Hey Crafters,
We're enjoying a lazy Sunday today, sleeping in, late breakfast - I love that my girls are old enough for that now - a bit of crafting together and later a nice cup of coffee at my sister-in-law.
We didn't bring any store bought souvenirs for anyone from our trip this summer, but collected heaps of small stones instead, with which we're crafting our souvenirs. And while my girls were messing around with acrylic paint I used the opportunity to create another feather card.
I liked my negative die cut feathers lately, but didn't want to do the same again, so I tried to use it in another way. I cut feathers from a panel of grey cardstock several times and inlaid one of them (the only bigger one) with aqua cardstock. Then I created the sentiment on torn vellum with the "My imaginary friend says you're special" stamp from TAWS (Monster Mash), by inking up only the last words. Then I put the panel on tons of tiny foam dots and adhered it to the card base.
For the envelop I did what I usually do: I adhered two of the aqua feathers to it, and another one went on the inside of the card.
I am content with the result and already have another idea for the next card. A lovely last day of holidays.
Tomorrow it's back to work for me, but my girls have another week to go.
Have a great Sunday
Ela
Hello Crafters,
it's Monster time! We're celebrating another birthday on Saturday, and the boy is having a Monster Party - perfect occasion to pull out my Monster Mash stamp set.
I created the front panel ages ago with my gelli plate and acrylic paint. I adhered it to my top folding card base and cut a whole through both layers. The Monster is water colored, fuzzy cut and adhered to the inside with foam tape. For the speech bubble I used my fiskars shape cutter to cut out most of an oval and hand cut the rest. For the envelop I used the same stencil, sponging the flap with distress inks.
I also stamped and cut a few more monsters from colored cardstock to embellish the gift wrapping:
Have a monster day
Ela
Challenges: Seize the Birthday
Hey Crafters,
now that I am back home, the holidays are doing me really good. We visited a local museum today, and it was really interessting and relatively relaxed, though our girls went from "Wow that so cool" straight to "Boooring" and back.
Afterwards, my mother-in-law invited them for dinner, and I used the time to play.
As I built my little matchbox sequins shelf the other day, I wanted to use my sequins for a change, instead of hoarding them, so I created 2 more sequins cards. Which is very fitting at that, because there is a sequin challenge on a German Blog: Stempelküche-Challenge #1: Pailletten
So, for the first card, I used the already known idea of a water color panel behind negative die cutting, this time with my daisies die. I added some sequins in matching colors for a change. As the leftover from the panel wasn't big enough to die cut the daisies for the envelop, I watercolored the flap very carefully with as little water as possible, as it's no watercolor paper.
For the second card, I wanted to try something different, so I created another watercolor panel, which I totally overworked. It's a luck, that the daisies are so delicate, so you don't see to much of the panel at a time.
I die cut a the daisies twice from different sides of the paper and twice from white cardstock. Glued them together so the white created a small shadow behind the colored daisies. Then I adhered it to a grey panel and added two strips of torn vellum. I covered the messy looking part with the stems behind the vellum with the sentiment, which is matted with another piece of the watercolor panel. And at last, I added matching red sequins. For the envelop I cut a third set if daisies.
Hope you have a great day
Ela
Challenges: Stempelküche-Challenge #1: Pailletten
Hi Crafters,
for the last card I created on Monday, I also used my feather dies, but combined them with Washi tape and sequins:
I cut the feathers from a piece of cardstock covered with Washi and also created a mat with the same Washi tape. The sentiment says congrats and is popped up on foam dots and tied with some twine.
See you
Ela
Challenges: Stempelküche: Pailetten / Sequins
Hey Crafters,
after returning home on Monday, my girls spent right the next day with their Dad and aunt. And with the house all clean and tidy and the washing done, that meant a whole day for crafting and "dolce far niente" for me.
So I grabbed the chance to play, pulled out my water colors, and created a few water color pieces, among them the two Hellos for my doodle cards.
This beautiful feather card with negative die cutting inspired me to use my own feather dies. So, I created this card:
The top panel is on foam tape. I used a water color card for the colored panel, which gave me just enough leftover to die cut the feathers for the envelop.
And because I liked the card so much, I created it again, with reds and yellows and white card stock:
Here too the top panel is on foam adhesive.I think I'll make a few more of the same sketch, because I really like them. Maybe with my daisy die.
Hope you have a good day
Ela
Hello Crafters,
we're back from holiday, whole and healthy - well almost. I caught myself a neuritis, which has pained my all week and still does, but otherwise we're fine. I've seldom been as happy to be back home, tough I usually think coming home is the best part of any holiday.
We returned on Sunday, which was a bad choice for the drive back. We had so much traffic, it took us all day to get back. But in a flash of supermotivation - no idea where that came from - I unpacked everything straight away and did all the washing the same night. So now all that's left to do is the ironing, which will probably not happen before the week-end, because that's just exactly the movement that hurts most. I'll wait for my medication to kick in first.
