005+03:00

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

2009-09-23T11:37:00.002+03:00

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

2009-09-23T00:07:00.006+03:00

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

2009-09-21T02:48:00.006+03:00

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

2009-09-17T17:42:00.006+03:00

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

2009-09-15T22:15:00.010+03:00

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!

2009-09-15T00:48:00.006+03:00

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

2009-09-14T21:31:00.004+03:00

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

2009-09-13T17:53:00.005+03:00

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.

Move it, baby!

2009-08-31T11:14:00.002+03:00

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

2009-08-31T10:23:00.006+03:00

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

2009-08-30T01:20:00.007+03:00

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

2009-08-30T00:18:00.004+03:00

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!

2009-08-29T23:51:00.004+03:00

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

2009-08-29T23:23:00.005+03:00

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

2009-08-29T22:50:00.005+03:00

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

2009-08-29T21:57:00.006+03:00

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

2009-08-29T20:32:00.006+03:00

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

2009-08-29T20:14:00.003+03:00

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

2009-08-29T19:49:00.005+03:00

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

2009-08-29T19:03:00.007+03:00

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

2009-08-29T18:31:00.005+03:00

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

2009-08-29T18:16:00.003+03:00

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

2009-08-29T18:10:00.003+03:00

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)

2009-08-29T17:34:00.003+03:00

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

2009-08-29T17:16:00.003+03:00

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

2009-08-29T16:52:00.003+03:00

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

2009-08-27T17:23:00.005+03:00

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

2009-08-27T16:48:00.004+03:00

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

2009-08-27T09:00:00.005+03:00

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

2009-08-27T08:10:00.005+03:00

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

2009-08-27T07:50:00.005+03:00

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

2009-08-27T07:15:00.007+03:00

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

2009-08-25T11:36:00.006+03:00

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

2009-08-09T23:37:00.024+03:00

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

2009-08-09T23:07:00.020+03:00

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.

Vintage fashion

2009-08-09T22:36:00.003+03:00

My friend opened a vintage clothes shop, so of course I had to make a card to celebrate the occasion. I found perfect shop window cards from CMPC #48.

I printed the window template onto red paper and cut it out. I first printed the dress onto floral paper but it looked too crowded so I changed it to dotted pink paper. I backed the window with retro flowers and mounted the dress onto it with foam pads. I cut the shank from the flower button with wire cutters and attached it with a glue dot, and to finish I spelled the name of the shop to the awning with printed words.

Christmas birdie

2009-08-09T22:08:00.005+03:00

I first saw these Inkadinkadoo stamps at a craft fair and immediately got an idea for Christmas cards. I used pearlescent cards for icy and wintery feeling and stamped the bird and text with black Versafine. My first plan included adding whiffs of blue chalk to the swirls, but all my blues were too dark and it didn't look good so I left it out. I added glitter glue to snowflake centres and swirl ends and glued a clear snowflake button on the largest snowflake.

Oh boy!

2009-07-25T20:25:00.005+03:00

Again a quickie (I seem to be always making cards in a hurry...), this time for a name giving party. I used rub-ons to spell the name on a ready-made tag with trains and inked the edges. I looped blue ribbon and orange ric rac through the hole and fixed the tag onto coordinating paper with a foam pad. The little duck button gives a "childish" feel to the card.

Sunflower wishes

2009-07-25T20:09:00.004+03:00

I stamped the sunflower on rectangle of white card and coloured it in. I glued a piece of yellow gingham ribbon on the panel and wound coordinating threads around it. Black would have been too stark for the colours so I matted the image onto dark brown paper instead. The patchwork paper cheered the card up nicely. I wrote my greeting onto a small plastic tag with a black marker and tied it to the knot of ribbons with wire (still no jump rings).

Violet flourishes

2009-07-25T19:56:00.003+03:00

Again a simple and quick card. I stamped the heart with wisteria Fluid Chalk and back it with a darker shade. The lilac scroll card was just the right size for a card blank. I attached a piece of purple organdy ribbon on the card with metal spirals and secured it with glue which I hid behind the image. For finish, I spelled the message with alphabet bubble stickers.

