Challenge up your life!

Hello Crafters,

Challenge up your life is back! From November on there will be bi-weekly challenges on 

And I am so proud and happy to announce, that I will be part of the design team. 

Before we start with the first challenge on the 1st of November, we are introducing the design team members, so if you like, please hop over and check us out.


Love
Ela

Chalkboard Birthday

Hey crafters,


I've been making a lot of non-birthday cards lately, but this week-end I wanted to do some more Birthday cards. You can never have to many....

I think this Happy Birthday stamp is perfect for a chalkboard look, so I wanted to try that.

 

I paired it the make a wish stamp from the same set, just to make  the sentiment even larger. I heat embossed it in white on my black panel and stamped it a second time with white pigment ink, slightly offset to create a shadow effect. I also stamped the swirls and stars from the set, though only once and added an uneven frame with a white gel pen. 

When all had dried I used a dry baby wipe to add some more white ink mostly around the edges to create the chalkboard look. Then I adhered it to a simple red card base and stamped and doodled the envelope to make it  match.

Looking at it now from a distance of two days I am impressed that I managed to use three different sentiments from one set all on one card. And all the tiny lines and stars too. 

Now I am off to bed, I am not feeling all too well tonight. Better get some sleep.

Have a great time

Ela

Challenges:

Seize the Birthday: Anything goes Birthday

Virginia's View: clean & simple

Creative Friday: #113 Gestalte einen Umschlag / Create an envelope

Birthday cards

Hey Crafters,

Did you have a good week-end? We sure did, though the weather wasn’t too great. We spent the day in a theme park and I am still not sure if the kids had more fun or their Dad. He's very much into coasters lately. Anyway, it was great, only today we’re all so tired. None of us got up well.

So I’ll just quickly show you two cards I created on Saturday. They both use mostly the same colors and techniques.

I wanted to create a very simple card, with partial stenciling and a rather male color palette. So I used my wavy stencil and some blue and teal inks. I also picked a grey, but unfortunately I grabbed the wrong sponge, so my grey has a rather brownish tinge. Let’s call it a warm grey.

For the second card I used a butterfly stencil to mask of most of the card and leave only the butterfly. I discarded the grey and used antique linen instead and added a little black soot on the top to darken the blue.

Both sentiments are from the same set and so are the stars and swirls.

I also created matching envelopes with the same stencils and colors.

Have a great day

Ela

Challenges:

Creative Friday: #113 Gestalte einen Umschlag / Create an envelope

Crazy for CAS: #55 One layer stamped card

Another Christmas tag

Hey Crafters,

how are you today?

I had lots of fun making that tag the other day, so I went ahead and created another one.

I cut the tag myself, because I don't have a tag die. Then I stamped a lot of tiny snowflakes all over the tag with Versamark ink and embossed it with fine white embossing powder. When it had cooled I carefully sponged on just a little teal and blue ink, fading out towards all sides. 

Then I die cut a large snowflake from white cardstock and two smaller ones from vellum. I clear embossed the largest snowflake twice to give it a nice shine. 
Then I used a strip of torn vellum to stamp the sentiment on and clear embossed it so the ink wouldn't smudge. To stack the snowflakes onto the vellum  I used a brad and then I adhered the vellum at the back of the tag. To hide the glue I covered the back with another tag of the same size.

As I didn't have a matching ribbon or string I used my inkpads to dye two white pieces of ribbon. I had intened to use the color that matched better after it had dried, but I ended up using both.


Bye
Ela


Challenges:
The Friday Mashup: Tag it!

A Christmas tag

Hi Everyone,

tody I have something different  to show you, a tag. 
I know, that's not so unusual, but I seldom make any, so for me it is. 

I cut a piece of dark red cardstock to shape and inked the edges with antique linen and a tiny bit of vintage foto. Then I cut a slightly smaller panel from a polka dot paper, inked that as well and adhered it on the base. The strip across is from another sheet of patterned paper, the florishes were already printed on. I just fuzzy cut the one overlapping the printed red line, glued it down and stamped the sentiment in dark brown ink.

Then I die cut the stars with the Paper Smooches dies from the same patterned papers, but using the other sides. The small banner on the top is hand cut and the back is covered with the same paper as the horizontal strip. As the last step I added a few drops of glossy accents.

I think I should make some more soon, Christmas is coming. And it was fun, working on a smaller scale.


Have a nice day
Ela


Challenges:
Paper Smooches: Anything goes
Friday Mashup: #181 Tag it

Freshly Made Sketches: #157 by Amy

Creative Friday Favorite

Hi Everyone,

did I ever tell you: I love challenges. It's so much fun to let yourself be inspired by a theme someone else gave you. And it's espacially rewarding of course, if you win.

