Mixed Media first try

Hi Crafters,

I've been seeing a lot on the internet lately about mixed media and art journaling, it really got me hooked. When I went to the art supplies store to get some more tape runner refill the other day - I've really used a lot of that lately, with all the inlay technique cards - and I found a pad of Canson mixed media paper I simply couldn't resist.I also found some matt gel medium, and got that too.

I am not thinking of it, as an art journal, that would probably just intimidate me, but I really would like to try out new things with it.

For my first "page" I chose a rather simple flower design to go with spring, which was in the air today:

I gessoed the page and used Gelatos for the background. Then I free-handed the coulds and flower from lightweight printer paper, stamped the clouds with a background stamp and glued them to the page. The flower I coloured with orange color mist and a brown tombow marker and glued it down too. The dragonfly is stamped, sponged with distress inks, fuzzy cut and also glued on.

Stem and leaves are free-handed directly on the page with tombow markers and the rest of the shrubbery is stamped.

For the letters, I sponged some thin watercolor paper with yellow distress ink, and sponged on some leaves through a stencil, for some texture. Then I cut the letters with my big shot and a Tim Holtz die.

To add shadows I tried replacing big brush markers with tombow, and it worked well enough. I really can't afford to buy yet another sort of markers...

So, there it is, my first "non art journal page".
And I learnt a few things already, like don't use distress inks in mixed media, for anything that's supposed to stay crisp. Sponging is ok, because if it smears a bit more with the gel medium - who cares...


Have a nice day
Ela

Angry Birds bookmarks

Hello Crafters,

today I finally finished all the angry birds bookmarks for my daughter's birthday, well all but 4, I  need to buy more ribbon today.But even with the 4 missing, they look pretty impressive in the picture.



 

In general I am not much for laminating, I don't think, that enclosing things in plastic makes them look any better, but these are bookmarks to (hopefully) be used by kids... They will probably need any bit of protection they can get...

I do hope the kids will like them, and that they might encourage them to read a bit more.


Have a nice week-end
Ela

Feather with chalk pastels

Hey crafters,

I just wanted to post a very quick one, but now I spent hours blog hopping through the internet. And I wanted to be off to bed early. Well, I failed, so what.

Here's my news:
You may or may not remember, how I wrote about the local art supplies store a while ago, and how I always prowl the aisle with the chalks and pencils and all the "dry" drawing materials.

Today,  I was given a lovely set of 25! chalk pastels, that were so cheap, that they are not wasted, not even on me. They were 1,99 €, that's less than 3 Dollars. (For the Germans: Lidl, but they might already be sold out, so be quick if you want to try and get them)

Monday is my office day, when I come home late and so do the girls, but we dug right in anyway. Who needs food, we wanted to draw...

As I don't have the slightest clue on how to use chalk pastels correctly, I'll have to watch a lot of Lindsay's video tutorials, before I give it a real try. Therefore I chose an easy design and drew another feather:

 

I know, it's no piece of art, but for a second try I am pretty happy.  My first try was on black cardstock, but I definitely prefer my second try.

My kids did what kids do, they followed my example and also drew a feather. And I am pretty impressed how well they did:

That's it for today, I'm off to bed, it's much later than I had intended.


Good night
Ela

C&S 3 Day 7: Watercolored feathers

Hello everyone,

I dared myself to try a water colored feather like Jennifer showed us on day 7 of C&S 3.

Jennifer's feathers are so much more realistic and beautiful, but I think it'll be ok. I think I'll try that again soon.


Love
Ela

C&S 3 Day 7: Copic coloring on vellum

Hi again,

I created another card today, this time using Kristina's idea of coloring on vellum.

I die cut the flowers and word from woodgrain cardstock, and was careful to get the stamp right. That's a little tricky with the texture. The vellum I colored in red, orange and yellow, but I am not at all happy with my results this time. I got several splotches of color on my woodgrain cardstock and managed to tear the vellum twice.


Now I'm glad it's done, but I don't think I'll ever send it. That's why I haven't created an envelop yet. I really should have bought more envelops at the trade show.  They are really much nicer than any I've ever seen in a shop.


Love
Ela

C&S Day 10: Dry embossing with diffusor

Hello Crafters,

I've seen this embossing folder from Darice a while ago and knew I needed it. It somehow reminded me of Friedensreich Hundertwasser and his silver spiral. So, from the start I had the idea of coloring it somehow.


