New Challenge at Inkspirational!

Hi friends!

It's time for a new challenge at Inkspirational. I'm glad to be back joining the DT again after my break for a couple of months! Here's the challenge this time:

Recipe - Use at least 3 of these 4 elements:

 Distressing, Flowers, Embossing, Pearls

I chose Flowers, Embossing and Pearls and used a Sheena Douglas stamp I've got for free with a crafting mag. My design is inspired by the cards shown in the magazine: I simply sponged the background with Distress Inks, stamped the image in black and then stamped it again with Versamark and heat embossed with gold powder. The panel is matted on gold card and I added pearls to embellish the flowers. Hope you like! The strip of white card with the sentiment does not please my eye... But I messed up the sentiment I stamped straight to the panel. :)

Please have a look at all the rest of the DT cards (Inkspirational has the most fantastic DT!!) here  and I hope to see you playing along. 

For a Little Guy

Hi friends!

I'm popping by to share a card I made for my godson's birthday. I used a star stencil by STAMPlorations (buy it here), a Finnish sentiment stamp and a car stamp by Avocado Arts. 

I've inked the stars through the stencil with two shades of Memento inks, fading the color lighter to the top of the panel. I also inked the edges of the base card with the same manner. The image and sentiment are simply stamped with black Versafine and I added some clear rhinestones as embellishments. 

I'd like to enter:

http://cardz4guyz.blogspot.co.uk/ Something beginning with S (stencil & stars)

http://colourmecardchallenge.blogspot.fi/ Inspiration Colors

Hope you like! :)

New Challenge at One Layer Christmas Cards!

Hi friends! We have a new challenge for you at One Layer Christmas Cards here. We are a fortnightly challenge and as long as your X mas card is one layer you may enter! However, if you choose the optional twist you get to join the monthly prize drawing. All the details are in the challenge post!

This time the twist is "Bells" and I decided to use my STAMPlorations Christmas Bells stamp as the star of my card. The background is made by tapping different shades of Distress Inks with wrinkled tissue paper. That worked out quite nicely. Other than that my card is super simple, I've just stamped my image and sentiment and that's it! :) Some white gel pen in the berries. 

I hope you'll play along! Don't forget to check out the challenge post for more DT inspiration!

New Challenge at One Layer Christmas Cards!

Hi friends!

We have a new challenge for you at One Layer Christmas Cards! Click here for all the challenge details and inspirational DT projects! We continue with our Anything One Layer Christmas Goes... But this time the optional twist is gold. If you choose to twist you have a chance to win prizes so don't hesitate in digging out your gold supplies! :)

My DT card is sort of vintagey. I sponged 4 shades of brown DI:s to my card base and gave it a spritz of water for extra distressing. After that was dry I heat embossed the Christmassy Stampendous stamp with gold powder and was satisfied with the card -I think it didn't need a sentiment or anything. What do you think, too plain or all right? :) Thanks for popping by and I hope to see you playing along at One Layer Christmas Cards! Click here!  

January Card Chain Challenge Reveal

Hi friends!

During Christmas hols I had time to browse blogs all over blogland: something I haven't done much before the hols or after either... If you wonder why you don't receive comments from me lately it's due to lack of time and lack of energy -so much to do, so little time! Anyways, I found a blog called Society of Stampaholics where blog owner Deborah organizes Card Chain Challenges: after signing up and making your card you actually SEND it to another participant and also receive one yourself. A very nice, a little bit different challenge. I believe Deborah is revealing all the cards sent and received in her blog today so maybe you'll want to head on over and see what everyone made!

My card is a simple tag card. The color palette is chosen from the challenge. I used a stencil for water stamping the bg (the tag was first sponged with DI:s) and colored the Altenew flower with Copics. The swirl and the sentiment come from the same stamp set.

Thanks Deborah for this cool challenge! Have a nice day everyone and see you later today with a new DT card for STAMPlorations. 

New Challenge at One Layer Christmas Cards!

Hi guys!

Thank you everyone who played along in our first ever challenge at One Layer Christmas Cards. We have just begun with a new challenge and it is Anything Goes with the optional twist of snowflakes. Our challenges are always anything goes but if you use the twist you'll have a chance to win a prize in our monthly prize drawing. I hope to see you playing along!

I've made my DT card using a snowflake stencil and sponging two shades of blue DI:s. The Christmas sentiment (in Finnish) is just simply stamped this time although now when I look at it, I could have heat embossed it... Well, this will do! :) The stencil was very intricate and I had to make few tries before getting it right: it had to be glued down with temporary glue dots (I have these super small ones from Letratec, very easy to use) to make it work. I do love the final look though! Please click here for more DT inspiration. You'll have a fortnight to play along. See you at One Layer Christmas Cards!