Anyway, I didn't do any crafting during my week in the mountains, though I had really planned to practice some water coloring. The weather was to cold to go to the lake or do any outdoor activities, so my plan to paint while the girls play and swim totally failed. All I did is finish one of the doodle cards created during the Easter holidays. Here they are:
I did the doodling on holiday and created the water colored Hello when I was back home. I didn't create any envelops yet but am planning to.
As you may notice, I had to cut the second card down quite a bit, because my little devil Nala liked it so much, she had to chew on one of the corners. She really has bad manners!
So hope you're all fine.
Ela
Hello Crafters,
as school will start again soon, I created to more blackboard cards, similar to those I did for my daughters' teachers.
The idea has come a very long way, the original inspiration was from Tami White, this card:
 |
| This is not my design!!! |
It originally inspired me to this card, which was still pretty close to the original:
The sentiment is "School is cool". I created that one last year, now this summer, I needed two cards for teachers and two more for school starters. So I took the old inspiration and made something new of it. The sentiment for the teachers says "Thanks a lot".
For the two school starters, I had to change the sentiment of course, and to my big frustration I only had a tiny one from Stampin' Up. So I used more pictures and made it more playful, which is probably quite fitting anyway. Here is the next version:
I luckily had red envelops at hand that are almost the same red, so I stamped them with the same background stamp as the card base. The letters on the envelop are once again cut with the Tim Holtz Alphabetical die, definitely a die I don't regret having bought.
Love
Ela
Hey Crafters,
this week, we are on holidays, but I prepared something to upload while we are off to the mountains. I was hoping for some nice weather, so we could go to the lake a lot, but the forecast is bad. So I fear I won't be able to fit in as many outdoor activities as planned.
Anyway, here's my very clean and simple thank you card. It was inspired by the wonderful butterfly cards Dawn created. I think they are sooo incredibly beautiful.
I stamped the butterfly with Archival Ink and colored the wings with my inktense pencils and very little water. That's no watercolor paper, because I had intended to keep it dry.
Originally I wanted to stick with the blues, but that looked somewhat boring, so I added a hint of purple to the edges of the wings and also close to the body.
Because the stamps didn't stamp properly, I also colored the butterfly's body with dark brown and darkened the sentiment with a copic multiliner.
I really like how it turned out, even though the coloring could be so much more sophisticated. It just cannot compare with my inspiration.
Hope you have a great time
Ela
Hey Crafters,
today was my last day of work, so now I have 2 glorious weeks of freedom. And on Sunday I'll have my girls back (I miss them) and we're starting off to the mountains for a week. Normally I'd be way to paranoid to post this kind of information on the internet, but this time, no problem, we're having house sitters staying at our place.
Some family members of my in-laws are staying for a holiday, and as we're away they can have our place all to themselves. That's pretty neat, this way I have someone to feed and play the cats and they have a place to stay.
I had planned to go swimming a lot during our stay in the mountains, but the forecast is bad, so I'll probably have to think of other ways to play the girls tired. Very unlucky, the lake would have been perfect for all our needs.
So, before I'll be all busy tomorrow, I'd like to show you the very quick and easy card I created today.
I didn't have much time, but I wanted to test my new low tack spray adhesive that I ordered for stenciling. I haven't tried any wet media yet, but for sponging it worked fine and the stencil didn't shift one bit and still came of very clean and easy.
I hope you have a great week. Keep your fingers crossed for me, for some nice weather.
Ela
Hey Crafters,
did you know, that matchbox cars were invented by a father who's daughter's school only allowed children to
bring toys that could fit inside a matchbox? I like this story, sounds like a pretty cool Dad.
Why am I talking about matchboxes today? It's because I received my order for 50 crafting matchboxes and dived right in. I ordered these, to create a storage system for my Euro store sequins. 4 sets of each 8 different colors in the same color family. That should pretty much cover all I'll ever need.
But they came in a flimsy plastic packaging, so I wanted a proper storage solution. First I thought about a screw storage box from the hardware store. But those are usually rather larger than I would want them for sequins, so I went for matchboxes as a cheap solution.
So I happily spend an hours or so decoration matchboxes with Washi tape and glueing them together. Then I spent half the afternoon way less happily glueing one sequin to each little drawer and sorting the darn things in their new matchboxes. I may well have developed a deep and lasting dislike for sequins today
.
But even though I might never use them again, at least now I have them sorted. And I used Washi tape! And best of all: I'm done with it!
Wishing you a crafty day with something less tedious
Ela
Hey there,
this must be my thirs post today, you'll probably have noticed:
I re-designed by blog.
It was kind of accidental, I hadn't planned to do that today - or even within the next month. Admittedly, I meant to change the watercolor background from the start, but it just got forgotten somehow between kids, cats, cards and job.
Anyhow, now it's done and I am very happy, though I think I might still come up with some tiny changes in the near future.
I hope you like it, please feel free to give me feedback.
