Happy Birthday Fresh Squeezed Stamps!

Hi guys,
I'm popping in quickly to share a card I made for FSS Birthday Bash Challenge. Happy 1st Anniversary, Fresh Squeezed Stamps! I love these stamps and the inspiration the FSS blog gives every week.

My colors are inspired by Dynamic Duos and I got the idea for the background from CASEstudy. It was fun to make a card with these girly colors after all the fall themed cards I've been making lately. I'm so sorry for the awful pictures but I had to take them in unnatural light -now that the winter is ahead of us the photographing problems start again... Maybe you get the idea of it anyways!

Thanks for popping by! I hope that all of you who love stamping will pay me a visit tomorrow -there's sort of a surprise here in my blog. ;) Have a great week!

Photo Inspiration at House of Cards!

Hi friends!
We have five Mondays this September and that means we are enjoying of Any Style Goes Photo Inspiration Challenge at House of Cards! I love the autumnal dining setting in the inspiration pic... I focused on the colors, leaves and stripes and since I'm in the Cute and Fun Design Team at HOC I chose this adorably cute Whimsy Stamps Silver Fairy for my image. I love this stamp but especially the dress is quite intimidating to color: Luckily, there's a really great tutorial by Suzanne Dean in Youtube here. I hope you'll feel inspired to join us at House of Cards this week! There will be DT inspiration in the challenge blog every day from Monday to Friday so do visit often!

I'd like to enter the following challenges:
http://scrapbitzcopics.ning.com/group/cmccopicchallengegroup Fall Colors (Copics)
http://arandomthursdaychallenge.blogspot.fi/2013/09/art-16-anything-goes.html Anything Goes
http://liliofthevalleythursdaychallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ Autumn Colors
http://stampinfortheweekend.blogspot.fi/ Fairies and Fantasy
http://acreativeromance.blogspot.co.uk/ Fairytale/Winged Creations
http://sweetstampinchallengeblog.blogspot.fi/ Things with wings

Let Your Light Shine Through...

Hi guys!
I don't have anything new to show you but here's an old card I made in the summer. As you can see it's watermarked to be a House of Cards DT card but I ended up using something else at the time... But this is a quite pretty card too so I thought it was time to post it!

I've embossed the black chandelier with sticky embossing powder and fine, black glitter. The glittery effect is quite effective IRL -the only downside is that you end up having the glitter everywhere. :)  The two different orange papers are home made too -I've sprayed and sponged them with mists. The square piece is mulberry paper and that responded especially well to spraying the mists, the texture of the paper gives a beautiful finish. I should have embossed the sentiment -it looks too pale compared with the shiny, very black chandelier and black ribbon... Well, next time! :) Thanks for popping by and have a lovely rest of the day!

Addicted to CAS

We have another fabulous challenge for you at Addicted to Stamps and More! It's our Clean and Simple week -anything goes as long as it's CAS. My card is sort of a tribute for two fine ladies that used to be in the ATSM team but have moved on since: this is for Loll who makes amazing CAS cards and often uses paper piecing and for Florence who recently had to leave the team too. I haven't forgotten her fun card from May (here), it was inspired by a photo booth and my card is inspired by a polaroid frame... I know real polaroids don't have any black but mine needed the frames so I improvised a bit. :) The edges look really crooked in the picture but everything is straight in real life -my camera is playing it's tricks on me. Anyways, Loll and Florence, you both make amazing cards and although we are not in the same team anymore, I'm happy we can still be in touch and meet in blogland!

The image is from our sponsor The Paper Nest Dolls and I did my coloring with Copics. I quite like the blond combo I've come up with, if everyone is interested it is (from light to dark) E50, E53, Y21, E13. The brown hair is just E25, E27, E29. Okey friends, now it's time for you to go and check the rest of the DT cards in the challenge blog -you'll find all the challenge details there too. I hope you'll join us this week, happy crafting!