Sweet sixty

2009-07-25T18:36:00.004+03:00

This ordered card was a real bingo. I didn't get much specs for it, just that the recipient's favourite colour was blue. In the end, it turned out to be just what was wanted.

I layered two paper flowers and fixed then with a large lilac gem brad. I wrapped a length of silver embroidery floss to criss cross the brad to add some sparkle. I backed the flower with a piece of white card, deckled the edge and added colour with blue chalk. I mounted the flower panel onto light blue scroll card and cut the numbers with Cricut from silver card (didn't have suitable number stickers or peel-offs, but realised that hey, I can make my own :) )

Hats off to...

2009-07-25T18:08:00.003+03:00

I wanted to use these patterned papers, but since the other one had a gaping hole to its side, I needed something wide enough to cover it up. I didn't have any nice cheery ribbons that would've been wide enough, so I had to use this white grosgrain ribbon. Because it was a bit boring on its own, I jazzed it up with some funny hat and pressie stickers that had been sitting in my stash for ages. Since the upper paper already had greetings more than enough, I didn't bother to make one more for the card, I just simply doodled a border to highlight one of the existing ones.

Halloween house

2009-07-25T14:46:00.006+03:00

I decided to have a go at making a pop-up card and make a ghost house for a Halloween card. I started with a design for a new home card but changed the colours to better match the occasion.

The original house was a bit too small for my taste (I wanted to include a window above the door) so I enlarged the house and card blank (since it needed to accommodate to the increased height of the house). I first thought of making the windows with six panes or a half-circle top pane, but it would've been too fiddly and not as good as the more simpler four-pane window. I also thought of adding details like holes in the roof, missing tiles, cobwebs or cracks in the wall, but I'm no good in drawing and the results weren't very good so I gave up and only added some outlines with white gel pen. I also would've wanted to make better door with a ghost peeking behind it, but again lacked the skills for these and just glued a piece of orange cardstock and a spider sticker to the doorway.

I made slight incisions near the spine and threaded a ribbon through them to go around the card for tying it up. For added Halloween feel, I cut a couple of bats from black paper and attached them to the bow with thread so that they hang loosely in the air.

Since I had sssuitable bits and pieces, I used them to make these:

Lion and lace

2009-07-25T12:05:00.003+03:00

This card started with the lion embellishment and the crocheted lace. I wanted something to balance lace's texture so I mounted the lion on corrugated card. Since I had scraps of paper lying around, I tried a different way of making the scalloped edge and cut narrow strips which I then glued behind the lion panel. The corners were a bit tricky but I think it works alright. I cut a square of light green silk paper and attached the lace to it with double-sided tape. For a neat edge, I mitred the corners of the lace.

Magnum-sized birthday

2009-07-25T11:27:00.004+03:00

I wanted the image to look more like an old photo and not just a stamp, so ordinary paper didn't seem to be the best choice. I think this parchment paper has the right qualities and it even was very easy to stamp onto, so I'll definitely be using it in the future as well. Must remember to try and cut the text away and mat it separately. I backed the image with mulberry paper but got a bit carried away when tearing the edges and ended up with a slightly too small piece, so I turned it askew. The pearlescent card blank, organdy ribbon, gold spiral and peel-off corners glam things up a bit.

Veins

2009-07-25T01:49:00.005+03:00

This card and stamp mean so much to me that I'd like to write oodles about them, but words fail me here so I give up trying. I stamped the image with black Versamark and took care not to overink it to show all the details. I backed it with fern-patterned handmade paper and added peel-off corners to echo the gold in the paper. The panel needed still something, so I mounted it on a piece of white mulberry paper and plucked it short using a waterbrush, leaving only a narrow fluffy edge. I glued a skeleton leaf on a pearlescent blue card blank to echo the dragonfly wings and attached the image on top of it. To finish, I stuck a length of silver self-adhesive ribbon across the card and fixed a tiny heart charm on it with silver wire.

1928

2009-07-25T00:41:00.003+03:00

My friends' house was built in 1928, so for their housewarming party they decided to take that year as the theme. As I knew that everything would be to a T (and especially the food), I wanted to make a card to match.