Love
Ela
Hello Crafters,
today I have nothing new to show you, but I can still reach back and show you the angry birds can knockdown game I created for my daughters' birthday party in June.
My mother-in-law collected old Cappuccino cans for months several years ago, for an earlier birthday. And this year I finally painted them with acrylic paint, sticking to this year's theme: Angry birds.
I also used some Ranger Archival black ink, to create some shadows around the noses, but you can't see that in the picture. It was taken with my cell phone, so the quality is not so hot. My favorite cans are the redheads, especially the one with the black eye.
Love
Ela
Hello Crafters,
hope you had a good start into the new week. For me it's the last week before I go on holidays. My girls are already away, with their grandma and aunt, and I am enjoying a calm week - actually, it's a bit lonely, without all the noise in the house, but I am resolved to enjoy!
So last night, I finally finished my first ever shaker card, which - in parts - has been sitting in on my craft desk for at least 3 weeks. I had too many cards to make lately, so this one lost attention.
But now it's done, and I am pretty content with it, except for the fact that my sequins seem to stick to the foam tape. Next time I'll have to remove the stickiness from the sides of the foam somehow.
As you can see, it was inspired by the Simon says Stamp release, with the fishbowl stampset and dies. I don't have the set, I just can't order from the USA all the time, but I have a similar stencil, and a set of sequins in perfect watery teal colors. So I cut the bowl with my Fiskars Shape Cutter and used my daughters' simple stencil to trace and fussy cut the big fish. Then I colored them with distress inks and water.
For the card base I used several blue and teal shadow inks with the stencil and stamped some water plants in green. Actually, it's a cattail stamp, but I masked off the thick bit on the top, to make it look like grassy water plants. Then I randomly drew a swarm of little fish with my copic liner, stamped and die cut the sentiment an put it all together.
Speaking of cat tails... My little devil seems to like it too:
Hope you have a good day
Ela
Hello Crafters,
today I have to admit defeat:
I lost my favorite (and only) snowflake stamp set last December, after I created this card as a set:
I don't have the slightest idea were it can have gone. At first, I was sure it would turn up right after the market for which I had made the cards. When that didn't happen, I thought it would turn up right after Christmas. Well, it's almost time to think about Christmas cards again, and it still hasn't turned up anywhere. I have to face it, it's gone.
It was an old set from Maya Road called "Let it snow" (took me ages to find that out, because I dumped the packaging long ago). I loved all the snowflakes and have tried to find it again, but it seems to have retired.
Now I need a new snowflake stamp set, but the amount of Google results is rather overwhelming. I've looked at so many picture to find a set I like, that I feel unable to pick.
So I am asking you for advice: Which is your favorite snowflake stamp set?
Have a great day
Ela
Hello Everyone,
Hope you are enjoying summer as much as we do.
For a friend's birthday, my girls and I painted more clay flower pots, to create a garden decoration. We used acrylic paint and outdoor spray varnish to seal the color. These pots are not glued together, but will be lined up on a bamboo stick. In the top pot she can plant a flower of course.
I do hope she likes it, it was heaps of fun and I can imagine doing more of these.
Actually she wished for her birthday party invitations to be handmade by me, because she lacks the time at the moment. She wanted a design I had already done before, nothing new, so I spent several days mass producing peacock feathers (30 invitations!) with my inktense pencils. Actually, I made a few more for myself, while I was at it.
I didn't want to paint all the envelops too, so I got colored envelops in matching colors, and packed it all in a (store bought) gift box. The box is just her style, I think she'll love it and the colors fit quite well with the feathers too.
As she wanted to print directly on the card base, I gave her the
cardstock to print on last week and threw in a tape runner so she can
stick the panels on the card base. It all fits in the box quite nicely, there would even be space for the cardstock. But I thought it would be easier to print on full sheets and cut and score them afterwards.
Happy summer
Ela
Hello Crafters,
my friend's son had his birthday this week. He loves "go wild" on TV, so his Mum planned a wildlife party for him. Therefore I wanted to create some kind of jungle / wild animal card for him. Originally I planned to re-create one I had done before, but in the end I just cased it and created a new one with a similar look. Here's the original:
And the second card which was inspired by the first:
I drew the same tiger on watercolor paper with a copic liner, so it wouldn't bleed. Then I created the background and colored the tiger with watercolor (not inktense this time). I used a German sentiment, because the boy is only 8, and cut the letters for the card and the envelop from another piece of watercolored paper with the Tim Holtz Alphabetical die.
Unfortunately I turned the envelop over to attach the letters, because I used an acrylic block to get a straight line and entirely failed to get the name on the right place. It ended up on the left of the envelop, but I decided, I just meant to do it this way...
By the way, the sentiment is from this set, which I absolutely love:
It's created by a Lady who sells her own stampsets on dawanda. If you're interested in her sets, click on the picture to see her shop.It's on summer holiday right now, but I am sure it will be back soon.
Love
Ela
Challenges:
Seize the birthday: Anything goes birthday
Less is more: Foliage (not sure it counts)
