Birthday hearts

 Hello, 

and thanks for stopping by. 

Today I'd like to show you a card I made with one of my very first alcohol ink panels. I was just playing and trying out different colour combinations. For this panel, I used red pink and yellow and filled almost all the space. 

I wanted to cover up some of it for the card, but not too much, so I chose this heart die cut with a lot of open space and adhered it flat to the panel. I added sentiment strips to say Happy Birthday with foam tape and added the whole panel to a black card base. To tie in the white from the die cut I added faux stitching with a white gel pen. 

For the envelope, I ink blended another panel with similar colours and cut out the hearts from that. The inside pieces I used for yet another Birthday card. 

Wishing you a happy day

Ela

Birthday Llama

Hello Everyone,

this is the card I made with the rest of my Easter card stips. The fence idea I had for the first card didn't leave me, so I tried again. I adhered the strips to a piece of printer paper, so I could pop it up on foam tape all in one piece. Then I coloured the Llama with my ZIG markers and tucked it in behind.

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I chose a Birthday sentiment because you can never have enough Birthday cards,

Lots of love

Ela

Happy Birthday

Hello Friends, 

how are you? 

Today's card was again made with bits and pieces I had prepared a long time ago. Well, actually it's only one piece, which is the main panel I coloured with Gelatos, back in the day. I found it in my stash and decided to make something with it. 

Since it was a bit narrower than the card base, I decided to leave a white border and spell out Birthday along the edge. I also added a strip to say happy. I've had that stamp set for a long time, but I've only made it work for me lately, with my stamping platform. Before I was never able to get good coverage on any of these sentiments because they have so much solid area.

The result was a bit bare still, so I looked through my stash of stickers and found this ice lolly that matched neatly and added a splash of red, which I like a lot. 

I hope you'll have a lovely day

Ela

Sleepy Racoon

Hello Friends, 

how are you keeping? I am glad we're heading into summer. But compared to last year, the general mood is very different. People are more grumpy, less hopeful, I feel everybody is worn out. 

I myself feel it too, it's getting to me, but we need to hang in there. I am trying to be grateful for the things I have. There are so many people out there, whose life is so much harder, who have lost their job, who are alone, who have lost loved ones.

So I am thinking of them and trying to see what I have rather than what I miss. 

To the card... When I made last year's Easter cards, I had to cut off strips of each panel, so I had all those lovely spray-inked stips left over. 

 

I didn't want them to go to waste, so I glued them to a card base and made an uneven border. I meant it to be a landscape card and thought of it as a fence, but in the end, I liked it better in portrait orientation. 

I finished it off with a sleeping racoon, coloured with my ZIG markers, in a polaroid frame. I love those frames they are so versatile. 

Stay safe out there
Love

Ela

 

 

Over the rainbow clouds

Hello Everyone, 

did you have a good Easter weekend? Since my girls aren't small anymore, we took it very relaxed and had a lazy weekend. 

I created this card last year, for my great-niece's first Birthday. At the time I'd seen a lot of rainbow clouds on the Internet and wanted to try it out myself, so found my cloud stencil and blended a lovely rainbow directly onto the card base. Then I looked through my stickers and found an image to go with the idea. 

I kept the colouring very simple because the stickers don't handle too much blending with alcohol inks. But since the banner happened to have just the right number of triangles, I personalized the card by adding her name.

Otherwise, I kept it simple. I stamped the sentiment directly into the clouds and reinforced the sticker with a piece of card stock so I could adhere it with foam tape. I also found a sticker to dress up the bright yellow envelope.

I love how the clouds turned out, clouds should be rainbow in real life...

XOXO 

Ela

Hello Kitty

 Hi Crafters, 

how are you?

I made today's card for a workmate who is in the process of adopting a kitten. 

I coloured the kitty like the one she is adopting with my ZIG markers. Then I did a bit of fiddly surgery and cut off the balloons with a craft knife and a straight edge. I glued the cat behind the polaroid frame and the balloons on top, to get a continuous image, and popped it up with foam tape. I love the contrast with the bold black stripes. 