I took the old-fashioned kitchen tile and made it into a house with a triangle of striped paper for the roof. I tore a piece of light green paper to lift my "house" off the key-patterned paper. For a homely feel, I added a strip of red gingham ribbon which also gave a perfect spot to attach the number tags. To fill up the empty spaces I added the rub-on letters, the key button and the peel-off corners.

A red, red rose

2009-07-25T00:06:00.004+03:00

Another simple (=too simple) anniversary card. I stamped and coloured the rose and backed it with a green-and-gold gift wrap. I used the same gift wrap behind the scroll on the card blank and concealed the edge with a narrow peel-off border. Like I said, a bit of a bore. Like the colours though.

Rounding up

2009-07-24T23:03:00.005+03:00

Does life get bigger after you turn fifty? Somehow I feel like it, you do round things up after the halfway point. So this nostalgic stamp fit the big occasion quite nicely. I was in a hurry with this card so I only used patterned paper and peel-offs with the stamped image and didn't try anything very elaborate.

Heart cabinet

2009-07-24T21:40:00.005+03:00

A simple and elegant wedding card. I stamped and embossed the rose on a square piece of white card and embossed the edges as well. I wrapped gold embroidery floss around a cabinet-sized card blank and gathered the threads together with double-sided tape. I covered the other side of the tape with a piece of pale pink mulberry paper and layered the stamped image on top with a foam pad.

Playing around

2009-07-24T19:53:00.002+03:00

I'm getting bored of this archiving stuff but unfortunately I'm set to finish it until I may start blogging like normal people do. I only wish I wasn't so stubborn, but I guess that's not likely to happen. When I get something in my head there's no turning it... So I'm posting about zillion posts a day like a madman to be done with it.

I've also been eager to tweak my layout and find interesting gadgets lately. I've come to like my Google Account more and more, it just seems to be working so brilliantly. For instance, I found out that the photos I add to my blog go straigth to an album at Picasa. Nice! I wanted to try to make a slideshow of them, since they were in the web and usable, but although Picasa offers an opportunity to embed a slide show on your site or blog, I couldn't modify it as much as I'd wanted (like the tempo and background). Luckily there are those nice people who create nice thingies for us, and even add good instructions. I found my slideshow here, and this was just what I wanted, a simple code I can modify and, more importantly, instructions on how to make it work and how to modify it. Oh, I'm so over the moon that people like this do exist (and a bit proud that I still remembered how HTML works, it's been a while...).

So, I've realised that I don't want to continue posting just cards and repeating the same stuff about how I made them. Now, if I only knew which way to go with this... we'll see. But I guess there will be some changes coming up.

Mom's favourite

2009-07-24T17:04:00.007+03:00

My mom loves peonies, so these 3D beauties were right on. I love the watercolour effect and since they weren't your usual step by step pictures but 4 identical pictures, they were more interesting to make. I could actually use one picture less than what the instructions said, so I had one pretty picture left to be used later in another card.

Cutting the parts for the picture was the time consuming part, otherwise this card was very straigthforward: a pearlescent card blank, piece of coordinating blue grey Canson paper and a strip of self-adhesive ribbon were all that were needed. The flowers on the ribbon echo the peonies nicely.

A band of fools

2009-07-24T16:04:00.004+03:00

I made this card for a friend who's a Beatles fan. Don't really know why but these fellows by Paper Artsy somehow remind me of them (and no, the title isn't my opinion on the Beatles).

This was a difficult stamp to use, with parts of the stamp over-inking while others were left out altogether. I had to try several times before got a decent image. For a bit of vintage feel, I decided to stamp it on light brown paper instead of white. I dont usually cut my stamped images out (they look a little odd to me) but here it works well. I first thought of stamping the image again on white with red ink to get red hats for the band but it didn't look very good, nor did coloring them, so I let them be. I covered the card blank with diamond paper to fit the clown theme and glued the band on top. For colour, I stamped the greeting in red, added a chipboard frame on top and glued three red gems to the bottom right corner.

