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

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

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

 

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

Corona cards

Hello Crafters, 

since we are back in the grip of the pandemic, I feel like I might get the chance to send out these cards soon. 

My daughter doodled this digital virus for me, so I printed it all over a sheet of paper and created two cards with simple Hello sentiments. 

The stripey background was created with alcohol markers and a straight edge, just using different shades and varying between the chisel tip and the bullet tip. I popped up the panel and added a heat embossed sentiment. 

For the second card, I used coloured card stock for the base and popped up the coloured virus as well as the panel. I also added a grey shade to each of the viruses.

That's it for today, I hope you all stay safe and healthy. 

Ela 

Just a note

 Hello Crafters, 

how is life treating you? 

My daughters' school is now back to hybrid schooling, meaning that only part of the class will be at school, while the other half will work from home. 

While this is putting a bit more stress into my working hours, I am glad to endure this for the sake of the reduced infection risk. It is no big price to pay, considering that my girls are already teenagers. They mostly do their school work with merely the occasional nudge from me. 

Today's card I created back during the first Corona lockdown. I had a small gift for a friend, a stamp set that I thought she might like, and since I am impatient, I decided to send it by mail. 

I kept the card very simple and just stencilled a few wildflowers onto my card panel. Since I needed to use a rather bleak envelope, I stamped this huge succulent to the front and added some shading with alcohol markers. 

Please, stay safe wherever you are. 

Ela

Hello fellow crafters, 

today I'd like to show you two very clean Birthday cards, with a shaker sticker I found at a Euro store. I loved these instantly and wanted them to shine. So I spelt out Birthday in die-cut letters and coloured them in rainbow colours. Then I added the sticker with a bit off a doodled string to the letter A and a black sentiment strip with the word Happy to complete the sentiment. 

 I love how both of them turned out. I still have a few of those stickers, so I might make more of these. 

Have a lovely start into the new week
Ela

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

Happy 4th Birthday

Hi Crafters, 

today is my niece's 4th Birthday. Happy Birthday sweetheart, even if you can't read it!

I coloured the little fairy, which is a customisable sticker, not a stamp with Polychromos pencils. I haven't used them in a while, so I kept it simple. 

Then I die cut the numbers from white card stock and picked an alcohol marker that looked very similar to the dress. I actually coloured the number 4 three times. I got a dark smudge on the first, with the second I realised, that the colour wasn't right so I re-did it again, using two markers for a tiny bit of a gradient. I also created a sentiment strip with the same markers and stamped "we congratulate" on it. 

When I fuzzed about the assembly, I thought it was too much white, especially since it's for a little girl, not an adult. So I added soft pink ink blending behind the fairy. Now I am very happy with the result and hope my little Sweety will like it as well. 

We'll be visiting her to celebrate later today. 

Truthfully, while I am usually always happy to see my litle nieces, this time I would rather stay home with my sick cat. I am desperate. She still won't eat and by now she's only skin and bones. This is not an old cat and until last week she has been healthy. But now I seriously fear she might starve in front of my eyes.
I am seeing the vet again later today.
 

Keep your fingers crossed for my feline baby, please
Ela

Another coffee rainbow

Hi Crafters, 

how do you feel today? 

I most certainly feel like coffee. Unfortunately there is none in the house.

Our French exchange students have been with us almost a week now and they are very lovely girls. Very friendly and open, really nice. But communication is difficult. The 4 girls have been learning each others languages for only 2 years, and while I have studied French for 5 years at school, that was really long ago. I am rather shocked how much of it is gone. It's enough for the basic stuff, but not enough to keep a proper conversation up. I really wish they'd speak English, that would have been so much easier. Tomorrow morning they are leaving already.

My cat has had X-ray done yesterday, but the vet didn't find the cause for her lack of appetite. The has has painkillers and antibiotics again, but she still won't eat. She's always been small and slight, but now she's skin and bones. I am getting desperate.


To the card:
Since I created this card and found my cactus stamp was slightly too big - or maybe just placed wrong - I was looking at my stash on the look out for the perfect image. And I found it or rather them. They are three different to-go coffee cups. I think I will have to create that card again with these. 

But today, I developed the idea into a different direction. I wanted the grey cups, the fading shadows and a prominent rainbow cup. But instead of a rectangle I created a line of cups, popping up the bright rainbow cup on foam tape. 

But that was a bit blank, so I added some stencilled coffee rings before I adhered the bright cup. This was better, but I still wanted more colour. Since the sentiment was still missing, I decided to create a rainbow strip and stamp a simple sentiment on it and stick it across the grey cups. 