I'll send it to her when she actually get to collect the new fur baby, with a few treats. I think she'll love it. 

Love

Ela

Happy Easter

Hello friends and happy Easter, 

I had this card base already prepared from another crafting session when I was assembling my Easter cards. Not wanting it to acquire feline bite marks or footprints, I decided to use it now and quickly stamped coloured and cut another chick, just like the others. 

I adhered the chicky with foam tape and added a simple Easter sentiment. I think the playful font goes well with the image. 

I also created my own envelope with one of my very old unused patterned papers, I am proud of myself for trying to finally use them up. 

I hope you will stay safe over Easter and still have a lovely time

Ela

Easter 2020

Hello Crafters, 

with Easter fast approaching, it's about time I finally share last year's Easter cards, before it's too late and I have to wait another year. 

I normally don't really send Easter cards, but with the current situation, I had to last year. And this year as well, as a matter of fact. Not usually needing them, I have VERY limited Easter supplies, which is why I completely made do without.

I used Spray Ink in red green and yellow to create the panels and an alphabet die set to cut out the letters for Easter (=Ostern). Then I cut apart a sentiment stamp and stamped the word happy (=frohe). 

Very simple, but effective.

Stay safe and healthy
Ela

 

Easter Chickies

Hello Everyone, 

how are you keeping up? Me personally, I've been sick of Corona measures for a long time now, but we are still sticking to them anyway. After all, it's worked for us so far, no one in the family has had it. 

Since we're not able to see people this year - again -  I made some Easter cards. 

Also, almost all of the supplies I used were a Birthday from the best Penpal there ever was (XOXO) and I wanted to play with them so, so, soo much. 

I started out without a clear idea, by stamping and colouring the chicks and cutting them out. I love that stamp, it's so cute and can be used for Easter cards, without screaming Easter... 

Then I decided to ground them on a wonkily stitched panel with some soft ink blending and a simple stamped sentiment. I tried a piercing die on one of the panels but liked it better without the pierced dots. 

Then I used 2 different background stamps on the card base. I liked the pink caleidoscope stamp well enough, but it was slightly too busy. And then I totally fell for the bold brush strokes. That's so versatile. So I tried it out in different colours of Oxides.

Which version do you like best?

For the envelopes, I decided to use up some very old patterned papers, that I never used and am not likely to miss. I picked matching colours or patterns as best I could. I am proud to finally have made use of these papers. 

Lots of love

Ela

Happy Birthday from the heart

Hello Everyone, 

how did the first week in 2021 go for you all?

I had 4 days off work last week, which was wonderful and desperately needed at that. I am not much looking forward to having to work again next week, but at least everyone will be back from their Christmas holidays. The last two weeks of December were very stressful...

Today, I'd like to share some die-cut inlay cards I made, with the is very intricate hearts die. 

 

I started out by inking a card panel to get some nice gradients. Then I cut the die from the inked panel and white and inlayed the coloured pieces three different ways, to see what worked best. 

For the first card, I stacked up the white harts, so they have dimension. For the second card, I didn't cut the coloured panel, but only made an impression with the die, thinking that might be easier, so I could just glue on the hearts. Did work too well. It was the first time using my embossing mat and I messed it up, so the cardstock cracked slightly in some places. It's not very noticeable, with the hearts adhered, so I still used it for a card. 

For the last card I went back to regular inlay, but this time I inlayed it flat and added some dimension behind the whole piece, not only the hearts.

I love how they all turned out, I'd love these in all kinds of colour combinations, but the intricate inlay is just a little much for mass production. 

Have a beautiful day

Ela

Happy New Year 2021

 Hello Crafters, 

I'd like to wish you all a happy and above all healthy new year. I sure hope 2021 will turn out better than 2020 did. 

I don't send out extra New Year's cards myself, since December is always a busy time. But my friend does and we have the (still new) tradition of me giving her a set of new year's cards for Christmas. 

This year I wanted to make an early start, while she still hadn't given me the latest count. So I decided on 25, assembly-line style, since the year before she had needed 20 cards.

