Inkspirational Sketch Challenge

Hiya!
I've surprised myself today by finding time to make this card and even this quick blog post, yay! My card is for Sketch Challenge at Inkspirational Challenges and I used my new and wonderful Fresh Squeezed Stamps Everyday Elements set to make it. I added some miniature pearls for embellishments and voila, card was done!  So is this blog post... I've got to go! :) Have a fun weekend everyone!

Dreamy Blues

Hiya!
Time for Addicted to Stamps and More! We are continuing our August challenges with a twist, there's 3 ways to play along. This is how you can enter:
1) enter a card inspired by a photo

2) enter by using a product from Nicecrane Designs
3) combine both ways: use a Nicecrane product and use the photo as your inspiration!

I chose alternative nr 2 and used this cute vintage girl from the Charming Children Illustrations by Nicecrane Designs. I did not want to use designer paper for a change and did my own background by embossing an Impression Obsession background stamp with clear powder and spraying the background with blue Stardust mist. It turned out beautiful! I tried to keep my design simple and let the background be seen so all the other elements are in the center of the card. The little flowers are punched with a Fiskars punch -I like them, they look a bit like starfish to me!

That's all from me now... Do head on over to the ATSM Challenge Blog: there's plenty of DT inspiration for you and all the challenge details and rules too. As you probably guessed, Nicecrane Designs is our generous sponsor! :) Happy crafting!

School Spirit/Colors at Tuesday Throwdown

Good morning!
Yesterday I posted my last DT card for Digi Sketch and today, it's time for my last card in Tuesday Throwdown. :( I want to thank the lovely ladies at Tuesday Throwdown for having me but I won't say goodbyes -we will surely all be seeing each other in blogland!

This week we have a fun challenge for you: School spirit or School colors. None of my schools have had official colors (that I remember at least!) so I took some creative freedom and used the colors of my school building. :) That studying owl from Meljen's Designs is awfully cute, isn't he? We are proud to have Meljen's designs as our sponsor this time and one lucky winner will win a prize from their store. I have stamped the scattered numbers myself -I think the owl looks a bit overwhelmed and the numbers describe his brain trying to figure out the latest math assignments. :) The card was on it's way to become really boyish so I added some of my favorite lace and pretty washi tape. Now when I look at the card, I think the washi is going to go!

I hope you'll head on over to the challenge blog and see what the other DT ladies created with Meljen's images, you won't be disappointed! Happy crafting!

I'd like to enter the following challenges:
http://dutchdare-cardchallenges.blogspot.fi/ Animal Antics
http://happycamperscc.blogspot.co.uk/ Use a digi
http://www.lisasomerville.com/ Back to school
http://www.clearlyistamp.blogspot.fi/ School Time
http://sisteractcardchallenge.blogspot.fi/ Anything goes
http://disdigidesignschallenge.blogspot.fi/ Back to school

Vintage at Digi Sketch

Good morning friends!
I'm hosting the challenge this fortnight at Digi Sketch Challenge and I have chosen the theme "vintage". I've also made a simple sketch (which I didn't follow myself, oops!), it's below this text. As always, there's 3 ways to enter the challenge: use our theme, use our sketch or use them both!

We are glad to have LEJ Designs sponsoring us again and our DT had great fun working with their vintage images. Please use the link above for checking out all the gorgeous DT cards! My card is a pretty traditional vintage card with many layers but I didn't embellish too much, I used only those miniature pearls in the center of the card. The paper with writing adds a bit more modern touch too since the font is not that old-fashioned. There's a lot of Stickles on the bride's outfit and some Copic shading under it (E40 if I remember right)... The groom is not glittery, he is just normally colored with Copics. :)

Sadly, this will be my last card as a Digi Sketch DT member. I'll just play along now on, when ever I have the chance! I want to thank team leader Kelly and all the DT girls for the fun crafting company. I had a super good time in the team!!