Laurie's diffusors on day 10 of clean and simple 3 made my idea perfect. I created my own diffusors and embossed the folder on a watercolor card, with a blank strip for the sentiment.

Then I watercolored some of the circles randomly and stamped the sentiment in black. Close up you can see, that the watercoloring isn't perfect at all, I wanted the white lines to stay white, but the watercolor bled into them a lot. But hey, watercolor is meant to look like that...

As the watercolor paper is always a little different in color as my white cardstock, I chose a black card base which worked nicely to tie in the black sentiment. Of course I couldn't emboss or watercolor the envelop, so I created an embossed black lining. Unfortunately I didn't have thin black paper, so I had to use cardstock, which makes the envelop pretty heavy. A card for hand delivering. But I hand deliver most birthday cards anyway.

While I was doing this, my daughter Rebecca created an angry bird decoration, for her birthday party in June and asked me to upload it as well, so here it is.

You can't see it in the picture, but it's rather large about 30 cm (round about 12 inch) in diameter. I love, how they are so creative.And she loved that she was allowed to use my tombow markers...


Have a lovely day
Ela

C&S3 Day 1: Another chalkboard card - this time really layered

Hello crafters,

I liked the chalkboard look of the card I made earlier tonight, so I had another shot at layered chalkboard.


This time I (really) layered a snowflake and stamped and embossed the sentiment. I also adhered a red glittery heart and created a matching envelop with the positive from the chalkboard panel.

Have a nice Sunday
Ela

What a day

Hi Crafters,

what a day it was today. It seems everything went wrong.

We were invited to a 5th birthday today and were asked to bring a salad. My timing was perfect, salad done, kids home from grandma in time, reluctant to get dressed and washed and combed, but there was still time...

Then I went to the bathroom and found that one of my daughters had emptied her pockets on the floor, sand and stones and all. So I told her to clean up the mess before we go. She removed the wooden bath mat to clean up and said: "Mum, it's wet under there"... Guess what... the cat. And no water bowl...

So I cleaned up the worst mess, mopped the floor and before I was done my other daughter came in:
"Mum, the cat is bleeding". (She had surgery a few weeks ago and the crusts are falling off now).

So I finished cleaning, went to check the cat and because for once she was relaxed and staying put, I removed a few more of the stitches. Usually the vet would do that, but she allowed me to do it myself, because my cat is hysterical, when she has to go see the vet. That is a job for 2 grown-ups, but I had no one to help me this week, so I did my best alone, while the kids were holding the lamp and feeding the cat to distract her.
Luckily the bleeding was only very shallow, because she ripped of a piece of crust.

Well, that done we were running pretty late already, so I quickly finished what else there was to do, while my daughters were veeery sloooowly putting on their shoes. And when I went to fetch the salad, the bowl just slipped out of my hands and I spilled half the salad all over myself, my kitchen and into the half open drawer below.

So I cleaned up some more (much more), cut another handful of tomatoes to refill the bowl a little, got changed and off we went, before anything else could happen! We arrived 45 minutes late, flushed and bad tempered. By now I can laugh about it again. I wish someone had filmed it. No, actually I don't, if think about it.

But, at least Kevin liked our gifts, the coffee got me back on my feet some and everyone had a good laugh at me.

We returned home late and the first thing I had to do was to repair the dish washer, because it had an error code on the display.

But after that I granted myself a little playtime, instead of going straight to bed, like I had intended.

I had the idea right at the beginning of C&S 3, to create some layering with chalkboard, so I had a try at it.

 

As you (hopefully) can see, I totally failed again in creating a one layer card. I die cut the Hello from fun foam and stamped it with white ink on black card stock. Then I wanted to inlay the white hello die cut, but I had not mounted the foam stamp perfectly, so the h was pulled to the left a bit. Therefore I had to pull the white die cut too, which made it impossible to use inlay. Therefore I just adhered it to the black panel. I inked the edges in white, to give it a chalkboard look and added faux stitching and a few brads for a bit of colour. 

For the envelop I stamped the sentiment again, in grey and black, slightly offset to create the same kind of shadow.

Hope you all had a better day
Ela

C&S 3 Days 5 and 7 Graffiti and simple Copic coloring

Hi Crafters,

I received a new German sentiment stampset today, this one. I liked it when I first saw it, but I love it in real life. It inspired me to try Shari's Graffiti stamping straight away...