First, I stamped each of the balloons individually with the main colour. I left the stamp in place in my stamping platform and stamped each balloon again, with a darker shade blended around the edge to achieve the shading. Then I set out to die-cut all the individual numbers and stacked them up for more dimension. After they were all ready, I blended on some yellow ink from the bottom and adhered them to the card base, using a straight edge to get them straight.

Next, I stamped, heat embossed and cut out all the sentiment strips. They read "healthy new year" in German. Before I adhered them, I loosely doodled in the balloon strings. 

Normally I would have put glossy accents on all of the balloons, but since they were so many I didn't do that this time. 

I was very glad to finish these cards in mid-November because I knew that would be the most involved Christmas present this year. 300 die-cuts, I must be losing it... 

Stay safe and healthy and a happy new year!

Ela

More Flamingos

 Hello Crafters, 

I hope you had a lovely Christmas, despite social distancing and reduced family opportunities. 

We sure did, even though it was sad not so see everyone. I am looking forward to having a full family Christmas again next year. With vaccinations started, I feel that by Christmas life should be better by Christmas. 

Since I am thinking pink for next year, I'll take the opportunity to share some more Flamingo cards today. They were both inspired by the incredible Jennifer her embossing folder techniques. 

I always feel that I don't use my embossing folders enough, especially this one. I love it because it's so unique. But it's not super versatile. 

So I made several impressions with different tones of ink and just added different sentiments on top. The last is a standard white impression, but I softly brushed some pink over the flamingo, to make it stand out more. 

As usual, I made them all Birthday cards, since this is what I use most of throughout the year. 

I hope you'll have a lovely New Year's Eve today. 

See you in 2021

Ela

Birthday Princess

Hi Crafters, 

today's card is a re-make of this card I made years ago. My daughter loved it so much, she wanted to re-create it for my niece's 2nd Birthday, which was 3 years ago today. Time surely flies. 

Happy 5th Birthday little one!

I think my girl will tell me off for showing her early works since she has made a lot of progress in her artwork in the past years. So please don't tell her.

I love her take on it and how much care she took.

Have a great day!
Ela

One layer stencilled Christmas card

Hello Crafters, 

I do hope you are still safe and healthy, wherever you are. And hopefully well on track with your Christmas preparations. 

I am not much in the mood this year, but at least I am less stressed about Christmas preparations than ever before in my adult life. I started early and am well on track at the moment. 

Today's card is one I actually made last year. We had two French exchange students staying at the time and had a little crafty session together. I made this simple one layer card with a stencil and some inks and sequins. Very simple, but I like that in a card. 

 

Have a lovely week!

Ela 

 

Hot pink Flamingo - Part 2

Hello Friends, 

and happy December. Can you believe it? Christmas panic is setting in. 

Here is the second Flamingo I promised you on Monday. 

As before, I coloured her in hot pink with my ZIG markers and fuzzy cut her out. Then I die-cut the letters to spell Birthday from black card stock and arranged them vertically on the card. The happy die-cut was once again coloured with alcohol markers since I don't have that bright pink card stock. I stacked it up for more dimension and adhered it across the Birthday.

So, which one is your favourite?

Have a lovely day

Ela 

Hot pink Flamingo

Hello Again, 

another week, who else doesn't want to go to work today?

To cheer you up, I have a hot pink flamingo card for you today. 

I love this cute flamingo girl so I started out colouring her with my ZIG markers in bright pink and cutting her out. Then I picked a bold sentiment die to be able to let her peek out from behind it. I couldn't quite decide on a colour for the sentiment, stuck between black, white and hot pink.

In the end, I die cut the sentiment from white card stock and coloured it black and pink with alcohol markers before stacking it up for more dimension. I love how that turned out. 

I thought the background was a bit bleak just plain white, so I chose the leftover negative space of a die-cut and adhered it to the card base. I also added the same flamingo on the envelope, just because it's so darn cute.

After I finished the card, I wanted to make the same card again, just different, but that's for another day. 

