Challenge up your life: Challenge #18 Sequins

Hello Everyone,

how are you? Guess what, it's Challenge time and this time it's all about sequins!

 

Challenge #18 Sequins

I decided to make another shaker card, because they are just so much fun. Besides I had that idea, to use the flowers from Persian Motives (WPlus9) for a shaker.

I stamped the flowers on a piece of watercolour paper. I had marked the area I needed with the help of my stitched rectangle die before I started. Then I coloured the flowers as usual with my Inktense pencils and a lot of water. 

After the colour had dried, I die cut the panel and cut out the middle with a straight edge, an x-acto knife and some small scissors. That was a bit tricky in places. Then I glued my acetate to the back, added the foam tape and filled the inside with matching sequins.  I also glued a few sequins to the card base, so that there would be some sequins visible at all times.

I am pretty happy with the result, even tough too many sequins stick to the glue dots inside now. I meant to scatter just a few, but  obviously the glue dots I used are a bit too large, so other sequins got stuck to them. But I like it anyway.


So, time for you to join in, show us some cards with lots and lots of sequins!
Hugs
Ela

Private Investigators Birthday

Hi Everyone,

it's time to show you what I've been doing those past weeks. 

It's been my girls' Birthday last week so I spend the last few weeks with preparations. The motto was private investigators. Here are the invitations I created.

 

Very simple, I printed the word (it means Invitation) in red on white card stock and cut the card stock to panels. The font is called "Top Secret". Then I stamped the foot prints all over the panel and adhered it to a grey card base. The stamps I already had left over from a previous project. I cut them myself from fun foam.

I printed the words "Streng Geheim" (Top Secret) in the same font and colour across the envelopes, but unfortunately forgot to take a picture of them.

Next task were the giveaway bags. I got some sweets, cheap toy handcuffs and invisible pens (to be read in black light) for all of the kids. I also printed out a Caesar cipher disc from the Internet and I got a bunch of little note pads, that I made into personalised note books. I am pretty proud of these. 

I cut and scored a black card stock cover to match the pad and stamped the front and back with white foot prints. Then I adhered the red die cut letters (Tim Holtz Alphabetical) to the front, mixing upper and lower case letters. 
In order to get the letters straight, I always arrange them and then use a strip of post-it tape to keep the spacing, leaving the lower edge free of tape, so I can see were exactly I place the word. Then I use liquid glue to adhere them down and let them dry a bit before removing the tape carefully. On the next picture you can see how the note books look when opened.

Of course all those goodies needed to go in a bag. Usually I use small store-bought gift bags and modify them to match the motto, but there are no black gift bags, at least not where I live. So I had to think of something else. Luckily I still had plain white treat bags, about the size to fit a card. 

I needed a good way to close them, therefore I die cut the Stampin' Up "Top Note" die from black card stock and scored it in half. Then I stamped white foot prints across it.
With the books personalised, I needed name tags on the gift bags, but I didn't want to go through all the fuzz with the die cut letters again (we had invited 16! kids...). Therefore I just printed the names, cut them out and adhered them to the black card stock.

Then I filled the bags and stapled the card stock over the top. The hand cuffs didn't fit in, so I used a piece of baker's twine to keep keys and cuffs together and attached them to the bag with another staple, hidden underneath the black top.

For the day itself we prepared a little treasure hunt or actually a private investigator training programme, including games for team work, agility, speed etc. We also included the cipher disc and invisible pen that would be in the treat bags at the end, so they had to decode and puzzle a little as we went along. 

At the beginning of the party we took a picture of each child, so before leaving, they would not only get their "set of basic equipment" (the treat bags), but also their personal "Private Investigator ID card".

I had prepared a word file ready for print with all the cards already filled in, so that I had to add only the pictures during the party. The photo would be were the fingerprint is in my example. After printing I just had to cut them with my guillotine, round the corners and put them in their clips.

We had a great day, the kids loved it all. 

So, that's it from me for today, have a great day
Ela

Challenge up your life: Challenge #7: Monochromatic

Hello Crafters,

it's time again to challenge you over at

This time, it is:

Challenge #17 Monochromatic

I chose a very simple design, with some masking.

The frame is from the Lawn Fawn Flirty frames, the sentiment and leaves are from Paper Smootches. I traced the frame and sentiment with a white gel pen, to make it stand out a bit more. Then I mounted the panel on a craft card base.

For the frame I created a similar design, only craft of white. As I used Antique Linen distress ink, I needed to stamp the images three times each, to darken the colour. But that worked fine.


I hope you'll join us an create lots of monochromatic cards.
Have a nice week-end
Ela

Flirty frames

Hi Crafters,

How are you? I've been rather busy lately, so I didn’t get around to much crafting. My daugthers' Birthday is coming up and I am not at all done with planning. Besides there was our street festival last week-end, which is always a huge affair. As we practically live right next to where they set up the Ferris wheel every year, we can't avoid it either...