I also tried out Kristina's simple coloring, with the Hello die. I kept the sentiments in gray and black, as the hello is in color...

I am astonished, how well the coloring turned out, it didn't look like it during the process. Admittedly I am having trouble with my alcohol markers, I don't feel like I am able to use them. Partly that may be, because I still don't have a memento inkpad, and all my inks bleed with alcohol. But I also have much trouble blending, even though I bought blending sets from spectrum noir. This card definately gives me back some hope that I can still learn it, with some practice. I know my friend will give me a memento inkpad soon (it' ordered already), so I postponed practicing until I have it.


Love
Ela

C&S 3 Day 3: Masking off failed

Hi Crafters,

I really need to pick up some speed with my C&S 3 homework...

So I just created a quick card in between work and picking up the kids from school. Need to rush now.

As you'll notice it's not one layer. That's because my mask shifted and when I tried to fit it back on, I got it crooked. But I wanted to use the panel anyway, so I cut out the banner shape and oval and made it a 2 layer card. However, when I had it all done, I decided I didn't like the panel after all and created it again. By that time, I had already stamped the sentiment and scored the frame, so I kept my 2 layer concept.


Love
Ela

No card, only Links

Hi there,

those of you, who don't live in an English speaking country will know, that stamps in the local language are sometimes hard to get by. So I used the opportunity during C&S 3 to ask the others if they knew any other companies that sell good German sentiments. And they had quite a few tips for me, that I hadn't known before.

So I enhanced my list with Germany online shops a little. All the shops in the list sell German sentiments.

If you have any further links that are still missing, I'll be happy to add them.

Love
Ela

C&S 3 Day 1: Christmas and Daisies

Hi there,

I've not been very creative this week-end, maybe I am suffering from an overflow?

Yesterday I mass produced bookmarks for my daughters' birthday in June. They are all done, but I want to laminate them to make them more durable and then add some ribbon or yarn. So I first need to borrow a laminator, because I don't own one. After I've done that, I'll show you.

And today I managed two more cards, still with the layering technique. I had such an idea out poor on Monday, that I haven't even thought about the other techniques yet.

The background for the first card was again created with gelatos. The rest is just a variation of what I did before.

The second card is another early Christmas card. I used some patterned paper as a background. I had no matching red card stock, so I darkened a bright red with some brown distress ink. It didn't match the colour exactly and it's kind of cloudy, because cardstock wasn't very smooth, but it's toned down enough.

Inlaying the word over the delicate snowflake was a risk, so I stuck down the snowflake with heaps of adhesive and ran it through the big shot several times with a piece of card stock as a shim. In the end it was easier than I would have thought.

I glued on the positive die cuts to the envelops to make them match. I used a glue pen, which works exactly like a gel pen, only that it's filled with glue. So you can precisely glue down the tinyest pieces. I really hope it's strong enough, that would really solve a problem!

Have a nice day
Ela

Monster Girly and some total failures

Hello there,

my daughter are invited to a birthday tomorrow, and I still needed a card. I've made so many birthday cards lately, but the only one for kids is a rather boyish/ neutral card. And as the little princess had all glittery, pink fairies and unicorns on her wishlist, I wanted something girly. So I re-made the card and gave it a more girlish look.

Here's the original:

And my re-make:

 

I glittered the bows, the monster part of the sentiment and the pink matt and watercolored the monster for an uneven look. The background is again one of my gelli plate prints.

I also wanted to try out my tombow markers some more, but terribly failed. I wanted to achieve a simlar effect as Jennifer in this video. So I die cut the big Hello traced the edges of the negative and misted he panel to make the color bleed. But it didn't turn out the way I wanted at all. I'll show you anyway, I have no secrets. ;) Maybe someone has a clever tip for me.

Have a great week-end
Ela

Trying to save my last card

Hi there,

I am glad it is week-end, I do hope to find some time to catch up with some OOC homework.

I just watched the latest videos (C&S 3, Day 5) and Jennifer's video gave me an idea, how I could improve my last card a little.

First I added a slight shadow with copics, to highlight the sentiment. Then I ironed off the embossing from the sentiment and went over it with a white gel pen.

I still don't like the watercoloring, but at least the sentiment stands out a little more now...