I'd like to enter:
http://tuesdaythrowdown.blogspot.fi/ Clean and simple

Autumn Leaves

Hi friends!
The bad news are that I've caught a cold... The good news are that if I can't work or do sports, I can craft, yay! So that's what I've been doing the whole afternoon. :) There's many great challenges with autumn themes at the moment and I'm entering my card to CASology (Autumn) and CASual Fridays (Fall colors and leafs). I was also inspired by the colors of the beautiful inspiration picture at The Shabby Tea Room (Splendor of Fall) but let's see what they think of my pretty clean and simple (and appleless card, I wasn't sure if it was a requirement!) card -I do think it has a shabby feel though!

I began making this card by misting some Stardust mists to my background. I punched two leaves and inked their edges for softer look. I then decided something horizontal was needed and added some cute washi with retro feel. After stamping my sentiment I felt something was still needed so I added some tiny tiny white pearls to my washi -they are a bit hard to see but there's 5 of them on the right side of the leaves. I adhered my piece to the base card and voila -my fall card was done. :)

My good blogging friend (you know who you are!) is going for a lovely trip tomorrow. Enjoy! Life is beautiful! xx

African Violet

Here it is! My final card for Jackie's Pantone Color Challenges, it is for African Violet. I paper pieced her dress and used Copics for the little coloring I've done here -I did her shopping bags and hair. The stamps are from Kanban.  I hope you like it, I think it's quite fun and girly! Thanks for popping by and thank you also for all the sweet comments I get, they always make my day! Have a fun weekend everyone!

Emerald Cityscapes

Hi there!
As promised yesterday, I'm showing you more cards for Jackie Rockwell's Pantone Challenges today! This is for Emerald Challenge and the fun cityscape stamp (stamped with black ink, embossed with clear powder) is from Fresh Squeezed Stamps. I created my emerald sky with h20 watercolors. I'm not a huge fan of watercolors -I'm such a control freak that working with "unsteady" water is scary for me -don't laugh! :) You never know when you have enough water or enough paint or too much or too little... It's all really uncertain! Anyways, this was so simple that I didn't freak out too badly... And the glittery h20 paints are really beautiful -I should try to learn to use them more. I'll be back tonight with my last Pantone card -it's a fun girly card for African Violet, I hope you'll pay me another visit later!

Grayed Jade Feathers

Hi guys!
It's close to midnight and I should be a good girl and head to bed but I'm finishing up my cards for Jackie Rockwell's Pantone Color Challenges instead... The challenges close on Sunday and after this card I still have two more to go -luckily, one of those is almost done already. I had a goal to enter all 10 challenges and it looks like I'll make it, yay! Anyways, this card is for Grayed Jade... I stamped the beautiful feathers from Fresh Squaazed Stamps with Memento and colored them with Copics. I also added some Stickles to the feathers and they look quite festive! I like the texture from Stickles, the color is "Patina". I'll be back with two Pantone cards tomorrow... Now, good night for you all!

Time for Bubble Bath!

Hello friends!
A couple of weeks have gone by again and that means Sami is releasing new images at Sami Stamps. The new release is called Bubble Bath Fairies and I'm sure you'll agree these images are really special! This is the first week with our brand new, huge DT with 6 new designers (+me and Anat as oldies!) and I'm blown away with the cards and projects they have done with these images. Do head on over to Sami Stamps so you'll see who the new designers are and what they made!

I'm using the Flower Bath Fairy and I've colored it with Copics. I didn't have quite pale enough blues for the bubbles so I just gave them a small shadow with B10 and covered them with Stickles. There's some glitter in my background paper too so the whole card is pretty glittery and shiny! I stamped the sentiment with pale blue -it looks fine IRL but doesn't show well in the photo, it says "You're the wind beneath my wings".

I'll end my post with a reminder: there's still plenty of time to enter Sami Stamps September Challenge, use dies or punches! Your creation must use Sami's digis -if you don't yet own any, there's a freebie on the challenge post and many more in the shop, here. I'd love to see what you'll come up with up! Thanks for popping by and have a fun weekend, everyone!