Have a lovely week

Ela

 

Personalized Birthday cards with alcohol inks

Hello Crafters, 

I am slowly working off all the cards I created last spring and summer. I wasn't even aware I did craft that much. It felt like I was completely out of Mojo all year, except for maybe the last 2 months. 

I had originally decided not to get any alcohol inks, on the basis that you can't have everything and that I'm not a professional crafter. Surprise: I caved and ordered some at the beginning of the first lockdown. 

When they arrived I created a bunch of panels just to try different colour combinations and try to achieve different looks. Basically to get to know them. 

Some of these panels are still around, but I think by now I managed to make most of them into cards. 

These two cards were created in much the same way, I die-cut the letters to spell out the recipient's names and added a heat embossed sentiment strip. 

 One of them I even forgot to send out in time, so I have that one for next year. 

Lots of Love and a happy weekend

Ela

Simple floral Birthday cards

Hello Friends, 

I hope you are still staying safe. 

We had a bit of an accident last week, my daughter dropped a glass bottle and couldn't stop in time, so she stepped right in the shards and cut her foot open deeply. Luckily I was able to stop the bleeding, so we could drive to the ER and get stitches. Both of us certainly could have done without that experience. I don't want to see any of mine bleeding like that ever again. 

Today, a week later, the wound is still very sore, but healing, without infection or complications. So, we are thankful for that. 

Today's card was inspired by the incredible Jennifer McGuire, please find her video here. I absolutely adore the dark grey card she created and wanted to use the same technique, without creating an identical card. So I used white card stock and different colour schemes and created a set of Birthday cards. 

Which one is your favourite? I think mine is the rainbow one because it's bright and fun and it reminds me of the LGTB flag, even if it has one additional stripe. I used Birthday sentiments because I need those the most, but especially that card could easily be modified to be a pride encouragement card. 

I think I'd like to make some more of those cards at some point because it's such an easy technique if you just need a card in a hurry. 

Wishing you a happy day

Ela

Hello Pirate

Hello Everyone, 

how are you?

Today's card is a piece of ancient history. 

I found this pirate card panel in my stencil storage basket when I was re-organizing my stencils into a file folder. I had created it way back and ruined it with some glue on the front that left a shiny spot. So I never used it, forgot all about it and obviously managed to drop it into that basked by accident.  

Pulling it out again, I thought the shiny spot wasn't soo bad after all. I wanted to make it work.

I wanted my card base pale blue but didn't have any card stock that pale. So I blended some blue ink onto a white card base. Then I distressed the edges of my panel and adhered it to the base.

I wanted the Hello sentiment in the same pale blue so I blended some more ink on another piece of card stock to cut the Hello out. I also stacked it up to give it more dimension. I added a black sentiment strip and some sequins in strategic spots and now the shiny spot is still visible, but not very obvious anymore. 

I like how this card turned out, even though it's not quite my usual style. 

So, what do we learn? Mistakes are just an opportunity for embellishments! 

And probably that I am less of a perfectionist these days than I was in the past. 

Love

Ela

 

Rainbow street

Hello friends, 

how is life treating you? 

This is another card that I already made last summer. My daughters had a huge Playmobil dollhouse, that I meant to sort out when we moved 2 years ago. At that time, they were neither ready to let it go, nor to have it in their rooms, because it is huge. 

So we kept it in the hall, for the toddlers in the family when they came visiting. But it still was in the way, so last summer I decided to give it to my niece's children, who are still young enough to get a full childhood's worth of joy out of it. 

She lives about 5 hours drive away, and usually, we see each other at least once a year, but this summer I didn't know if we could go visiting, so I decided to mail it. 

Since I needed a card to go with it, I decided on houses as the general theme. I die cut the houses from white card stock and coloured them in rainbow colours with my alcohol markers. Then I grounded them on a dry embossed panel which I popped up from the card base. I also added just very faint blue ink blending to the card base, to set off the white panel and added a black sentiment strip. 

I added a vellum envelope because I love them and bright and colourful cards usually look great through the vellum. The downside is that I don't mail vellum envelopes, I use them either for hand-delivered cards or cards that go in a parcel. 

Have a lovely weekend

Ela