Unfortunately I used a sentiment that turned out slightly too large for my taste, so I cut it down. Not sure I like how I solved this, maybe I should just have created another rainbow strip and re-done it with a smaller sentiment. I do have lots of Happy Birthday sentiments after all. 
Even though I never seem to have the perfect sentiment for what I am creating at any given time. 

So, that's it for me, I'm off to make coffee hot chocolate. 
Hugs
Ela

Christmas Poinsettia

Hello Crafters, 

are you gearing up for Christmas? 
Since Thanksgiving is being celebrated much earlier and very differently in Germany, I am concentration fully on Christmas preparations, even though there are a lot of family Birthdays coming up in the next few weeks as well.  I am determined not to let it get as bad as usual, especially since last Christmas was extremely stress full. 

We decided to move at the end of October, used all of November for packing boxes, received the new keys on the 1st of December and then had to paint the place and move. I think we first slept in the new place round about the 20th of December 2018, surrounded by packing boxes and chaos.

So, this year's motto is: get it ready early, I'll fall behind my schedule soon enough anyway.

For my girls I pretty much already have all the gifts I'll need. I may still add small things I find during December, but if nothing comes up I'll be fine with what I have. But I still need lots of things for the advent calendar, and those I will need by the week-end.



All the small children in the family shouldn't be too difficult either. There is now 5 of them between ages 2 months and 4 years. 

I also have an idea for my Ex and my sister and I arranged years ago, not to give anything among the grown-ups, only the children. So that's done. 

But my in-laws and parents will be tough. And I would really like to get most things during Black Friday week.

For my close friends here in our new town, I actually got the present back in May. We went to a sales exhibition and there was this booth of a local board game company, so while we were there we got them an expansion set for a board game they already have. 

My other close friend doesn't want me to spend much money, because she knows about my car which has just needed very expensive repairs. So she is wishing for handmade stuff, a set of cards for herself, handmade pet snacks for her daughter, who volunteers for a local animal shelter. They always have rabbits and guinea pigs in the garden for that organisation. And I thought we might take a walk in the woods and find some natural materials, like large pieces of bark to hide and chew. If the weather clears up anytime soon. And for the boys she'll have to come back to me.

So there is still lots to do, especially since I still need a cartload of cards to send out myself, in addition to the cards for my friend, I better get moving.


This one will certainly not go into mass production, though I like how it turned out a lot. During the process it gave me so much trouble, I almost gave up. 

I used my ZIG markers to colour the image and added some shading with grey alcohol markers, for more dimension. Then I added the gold embossing over the completed image and along the edges and adhered the image to a simple black card base.

I added a Christmas red envelope and embossed the outline on it. 

I love that stamp, I think I might have to challenge myself to try a white poinsettia as well. 

Lots of Love
Ela



Challenges:
Addicted to Stamps and More: #368 Holiday
Creative Friday: #244 red and gold
Always fun Stamping: #138 Anything goes
TCP: #363 Holidays

Another 3rd Birthday

Hello Crafters, 

I hope you had a good week-end. I certainly did, I spent the whole of Saturday crafting at the community centre. Paper crafting from 2 to 4 pm and making a Christmas wreath from 6 to 9 pm. 

I picked water colours for the first session and a tutorial Lindsay posted a while back for my inspiration and this is the final result.

 

 
I changed it up quite a bit though, since I wasn't working on water colour paper, I didn't dare use all the splatters, that was just too scary. Also the water colour palette wasn't my own, and it looked so nice and clean, that I didn't dare actually use the mising area, so I picked the colours up directly, which made it all much darked than I had planned. And I also dislike how long I made the path, before it disappears in the distance, and that I didn't make it wider close up. 
I think next time, I'll bring my own palette and brushes to mix.

Despite the fact, that I am unhappy with so many details, I kind of like the overall impression and vibrancy. 

My wreath, I'll have to show you another day, I didn't take a good picture yet, all finished with the candles on (I left those off for the transport home). 

But, to the card: We had another 3rd Birthday boy in my family and since this is the other side of the family, I decided to make it easy for myself and re-create the same Dino card I made a few weeks ago. Those boys will rarely ever meet and certainly not compare cards, so they'll never know. 

Also, I really liked how it turned out. 

So, here is the first version: 

And this is last night's take on it:

Since the images are stickers, I had to use different ones, but otherwise it is much the same.