I'd like to enter:


Darnell's NBUS Challenge 3
(I've never used this stencil before)

Guest Designing at CASology!

Hi guys!

I'm very honored to guest design at CASology today. CASology is one of the coolest challenge blogs around and I can't believe I won there a couple of weeks ago. Thank you so much Melissa for inviting me to join this week's challenge and Happy 2015 to everyone in CASology design team!

I wanted to have a go with stenciling in my card. I used a bold patterned Simon Says Stamp stencil I hadn't had a chance to use yet -my goal was to try to make the big patterns work in my CAS design. I figured that if I use the patterns sparingly and stick to a simple color palette I might make it work!

I die cut the tag out of a bigger piece of card I had previously sponged with 3 red inks (combo of DI:s and Mementos) and water stamped with the same stencil. That turned out nice! The silhouette stamp in my card is from the Ever After set by STAMPlorations and the sentiment is from a PTI set.

In the card base I masked a strip from the edge and sponged the stenciled design with black Memento ink. The tag is attached with 3d foam stickers for dimension. I only added a piece of ribbon to keep the embellies at minimum.

I hope you think I succeeded in making the bold patterns work for CAS... And I can't wait to see the different interpretations on the DATE- cue card! Thanks again Melissa and CASology DT for having me!

TIME OUT Challenges Reminder!

Hello friends!
I'm here to remind you about our current challenge at TIME OUT Challenges! We are CASEing the talented Heather Telford's beautiful watercolor leaves card that she made for our inspiration. In my second CASE of this card I changed leaves to flowers but followed Heather's color palette and layout. I also sponged the stamped edges but left the un-stamped edges white -I think this adds nice contrast. The stamps, apart from Finnish Sentiment "For Mum", come from Papertrey Ink. My mum keeps complaining me that after I got my puppy I don't call her often enough... So hopefully this card will make her happy. :) I hope to see you all playing along at TIME OUT, you still have almost a week to CASE Heather's card and enter! Happy crafting!

I'd like to enter:
http://fusioncardchallenge.blogspot.fi/ Inspiration Photo (Daisies... And rustic feel!)

New Sketch at STAMPlorations!

Hi guys!

It's time for the first sketch challenge of October at STAMPlorations! Play along in all 3 challenges in October at STAMPlorations and you have a chance to win an extra prize of 12 assorted rub-ons (photo below). We also have stamp prizes, digi prizes and guest designer spots on offer for you: all the details are in the challenge blog. You'll find a stunning display of DT cards there too, I'm sure you'll love everyone's work! We are very glad to have Elaine as our guest designer: she makes the most fantastic CAS cards and I love the flower card she created for us with this sketch.

In my DT card I used the beautiful sunflower stamp from Bloom Sketches. I used clear embossing powder and white cardstock in my emboss resist background but as you see, the sunflowers are sort of yellowish: I had a happy ink accident... I had just been stamping with the suflower stamp and yellow Archival ink -Archival ink stains stamps easily as you probably know -mine was not dry yet so some of the ink was removed from the stamp when I inked it with Versamark. So there it was, yellowish sunflowers! My Versamark pad got all stained but I was embossing with white powder today in another project and it seems to work fine so no harm done. :) I then used DI:s (Fired Brick and Wild Honey) for sponging over the embossed sunflowers. Quite pretty I think! The sentiment comes from the same stamp set. 

I hope to see you all at STAMPlorations! 

I'd like to enter:

http://fusioncardchallenge.blogspot.fi/ Sunflower photo inspiration

STAMPlorations Spotlight Project: Having Fun

Hi guys!
It's Spotlight time at STAMPlorations again! You can read about all the details of my card at STAMPlorations blog, here -I'd love you to head on over there and leave me a comment! I'll be sharing stamp, technique and ink details. I hope you like my card... See you at STAMPlorations!

Stamps and Technique Challenge at STAMPlorations!

Hi guys!
April is here and the new challenges start at STAMPlorations! We have a very cool theme in our monthly challenge: techniques. The DT has made brilliant samples so do check them out. We also have a talented guest designer: Sian. Do visit her blog and leave her some love! :) As every month, STAMPlorations has 2 sketch challenges in addition to the monthly challenge... And if you play along in all 3 you could win the fab ink package you see in the photo above this text. All the individual challenges have prizes too so there's many possibilities to win.

