Watercolored humming birds

Hello Everyone,

Yesterday I found some time to CAS(e) the 2^nd card I had in mind for the Create a Smile challenge. I picked this card by Marina. I loved the rainbow monsters, I think they are so cute and bright.

However, I also wanted to try mirror images, so I picked the humming bird and stamped it with antique linen four times along the border of my water color panel, twice the right way and twice mirrored. In order to get the mirror impressions, I inked up the stamp and stamped it to the Paper Smooches Dude Block, to transfer the ink to it. Then I stamped the dude block where I wanted it on the panel. The mirrored image is much fainter than the original, so you'll have to trace it with a pen to get a clear outline.

I skipped that step, because the faint outline was just what I wanted to do no-line coloring. I had to do a bit of guesswork to color the mirrored birds, but it was quite doable.

As I could only fit four birds, I had to move away from rainbow colors. Instead I chose blues and greens and colored the birds with those. No-line coloring is really hard for me, that’s why I wanted to practice, with this simple image. But I feel I failed again, I am not all that happy with my coloring. 

I used the piece anyway, cut off the right edge along the birds and trimmed the panel to the size I wanted. Then I adhered it with foam tape to a black card base and added the sentiment banner, also with foam tape. To finish it off I scattered a few green and blue sequins and picked a bright green envelop.

When all was done, I was surprised about how much I liked the finished card, even though I was not really happy with the coloring.

I hope you all do have a good day

Ela

Challenges:

Create a Smile:  CAS(e) the DT 
The daily marker: 30 days coloring 
Simon says stamp: Anything goes

Guesting for The Alley Way Stamps - Part 2

Hello Crafters,


as you may have read, I am a guest designer for The Alley Way Stamps this month. I am so glad and grateful to have been given this chance. 

So, without further ado, here is the third card I created for TAWS.

When I first saw the set Petal Pushers  it immediately screamed out to me: Doodle. So I absolutely wanted to try and create some faux doodling with the smaller images from the set.

I picked a water color panel I had done and not used earlier (for Elsa) and stamped the images directly onto it in black ink. I started with the bold negative flower as a center and started to build my doodle from there.

As a sentiment I picked the Hello there from the same set and white embossed it on a black cardstock banner. Then I cut a vellum banner to match and adhered it off center underneath the black banner. I only adhered the right side, so the forked ends can fly up a bit.

Then I decided to sew on the banners as well, but my sewing machine failed me and I ended up with a very crooked pierced line and no thread. So in the end I hand stitched most of it. At last I added a few white accents with a gel pen and rounded the corners.

For my next card I wanted to do something bright and bold with alcohol markers, so I picked the border stamp from Petal Pushers and stamped it at an angle across a front panel several times. 

Then I chose some bright alcohol markers and colors in the image and cut along the top line. I white embossed the German sentiment (Birthday wishes) along the line of my panel onto a bright green card base, doodled a white border for just a little bit extra and adhered the panel with foam pads.

I immensely enjoyed being a guest designer for TAWS, thanks Chrissie and Alison for the chance. I'll be happy to do that again any time.


Wishing you all a great time
Ela 


Challenges:
The daily marker: 30 days coloring
Addicted to CAS: #59 green

Unchanging Chameleon

Hi Crafters,

for the next two weeks, Create a Smile Stamps are challenging us, to let ourselves be inspired by their design team. They are a new stamp company, based in Germany, with a fabulous international design team. 

I immediately wanted to participate. I picked this card by Christine, because the grey outlines really appealed to me and besides they made me want to use the “you color my world” sentiment and the chameleon which are in my only Create a Smile stamp set.

 I masked off a border, stamped the image in grey ink and traced the outline with a grey alcohol marker, fading it out. Then I cut out and colored my focal Chameleon and created the sentiment banner. Instead of enamel arrows I used green and yellow sequins, which I found more fitting for my version of the card, because a Chameleon is not smooth and shiny, but rather a little rough.