Have a wonderful day

Ela

Challenges: 
Seize the Birthday: Anything goes Birthday

CASEing Cactus

Hi Crafters,

how are you doing?
Did I say "all will be well" last week? Turned out there was still another blow to come: my car needs expensive repairs, that ruined my week-end quite a bit and I wasn't much in a mood to create.

But I have recovered from the lack of motivation and created a card last night.

To overcome the block, I remembered this card I loved a lot, that created years ago and decided to use the same concept again.

It was actually a CASE itself, at the time there was a challenge to CAS(e) the Design team of create a smile.

 I really loved how my chameleon turned out, so I decided to re-create it with a different stamp and sentiment. So here is my new take on it:
 

I like the first attempt better, I think I should have used smaller stamp. The way it is, it's mostly just cups of the muted images.


Lots of love
Ela

Another Butterfly card

Hello Crafters,

today it's my daughter's turn again. She was inspired by the water coloured butterfly I created a while ago and wanted to use the same stamp.  But then she liked this smaller butterfly better.

 
She used alcohol markers to colour it in shades of lavender and purple. I love the blending she achieved. She picked a grey card base and a white panel and embossed the panel with a 3D embossing folder. Then she added a sentiment die cut, which she also coloured with a lavender gradient. 

I love it, when my girls are creative with me, it's always a relaxed time between us, which isn't always the case. 13 being the age, when parents start to get (even more) strange and embarrassing... 


Wishing you all a nice day
Ela






Challemges:
AAA Cards: #152 Maxi white space +geometric

 

Murphy's wreath

Hello Crafters, 

I hope you are all well. I had a nice surprise yesterday, to cheer me up. My Llama card made it in the top three over at Cardz 4 Guyz. Thanks you so much!

Today's card on the other hand, is a bit of a catastrophe, I am still not sure I'd really like to show it. 

I loved how my wreath turned out the other day, so I wanted to use the same stamp again, but create a different card.

I decided to heat emboss it on a piece of vellum and colour it from the back with my alcohol markers. That turned out very muted which I had expected, but still didn't like. So I added more colour from the front, taking care not to touch the embossing too much. That was much better, but got lost a bit on the striped background I had created with my metallic water colours. 
  So, I dared to double up the vellum. Since I didn't want the adhesive to show, I covered the complete area with liquid glue, believing the markers already dry. Well, they were not, if you look closely you can see quite a bit of bleeding around the image. 

That's when I was ready to trash it, but my youngest insisted for me to continue and decide that the bleeding was deliberate... 

So I cut out the wreath, leaving a border and adhered it to my silver striped card base with tiny pieces of foam squares - that's the upside, the double vellum and colour completely hides the adhesive.

Wanting to dress up the matching envelope, I added the same stripes to the flap and framed the address area. But I really didn't like how that looked, so I also added a few whimsical flowers, which I thought matched the wreath in style and coloured them with ZIG markers - not alcohol this time.

I still think this card is not right, maybe I should have added a black edge (tried that, looked like a sympathy card)? Or doodled stitching? Or trashed it after all? But since it's finished now, I'll keep it. Maybe inspiration strikes in a week or two... 
Any suggestions are welcome.


Hugs
Ela



Challenges: 
Just Add Ink: #480 Just add a technique (heat embossing on vellum)

Jurassic 3rd Birthday card

Hey Crafters, 

I hope you have been doing better than me. My daughter brought home a bug. She suffered from 1,5 days of throat ache, I was down with a fever for the past two days. I am totally doing this wrong. 

Anyway, even sick, you always get to the point when you can't stand lying down anymore, because the neck starts to ache. So I dragged myself to my craft desk. 

My girls' little half brother turned 3 on Tuesday and the party is a family brunch on Sunday, so I still needed a card. Why is it, that I NEVER have cards at hand when I need them? Especially for the smaller children in the family? I have all those dates in my calendar, how can that be so hard to be prepared?

Remembering my cute Dollar store stickers, I decided to go with them again. By now, there are 5 small children in the family, but only two boys and there are still lots of stickers to go.

I picked a Dino and coloured him in with my alcohol markers. The process was rather painful, the markers kept bleeding in places, because this is not really suitable paper. Also my lightest YG is almost empty, I must remember to buy a refill soon. Thinking the image looked a bit flat, I added the deep shadow on the snout. A step I regretted instantly, I had a very hard time blending that out.

In the end, I had to walk away for a few hours, now I think it's fine. Due to all the colour bleeding I fuzzy cut the image out and adhered them to a white card base, that I had prepared with very minimal ink blending.

