Happy Halloween

 Happy Halloween, 

how are you celebrating this year? 

I found it very difficult to plan this year.

Last year my girls wanted to do very different things on Halloween, so we had to compromise. Therefore we promised a big party this year, to the girl who had to compromise more. And now we can't keep our promise, unfortunately. But a big party clearly is not an option. 

So I let the girls make their wishes, and we are planning to make a creepy movie night. 

Since we aren't seeing anyone, we didn't create a single Halloween card this year. Which is why I picked at least a card with some purple in it for today's posting.

I created this alcohol ink panel on vellum and made the Llama peek out from the rings behind the sentiment. Then I added some glitter drops in matching colours. 

Have a happy Halloween, despite it all

Ela

Hello Crafters,

as I told you a few days ago, I got this paper pack, that I promised myself to use this year. So I made this set of three cards from another sheet, using some vellum shapes to set off the die-cut sentiments. 

Each one is slightly different, but not a lot. 

I hope you're all having a good day

Ela 

Heavenly Christmas

Hello Everyone, 

today I'd like to show you two very simple Christmas cards I made with patterned paper and die cuts. 

I wanted to buy the papers, but since I hardly ever use patterned paper, I made a promise to myself, to actually use it this year instead of keeping it, because 'maybe sometime I might need it'...

The paper pack is 30x15 cm, so enough to cover 3 portrait card fronts, which is why I made 5 cards all the same way. Only five, because for the trees I obviously needed to mind the orientation. 

I covered the card bases with the paper and stacked 3 frames for more stability. The word die cut I didn't stack, I was too lazy. It's really very intricate. 

The sentiment reads 'heavenly Christmas' in German. 

Hope you are all staying safe

Ela

 

Potted Birthday Wishes

Hello, 

what have you been up to? 

I gave away almost all of my stashed Birthday cards for a gift set, last summer. So I desperately needed to re-stock. Therefore I've been making only Christmas and Birthday cards lately. These are what I need most anyway. 

Looking through my supplies, I came across a set of patterned papers with a chalkboard design, that I've been holding on to for years. One of the sheets had 6 chalky flower pots in two rows. 

I love these images, but I didn't want to lose any of them. Trouble was, some of the leaves were hanging into the space of other pots and none had enough space to cover an entire card front. 

But I found a way to use them all and create a whole set with them...

Most of the cards are made in the same way, with the panel having a small margin all around. But the leaves of the red pot invaded the personal space of the yellow pot, so I cut those panels to be exactly as tall as the card base, but slimmer. I had to cut off part of the yellow pot, which worked fine with the white border to the right. And for the red card, I cut a straight line right up to the leaf and fuzzy cut the leaf itself. 

For each card I added a Happy Birthday sentiment. Most are just stamped (it's a reverse stamp) and blue and red are heat embossed, just because I had the embossing powders. I am very proud, that I actually managed to find matching sequins for each colour.

To dress up the envelopes, I just used a different flower pot stamp on each of them. 

Hoping you will have a good week

Ela

4th Birthday shaker squirrel

Hello Crafters, 

I hope you are all still staying safe. 

2 days ago, one of our family youngsters turned 4 and we gave him the board game 'Nuss voraus', which roughly translates to 'nut ahead'. I couldn't find it in English, so I am not sure if it's actually called that. 

It is about a squirrel, so I absolutely wanted to use my only squirrel stamp, which I've never used before. Besides, I wanted to use the number '4' as a design element and I also had the vague idea, that a shaker card would be fun. 

With these two and a half elements as a starting point, I water coloured the squirrel with my ZIG markers and fuzzy cut him out. 

After that, I struggled a bit. First I thought I'd use a row of numbers, like I did for my niece's birthday last year and place the squirrel on top of the line. But somehow that didn't appeal to me as much for this card. So I went ahead and cut out a bunch of numbers to cover the whole background. I think of this as faux dry embossing, since it adds white on white texture without being in-your-face.

I liked that, but now my squirrel had nothing to stand and there was space to fill therefore I decided to go with the shaker circle die, with bright green and blue sequins inside. 

I wanted one of the numbers to stand out from the rest, so I blended some blue and green Oxide ink on one of them and on the circle die as well. I thought these colours would compliment my squirrel's c. 

When I had adhered it all down, I felt the colours were too muted, I wanted them glossy and bright, so I added liberal amounts of glossy accents to the 4 and the circle, but not the Happy Birthday. I didn't trust myself with the intricate letters. 

A bit of a stupid idea, since we were due to visit only a few hours later, so I had to place the finished card over the heating to make it dry faster. It turned out okay, luckily. 

In the end, I am not sure if the squirrel really fits in with the rest of the design, but I used him anyway since that was the whole point of it. I grounded him on the letter H.