I really enjoyed making this card and I am pleased with the outcome and I already have another card in mind, that I'd really like to re-create. I should make more time for crafty Challenges. 

That’s it from me for today,  have a bright day

Ela

Challenges:

Create a Smile:  CAS(e) the DT
Stempelküche: #15 Vierbeiner
The daily marker: 30 days coloring 
Addicted to CAS: #59 green

Hang in there

Hey Crafters,

today I'd like to show you a whole set of cards, but before I do so I need to tell you:

The idea was not mine, I got it from wonderful Jennifer McGuire. Please visit her blog, if you don't already do that regularly. It's absolutely worth it. And please also check out her original card here.

When I saw her cat hanging in there, I just knew I wanted to do something similar. And with Newton's Nook "Hanging around" I had just the stamp set for it. So I stamped all of these animals and also two from Create a Smile and colored them with alcohol markers  before cutting them out. Then I chose brightly colored card bases and stamped them with tone-on-tone tiny images (clouds, berries, nuts, clothes pins and feathers). I added matching twine and some neutral (grey and craft) and white panels to assemble the cards.

I really like how they turned out, though I wish I had a banana stamp for the  monkey and a ball of wool for the cat. I used clothes pins instead for these two card bases, but they are difficult to see.

Jennifer, I really love your idea! Thanks for letting me share these cards.


Love
Ela

Challenges:
Stempelküche: Vierbeiner 
The daily marker: 30 days coloring 
Addicted to CAS: #59 green

Challenge up your life: Challenge #11 Easter

Hi Crafters, 

it's Challenge day again, over at

This time we are Challenging all of you, who are not yet done with Easter cards:

Challenge #11 Easter

 

For me, this was quite hard, I don't have many Easter stamps in my stash. So I had to think of something else. I decided to stamp a large egg with tiny flowers. So I cut a negative mask and used a Wplus9 stamp for the flowers. Then I used Gelatos to create a watercolor background. I should have done it the other way round, then the outlines would have been more crisp.

Then I used some green scraps of paper to mat the corners and created a banner for the sentiment.

To be honest, I am not so happy with my card, I hope that I'll like it better tomorrow. I really should take up the Challenge myself and craft a few more Easter cards.

Have a great time!

Ela

Guesting for The Alley Way Stamps

Hello Everyone,

BIG News:
This month (March) I am joining the marvelous design team over at The Alley Way Stamps as a guest designer. I am so excited and proud, I still can't believe it. Thanks Alison and Chrissie for the opportunity!
I simply love TAWS stamps, the images are so versatile and playful and the fonts are just great! And they are really good quality. 

So, here is my first card as a guest designer.

For this card I used the set Petal Pushers and picked the large rose image. I stamped it several times all over the water color panel. Then I water colored all the roses in grey, except the focal one, which I colored pink. I tried to create depth with a little shading. 

While the roses dried I picked a grey card base and created a pink mat for the main panel. As I didn't have matching pink cardstock I sponged pink distress in on the edges of a white piece of cardstock. The sentiment is from Monster Mash. It actually says "My imaginary friend said you're special", which I think is so cool. But this time I just masked off the first part and only stamped and embossed "you're special".

When all was dry I cut a small slit along the edge of the pink rose and tucked in the banner before assembling the card.



For the second card I also used Petal Pushers and picked the small bloom which reminded me of flying dandelion seeds. I stamped and embossed several of them on water color paper, to make it look like they were flying off. Thinking about flying seeds and the magic of nature, I figured out which sentiment I wanted and pieced it from the set Christmas Magic.

 

From the magic of nature, I drifted to magic wands and flying rainbow sparks, so I decided magic means rainbow (which is again magic of nature).
I wet the paper with clear water, creating an irregular shape with uneven edges. Then I just dropped in the colors in rainbow order and let the water do the main work, helping it along here and there with my brush. 