Before

After

Hope to post a lot more this weeks-end, see you then
Ela

One-layer watercolored Thank you card

Hi there,

today I had a 45 minutes break, that I used to visit the local art supplies store. It is truely art supplies, artist quality paints and colors and papers, and stuff... They have a small craft section and also a small one for school supplies, but all the rest (and it's large) is for artists. For me a visit there is always a guilty pleasure, for several reasons.

For one, whenever I am there I feel guilty just for being there, like I am pretending to be an artist. I'm not, I can't draw or paint or anything. But I wish I could.

Secondly, they have this aisle with all kinds of drawing supplies, charcoal, alcohol markers, tombow markers, pastel blocks, pastel pencils, watercolor pencils, chalks, crayons, all to be bought by the piece in all shades of colors, sorted by product and color. I walk through that aisle EVERY time, with big eyes like a child, wanting it ALL!
If I had all that, I wouldn't know what to do with it, I can't draw. And it's not, that I had heaps of time to start and practice and experiment... But still, in that aisle, I am like a little kid in an oldfashioned sweets shop.

Well, lastly and most oviously, I always spend too much money there.
So I did today. For ages I had decided that I couldn't and wouldn't buy any watercolor markers, because I already have some alcohol markers and I can't have everything...
But lately I've seen so much beautiful watercoloring done with markers, and whenever I try to achieve similar effects with my distress inkpads I totally fail... So I allowed myself a selection of tomows in bright basic colors (red, green, blue, yellow, pink and purple). Black I already had, and unfortunately I totally forgot that I had to borrow a brown marker from my kids the other day. Otherwise I would have added a brown as well.

I already tried them out, but I am not happy with my first try. The sentiment doesn't stand out enough, that's probably because I used clear embossing. My white embossing power is not fine enough for my taste, so I don't like to use it. And I probably should have misted with less water from a greater distance. I guess I need to practice this.

Love
Ela

C&S 3 Day 1: Layered Butterfly - NEVER again

Hello Crafters,

today, all my ideas seem to be terribly time-consuming... I pulled out my butterfly die once again. I've had much trouble with it before, it doesn't cut properly without a shim, and unfortunately I still don't have one. I make do with cardstock, but it's still not working perfectly.

Not the best conditions for paper piecing the butterfly, right? So I thought, but the butterfly wasn't what caused all the trouble. The Happy die did not cut as nicely as usually - the thin bit of printer paper that held the other die cuts in place was just a bit too much, so I had trouble to get out the pieces.

And the most stupid idea of the day: Piecing the Happy together in two colors... I totally messed up the first P, please don't enlarge the picture.I tried to cover it a bit with white gel pen, but it's still quite visible.

Except for that flaw, I am quite ok with the result. The green cardstock was created with green, blue, yellow and gold Gelatos and Gesso and has a little shimmer to it, which the foto doesn't show.


Well, off to bed, it's half past 1 am, I had never planned to stay up that long.


Sleep tight
Ela

P.S. This  time I created no matching envelop, if ever I send that card, it'll have to be a plain white envelop.

C&S 3 Day 1: I am still layering

Hello there,

I still have not moved on to the other techniques, but I decided that it's okay. If that's what my heart desires, who am I to tell it otherwise? There'll be plenty of time (okay, not plenty, time is what I never seem to have) to do the other techniques...

This card took me just about forever, I was actually planning to do something entirely different, playing with my Gelatos and trying to create a nice background for my dies. As these have to dry a little, I started on several backgrounds, layering several wasches of color and gesso. This one was the one I considered done and dry first.

The color scheme reminded me of sunset, so I decided to have the circle look like a sun. This made me think of a hope theme, so I chose feathers and a Get Well sentiment. For  the feathers I had first thought of a sihouetted look, but then black feathers seems somehow creepy and not at all hopeful, so I went for white and a contrasting colored one. I chose blue, because it would stand out  most and also because blue and orange are complementary colors.

The blue feather gave me a hard time, I wanted an uneven look, with darker and lighter blues, but I only have the one light blue Gelato. So I went back to my favorite of my daughters' craft supplies, the Stabilo Woody 3 in 1 pencils. If you don't know them, they are very chunky and somewhere inbetween a colored pencil and a wax crayon. They are water soluable and work great for watercoloring. The colors are very vibrant with good coverage.