Coming to the point: I won the Creative Friday Challenge #111 Sterne / Stars with this card!

 

I am especially glad that this card won, because I made a lot of Cards for this Challenge, I think even more than allowed. Sorry again for that, got carried away... Anyway, this was my personal favorite of my starry cards.

Thanks so much to the team of Creative Friday!

Love

Ela

Tiny leaves - Thinking of you

Hey Crafters,

today's card was inspired by wonderfully talented Julia from Just one more card. She recently created a fabulous wreath with tiny little autumn leaves. When I saw it, it reminded me that I also have such tiny leaves in a stampset, so I absolutely wanted to use  these.

But of course I wanted a different look, so I combined that idea with some other challenges, and that's how it turned out.

I stamped an irregular strip of random leaves with vintage foto distress ink. Then I used some more distress inks to watercolor the leaves, fully aware that the stamped image would bleed and mix with the colors. I really like how that turned out. 

Then I stamped the banner and sentiment with brown ink on another piece of watercolor paper and fuzzy cut it. 

Used a store bought envelope (off-while, same as the card base and the watercolor panel) and stamped and colored some more of the leaves. See how the leaves at the top are darker? That just happened unintentionally, but I really like it.


Hope you have a fantastic fall week-end
Ela



Challenges:
Creative Friday: #113 Gestalte einen Umschlag / Create an envelope
Simon says stamp: Use watercolors
Less is more: Autumn Bounty
Virginia's View: clean & simple
CAS(E) this Sketch: #96

Just wavin' Hello

Hi Everyone,

Finally Friday, isn’t that great? I am looking forward to this week-end very much.

Today I’d like to show you the underwater card I created last night. I personally think it’s way too busy, but I know the kids will probably go crazy about it.

First I stamped and colored all the little critters and plants with my Stylefile markers, fuzzy cut them out and blackened the edges with a Tombow marker

To create the background, I cut a sheet of printer paper in two with a wavy line. Then I used one half to mask off the top and sponged on the sandy ground with antique linen distress ink. Then I moved the mask  down and over a bit and sponged a second layer, to make it look more dimensional.

After I finished the ground I masked off the sand with the other half of the sheet and used a wavy stencil and blue and teal ink to sponge the water. Unfortunately my stencil isn’t wide enough, and you can see the area in the middle were I had to shift the stencil. I had hoped that would turn out less obvious.

With the card base finished, I heat embossed the sentiment on the top right corner, before arranging the animals. I stamped the bubbles directly onto the card base and added glossy accents for a bit of interest. Then I added tiny brown and white dots to the sand, for some more texture.

Last I stamped the wale and the turtle in light grey ink onto the envelope and the inside of the card.

Have a great week-end

Ela

Challenges:
Stempelküche: Marker 

All words: Merry Christmas

 Hello Everyone,

what a sad and rainy day it has been today. The right weather to stay home and craft. And I really planned to do that, because their Daddy picked up the kids from school and with the shopping  all done before work, I could have stayed home all day. (I am working from homeoffice mostly). 

If only my cardreader hadn't quit service today. But it did in the late afternoon, when I tried to upload this card. I didn't want to wait 'til tomorrow, so I went and bought a new card reader after all.

And here's the card that couldn't wait until tomorrow. Very simple this time.

I used a craft cardbase and stamped the sentiment, which means merry Christmas in German, in SU early espresso ink. Then I added the same sentiment all around it, filling the whole card, with white pigment ink. I cut a small slit into the fold, threaded the ribbon through and made a bow just underneath the focal sentiment.

Then I used the same sentiment on the envelop in red and espresso to tie in the red ribbon.
I am thinking about rounding the top right corner, but I'm not entirely sure yet. What do you think?


Wish you all a great day
Ela



Challenges:
Virginia's View: clean & simple

A whale of a time

Hi Everyone,

How are you? Hope your week has started well!

I’ve been trying out my new alcohol markers, developing my hopefully soon-to-be coloring skills. Mostly I just colored, without creating actual cards, but I did create a few birthday cards (see precious posting). And – my whole pride – this card:

I used a wavy stencil and some blue and teal inkpads to sponge the water. Then I just adhered the colored animals and stamped the curved sentiment. I admit, I am pretty proud of the coloring.

I did not yet create an envelope, but I plan to use the same stencil and inks on the envelope.

I also created another one from the birthday card, on craft this time.

Have a great day

Ela

Challenges:
Virginia's View: clean & simple
Keep it simple: Drei / Three
Stempelküche: Marker