I'd like to enter the following challenges:
http://seizethesketch.blogspot.fi/ Sketch
http://tuesdaythrowdown.blogspot.fi/ Things with wings
http://www.tammyscrapincorner.com/ Anything Goes
http://pennyschallenges.blogspot.fi/ 2 or more patterned papers
http://thesisterhoodofcrafters.blogspot.fi/ Use a digi
http://www.lovesrubberstampschallenges.com/ 1 image, 2 papers, 3 embellishments (I hope my matting card for the image does not count as a third paper!)
http://www.craftybloggersnetwork.blogspot.fi/ Things with wings
http://craftycardmakers.blogspot.fi/ Things with wings
http://sparklensprinklecreativechallenges.blogspot.fi/ Glitter
http://createdwithlovechallenges.blogspot.fi/ Anything Goes

Color Challenge + DT Call at Addicted to Stamps and More

Hi guys!

Time for a new Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge! We have a beautiful color trio for your inspiration, I really enjoyed working with these colors. You may combine them with all the neutral colors.

I wanted to make a Christmas card for Shery's Holiday Papercrafting Challenge using the sketch she provided. I did take some liberties with the sketch , let's see what Sheri has to say to me... :) Unfortunately I can't remember the maker of this cute penguin stamp but he is really adorable... I stamped the image twice and fussy cut the flower from the other stamped image -you could actually create a card using only the flower part of this stamp but then the little penguin might feel really left out and we don't want that do we! The image is colored with Copics. Sandie, do you recognize the doily? ;)

I hope you'll now head on over to the challenge blog -as always, the DT ladies have stunning inspiration for you and Papernest Dolls continues as our September sponsor. We are also having a DT call -just add "DT" after your name with your entry to be considered! I highly recommend all of you to apply -ATSM team is fantastic! Thanks for popping by and I hope you'll join us this week.

p.s. sorry for the overly bright photo. The penguin doesn't shine that much in real life. :)

Monaco Blue Card

Hi friends!
Here's my card for Jackie's Monaco Blue Card Challenge. I think it is my first ever card with dark blue as main color -it's quite a stunning color actually! This card is a bit weird, I kept staring at it for hours adding embellies, taking them away, adding something else, taking everything away... Well, this is the final version. :) I didn't want this to be too masculine so I added the flower and some lace. I've embossed the music with clear embossing powder -it looks almost black because of the dark blue card. I love this tone on tone stamping -if that's what it's called. :) Thanks for popping by, have a great week!

Linen Card

Hi guys,
just a quick post sharing a card I made for Jackie's Linen Color Challenge and Digi Sketch Challenge -use a rubber stamp. I've embossed the stamped background image from Prima with white powder and the greeting (Congratulations in Finnsh) is embossed too. I'm usually not a huge fan of store bought flowers but I like these simple, plain white ones quite a bit! Have a fun weekend everyone and thanks for popping by!

EDIT: I find the new linky thing in challenge blogs really hard to use -it crops my photos so that it shows only a small portion of the card -and when I try to crop it myself, I don't understand how to move the arrows so that it would crop it in a better way! I don't have a mouse so it's hard to grab those lines and move them... Any tips? 

Glorious Day

Hi friends!
Here's a little one layer card I made last night  for Runaway Inspired Challenges and OLW 157 "It's All About the Sentiment" in Cheryl's blog. I'm quite happy how it turned out. I stamped my background flowers through a circle mask and then stamped the sentiment with black Versafine and clear embossed it. Embossing really lifted the sentiment from the background and I gives it the "leading role".

My inspiration from the Runaway Inspired picture is of course the colors but also geometric patterns: I just switched squares to circles.

Have a happy Thursday!

Feeling Retro!