I've used 3 STAMPlorations sets in my card: Vignette: Eclectic Florals,  MOM SUBWAY ART BUILDERS #3 and Distressed Floral Swirls. My techniques are masking and heat embossing. I did the background first (see the photos below) and heat embossed the sentiment on top -that really makes the sentiment pop from the background. I measured the stamp and used a pencil and ruler for sketching it's place in my card, stamped the background and then stamped the sentiment with black Versafine (my favorite black ink by the way) and heat embossed with clear powder. Very shiny IRL!

Okey. time to go now. I hope you liked my little card! See you at STAMPlorations!

Belated Birthday Party for Anita!

Hi friends!
This card is for Anita, a very talented paper crafter known from her blog My Papercraft World. She makes very joyful and beautiful CAS cards so if you don't know her yet, I hope you'll check out her blog asap! :) The rumor says Anita was celebrating her birthday the 18th of February... Which is a perfect reason to surprise her on 18th of March! Belated Birthday Wishes, Anita! There's a bunch of card makers congratulating Anita and you can take part too -there's a linky you can enter here .

I used some techniques I've just learned in Online Card Classes: Clean and Simple 3 for creating Anita's card. This one layer design was achieved with masks, a stencil and some Distress Inks. This is the first homework card I've had time to make and I hope I'll soon have time for more -the class is amazing!

I'd like to enter my card to:
http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.fi/ Masking/Stenciling
http://theshabbytearoom.blogspot.fi/2014/03/week-210-anything-goes.html Anything Goes
http://cleanandsimpleonsunday.blogspot.fi/2014/03/challenge-29-one-layer-wonder.html One Layer

I hope you'll now visit Anita and leave her some love... And check out The Belated Birthday Party Linky, maybe you'll want to join in! :)

MOM!

Hello friends!
This is a surprising card for me... It includes water coloring! Well, at least making a background with water coloring. :) I created the gradient look with 1 green and 3 different blue Disteress Inks -I tapped some ink to an acrylic block and took the color with my water color brush. I'm stunned of how well this worked -it must be the DI:s -I've never succeeded this well with water color pencils. I believe my card qualifies for Virginia's fab challenge in her new challenge blog Virginia's View. Congratulations on your new blog, Virginia!

Are you admiring the stamped sentiment collage I've embossed with white? It's from a brand new STAMPlorations line called Subway Art Builders and the first set concentrates on the words and sentiments around the theme Mother. Check out the image below! The 5 sets are now on pre-release sale: if you order them before March 13th (the stamps are officially released March 14th) you'll get them with a 30 % discount: only 24.50 $ for all 5 sets (regular prize 35 $ for all 5 sets)! Read all about the offer and place your order here.

Apart from the water coloring and heat embossing my card is very straight-forward: some designer paper, a doily and punched flowers. I quite like how the very traditional elements look fresh with this contemporary stamp design and water colored background.

Before I wish you all a fun weekend I hope you'll pop by at TIME OUT Challenges: the second group of DT ladies is being introduced there today. It's only one week before the challenges start... I'm ready to take TIME OUT and craft! ;)

I'd also like to enter:
http://www.lovesrubberstampschallenges.com/ Anything Goes
http://cardmaniachallenges.blogspot.fi/ Use a Sentiment
http://lexiscreations.blogspot.fi/ Mother's Day

Anything Goes at Addicted to Stamps and More

Hi guys!
It's time for the new Adidicted to Stamps and More and our theme is everyone's favorite: Anything Goes! As always, we have a prize for crabs... This time our sponsor is StampArt Designs and they offer 5 digis for the Top Addict. We are also very happy to have a fabulous guest designer, Dawn -she is such an inspiring card maker, I always admire her coloring and fun style.

My DT card is inspired by Less Is More: rainbow colors. Less is More is celebrating it's 3rd birthday this week... Happy Birthday Less is More, you are a fantastic challenge blog! :) I sponged my background with Distress Inks and used masks for creating the different coloured areas. When that was ready I heat embossed flowers with gold embossing powder. The flower stamp is from a Stampin Up set called Secret Garden, it's a beautiful floral set I got as a gift from dear blogging friend Sandie, thanks hun! This was originally supposed to be a one layer but I messed up the central square with inky fingers (hate it when that happens!) and had to add an extra layer for my white space... The sentiment is also heat embossed with gold, it's Finnish and means "for mum".

I hope you'll click on over to Adidicted to Stamps and More now for the rest of the DT makes and all the challenge details! After that... Happy crafting!