I'd like to enter the following challenges:
http://scrapbitzcopics.ning.com/group/cmccopicchallengegroup Anything Goes
http://ourcreativecorner6.blogspot.co.at/2013/08/words-words-words.html Words words words (the text in my papers is Finnish language, "Rakkaus" means love and there's some small quotes on the love-theme too)
http://audsentimentschallengeblog.blogspot.fi/ Anything but Birthday card with sentiment (the sentiment is the love quote in Finnish in my paper!)
http://qkrstampede.blogspot.co.uk/ Anything Goes

Inkspirational Love

Hi friends!
For now my plan to enter all the Inkspirational Challenges in August is going smoothly -this is my third card out of the 5 weeks of the rota. :) This time the challenge has a CASE week and the beautiful inspiration card by Marina is below this text. I took many elements from the card -"lovebirds", colors, doily, gems... And made it my own stamped CAS version with miniature pearls. I love the doily stamp from My Mind's Eye and the birds are really cute too -I don't remember the maker of them but it's a fun set with birds, birdcages and flowers. My hubby's sister wants me to make her wedding invitations using this stamp next summer -luckily there's still time to plan! That's all from me now, I have a busy day ahead of me. Enjoy the beginning of new week tomorrow!

Marina's card was the inspiration for my card

One Layer Wednesday

Hi friends!
I've been working with one particular card for several days now... I've thrown 5 versions to trash already and today when I came from work and looked at the mess in my craft space my inspiration was zero or maybe -5. Anyways, then I saw the challenge at One Layer Wednesday, it's here in Heather's wonderful blog. I think this might be my first time entering this challenge but I'm very familiar to it, I try to visit OLW blogs weekly nowadays and know what the ladies there are working with. :) This time there's a recipe: one ink color, one image, one sentiment. I started to go through my stamps and yayy, fun was back! These are maybe nothing that wouldn't have been seen before but I had a great time. Now I can clean the table and start again with that monster card I have on my list.... Maybe not before tomorrow. :)

First, a simple wedding invitation. The color is sort of plum/burgundy, I thought that could easily be someone's theme color for wedding. Mine was lime! The sentiment is a bit non-CAS but it was the only one I had that fit.

Vintage feeling, kraft card, brown ink. I love English language for the ability for these kind of sayings... Finnish can't be played with like that!

Happy yellow for new baby! Could work for both sexes I think.

Black and white for last: classic color combo for this chick lady in her classical outfit. The stamping came out really heavily on the bottom of her dress but it was a good accident -gives her great curves!

That's all for me now. I had a lot of fun with these, I hope you enjoyed my cards!

CAS/Anything Goes with Nicecrane Designs at Addictd to Stamps and More!

Hi guys!
Another fun week at Addicted to Stamps and More! As last week we have a twist this week too, there's 3 ways to enter:

1) Make a CAS (Clean and Simple) card/project
2) Make a card/project using products from Nicecrane
3) Make a card/project that is CAS and uses products from Nicecrane.

Wonderful design team of ATSM has made inspirational pieces from all the alternatives, do check them out!

I chose the second alternative, I'm sure you'll agree that these cards have never seen CAS! I made these fun and colorful vintage cards with my mum when she was visiting a couple of weeks ago. We used Charming Children Illustration from Nicecrane. Mum helped me punching squares out of scrap papers and we formed them into two cards -mum's is the first and mine is the second. I must say I like mum's colors better, well done mum! :) It's a fun and cheerful card and I helped only with choosing embellishments. I was very happy that mum liked our little crafting session and loved the cards so much that she sent them to friends right away.

Now it's your turn, I can't wait to see what you make! So friends: We want to see either CAS, Nicecrane, or both!