Hello friends! We have just started with one of our most popular themes at Addicted to Stamps and More, "Make Your Mark": use markers or any other coloring mediums! I used Copics to color in the pretty image from The Paper Nest Dolls, our generous sponsor this week. I thought it would be fun to share with you how I colored the umbrella with a "sliding colors"-look... Remember I'm not a trained Copic user and no expert in any way, this is just FYI and for fun! The paper I used is smooth paper meant for color copying and it's really thin, only 100 g -I have to use it when coloring digis because my laser printer doesn't take any thicker paper- But when I'm hand stamping images for coloring in, I use 200 or 250 g card. Anyways, here we go!

The Copics I used for coloring in the umbrella: 

Y21, R02, YR07

 First I laid down my base color, Y21. It does not have to be perfect. The base coat starts to saturate the paper and helps the blending in next steps.

 After the base coat, I added my medium color which is R02. Can you see how I've flicked the color upwards from the corners? I try to lift the marker in the end with my wrist. 

 I take my Y21 again and start to blend the R02 using those flicking motions. Circular motions can also be used and I probably did use some circular motions with the flicking too -when blending, everybody has own preference I guess! 

 Now I add my darkest color, YR07, to the corners. You can see that all my flicks are not perfect, I didn't lift the marker properly with my wrist in the end. I'll solve it in the next step!

I now blend my YR07 with R02. I use the tip of RO2 to take some ink from the tip of YR07: now, when I blend with my R02 it has little bit of the YR07 in it and that makes mixing those colors is easier. After I've done, I scribble my R02 to a scrap paper to make sure all YR07 is removed from it. Using markers like this should not harm them -or it hasn't harmed my markers anyway!

 Time to blend with Y21 again. You can see that my paper is really wet now. I'll leave it to dry -I can make corrections after it has dried and I see the final result. So...

... Time to do it all again to the right side of the umbrella! All the same steps. :)

 I've now done both sides. There's too much of the yellow in the middle to my taste...

...so I made more flicks with my R02  (from both corners to the direction of the center) and blended it with Y21 to make it more orange and less yellow. The coloring is still wet in this photo, you can see that the result looks a bit different in the final card. After my whole coloring was done, I cleaned the outlines with my blender pen, I had colored over the lines in some spots.

This is not my best coloring work ever (I should have done some more blending in the very center of the umbrella) but I wanted to show you how fun it is to use markers from different color groups and still blend them! I would love to get some feedback and advises! 

I'm off now, please join us at ATSM this week and enjoy the rest of the week, everyone! Thanks for popping by!

I'd like to enter the following challenges:
http://scrapbitzcopics.ning.com/group/cmccopicchallengegroup Retro fun
http://copicmarkernorge.blogspot.fi/2013/09/utfordring-42.html Inspiration Photo (colors)
http://cutedaisymay.blogspot.fi/ Fall
http://corrosivechallengesbyjanet.blogspot.fi/ All about fall
http://greatimpressionsstamps.blogspot.fi/2013/09/september-challenge-winners-and-sale.html Fall colors

Smile!

Happy Sunday, everyone!
Here's my card for this week's One Layer Wednesday, it's in Ardyth's blog, you'll find the link tool in her right sidebar. The theme is "Paintchip" -use several ink colors from the same color family. I chose browns and stamped with Vintage Sepia, Bark and Sand Versafine inks.

I got the idea for masking the frames from dear blogger friend Sandie and her Happy Mail card. The frame comes form Fresh Squeezed Stamps and the little birdie stamps are from Lawn Farm.

Have a beautiful day! My Sunday won't be only for relaxing this time but I hope to get some coloring done too. :) Enjoy the new week and thanks for popping by!

Princess Play at Sami Stamps

Hi friends!
Sami has an adorable new release at Sami Stamps called Princess Play. I chose an image called "My Sister Is a Princess" and loved it so much that I wanted it to have all the attention -my card is really focusing on the image. I colored it with Copics and added a sentiment from Fresh Squeezed Stamps. Anat made a fab card with the little prince -do head on over to Sami Stamps for checking out her creation -you'll also find big images of all of these new cute digi stamps there!