Fisherman's friend

2009-07-24T15:23:00.006+03:00

I don't much like this 3D picture but the recipient did and that's the important thing. Although the folded corner doesn't work perfectly here (the picture was a bit too large), it's better than leaving the top right corner bare, as I didn't have a suitable greeting at hand. I took a piece of embroidery floss and sandwiched its ends between the fishes and foam pads, tied a loose knot and "hung" the catch from the big brad fixing it in place with the foam pads. I mounted a piece of striped green paper inside the card, since writing on a rough surface like this card blank doesn't look so good and it peeks so nicely behind the folded corner.

One's loss is other's gain

2009-07-24T13:34:00.004+03:00

I was flipping through a pad of papers when I noticed that some of the papers had got ink transferred at the back from the next paper. My first thought was to think of ways to cover it up, but some papers actually looked quite attractively double-sided and perfect for card blanks.

I had wanted to use that folded corner design for some time. I left the uneven half of the transferred pattern inside the card front and hid the worst bit behind the polkadot paper on the folded corner. I stamped the texts and added a bit of pink to some letters with a gel pen. The "happy" stamp actually had the word repetead several times, but I snipped the extra away. I matted the texts onto pink cardstock and glued to the card front, the brad is there just for show. I made the round aperture with a coin, inked the edges to hide the white core, glued a circle of polka dot paper inside the card and attached an acrylic sticker on top (it's amazing what you can find from a shop selling fashion accessories...).

Two of a kind

2009-07-23T18:10:00.005+03:00

I have a whole bunch of pipe cleaners I don't know where they came from or how to use them. The ordinary wires with only one colour are a bore, but the two-coloured wires, like this red-and-yellow one, are quite nice.

So I had a go with twisting the wire into shape and it wasn't too hard. Attaching the wire was another story altogether: I figured that the safest bet would be using a thin layer of PVA glue but the damn thing just kept on coming loose. I guess the bristles kept the wire raised and they were too soft to take a good grip on the glue. Anyhow, there was a high potential of getting glue all over the whole card and wire, but I managed to avoid it. I drew a doodled frame around the panel and added yellow and red flowers to the corners. For one corner, I layered few flowers and fixed an orange brad through their centre.

Mystery man

2009-07-23T15:22:00.005+03:00

This card started with the gift, the small box of mints. Since the gift was would be sent along with the card, I decided to include it in the card design.

I found a picture of the mint box from the manufacturer's web site and copied and enlarged it (and probably managed to break some copyright in the process). I printed it, cut it out and used it as a template for the card blank. I left a hinge at the top so that it opens like the box does. I glued the printed picture onto the card blank and embellished it a little: a bit of red glitter to highlight the "SO", peel-off numbers for the age and a rhinestone for the mint. Finally, I glued the mint box onto the card with a large foam pad.

Pretty in pink

2009-07-23T14:48:00.006+03:00

I didn't realise how pink this card was until I saw the photo. It's not bad, I'm just surprised at my colour decisions. The card is like a postcard, so it doesn't open which is a bit unusual for my cards. I'm somewhat biased towards opening cards...

Again, it's a quickie. I could've used the bird in a better way (like carrying a note or something) but the stamp is pretty, so I'll let it pass. I backed it with red paper and cut a deckled edge to it. I mounted it on flowery paper, attached a ribbon across it and secured with a flower brad in the middle. I stamped the greeting onto a white plastic mini tag (I think it's shrink plastic but since I bought them from a craft fair, I can't be sure) with black Stazon, and since I didn't have jump rings, I attached it around the brad with a piece of pink wire.

Three times a graduate

2009-07-23T12:22:00.010+03:00

When three of my friends graduated from the uni shortly after each other, they decided to throw a graduation party together. We decided to get a present for each but with the same theme, so a similar card was needed. It didn't take me long to come up with the idea of puzzle pieces.

It took a while to make the templates for the card blanks and they did need a bit of careful tweaking to get the pieces to fit together seamlessly, but I managed to do it. The next question was how to decorate them. I had already decided that since there was two guys and a girl, the girl would be in the middle and the boys at either ends. Since I wanted to carry on with the puzzle theme, I needed paper which design could be aligned from one piece to another. Luckily I had this black and white gift wrap in two versions, they were perfect for these cards, black for the guys and white for the girl. It did take a bit of patience and careful aligning but it was well worth it. I decided to use this Zettiology stamp of three little clowns and decorate different clown with red in each of the cards.

The first one got red eyelets for pompoms...

...the second has nice glitter pompoms (a girl needs a bit of sparkle and bling)...

... and the third got red diamond pompoms (I was running out of things with the same shade of red, would have loved to use pompoms but didn't have small enough).

I wanted the greetings to have the same old-fashioned feel to them as the stamp, so I printed them and increased the tracking. Since the girl had Russian as her major, her greeting also needed to be in Russian (I can only hope I got it right since I never studied the language). To continue with the red accents I glued the greetings onto strips of self-adhesive grosgrain ribbon and added small metal spirals with narrow satin ribbon to the images edges. Because the shape of the middle card was so different from the other two, I decided to position the elements a bit differently in all the cards, so that it wouldn't look so much the odd one out.

Hearty congrats

2009-07-23T11:58:00.006+03:00

I love that stamp, but boy it's a tough one to use. It took several attempts to get the amount of ink and and pressure right and to achieve a good image. I stamped it onto slightly ribbed white card (it states in the wrapping that it's meant for business cards, but I doubt I'll ever use it for that purpose) in deep red and cut it into a rectangle. I stamped the greeting onto a scrap of the same card and backed both with red and silver handmade paper. I layered dotted vellum on top the card blank and attached it from the middle with two eyelets. Two pieces of narrow satin ribbon add the finishing touches. I had trouble getting the one at the spine go nicely through all four holes and to get the bow to the front, but it seems I made it in the end (although I can't remember how).

Have a fluffy birthday

2009-07-23T10:38:00.006+03:00

I once bought coordinated sets of decorative yarn from a sale, but had trouble finding a way to use them. They didn't seem to quite fit to any design. It wasn't until I realised that I didn't need to (and probably shouldn't) use only one yarn but a whole bunch that I finally managed to incorporate them into a card layout.

I layered a couple of flowers and fixed them onto a tag with a gem brad. The tag actually had holes at both ends so the flowers helped to conceal the other one. I selected several yarns, looped them through the remaining hole and tousled them a bit to make the tassel look fuller. I backed the tag with a coordinating paper, cut the greeting from another paper and backed it with lime hand-made paper for a bit more texture.

18 lives

2009-07-23T01:48:00.006+03:00

Again a sad excuse for making a card (somehow I seem to be needing them in order to get anything done). My friends got two cats and of course the arrival of new family members merited a party. I'm not so sure whether the stars of the occasion approved all the attention...

Since the real kitties were grey, I used smokey grey Versafine with the kitty stamps (although it looks like brown, must be the other colours). I do like it (I don't much use other inks nowadays) since it shows the details so well. I coloured the ball of yarn and the other cat's eye with coloured pencils and backed the images with chocolate brown paper. I "hung" the images from the paw print ribbon and mounted them onto brown diamond paper. The small metal spirals are there to add some interest and rhythm.

Have the cake and eat it too

2009-07-23T01:14:00.005+03:00

I stamped the birthday cake with a rainbow inkbad. It took a few trials to see which colours worked best but I did like the effect, I think I should try to use it more often. I inked the edges, glued the oval onto a scrap of purple paper and decided cut the scalloped edge with decorative scissors. Too bad I only found the right shade of purple on this paper since it was bit too soft for my scissors, the edge is a bit rough since the fibres didn't want to break without a fight. I was a bit worried whether I could achieve a neat and even border when cutting by hand, but in that respect the result was very good. The grosgrain ribbon came with a mag and it works really well with the cheerful patterned paper. I was so happy when I found the purple foam star from my stash, since it was just the right size for the peel-off numbers and even same purple as my scalloped background. Besides, I have loads of them and never seem to be finding ways to use them. I decided to have a go at stamping onto the ribbon, but black Versafine didn't work so well on its own. The text did show but only just, so I went over it with a black marker pen. I think I need to practice positioning the stamps more, the text was meant to be in the middle of the ribbon, which it isn't...

Flutterby

2009-07-23T00:12:00.005+03:00

I stamped and embossed the butterfly image in gold on white watercolour paper. I coloured parts of the image with chalks: purple and blue for the bigger butterfly, blue for the smaller and mixes of blue, purple, green and light brown for the watches. I also dabbed chalks here and there on the background, but fainter than in the highlighted bits. I first thought of adding the mulberry paper squarely behind the image but after a bit of playing around decided that it looked much better when angled. I fixed the whole thing onto lilac handmade card blank and added a strip of self-adhesive ribbon.

Mackintosh roses

2009-07-22T22:43:00.004+03:00

I bought this stamp from Hill House's gift shop when I was in Scotland. To be honest, I was really surprised to find craft supplies from a museum's gift shop, but hey, I'm not complaining :)

I stamped and embossed four roses in gold onto cream paper and cut them into squares. I backed them with dark blue glitter paper and glued onto medium blue glitter card blank. Nice, quick and easy (and just about counts as crafting).

30+30=60

2009-07-22T21:35:00.003+03:00

I'm very good in rewarding myself. I've bought myself birthday and other presents at least for the next ten years. When I finally graduated from the uni, I felt like I'd earned a really big reward, so I went and treated myslef a Cricut Express (a bit of a pity, since Slice would've been quite enough for my needs, and a lot cheaper, but since it wasn't around at the time...) . This was the first card I made with it.

As it was for a joint 30th birthday, using text seemed the most obvious choice. I cut the numbers from coordinating patterned papers with Cricut and glued them onto cream Canson card (I like their subtle texture). Aligning them would have looked dull, so I tried to avoid it. I layered a couple of Prima flowers and attached them with a gem brad to a spot that looked a bit bare, the doodled symbols took care of a couple of similar places, and the thin border pulls everything together.

White wedding

2009-07-22T20:06:00.008+03:00

Considering that I'm not that much into 3D decoupage, I seem to be making awfully lot of them. They are an easy way out when making a card for a special occasion, for someone I don't know so well or on order. This one was an order for a wedding. The quality of the photo is bad, I snapped this one with my phone and its camera is no good.

I added drops of Glossy Accents to imitate dew drops and edged the panel with gold dimensional paint. I made tiny incisions to the card blank's edges and twined silver embroidery floss around it. I snipped the loop from a heart button with wire cutters and fixed it with a glue dot so that it gathers the threads togehter.

Rose express

2009-07-22T14:08:00.006+03:00

" A confirmation card for a 15-year-old boy, not too religious." Ok, so no crosses, bibles, prayers etc., suits me fine. What else is there for confirmation theme? Ah, the roses, we always get a bunch of those. But I wanted the theme to rather stay fun than pompous, so these Penny Black mice were just the thing.

I coloured the image in with watercolour pencils, trying to achieve the watercolour look. The rose worked fine, but I can only hope it's the flash again bleaching the mice, since they would definitely need more colour (I can't believe I'd have left the poor buggers looking so anemic). I heat embossed the deckled edge to add a touch of dignity to the card, and backed it with thick green paper to match the stem of the rose.

Hedgie greetings

2009-07-22T13:55:00.005+03:00

Usually when I colour in images, I completely forget to add shadow, leaving it hovering in mid-air. This time I made a mental note for myself to tie the poor hedgehog down by adding a shadow under its bag. I have to say that the difference is huge.

Now, if I only remembered to add the shadow more often... The deckled edge is actually chalked with lilac, but the flash has bleached it. Could've added more colour there.

Blue for a boy

2009-07-21T23:50:00.004+03:00

Another rare exception of getting to make a baby card after it's born, so a blue card for a boy this time. The big polkadots and scalloped edge just scream "Baby!".

So, nothing fancy here. A ready-made embellishment on scalloped card, backed with fluffy mulberry paper and baby blue polkadots, piece of light blue gingham ribbon, a couple of buttons with embroidery floss and words from Words to Go.

Sunny side up

2009-07-21T21:43:00.005+03:00

Nothing goes better with yellow sunflowers than blue gingham. This cheery card has the essence of summer written all over it.

I stamped the sunflower image with black on white card an coloured it in with coloured pencils. I wanted the background to be blue rather than black, so I used the most vibrant blue I had, not a bad result there. The image had a checkered border and I wanted to extend it to the background as well, so I backed it with a gingham napkin. To add some interest, I added a small sunflower embellishment to panels corner.

Lazy days

2009-07-21T19:46:00.005+03:00

I had doubts with these Penny Black stickers. The picture is printed on clear matte plastic, so I was worried how much the edges would show on the paper, but as it turned out they blend into the background quite nicely. And since the plastic is matte, it does not clash with paper. Nice.

I chalked the edges of the sticker panel to highlight the torn edges. I chose the patterned papers to coordinate with the sticker but mere browns would have looked dull, so the brighter striped paper with greens and yellows helps to cheer things up and break the horizontal lines. A bit of paw-pattern ribbon and a greeting with orange brads finishes the card nicely.

La femme belle

2009-07-21T17:44:00.006+03:00

I have a weak spot for eccentric stamps, so I have ever growing collection of Zettiology and Paper Artsy stamps, but I rarely get to use them (or maybe I'm just too concerned what the recipient will think about the card). I tried to achieve a vintage silent film feeling in this cards since the lady in the stamp vividly reminds me of the ladies in '20s and '30s movies.

I stamped the lady with black Versafine on white watercolour paper. It's nice that the stamp frames itself so I only left a narrow white border. I coloured the headscarf and lips with plum and red rub-on colours using cotton buds as applicators. The black and white diamond paper adds a bit of harlequin feeling to the card. I tore a piece of rose-patterned vellum, fixed the stamped image on it and attached the whole thing to the right-hand side. I took a length of black and white ribbon, folded it into L-shape and secured the fold with a white mini heart brad. The bow under the brad is actually from a bra. Since I don't have a gromlet setter, I made the openings for the prongs with a thick needle and folded them flat with fingers. The result: a very nice card, if I may say. I actually didn't realise how much the ribbon looks like film strip until now. I don't mind, though :)

It's a kind of magic...

2009-07-21T17:24:00.005+03:00

I really do love this card, all the pieces of the puzzle work so well together and I definitely need more opportunities to use that lovely fairy stamp. Too bad I only had one of those crescent charms.

The blue background paper is again flocked (I'm hoarding the remainders of that paper for a special occasion, it's so gorgeous). I stamped the fairy on blue paper with black Versafine and left a narrow border. I used a corner punch to nick the corners and wound a length of embroidery floss around the panel, it looks a bit like moonlight. Then I attached the panel to the flocked paper, knotted the charm onto blue ribbon and fixed everything onto a card blank. The peel-off continues the vine theme to the envelope.

Anniversary roses

2009-07-21T15:01:00.007+03:00

Another simple card, but only by its design. I still couldn't help myself with the ferns and other fiddly bits in the 3D picture but just had to cut them all out. It does look good but boy it takes time and patience. I fixed the finished picture in the card blank, added the age with peel-offs and punched the diamond border with a border punch and added a strip of rose patterned vellum to highlight it. A coloured-in peel-off rose finishes the envelope.

Pretty booties

2009-07-21T14:48:00.004+03:00

It's nice for once actually now which one the baby will be, so with this baby card I didn't need to fret what colours to use.

Again a card that barely qualifies as crafting: a ready-made bootie embellishment on diamond patterned paper, punched heart border for the side and three flower stickers with sequins. Just punching and sticking together left for me, so a bit of a bore albeit a quick one.

Monochrome birthday

2009-07-21T14:28:00.006+03:00

I actually did ponder for a while whether goths have or celebrate birthdays. Of course they do, so here's at least a dark if not handsome card for a goth.

I've had a collection of handmade papers just sitting on the shelf but now I steeled myself (I DO have a thing for my stash...) and decided to use it as well. Still wondering why I cut the piece from the 12" pad and not from the A4 pad... An Autumn Leaves text stamp with a piece of black ribbon and black and white Prima polkadot flowers secured with brads and voilà, the card is ready. I like the way the white edges of the ribbon echo the pattern on the black paper.