I coated the feather with my blue gelato, and added droplets of darker blue on the wet feather, so the colors could flow and blend. I also flicked on some white droplets with my IZINK Jasmine.

I added the panel to a white card base and created a matching envelop. Unfortunately a little color got under the mask for the address, so I'll probably have to stick on an address sticker after all.

This card was definately neither clean nor simple, except for  the fact that it ended with only one layer (on top of the cardbase), but it was really fun, and such a creative mess. But I fear that's probably the only card I finish tonight.


Happy craftig
Ela

C&S 3, Day 1: More layered die cuts

Hi there,

I haven't even tried any of the other techniques yet, I am wildly in love with the layered inlays.This time I didn't really layer them, because I wanted to use my positive watercolored flowers from the previous card. So here they are:

The die cuts on the card are the ones I wanted to use, the ones on  the envelop are the those I cut from the white panel. I watercolored them with distress inks. They are less vibrant than the original flowers, but I am very content with them anyway. It wasn't watercolor paper, so I had to be careful with them, especially as they are so intricate.

For the splodges on the kraft cardstock I dotted on some IZINK in Jasmine (white). I first tried the watered down version from my mister bottle, but that turned to transparent when it dried. The pure stuff did it. And as I don't have any liquid ink in brown or black that I could have used, I used a stamp with 3 little dots for the darker ones.

I have still some ideas for layered cards, I hope I will eventually try out the two other techniques as well. And tomorrow there'll be more already. Maybe I can catch a cold somewhere, so I needn't go to work?


Love
Ela

Challenge:
Virginia's View Challenge # 1: Watercolor 

C&S 3, Day 1: Inlaid Birthday card

Hi again,

I had some more ideas on inlayed cards. I love this technique. I've done it before, but it never occurred to me, to layer my die cuts. Unfortuneately, I don't have many dies yet, I'll have to make the best of what I have...

For the panel I used my new IZINKs, some distress ink and lots of water to create a huge mess. I didn't like the panel, but I had put so much frustration in it, that I went ahead anyway. And now I quite like it after all. I also  love the colorful flowers and "happy" that I cut out of the panel, I'll try to use them too...

By now, day 2 is up, but I haven't checked yet. I wanted to get this card done dirst. I'm building suspense for myself...


Love
Ela


Challenge:
Virginia's View Challenge # 1: Watercolor

C&S 3 Day 1: Inlaid Christmas card

Hi Everyone,


Clean & Simple 3 has finally started!

I've been looking forward to it so much, but today I'm not feeling crafty at all. We've had some sad news in the family, so it's probably no wonder, but still...

Well, I managed one card at least and tomorrow may be better - hopefully.

I've not yet decided if I like the card, but I know, I like the envelop - that's not one layer though. I didn't bother with inlaying in the envelop. And I managed to lose a piece to the lower right of the s. I replaced it with a piece of scrap kraft cardstock that I cut to approximately fit. It's not perfect, you can see it close up, but I don't think anyone will check...


Happy crafting
Ela

Big Hello on kraft cardstock

Hello out there,

I created another rather clean and simple card this week end. I was having quite some trouble, finding kraft cardstock here, and I finally got some at the trade show a few weeks ago. I've created only few cards with it so far and wanted to try it out some more.

I meant to use the die cut just for masking, but when I laid it on the cardstock I liked that much better.

I am sad, that the week-end is almost over, the weather was so nice and the kids and me in good such mood. On the other hand: tomorrow class will finally start...

I am looking forward to it a lot, and wish I could start right in the morning. But tomorrow is my day in the office, so I will be home late, so I want have a chance to go online, before the girls are in bed. What a shame. I could really do with a few more hours per day...




Love
Ela

More Birthday splodges

Hi crafters,

here I am again. My daughters are in a crafty mood lately, which means that I have some time to craft myself, because I like to be around when they do - to help where required and to prevent the worst mess. Today they wanted to watercolor and I created 2 more cards meanwhile.

Both are still "Stenciled"  homework. The first is another try at a one-layer card with Kristina's splodges... I don't have a "color my day" sentiment, so I went for Birthday again. You can never have enough birthday cards anyway. This time I stayed in the yellows and reds and managed to stamp the sentiment straight. I also sponged on a splodge on the envelop and the inside.

The second idea is also from "Stenciled", but instead of misting I used one of my gelli plate prints again. I had so much fun creating them, so I really want to use them on cards too... 