Since it's the beginning of the month, it's also a challenge time at Sami Stamps. This time we would like to see you use die cuts or punches. I used my small Fiskars flower punch to decorate my princess' dress with flowers -I quite like the result. I hope you'll join us in the challenge, I love to visit your blogs! That's all from me now -have a good weekend everyone!

I'd like to enter the following challenges:
http://challenges4everybody.blogspot.co.uk/ Anything Goes
http://audsentimentschallengeblog.blogspot.fi/ Any Sentiment
http://carabbiemomentsofcraft.blogspot.co.uk/ Birthday/Anything Goes
http://inthepinkchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ Keep it Sweet and Simple
http://tuesdaythrowdown.blogspot.fi/ Best Friends -Hi TT girls!!! Did you expect to see me this soon? :)
http://www.abcchallenges.blogspot.fi/ Coloring With Markers
http://paradeyourcrafts.blogspot.fi/ Anything Goes

Make a Wish!

Hi guys!
I have another card for you using my new Fresh Squeezed Stamps , the set is called Everyday Expressions. My sketch comes from Seize the Sketch and I chose my color scheme to fit Jackie's Poppy Red Challenge. I'm loving these cute flowers! I went for a really feminine look this time with lace and all... Maybe not so CAS this time. :) I popped the top layer up with 3d stickers -it gives a more neat look to the card, without the 3d effect the top layer would have been bumpy with the lace and twine behind it. I hope you liked my card and thanks for paying me a visit!

Anything Goes at Addicted to Stamps and More!

Hello friends!
We have our most popular challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More, Anything Goes! The design team has made fun inspiration pieces for you: check their cards and all the challenge details here. The Paper Nest Dolls is sponsoring us this time.

My card has Fresh Squeezed Stamps feathers as focal point and beautiful Nicecrane Lavanda papers to create the mood. I haven't been able to stay away from doilies and gems, I often add them! :) I heat embossed the feathers with black fine powder and something weird had happened to the powder, it's all clumpy and not at all convenient to use. Did anyone ever experience this? I hope you liked my card, thanks for popping by and have a great time today!

I'd like to enter the following challenges:
http://www.lovesrubberstampschallenges.com/ Anything Goes
http://cisforchallenge.blogspot.fi/ Lots of layers
http://seemacrafts.blogspot.co.uk/ Monochromatic
http://natalieandamy.blogspot.co.uk/ Embossing

Color Inspiration at House of Cards

Hi friends,
can you believe it, it's already September, autumn is officially here! House of Cards Challenge starts the fall with this beautiful color palette and as always, the first week of the month is reserved for cute and fun cards! My card is maybe a bit on the edge of shabby and not so fun in a humorous sense but my geisha is definitely super cute! If you are new to House of Cards, this is how the challenge works: We have the same inspiration photo for whole month -so this time it's that beautiful vintage hues pic you see above- and we make cards with different styles every week. Fun and Cute is the first, then comes Clean and Simple, next is Classic and Elegant and the fourth week is for Shabby and Vintage cards. I hope you'll join us in the fun! There's plenty of Fun and Cute inspiration cards in the challenge blog, use the link above to check them out.

In my card I've used a LOTV image and Lavanda digi paper from Nicecrane Designs. The paper I chose from the collection is perfect for our challenge colors I think! I colored my geisha with Copics, this was my first ever time coloring black hair and it was quite exciting... This is actually my second finished geisha -I decorated the first finished image with stamped swirls around it and that was a huuuge mistake -I didn't like it at all and ended up tearing up the poor geisha in fury! :) Well, I'm laughing about it now but it sure wasn't funny after hours of coloring practicing and a finished project in the bin. :) Have a fun day everyone!

I'd like to enter the following challenges:
http://liliofthevalleythursdaychallenge.blogspot.fi/ No flowers
http://just-add-ink.blogspot.fi/2013/08/jai-180-just-add-colouring.html Just add coloring
http://audsentimentschallengeblog.blogspot.fi/ Any Sentiment
http://happycamperscc.blogspot.co.uk/ Use a stamp
http://www.ladyanneschallenges.com/stamp-challenge.html Anything Goes