I'd also like to enter:
http://www.fridaymashup.com/2014/01/fm145-saras-got-sketch.html Sponging

Second Sneak Peek at TIME OUT Challenges

Good morning card makers!
We have a new challenge sneak peek for you at TIME OUT Challenges! On Monday you got to hear all about our Inspired by Words challenge and today we are inspired of... Well, go and have a look! :) There's only a week left before our DT Call starts. Exciting times!

My card today is something I created just for fun and for getting my mojo back. I was crafting a lot the last couple of weeks preparing DT projects for the future and this week I haven't done anything really. I thought creating a fun background would be good mojo therapy and so it was! I've used various Memento and Distress Inks for stamping, sponging, stenciling and just being generally messy. The background has maybe 5 different layers of action, it's hard to remember anymore! The swirl-stamp is from STAMPlorations, you'll find the Distressed Floral Swirls here and the Created With Love- stamp is from this month's stamp set by Avocado Arts. The harlequin diamond stamp is by Prima.

I hope you'll head on over to TIME OUT Challenges now! Thanks for popping by.

I'd like to enter:
http://craft-roomchallenge.blogspot.fi/ Age of Aquarius: My first layer in the background is created with a wet acrylic bloc and water-based inks
http://carabbiemomentsofcraft.blogspot.co.uk/ Anythging Goes
http://divasbydesignchallenge.blogspot.fi/ Anything Goes

One More Card Influenced by the Orient

Hi friends!
One could mistake me for being Japanese after all the Asian influenced cards in my blog this week but no, I'm still Finnish! :) I saw Vicki using this background in one of her latest cards and I had to give it a go -you'll find the tutorial here. I think this is such a cool way to use stamp sets -so often the smaller stamps are neglected but in this technique you can easily show off all the stamps in the set of your choice. I've used Distress Inks in my sponging and the actual stamping is done with Emerald Green Adirondack Ink. I added blue as my accent color because the card was starting to be a bit overly green! :) Thanks for popping by!

I'd like to enter:
http://sirstampalotchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ Free and Easy -Anything Goes

Trees and Mountains

Hello friends!
I've been enjoying the Holidays and just being home with hubby, relaxing and crafting! This is a card I ended up giving to my husband because he liked it a lot -he said it reminds him of woods somewhere in Asia where the leafy trees are surrounded by mountains... I think I accidentally created a scene from the land of the rising sun! :) I hope you have all had wonderful times during Holidays and you have been able to craft and chill out. We all need it!

I created the scene by stamping with Tree Silhouette Stamps by STAMPlorations and using die cuts from Crimson Clouds as masks, I've received the die cuts as a prize from a card making challenge already a while ago. My card is highly influence by Heather Telford who I think is the queen of creating beautiful sponged and stamped scenes. If you don't know her blog, do check it out, her cards are very artistic and inspiring.

I masked the mountains, the "snowy trees" and the sun first and after that was all sponged, I stamped my trees using only one green ink but "many generations" of inking. This is my first attempt on creating a scene like this and I loved making it -the version that made it to the card is maybe my 4th or 5th attempt, I learned a lot on the way. I sponged with Distress Inks and stamped with Memento. I'd love to get some feedback on how to make a scene like this even more realistic -I think the size of the sun is a bit out of proportion and the sponged snowy trees furthest away are also a bit too big -but I thought they could be interpreted as very sharp mountain tops as well. :)

I'd like to enter:
http://sirstampalotchallenge.blogspot.fi/ Free and Easy - Anything Goes

I hope you liked my scenic card! Thanks for popping by!

Anything Goes at Inkspirational Challenges!

Hi friends!
Christmas is getting closer and closer... Many of us are lucky to have some free time during the Holidays and in the end of December -a perfect opportunity to craft something you love for the currant Anything Goes Challenge at Inkspirational Challenges! In making of my DT card I followed a tutorial by Shery, one of the coolest crafters in blogland! Click here for her tutorial for mixed media. I've used Trendy Feathers by STAMPlorations, tiny scripture stamp by Prima + Asian influenced stamps from a Pink Cat Studio set. I decoupaged a doily I had stained with mists but the other embellies are attached "normally" -when decoupaging my doily I remembered why I don't use that medium too much -so messy! :) The color of the doily is more muted in real life than in the photo -it's maybe the shine of the mists and decoupage medium that makes it look all yellow in the photo :) However, I quite like the look of this card and I want to try this kind of backgrounds in CAS cards too. Do check out Shery's tutorial for the instructions on how to make this kind of background!

I hope you'll now head on over to the Inkspirational challenge blog to see all the beautiful DT makes. You'll find all the challenge details there too. I'll look forward to visiting your blogs. Happy crafting!

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

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!