Saturday 10 May 2014

Going wild

Hi Crafters,

I created a card today, for Anni's card challenge. There are few enough German card makers, so I really feel we should support each other. Therefore I absolutely wanted to participate in that challenge, from the moment I first saw it. And besides, I love stencils...

So here's my card:



I used a stencil with different leaves for the background and drew the tiger with my copic multiliner, so I could watercolor it with one of my inktense pencils. You can't see it on the foto, but it's popped up on foam squares.

I masked off the area for the leaves, but when I took off the washi tape I ripped the paper, so I had to trim it down and attach it to a seperate card base.

The letters of "wild" are cut out with the Tim  Holtz "Alphabetical" die from a piece of watercolored paper in the same color as the tiger. The stripes are drawn in with the copic multiliner again. I drew in a shadow with a grey copic to create a shadow effect, but I think I might do that again with a darker grey.


Have a great mother's day
Ela

Wednesday 7 May 2014

Unicorn Birthday

Hi Crafters,

here I am again.

Right after I complained, that I don't have an idea for a unicorn card, it came to me... So I managed to create the least urgent card first... Us usual, I am great at setting priorities.

I found a unicorn I liked on the internet and did my best to re-draw it by hand with a copic multiliner on watercolor paper. Then I colored it very lightly with my inktense pencils watered down heavily.

For the background, I wanted a watercolor rainbow, but I feared that I might spoil the unicorn, so I painted the rainbow on a seperate piece of watercolor paper and cut out the unicorn. I left out the greens in the rainbow, because of the color palette on my unicorn.

Then I stamped a sentiment, which unfortunately blurred a little on the paper and created a matching envelop with distress inks. I am not at all happy with my sponging it's very splotchy. But it was the third attempt already and I am sooo tired, it'll have to do. 7-year-olds usually don't look much at the envelop anyway.



As far as my mother's day cards are concerned, I am still entirely without inspiration, especially as I don't have a good sentiment. But I have a plan: It's late tonight, so I'll call it a day and see if I can fit in any craft time tomorrow morning, before I have to mail it. If I don't, I'll just fall back on a general card in my stash, "Alles Liebe" (which loosely translates to "with love") or "Sending hugs".


Sleep tight
Ela

Mother's Day Minialbum

 Hi Crafters,


I have finally finished my mother's day gifts. And about time it is, because my mother's must be mailed...

I created two mini albums for my Mum and my mother-in-law. Yes, I know, in-laws don't get gifts, but I won't be giving it myself, her son will. I figured it would cost me little extra work, provide him with a gift and she'll love it. Besides she'll have to undergo surgery soon (again), so she'll have something to take to the hospital.

I wanted to use the albums my girls created at the craft fair a few months ago, but we could find only one of them. I don't have a clue, where the other one went, therefore I had to create a second one. I hadn't bargained for that much extra work and had trouble finding a paper combo I liked, that's why I am so late.

So, here they are, the dark and orange album is the one from the craft fair.



And here is a look at the insides. The little booklets flip out like this:




So you don't need to look at them, the way I placed them for the pictures, but each side individually.


Inside
Outside with Cover
Inside
Outside with cover

That's it for now. I need to get back to my craft desk. I don't have a single mother's day card in my stash, so I need to create two, of which one must be completed today, so I can mail it tomorrow.

And I also need a birthday card for a 7-year-old girl - unicorn included. That's kind of tough for me, because I already created a unicorn card for her last year, so I need a new idea.

So, depending on how successful I am tonight, I might be posting again later today or tomorrow.


Love
Ela

Sunday 4 May 2014

Watercolor peacock feathers

Hello everyone,

I've been back from easter holidays for a week now, but somehow didn't get to do much. Right now, quite a few things are going wrong in my life. But we all go through ups and downs, there'll be better times soon.


Today I'd like to show you 2 watercolor cards I created after Lindsay's tutorial. I used my set of Inktense pencils on watercolor paper and added a sentiment from a German sentment set that I like a lot.









In the background, that's the envelop, that I did with as little water as possible, because that's no watercolor paper. After it dried, I stuck both envelops in my big shot over night, to smooth them out. That works great, but you really should add two pieces of blank printer paper to the sandwitch, so you don't imprint the lines from the cutting plates on your work.

As usual, I like Lindsay's sooo much better, but I am glad I gave it a try. After all, you can't get better without practicing.

I am still undecided, if I should take the OOC watercolor class. I'd love to very much, but I'll probably have little time during the next 2 weeks and I had a few expensive things to pay lately, so I really shouldn't go spending money so easily right now. But I am still very tempted.


Love
Ela