 

For the sentiment I wanted to create a huge speech bubble. I know there are dies out there, but I don't own any of them and since you can't have everything, I just made my own. Then I blended on Distress Oxides in the same colour as the blue accents and heat embossed the sentiment. The number is die cut from white card stock and coloured with the same alcohol marker. 

To tie it all in, I added a green envelope with a blue Dino sticker. 

I am very glad it all turned out so well and I love the final result. 

Lots of love and keep healthy

Ela

Challenges:

Seize the Birthday: Anything goes Birthday

Addicted to Stamps and More: #364 CAS

 

Poinsettia Christmas

Hello Crafters, 

how have you been? 

Last night, I totally channelled my inner Kelly Latevola and created this card. I used ZIG markers and only little water to colour in the image. When I didn't like the results, I added more shading with alcohol markers. Looking up poinsettias on the Internet, I found that they have a slight bend in the middle, which makes half of the leaf/petal look lighter than the other, because they catch the light differently. Since I hadn't achieved that effect, I used a mini flat blending brush and white pigment ink, to brighten up individual leaf halves.

Then I fuzzy cut the image out and started fiddling with the sentiment and card base, which was  created with watercolours. The bottom bit that looks grey is actually silver water colour. The sentiment gave me big trouble, I didn't feel I had anywhere to place it. And I had already put foam on the blue panel, stupid me. So I ended up heat embossing it right across the image.

So, why do I feel I channelled Kelly's spirit?
For one it's a floral.
Secondly I combined water colour and alcohol markers, which is something she often does.
I also used pigment powered water splatters for the background and just a touch of silver water colour to put some shine on the petals.
And I messed up this card in so many ways, it's a miracle I actually still like the final result. But I didn't start over!
And  finally: Having used white pigment ink, I outlined everything.

Kelly, if ever you read this, I love your cards and your story time. Thanks for inspiring me!

I actually do like how it turned out, even tough there is so many details I feel I screwed up.

Have a beautiful day
Ela


Challenges:
Simon says Stamp: Christmas

3rd time aunt - cards and gifts

Hey Crafters, 

today is a happy day, my third niece was born last night, just before 11 pm. Only one day after grandpa's Birthday and an easy date to remember. Both, mother and child are healthy and Happy.

The news of my sister-in-law in hospital left me frantically busy, because - guess what - with a 10 month delivery time, I had neither the gift nor the card completely ready. All planned out though, but not completed. 

So, first things first, here is the card. 

I wanted something clean an simple and had that idea of a landscape card with the name across it in the lower third and some embossing paste stencilling in the background. Turned out, the name is too short, it just didn't fill enough space, with the only large letter cutting dies I own. So I changed the plan to portrait, with otherwise much the same concept. To make the letters shine, I ink blended an ombre effect. I probably should have gone a bit darker near the lower edge.

The changed format left way too much empty space at the top of the card, so I needed a cute image to fill it.

Checking my options I decided on the adorable Mama and Baby bear. I coloured them with alcohol markers, which I hadn't done in quite a while. I almost gave up, it just didn't seem to work, but in the end I persevered and I think the final result is okay. 

I added a black sentiment strip that says "Hallo", to spell out "Hallo Luise" and to tie in the black outlines of the image. I originally wanted to spell "Welcome", but Hello was the best I could find in my stash. 

While the embossing paste still dried, I cleared up my stencil and happened to glance at a larger stencil in my stash, that I used on some T-Shirts for my daughters. That sparked the idea, to create a canvas as well. I happened to have 2 canvases of the same size, so I created one for the Baby and one for the older sister as well. 
I actually would have liked to do an ombre here as well, but I didn't have matching colours, so I glittered it up instead.

And finally, here is my first ever diaper cake. I had the ingredients lying around for ages, except for the diapers, which I only bought yesterday. 

Well, that's it from me, I need to get to work, it's going to be a busy day, especially since the happy parents are already home and  ready for visitors. 


Lots of love
Auntie Ela



Challenges:
AAA Cards: #149 - Up to One Third
CAS(E) this Sketch: #340  (it's a bit loose, I hope it still counts) 

Mermaid Shaker card

Hello Crafters, 

today's card, is none of mine. My daughter was inspired by summer and created this lovely mermaid card, using alcohol markers. 

She also created a shaker element with lots of blue and green sequins in different sizes for the water.

To keep the card open or all occasions, she skipped adding a sentiment.

I love how cute it turned out, whichever of her friends will be the lucky recipient will surely by delighted.


Lots of Love
Ela


Challenges:
TCP Tuesday: #360 CAS
Addicted to stamps and more: #355 - Photo
Simon says: clean and simple