This year my girls had three performances with their dance group, which cost me (and them) two full afternoons. 

Anyhow, I managed to create at least one card:

I cut my card base from water colour paper and stamped the frames in black Archival ink. Then I masked off all the frames and stamped the animals and sentiment.

I coloured all the frames and animals with water colours and added a little bling – mainly because I had to hide a spot where I hadn’t waited long enough and some blue seeped into the yellow.

I admit, I am not entirely happy with it, but it’s nice and bright, so I am pretty sure one of my daughters’ friends will like it.


Have a great day
Ela



Challenges:
Seize the Birthday: Animal Birthday

Challenge up your life: Challenge #16 Digi stamps

Hello Crafters, 

Today, we are challenging you again, over at 
 

Lets all use digi stamps these two weeks!

Challenge #16 Digi stamps

 

You can use any digi stamps you like, but we are showcasing Jessa's lovely designs. Please check them out here, they are so much fun and they are free.

I used my alcohol markers to colour the little monster - my favourite of Jessa's designs. Jessa, can I have more monsters, pretty please? 

When I was done with shading, I just added little dots to give him some texture. After that I die cut the sentiment banner from white card stock and coloured it with the same green alcohol markers. No shading this time. The sentiment is from Paper Smooches. 

I adhered one side of the banner around the stick and glued it down with foam tape. For the stick itself I used matte medium. 

Then I just adhered it to a green card base and added a green envelope.

I hope, you'll take the challenge and use your digital stamps!

Looking forward to see all your cards and projects!

Ela

Challenges: 

Seize the Birthday: Anything goes Birthday
Less is more: 2 or 4 legs
Simon says stamp: Anything goes 

Celebrate

Hello Everyone,

I needed a birthday card for a boy last Monday, and didn't have one in my stash, that I thought fitting. So I decided to re-create the card I made the other day, because these birds are so hilarious. 

I picked four birds and stamped them on my watercolour panel, masking off the ones in front. Then I coloured them with my Pelikan water colour set. I deliberately picked it over my Inktense pencils for the last few projects, because I wanted to finally get used to it. I got it before our last summer holiday for travelling, but it turned out it wasn't quite as handy as I thought. Or maybe I just don't have the mojo when I travel...

Anyhow, it worked, I've come to quite like it, especially for larger areas.

I picked nice and bright colours, as it's for a child and made sure that the colours would set the birds apart. Then I added a tiny bit of light blue to the eyes with an alcohol marker, to make them seem more dimensional.

When it had dried, I die cut the Paper Smooches word die from the image and some fun foam and puzzled all the pieces back in. After rounding the corners I adhered it to a black card base and as the very last step I added glossy accents to the eyes.

While I look at the picture now, I think I might have liked it even better with black fun foam. I think I'll try that next. 

Have a great day
Ela



Challenges:
Seize the Birthday: Anything goes Birthday
Addicted to CAS: #64 Animal

Hope your day is lovely

Hi Crafters,

today I'd like to show you a card I made all from leftover pieces. 

I created the card base quite a while ago, when I was playing with embossing paste and stencils. And the succulent I created for the ribbon, buttons, twine challenge over at

 

I didn't use it for that challenge, but I had already coloured and fuzzy cut it. And I really like how the cup turned out, so I wanted to make sure I used it. I adhered the image to the card base with some foam and added a simple sentiment.

Probably the quickest card I ever made. I feel almost guilty about that.




Lots of love
Ela



Simon says stamp: Stencil it

No lines sympathy card

Hello Crafters,

how are you?

Today I'd like to show you another water colour card I created last week. This time I had another go ar no line colouring, but I think the stamp I chose was probably just too intricate. I found it extremely difficult.

Considering that, I am quite content with the final result, even though it's not as pretty as I had hoped. I added just a tiny bit of watered down blue around the flower, and stamped the sentiment in dark brown ink, because I thought black would be too bold.

Have a great day
Ela



Challenges:
Stempelküche: Floral

May contain birds

Hello again,

I played some more with my beloved crazy birds. I have used them a lot lately, but always a single bird on a rather simple card.

This time, I wanted to do something different, so I stamped a cluster of 4 birds, masking of the ones in the front.

Then I used my water colours to colour them in and create shadows underneath the birds to ground them. 

When I was almost done, my daughter accidentally dropped a brush, loaded with colour, right onto my project where I couldn't hide it under anything, so I had to cut the panel down to a square. A well, that kind of thing just happens, I am glad I was able to cut it down...

After it had all dried, I die cut the sentiment from the finished panel and two layers of fun foam and stacked them together to create a raised sentiment. I puzzled all the pieces back in, rounded the corners and adhered it all to a square, grey card base. 

I admit, I love how they turned out, these birds are so much fun. 

Have a good day
Ela






Challenges:
Addicted to CAS: Birds

Birds and water colour

Hey Everyone, 

can you believe it, it's Friday already. This week went by so fast. 

I am now getting really panicky about my girl's Birthday next month. