F is for Flying - ABC challenge

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

Red and green - P*skarteluhaaste #9

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'

Peek-a-boo - P*skarteluhaaste #3

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

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

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

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

Vintage fashion

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.

Sunflower wishes

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).

18 lives

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.

Rose express

" 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

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.

Sunny side up

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

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.

It's a kind of magic...

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.

Little prince

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).

Mother's Day fairies

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.

Cat express

Ok, so maybe it's not so common to congratulate your friend on a new car, but if you're desperate for excuses...

The free templates from Papercraft Inspirations had a perfect timing and arrived just when I needed them, including this nice car template as well. I made the windows a bit larger to better fit the cat's head and inked the edges. I stamped the cat image on a piece of plain white paper and glued it on the car shape so that the cat is peeking from the window. I used green and blue chalks to color the background, punched the text label with Dymo and decorated it with a flower brad. Looking at the photo at least, some sort of borders might have been nice, but for some reason I didn't make them.

I made another variation of this card when another friend got her driver's license, I just used brighter colours and a photo aperture card blank. I fixed the car with foam pads and stamped the congrats around the aperture (should've stamped them the same side up on each side). I punched flowers from the patterned paper with a small circle punch, glued them onto the corners and doodled a border.

Double trouble

Two cards in appr. 3 hours = no time to waste, a baby congrats and a congrats card needed. So I went for simple and tried and tested. Most of the time was spent going through the stash (now, what does that say about me...)

The baby card is another variation of the baby feet/Cuddly Friends card featured earlier. The general congrats card is almost too easy to mention: I glued a decorative paper with a macro daisy on a card blank and attached a chipboard tag with a pink flower brad.

Cheery frogs

I'm not very good at using up the leftover scraps from my projects, although I'm very good in hoarding them (it seems my scrap boxes get bigger and bigger). Here's one card where I tried to make use of the little bits and pieces.

I took a bookmark-sized piece of white corrugated card as the base and glued a bit smaller panel of light green handmade paper on it. I punched two squares from yellow paper and fixed frog stickers on them. I stuck a piece of green gingham ribbon on the card and fixed the frogs on it with foam pads. The card needed still something, so I put small peel-off flowers on the ribbon to balance the design.