Big and bold

2009-07-21T10:25:00.002+03:00

This card was really simple to make since the turqoise flocked paper had so bold a pattern (reminds me of Designers Guild patterns). I layered few flowers and a piece of yellow ric rac and secured them on the paper with a funky flower brad. The largest flower wasn't bright enough so I added a bit more colour with a felt tip, two "coats" boosted the colour nicely. Greeting tile came from a mag, but it looked a bit lonely on its own, so I added a peel-off to lift it off the background.

Little prince

2009-07-21T09:38:00.006+03:00

I have mixed feelings on this card. I like the stamped image, the colours, the book plate, the stars, but I don't like my result here. I was really pressed for time with this card and unfortunately it shows. I was trying to catch a train in order to catch a plane and not finished with packing or getting things ready at home, but this one card I just had to make since I was missing the celebrations. I actually posted this card from the airport... Let this serve as a lesson for me that it might a good idea not to leave everything to the least minute (a lesson I will never in a million years learn...).

I coloured the stamped image (from a swap) in with coloured pencils and backed it with orange paper. I punched the corners and attached the panel to a length of orange ribbon. I folded the ribbon and attached it to the card blank with an orange brad and added three star beads to the right with glue dots. The bookplate is attached with orange minibrads and the greeting was the first suitable Words to Go word I came up with. What this card would have still needed is some semblance of border for both the card and the stamped image plus something to back the stars (punched white+contrasting circles would probably work well).

Pots of happiness

2009-06-25T23:51:00.004+03:00

Another card for a gardening friend and another using a napkin. The picture was a bit too wide to fit onto ordinary 10x15 card blank, so I made it into cabinet-sized instead. I backed the panel onto white card and inked the edges with green. A piece of red checkered paper and stamped greeting and voilà, the quickie card is ready.

Birthday pilot

2009-06-25T21:23:00.003+03:00

My brother is a student pilot, so this teddy with the balloons gave me immediate inspiration for his birthday card.

The picture is from a swap, so I just coloured it in with watercolour pencils. The movement lines were a bit too bold, but a waterbrushing helped a little. I mounted the picture on bright primary colours and added brads to keep the masculine but cheery feel. The strip behind the image is actually a length of coarse fibre ribbon, it has really nice colours and texture. The Dymo greeting wasn't too hard to come up with...

Mother's Day fairies

2009-06-25T20:28:00.007+03:00

I like to use flower fairies in my cards sometimes, but often find them "too cute" to fit the card. For Mother's Day cards, however, they were perfect.

The first card went for Mom, who loves lilacs, so it was easy to pick the right fairy. I finished the card with a strip of lilac handmade paper and a peel-off greeting. The only problem was that I seem to be unable to leave out the fiddliest bits from the 3D pictures. Cutting and fixing the teeny tiny shoes on the fairy's equally teeny tiny feet was somewhat a challenge...

The second card was for Granny, so I went for a bit more old-fashioned fairy. This was one unlucky card. First, I managed to dye the fairy's face to orange with a felt tip pen (the ink spread too much). Then the violet card blank wasn't violet enough after I'd glued the vellum on top of it, so I had to back the fairy with a brighter oval. I tried to conceal the oval's edges with a peel-off border, which sort of worked, but not quite. Finally, the design wasn't balanced so I had to add the peel-off butterflies to the corners. I printed the greeting and used some leftover peel-off centres as brads. There's definitely way too much peel-offs for my liking. I think Granny was pleased with it, though.

3Daffodil

2009-06-25T19:57:00.005+03:00

Somehow I managed to get photo aperture cards in colour in addition to the white ones I already had. Craft kits ftw. Well, a yellow one fitted nicely to this 3D-daffofil. I used green and yellow chalk to add interest to the background and added green buttons with knots of yellow embroidery floss.

No-nonsense bride

2009-06-25T19:33:00.007+03:00

The bride was definitely not a frilly-cute-pastel person, so I went for a bold, simple and classy card. Often I don't feel like using peel-offs but here they served they purpose.

The red rose is from a gift wrap I actually have forgot I have (should probably use it more often). I backed it with cardstock because it was a bit flimsy anbd tried to curl up. To continue the theme, I covered a card blank with black and white rose vellum. I covered the glue with the central panel and peel-off corners and edged the central panel with peel-off border.