And again I didn't want to get out my acrylics just for the envelop, so I played with my new IZINKs. As I didn't buy the pink (should have!) my envelop turned out more yellow and orange than the card, I hope the recipient won't mind.

Again I failed stamping the sentiment, it turned out splotchy, so I stamped it again on white cardstock and put it on foam dots over the original.

While I was playing with the IZINKs, I wondered if  and how they would react to water, so I took a scratch piece of paper (no watercolor paper, not even cardstock) and tried it out.
I dripped on a few drops of water in the orange and misted it with water on the red. It seems they react similar to distress inks, the drops are quite nice, and on the red the color bled out a little. You'll probably have to enlarge the picture to see that.

 

Love

Ela 

Challenge:  Seize the Birthday "Anything goes"

Gelli printed happy Birthday

Hello again,

I created another card today, with one of my gelli plate prints and some of my new supplies.

I curved both parts of the sentiment to match the curve of the print. I didn't add any other embelishments, because the print is busy enough.

Fot the envelop I (once again) didn't want to mess around with acrylic paint, so I sponged on something new I got from Aladine, a French company. It's called IZINK, and seems to be some kind of thick liquid ink. I came across it the other day and instantly fell for the vibrant colors. The do tone down a bit when used, especially green and blue.

I just received them on Friday, so I haven't tried out much, but I think they can be used in many ways. On my swatch sheet below I put on a bit (less then a drop) of each color, then sponged and watercolored them on. For each of the techniques I use the tinyest bit, only what's on the outside if the dropper. You can also create mists with them, but I didn't want to mess with that right now.

The range of colors is quite nice. In addition to the colors I got (brights without shimmer) there are also black, brown and a darkish pink and a whole range of shimmer colors. If you want to check them out, here's the link: IZINK. There is also a video with ideas how to use them.

So, that's it for now, have a nice day
Ela



Challenge: Seize the Birthday "Anything goes"

Another Stenciled card

Hi there,

today I wanted to show you a card that I created after Kristinas idea from Stenciled. I created this one a while ago and never meant to post it,  because it is so close to Kristina's original. And I messed it up too. Stamping a two stamp sentiment, I managed to stamp the "happy" crooked and the birthday with a bend. So I wanted to through it away, but somehow it got in a stack of supplies and I forgot about it, until I found it last night and decided to try and save it.

I stamped the sentiment again (straight this time) on a scrap strip of cardstock, which I cut to cover the whole card left to right. Then I stenciled the same splodges onto the strip, so it looks like a continuous image and raised it on some foam adhesive.

Now it is still pretty close to Kristina's card, but at least a little different.

But I have more for you right now. I'd like to introduce you to my most used and least regarded stamp:

It says "handmade" in German, and gets stamped on the back of all of my cards. Usually in a color that matches the card somehow, sometimes only in watermark or clear embossing.

I love this stamp a lot, because it's unobstrusive and small.

See you later
Ela

Winter Fox

Hi there,

it's week-end, jippie! And I am ready to craft.

Today I created a winter card, even though it feels all wrong and I'll have to keep it for next year. I see all the blogposts that mention icy temperatures and a really tough winter in America, but over here it's never been a proper winter at all. I haven't seen a single snowflake this "winter" and I had to scrape the car windows only 4 or 5 times... Today we had sunny 14 °C (about 57°F), the first trees are in bloom and spring is in the air. My daughters and I hit the garden today, me reading a book and the girls re-conquering the sand pit and the trampoline.

Normally this picture screams for frosty blues and greens, but instead I went for warm colors to match my spring mood.

I stamped the image and sentiment on thin vellum and heat embossed them very carfully in black. Then I colored the fox with Spectrum Noirs, which I found pretty tricky. The inks behaved entirely different. The background is one of the gelli plate prints I created a few weeks ago, by printing through a stencil. The blocks on the stencil are tiny in one corner and grow larger towards the opposite corner. In the lower left corner it didn't print well, that's why I chose to use it this way round, so I could cover part of that corner with the fox. And I am quite happy that I did, because this way it looks like a mild winter sun is shining down my little fox.


Warm wishes to all of you, especially to those who still have to suffer low temperatures
Ela

More angry birds

Hi everyone,

this is my 4th post for today, I must be having a run. As I sent my girls straight to the bath tub  after school (it'll be too late for that after dinner with my in-laws), I had some time left, to assemble the last birthday loot bags. Most of it was already prepared, so that it was really just assembly...

