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

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

More wobbly snow angels

Hello Crafters, 

today I have another set of clean and simple Christmas cards with lots of white space for you. 

I love this stamp set, the snow angels are adorable. I missed buying them last year and was lucky enough to find them second hand in February, including the dies. I tend not to invest in the matching dies generally, but these cards screamed "action wobbles"... So here we are...

All images were coloured with my ZIG markers and adhered on action wobbles. All received a bit of pale blue ink blending and stencilling behind them. And of course the heat embossed snow angels outlines.

I kept two card bases white, one received some dark blue ink blending and the last (the bunny) two strips of washi tape. 

The sentiments are all the same and ready Merry Christmas in German. 

I love how they turned out, I could create snow angels cards forever. 

Lots of Love

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 

Happy Birthday Becky

Hello, 

today's card is dedicated to my friend Becky. 

Happy Birthday, dear! I hope your day will be as fabulous as you are!

 To the card: I cut out the huge stitched leaves several times and adhered them to the card base for a faux embossing effect. I love the white on white texture. 

Then I stamped and fuzzy cut the floral cluster, coloured it with my ZIG markers and popped it up on foam tape. 

Since I didn't want to cover up too much, I just used a tiny sentiment strip.

Have a lovely day

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

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 


  

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

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

Floral Birthday

Hey Crafters,

how have you been? My daughter has been ill all week, and now I caught the bug from her. I hope it'll skip my other daughter, I don't feel stong enough for another sick child yet.

Today I have lots of colouring to show you, and a very simple design.

There is not a lot to say about it, I coloured the background with ZIG markers, cut out a panel with a stitched die and adhered it to a white card base. Then I popped up the sentiment strips with foam tape.

The hardest part about this card, was taking the pictures. It took me about three attempts over several days to get a picture that was close to the true colour.

Have a happy day
Ela

Using wall paper for cardmaking

Hi Crafters, 

at our new place, we have a wall with a faux wood planking wall paper. I like that a lot, I like the colours and the structure and that it's not just a plain wall. I would like it as a backdrop for my card photos, but it's in the inside hall so there is little natural light. 

I do have half a roll left over, so I decided to use a tiny bit of that, to make a card. 

Í coloured the image with my ZIG markers and cut out the right side and top of the flowers, leaving the bottom left corner as it was.  Then I adhered the wall paper to a card base, added the image with foam tape and heat embossed a very simple sentiment (we congratulate) and some matching washi tape. 

Have a lovely day
Ela

Embossed snowflake

Hi Crafters,

I hope, you have had peaceful and wonderful Christmas celebrations, wherever you are. 

We did enjoy Christmas a lot, we celebrated at our place. 
In Germany we celebrate on Christmas eve. My family was due to arrive at about 3 pm, so we could attend church at 4 pm. But since my girls' Dad needed to leave rather early, so see his other family, we agreed that he should come over an hour early, to he could spend a little more time with the girls. 

Our tradition is to set up and decorate the tree on the morning of the 24th (yes, that late) together. So, running late with preparations, as usual, I decided that he could do that with the girls, while I was finishing the last tasks in the kitchen and around the house.

Well, nice in theory, in actuality, he ran half an hour late, by which time the tree had already fallen over once, because I was maybe a bit overenthusiastic when I bought it. Meaning I got it fresh from a local farmer and in the large barn without any other trees to compare it with, it just didn't look as huge as it is. It almost reaches the ceiling and is a bit big for our tree stand.

So, when my Ex arrived, we set up the tree - again - weighted it down with stones from the garden and got ourselves tangled up in the light chain, at which point my sister-in-law and here family entered the house (I had left the door open when I collected the stones).

In the end, my brother-in-law and I sent off the rest of the family to church, decorated the tree and the presents underneath, set the table (yes, I hadn't managed that in time either) and finished preparing dinner. With all that done, we were actually ready early and enjoyed a nice cup of coffee while re-installing the TV set, which had returned that day from repairs.

Now, to the card. This one is an idea I have seen on the Internet in many variations, with the single snowflake and a simple sentiment strip.  I created a watercolour gradient back ground and adhered the silver embossed snowflake on top, then I added the sentiment with foam tape.

Wishing you a fantastic new years celebration and all the best for 2020
Ela


Challenges:
Shopping our Stash: #410 Happy Holidays