After I was happy with the colors and the panel had dried, I wiped off the color from the embossing to make it shine and mounted the panel with foam tape onto another grey card base. As finishing touched I added a few small rhinestones, because magic needs to be sparkly, doesn't it?


I do hope you like what I created, because I definitely love creating with these wonderful stamps.

Have a great time
Ela


Challenges:
The daily marker: 30 days coloring

Birthday shaker card

Hi Crafters,

I hope you're all doing well!

My girls had the best surprise ever for me today: 
On Saturdays they have a standing date with their grandparents for breakfast, which means that in theory I can sleep in on Saturdays, because my in-laws live just upstairs - in theory.

In real life, my girls used to wake me up my crashing down my bedroom door at half past 6, jumping on my bet and yelling at the top of their lungs "MOM, YOU CAN SLEEP IN TODAY, WE'RE LEAVING FOR GRANNY'S!"
Yeah, let's talk about sleep...

Now that they are older, they are not doing that anymore, but they still wake me early every Saturday, usually by fighting over clothes, or shoes, or whatever. And I really hate that, there's nothing worse than wake up early to loud bickering.

Today however, when I woke up, they had left already and I never heard a word... That was soo nice for a change! I admit, I am not a morning person. That one day a week meant so much to me, when we first arranged it with my in-laws... 

Anyhow, I have another card to show you, and this one is way before the deadline. The birthday it's meant for is in mid-June. 

When I created Elsa, I had an embossed snowflake background in mind, right from the start. But I also created two water color panels in icy blues, just to see what I liked better. In the end I went with the embossing, so I used one of the leftover panels for this card.

My Inktense pencils are my go to medium for the water coloring. I have a set of 36, which gives me a nice choice of colors. I used them for this panel taking the color directly from the tip onto wet cardstock. 

For the tag I used wood grain cardstock, which I darkened just a little with distress ink. My water color paper is slightly off white, so the bright white cardstock just didn't match. Then I cut the letters into the tag with my brand-new Cole's ABC from Lawn Fawn. 

To tie in the dark purple on the panel I picked my darkest purple cardstock, created the envelope and cut a second tag for the heat embossed sentiment. I wanted the cut out letters to show the blue backgrounds, so I cut off part of the purple tag and glued it to the white one. 

You can't really see it on the picture, it's even hard to see in real life, but this is a shaker card. I glued a piece of vellum behind the letters, popped the tags up on foam and filled the shaker with sequins. 
I probably should have used clear acetate instead. I thought the muted look would be cool, but the area is just not large enough, so it doesn't really show. 

For a final touch I added a few sequins outside the shaker. Unfortunately I didn't have purple ones, so I took light aqua clear sequins and colored them with an alcohol marker.


I do hope you have a great week-end
Ela



Challenges:
CAS on Sunday: #53 girl power
Seize the Birthday: Anything goes Birthday

Challenge up your life: Challenge #10 Maskulin / Masculine

Hi Crafters, 

it’s challenge time again, over at 

This time, we are challenging you with something that many of us find a bit difficult: To create a masculine card.

Challenge #10 Maskulin / Masculine Card

I decided to create a graffiti style thank you card, using the die cut inlay technique. 

 

I chose one of my new favorite word dies and die cut the word “thanks” from my main panel at an angle. Then I colored it in blue and green, trying to achieve a nice blended effect and pieced all the bits back in, so it would be flat again. To do so, I covered a small piece of ordinary printer paper with adhesive and added it to the back of the panel, behind the word. This way, you don’t need to bother with glue on all the small pieces.

Then I chose a few thanks you sentiment stamps and stamped them in black, grey, blue and green over and along the die cut word. When all was stamped I glued the panel on top of a white card base.

I didn’t like the first try that much, so I created a similar panel, using fewer stamps and a better arrangement. This panel I cut a bit smaller than my standard card and adhered it to a bright green card base. Which one do you like better?