No, please don't ask how many kids will be coming. I created 20 bags, because on first count we're at 17 guests (my own not included) and I probably still forgot someone. But 6 are younger siblings, that don't really count, but still have to get a loot bag in the end.

As you can see below, I got two differnt kinds of bags, because I bought them in two diffent shops. I thought they were the same, because they are from the same company, but there is a slight difference. I like the slimmer ones better.

I think I'll dream of angry birds tonight.

See you
Ela

Flowers and butterflies

Hi again,

I love this day, I am soooo crafty...

I created another card using my Gelatos. I love them, because they are so nice and vibrant, but at the same time I am still kind of scared of them. I had planned to use vellum for the sentiment, but I didn't like it when I tried it out. Couldn't stand to cover the colors...

I'd also like to show you a card I created a while ago, even though I am not quite happy with it.
I created it to try out the new stamp set, but I think it turned out too busy. I should have used more of the larger flowers and kept the stamped area smaller. But to try it out it was fine, and it's a single layer...

Now I fear I have to quick crafting for today, and get something done in the kitchen, before I have to pick up my kids from school.


Bye
Ela

More Hello Sunshine

Hello again,

because I still had my "Big Hello" die out, and the "Sunshine" still on the block, I wanted to create another card with it. This one is inspired by the card Jennifer created the other day with staggered die cuts. I liked the look a lot, and thought this is one more way to use the big Hello...

And I finally dared to use some of my woodgrain paper. I think that's sooo beautiful, I want to keep it and not use it. Stupid really...

I glittered the blue hello with Wink of Stella, to hide the glue I had gotten on that layer.


Have a lovely day
Ela

Negative die cut - Hello Sunshine

Hello everyone,

today I have a day off, and I mean to enjoy it.

So I started off with a watercolor card and some die cutting:

I created the watercolor effect with distress inks on watercolor paper. For the envelop (in the back) I had to cheat a bit, the envelops don't take water very well... So I sponged the positive die cit with the same distress inks and dropped on only a few little drops of water to create some splotchyness.

Originally I intended to cut the top piece a little smaller and leave a small border of the card base looking out, but I used a different paper for the card base (I wanted the base a bit sturdier), and the difference would have shown. So I went for faux stiching instead.

Enjoy the day
Ela

Challenges:
Virginia's View Challenge # 1: Watercoloring
Creative friday #97: Negative diecut

Clean and simple Birthday card

Hello crafters,

today I  decided to take Clean & Simple 3 from OOC. I enjoyed the last class - Stenciled - a lot, so I gave this class to myself.

Joining the class inspired my to do a very clean and simple card today, inspired by a picture my daughters gave me the other day.

Normally I probably would have tried to fill more of the blank space, but I think I quite like the simplicity.  I didn't take a picture of the matching envelop, but it's quite similar, I stamped the same hearts, just without the sentiment.

By the way: I created the heart stamps myself with some fun foam die cuts, because I don't have any large heart stamps. That is why the big heart is not perfectly stamped.


Happy crafting
Ela

Challenges:
Stempelgarten: One-Layer-Card
Seize the Birthday: Anything goes Birthday

Birthday invitations

Hi there,

I haven't been very creative lately, and I still seem to be unable to overcome this. But this week-end I did at least make a start on the invitiations for my daughters' 8th birthday. It is in June, so I am pretty early, but the theme has been decided before Christmas, so why not start. The schedule will get tight in the end anyway, then I'll be happy to have the invitations all done.

I also created invitations for a friend of mine. Her foster son't birthday is coming up soon and she is always pretty busy. So I offered to create his invitations as well.

I have to admit: None of the 2 designs is my own, thanks to Tami for the great ideas and funny how-to-videos. I fell in love with these designs months ago, when I first saw them and new I had to use them for something.

So here they are: My dauthers want an angry birds birthday, and I'll use this design for the loot bags as well. But I haven't started on these yet. I am still searching for a creative idea to make the white envelops match better. But I think my dauthers solved the issue already by drawing a lot of angry birds to cut out.

And here's for my friend's foster son. He's going to be five. I quite like the little man, he has had a hard life so far, and he can be such a darling. I really hope he'll like spiderman.

Happy crafting
Ela