Runaway Inspired

Hi friends!
Let me start with thanking all of you who have left brilliant photographing tips to my yesterday's post/sent your ideas by email! No card stand today either so I'm trying - not perfect yet but getting there, I have to search for the best place to take the pictures (considering light) and still study my camera a bit. :)

This card is for the Runaway Inspired Challenges, new challenge just went live and I was really waiting for it. :) I found this challenge site two weeks ago and wow I just love those inspiration pictures! This week's image is below this text, it's a dress by Peter Pilotto. I loved the patterned fabric, I knew I had no paper in my stash to imitate it so I made my own paper with Stardust Mists, I tried to imitate the pattern and texture of the fabric. I stamped the Kanban trees for a stylish, yet calm impression -this is birthday card for my friend who has been a bit poorly lately so I didn't want to make anything "anxious" -though I think that's quite seldom anybody's goal in card making lol! I left all embellishments out also and I quite like that decision. Thanks for popping by and I hope to see you again!

Dusk Blue Card

Hi friends!
Another card inspired by Jackie Rockwell's color challenges -this time my card is for Dusk Blue Challenge. This kind of blue is not one of favorites but I have friends who like it so it'll e easy to give this card to one of them. I'm also liking the result surprisingly much -maybe it's the edgy black that makes the blue look more to my taste! My layout comes from  Clean and Simple stamping and I looooove it -I'm sure I'll use it again. How about my adorable birds? I was lucky to win these Lawn Farm stamps from Emily's blog candy, thank you so much Emily! Emily makes beautiful, fun cards with stunning coloring, I hope you'll pay her a visit.

I'm trying to learn how to photograph my CAS cards standing up, without my card stand... I'm loving the look of that style of photos but I tend to end up with crooked photos myself when I try it. This one looks a bit weird too, like it would be bending inwards although IRL it's not... And the focus is a bit blurry too. If you guys have good hints for taking the photos, I'd be really happy to hear them! That's all from me for now, if everything goes as planned I'll have little something to show for you tomorrow and then, on Wednesday, it's time for Addicted to Stamps and More again. I'll have a friend visiting from Wed to Sat so the end of the week might be a bit quieter here... But let's see! Enjoy your week everyone!

Inkspirational Vintage Card

Hi guys!
I wrote last week that I plan to enter all the Inkspirational Challenges in August and this is my second card out of the 4 challenges. I used the same stamp that I used in my first Inkspirational card here -I was even selected to top 5 with that one, yayyyy! This week I stamped and embossed the image with DI Walnut Stain. My card is based on an inspiration photo of a beautiful, vintage school-poster (in the end of this post), I had several ideas but in the end I went for a quite traditional vintage card. My background paper is very inspired by the inspiration photo... And so is the color scheme of the card. I think when you look quickly at the inspiration pic, orange pops out so I chose orange to brighten up the otherwise all brown look. I love my washi-tape with orange "drops" -so retro and fun! I was even able to sneak in a doily -my all time favorite vintage-style embellishment ... Or maybe lace is my favorite? Or pearls? Hard to decide. :) Thanks for visiting!

I'd like to enter the following challenges:
http://inkspirationalchallenges.blogspot.fi/ Inspiration Photo
http://itsallaboutthevintagechallenge.blogspot.fi/ Summer flowers

Lemon Zest Card

Hi friends!
It's a sunny day in Oulu today, quite a lovely change since the whole week has been grey and rainy... My card is sunny too I think and it is for Rockwell Designs Lemon Zest Challenge. Click the link for all the details, you could win a free blog header by entering these fun color challenges by Jackie Rockwell! My image is Jackie's too, it's part of a FREE fruit digi collection, click here to find it. I had planned to do a really CAS card but then the image started to look somehow retro to me... And after I found this floral paper with vintage feel from my stash, my CAS plans went out of the window. :) That's all from me now, I hope you like my little card, thanks for popping by! I hope to be back tomorrow -or even later today.

Warning! This Card Might Give You Headache! :)

Hello friends!
Time for a new release at Sami Stamps! The release is called "Back to School Apples" and the images are great for fall and school-themed cards. My card has one of the new images as focal point and I enjoyed coloring it with my Copics. Unfortunately my paper choices are a bit wild in this one... I hope you don't get an awful headache! I kind of do but after everything was taped and glued there was nothing to be done. :) I started with a sketch from Retro Sketches but in the end I noticed I did it tiny bit wrong... I hope that's fine! 