Since my great-nephew will also be 4 next month, we'll give him the same game, and I'll have another chance to make a card with this squirrel. I am thinking fall coloured tiny leaves in a square shaker, maybe...

Sadly, 4-year-olds don't really appreciate Birthday cards, but at least the parents do. Cardmaker's children are probably the exception, my girls always appreciated handmade cards, because they knew how much love went into them. I bet it is/was the same for your children if you're a cardmaker. 

That's it for today, stay safe wherever you are

Ela

Snail mail with water colours

Hello Everyone, 

how are you all? Hope you're still doing well!

This is another card I made ages ago. It was inspired by some fun water coloured backgrounds had seen at the time. I love these cards, so here's my take on this technique.

Initially I wanted to use several stamps in that stamp set. In addition to the letters, there are also snails and mushrooms and a bird. But then I ended up just stamping the letter over and over. I had a rainbow colour scheme in mind, but after I had coloured the first few envelopes, I remembered that the red ZIGs always tend to turn pinkish, so I spontaneously went for blues, green and yellow. Unfortunately I had already coloured in the background, otherwise I would probably have changed that to maybe a light grey.

I think I would have liked that better. 

I created some vellum strips with torn edges (love those) and heat embossed the sentiment in bright green, just  because I had the colour and seldom used it so far. 

I also added the snail and flower and adhered it all to a white card base. To match up the green envelope, I heat embossed a few more little letters in white. I also added a little snail to the flap, but I didn't take a picture of it. 

I really need try this kind of background again, and not allow me to discourage myself from using  the rainbow... 

By the way, I really have an issue with snails and slugs. These stamped ones are pretty much the only sort I can bear to look at, without the impulse to run away screaming. 



Hope you all have a wonderful week-end
Ela






Challenges:
Seize the Birthday: Anything goes Birthday 


  

Succulent Birthday

Hello out there, 

this is another card, I made a long time ago. 

I coloured the image as part of the colouring challenge, but then wasn't quite sure what to do with the finished image. So I kept it very simple and just added a black card base with some faux stitching, some washi tape and a very simple Birthday sentiment. After all, you can never have enough Birthday cards...

Hope you'll have a lovely day

Ela

Birthday Cupcake

Hi Crafters,

Happy Monday to all of you. 

For my girls, it's the first day back at school after autumn holidays. I am  having very mixed emotions about it. It is nice to have some quiet during my office hours, but with the current Corona developments, I am very reluctant to even let them leave the house. 

The schools are of course taking measures, but I just don't think they have the space to distance as much as we should. Mind you, I am not blaming anyone, they can't just double their size overnight, but still I feel my girls are at risk at school. 

Anyway, I created this card a long time ago. I blended some distress inks through a stencil, 

Then I coloured the cupcake and cut it out with the matching die and added some sentiment strips and sequins. Pretty straight forward. 

Have a good start into the new week

Ela

Hello crafters, 

look what a mess my girl and I created last night. 

We had a blast pulling out so many stencils and Inks and just create background panels. 

I stuck to my usual colour combinations, those I always use, but my daughter was more inventive and tried out new combinations.  

It'll take me weeks if not months to make all of these into cards, especially since I found even older, forgotten panels when I cleared my desk this morning. 

Have a happy Sunday

Ela

Snow Angels for Christmas

  Hey Crafters, 

since Halloween and Thanksgiving aren't greatly celebrated where I live, I am already in full swing for Christmas cards. As every year, I am determined to get my preparations done before things start to get stressful. 

Last year I had made such a good start, and then December came and everything went wrong. So this year, I started in early October. I already finished a bunch of Christmas cards. This set are among my favourites, because I simply adore the snow angels and I put them all on action wobbles. I never used action wobbles before and ordered them extra for this stamp set.

I still have more of those critters stamped out and ready to colour, so I think I might make some more. 

I think, I would have preferred to have the patterned paper behind the word flush with the card base instead of the panels, but I didn't feel like popping up all the fiddly bits... 

Have a wonderful day
Ela

Wild Birthday wishes

 Hey Crafters,

 I hope you are all staying safe. We are living in a rural area, with not too much pandemic activity, so we are fairly safe, social distancing etc. 

I have just had a week off of work, and since the weather was dismal, I spent a lot of that time crafting. Among lots of Christmas cards, I made this set, using two inexpensive stencil sets I've had for a while. 

I used mostly Oxides for the blending. Some panels are popped up off the card base, most aren't because I was running low on foam tape. I re-stacked a big roll, so I'm all good now.

The sentiments are mostly the same, only for the bunny I didn't want to use 'wild', and for the bear I wanted to use the pun.

Have a happy day
Ela