I happened to have colored envelopes that  match perfectly, so I picked those to go with the cards and didn’t add any stamping.

I hope you do join in and have lots of fun with this Challenge.

Love

Ela

Elsa Birthday card (Frozen)

Hello Everyone,

I think - I hope - I might be back. I created a Birthday card and managed that without a looming deadline. If I am, I owe it to two dear friends.

One is my ex hubby, who unexpectedly decided that it's time the kids learn the Internet Basics. He got them two Chromebooks for Easter (to be given by the whole family) and asked me to try them out and get familiar with them. So I used the opportunity to read a lot of blog posts I missed lately, during my crafty low. 
I must say, I really like how fast and lightweight the Chromebook is. And the fact that I can read in bed or on the couch where it's comfy. The girls will love them - and I will have to beg them to lend one to me. Hope they are not as strict about them, as I am about TV and computer games... 
I can well imagine them telling me, that after a whole workday screen time, I really needn't spend any more time in front of a monitor. 

The other person is a friend I met in my girls' playgroup. She asked me to help her with preparations for her daughter's birthday party. So we'll spend a happy craft night next Tuesday and I am REALLY looking forward to that. And I already created the Birthday card. 

The theme of the party will be Frozen, so I wanted to create a matching card. I also wanted to try the no line technique a bit more. So far I haven't had much success with that. 

I printed Elsa from the Internet and copied the lines with a light Tombow marker onto watercolor paper. Then I water colored her in with my Inktense pencils. 

I admit, I am not entirely happy. The lines were still too dark and didn't disappear fully. Especially at the hair. I also thought the hair was too blond, I would have liked it lighter. I added a lot of white gel pen lines to lighten it, but that didn't work as well as I hoped. 

But I am still ok with the completed image, and I think Bianca will be quite happy with it.

After the piece had dried, I cut it out, added some black lines to define the eyes and some Wink of Stella on the dress and the eye shadow. I also added silver pearl pen dots to the dress.

Then I dry embossed the card front with a snowflake embossing folder and sponged on some soft pool ink to emphasize the snowflakes and create a halo around the image, which I adhered with foam tape. Then I added a few random sequins  in blues and teals.

I picked a blue envelope, die cut the white letters for the name and adhered them to the front. As an afterthought I decided to use some more Wink of Stella on them and stamp a few snowflakes with white pigment ink. 

As I often do with cards that feature cartoon heroes, I didn't use a sentiment, but let Elsa take center stage.

I hope you all have a brilliant day
Ela


Challenges:
Virginia's View: All things embossed
Simon says stamp: Special Lady / girly
CAS on Sunday: #53 girl power
The daily marker: 30 days coloring

Challenge up your life: Challenge #9 One Layer

Hello everyone,

I am still having trouble with my mojo. I really do hope it'll be back soon, maybe now that spring is in the air. 

Anyhow, today is Challenge time again, over at 

I missed out one challenge, so this is

Challenge #9 One Layer

I grabbed the chance to create a birthday card for my friend's little girl, who is three today. 

 Happy Birthday little Nala!

My daughters wanted to take part in my craft session. So I went back to something I wanted to do with them ever since I first saw the cute new "in print" stamp set by clearly besotted: our own fingerprint animal cards. I love that, there are so many possibilities to create fingerprint animals...

For this card, the idea was that the butterflies would fly out from the sentiment.

My friend and her daugther aren't much into pink and girly, so we went for rainbow colors instead. Probably a bit of a guilty conscience, because I missed the rainbow challenge two weeks ago. I picked and stamped the rather large sentiment and my girls created the butterflies with their fingerprints and a copic multiliner.

When I tried to pick a matching envelope I found that none of my colored ones match the colors on the card, except the green, so green it is once again. Seems that green is my new teal...

So, that's it for today. I hope you'll join us in creating a one layer card and maybe try your own fingerprint animals.

Happy crafting

Ela