Don't forget that there's still time to enter Sami Stamps DT Call! Click HERE for details: you apply with a card for our Anything Goes Challenge. In Sami Stamps DT we make 2-3 cards every month using Sami's images and also have fun with our monthly Sami Stamps Challenge. I hope you'll join in our DT Call!

I'd like to enter the following challenges:
http://retrosketches.blogspot.co.uk/ Sketch
http://www.southerngirlschallenge.blogspot.fi/ Things beginning with f=fruits I've used an apple
http://blog.markerpop.com/2013/08/05/markerpop-challenge-28/ Anything Goes
http://stampsfun-creativity.blogspot.fi/ Anything Goes
http://craftingbydesigns.blogspot.fi/ Anything Goes
http://onestitchatatimechallenge.blogspot.fi/ Use a digi
http://robynsfetishchallengeblog.blogspot.fi/2013/08/challenge-172-lots-of-layers-8112013.html Lots of layers

I hope to be back tomorrow with some cards for challenges that I have in my mind. See you then and have a great weekend! Thanks for popping by!

Color Inspiration at Addicted to Stamps and More

Hi all!
I'm loving our color trio at Addicted to Stamps and More this week! It's so dramatic but can be used for fun cards too -think of cards with bees for example! I love English language: These Bee Happy- greetings in a Bee card or "You are Sew Special"- sentiments in a sewing themed cards + many similar wordplays are really fun -Finnish isn't quite flexible enough for that! My sentiment this time is in Finnish though: "Tervehdys" is one way of saying Hi in Finnish -quite an old-fashioned one actually. Terve, Hei or Moi would be less formal! Anyways, the lovely ladies in ATSM DT have made wonderful cards once again: click here and be inspired! You'll find all the challenge details there too.

We are proud to have Nicecrane as our sponsor at ATSM and the challenge has a twist too: you do not have to follow the color theme IF you use Nicecrane products in your project. So Anything Goes with Nicecrane products! You can of course do both, follow the color theme and use Nicecrane products: that's what I've done, the beautiful floral image is from a Nicecrane set, you'll find it here.

I've been thinking a lot about my card making style lately. The thing is I love so many styles: CAS, vintage, fun cards with cute, detailed, hand-colored images... Making own backgrounds and learning creative techniques... But I don't have (and especially during this coming autumn will not have) enough time to make cards in all of those different styles. That's why I've been thinking I should try to find my own "fusion-style" (that sounds trendy, doesn't it!) where I would bring together elements from different styles and try to make it work. I think I managed quite well with that in this card: a hand-colored image- quite simple layout, not too frilly- my favorite embellishments (lace and pearls, only my beloved doilies are missing!) and since that heart-paper is more of a cute style, the card doesn't look too formal or grandma-style. :) I would love to know what you think -is this mismatch or did I create something pretty? I'm secretly pretty pleased with myself, I like the card. :) Please leave a comment if you have the time and thank you for visiting me -I hope to see you soon again!

Pastel Rainbow at Tuesday Throwdown

Hi there!
I'm sure you'll agree - this stamped guy is amazingly cute! He (or she, I guess you could decide that yourself!) is from There She Goes Stamps -the generous sponsor of Tuesday Throwdown Challenge this week. Here is a direct link to this cute cute cute product. Our theme at Tuesday Throwdown is Pastel Rainbow: use pastel colors. I colored my image with Copics -no shading this time, just one layer of one color -well, two colors! :) The layout I used is very close to a layout I once saw in Craft Stamper Magazine -love that mag, always so full of inspiration! If you need more inspiration for how to use pastel colors, head on over to the challenge blog: DT girls have made awesome cards with TSG stamps. Happy crafting!

I'd like to enter the following challenges:
http://www.fashionablestampingchallenges.com/ Clean and Simple
http://onestopcraftchallenge.blogspot.fi/ Pastel Colors
http://craftyourpassionchallenges.blogspot.fi/2013/08/challenge-175-dont-get-your-twine-in.html Use twine

Countryside Mailboxes

Hi guys,
we a have a new challenge for you at Digi Sketch! There's three ways to take part: either follow our theme -make your own flowers- or follow the sketch -you'll see it below this text- or use both, theme and sketch! Our fabulous sponsor this week is Rick St. Dennis and I had super fun coloring this Mailboxes Scene digital image with my Copics. My background paper is from Papermania: I haven't been buying new designer papers for some time now but I couldn't resist this fun pack with garden and nature themed papers... I added washi tape to get more yellow to the card but I'm not completely sure if it was a good idea or not. :)  Digi Sketch DT has made super cards this week so head on over to challenge blog and be amazed -you'll find all the challenge details there too. Happy crafting!

I'd like to enter the following challenges:
http://blog.markerpop.com/2013/08/05/markerpop-challenge-28/ Anything Goes
http://sisteractcardchallenge.blogspot.fi/ Anything Goes

Inkspirational...

Hi friends!
This card is for Inkspirational challenge blog. I've been following this blog since the challenges started but haven't had chance to participate too often. There's always a monthly rota in the challenges of Inkpirational and I'm determined I'll make a card for all August challenges -so if the Inkspirational DT members visit, watch out, you'll meet me every week for 4 weeks now on! :)

I'm loving this week's Inkspirational color challenge with pink and green -I din't have an exact match but I hope I'm close enough with my colors. I've sponged my inks through and oval stencil and stamped some script through it too. My main image is a beautiful flower from Penny Black, I'm using it first time now. Little gems finish off the card. Hope you like! Thanks for popping by!

Beach Squares

Hi!
Here's a little card I made using a fantastic digi by DigiDarla, I really like the image. My card is sort of CAS since it has nothing else but the colored image and card base... But I'm not at all pleased how it turned out! I cut the image wayyy to close, I should have left a lot more space around it and I should have chosen a bigger card base too, the card looks really tight and cramped now... But since the coloring was quite fine, I decided to blog it anyway. I'd be happy if you would picture some white space around the image... Can you see it?  Looks a lot nicer, right? Thanks for popping by. :)

I'd like to enter the following challenges:
http://paradeyourcrafts.blogspot.fi/ Down by the sea
http://craftyourpassionchallenges.blogspot.fi/2013/08/challenge-174-all-at-sea.html All at sea
http://withoutwordschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ Beach Holiday/ at the seaside
http://happycamperscc.blogspot.co.uk/ Summer
http://carabbiemomentsofcraft.blogspot.co.uk/ Sea/sea shore

Runaway Inspired!

Hi guys,
just a quick post from me! I found a new (new to me that is) challenge blog yesterday, Runaway Inspired Challenges. I immediately loved the inspiration photo (below this text), it reminded me of a designer paper I have. I wanted to make a CAS card though so I had to think a while how to make the busy paper work! In the picture the dress has beautiful movement -that made me add the swirl as detail. That's all from me now, thanks for popping by and see you soon again!

source: style.com

Make Your Mark at Addicted to Stamps and More!

Hi guys!
Here's my DT card for Addicted to Stamps and More -we are having one of our very fun and popular Make Your Mark challenges. Usually at Make Your Mark you'd see me coloring in a stamped image with my beloved Copics but this time I made something different -my "marker" is a white crayon. To create my patterned panel I first stamped the flowers with Stazon to Glossy cardstock. When the stamping had dried I used my crayon to draw highlights to my flowers and then it was time to sponge some Distress Inks -the crayon resists the inks and stays white. I added borders from dotty patterned paper and attached the panel to an embossed card base - a gift from a stamping friend Tuula. This was a quick and easy make!

The design team of ATSM is offering this week's Top Addict a very special prize: our winner gets fantastic two image sheets from Nicecrane:  The Roosevelt Bears 1 and Roosevelt Bears 2. That's 8 amazing digi stamps! So, take out your markers or some other coloring medium, make a project and play along, I can't wait to visit your blogs! You'll find more DT inspiration and all the challenge details in the challenge blog. Happy crafting!

Yummy... Watermelon!

Hi friends!
I tend to think that in August the summer ends here in Finland but usually it's just my summer holiday that ends and the warm days still continue -that's the situation now at least. :) I've created a summery card using paper scraps and a free digi from Jackie Rockwell, you'll find it here in a set of other fruit stamps. The idea how to attach the twine through card spine comes from Kristina Werner's Youtube video here. In addition to that I was inspired by two things: beautiful inspiration photo at Curtain Call Challenge and the layout that Amy used in her cards here. Amy is one of the most talented card makers using Copics that I've seen in blogland -I hope you'll visit her blog and check out the fun cards she makes. I'm always inspired by her Copic color combos! This card is also for  3rd Anniversary Case Study blog hop 1 -it would be fun to do all the three hops but I think I won't make it! I already visited the blogs on the 1st hop list, it was a very inspirational journey. That's it from me now, I hope you liked my card and see you soon again!

I'd also like to enter:
http://cisforchallenge.blogspot.fi/ Fresh and bright
http://eurekastamps.blogspot.fi/ Clean and simple
http://craftspotbykimberly.blogspot.fi/ Cleand and simple

Sketch Challenge at House of Cards!

New month, my friends... That means we change our source of inspiration at House of cards! For the whole month of August we take inspiration from the sketch you see above... And make different styles of cards every week! We start with fun & cute cards and I tried to choose an extra cute digi for this week... I think she (or he?) does the job pretty well! My card is quite simple: coloring is done with Copics, there's a die-cut frame and some funky paper, little banners as embellishments and a doodled border. For more fun and cute inspiration, head on over to the challenge blog. If you haven't played in HOC before, the house rules are
here. Happy crafting!

I'd like to enter the following challenges:
http://onecrazystampercom.blogspot.fi/ Birthdays
http://scrapbitzcopics.ning.com/group/cmccopicchallengegroup Pretty Pinks
http://cardcrafterscircle.blogspot.fi Dotty for Spots
http://deliciousdoodleschallenge.blogspot.fi/ Anything Goes
http://skdigis.blogspot.fi/search/label/FANtastic%20Linking%20Party Anything Goes with SK digis

DT Call + New Release at Sami Stamps!

Hi all!
I have some exciting and fun news.. Sami Stamps is looking for 2-3 new design team members! Would you like to join me, Anat and Nelly in this fun team? You are required to make 2-3 cards every month with Sami's images. We also have a month-long challenge. To join in the DT Call you have to enter our "Anything Goes with Sami Stamps image" challenge that has just gone live -if you don't yet own Sami's images, no problems, there's a freebie provided. Click here for the challenge!

My card above has one of the newest Sami Stamps images as focal point -I love my girl's outfit (the hat and pants are paper pieced) and those birds are just adorable, aren't they? The tweet tweet- texts are hand stamped. All the papers are from my scraps box -it never gets empty... Nelly and Anat made beautiful cards with the new images too, do head on over to Sami Stamps to see their projects! That's it from me now -I really hope to see you all entering the DT call challenge!

I'd like to enter the following challenges:
http://eurekastamps.blogspot.fi/2013/07/eureka-stamps-weekly-challenge-50.html Anything Goes
http://www.tammyscrapincorner.com/2013/07/challenge-73-for-tammy-scrappin-corner.html Use a digi
http://fashionistachallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ Things with wings
http://www.platypuscreekdigitals.blogspot.fi/ Things with wings
http://craftingbydesigns.blogspot.fi/ Anything goes
http://cutedaisymay.blogspot.fi/ Things with wings
http://www.abcchallenges.blogspot.fi/ Use up your scraps (all papers are from the scraps box!)
http://milkcoffeechallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ Show your coloring skills
http://craftinboutiquechallenges.blogspot.fi/ Anything Goes
http://cutecardthursday.blogspot.fi/ Anything Goes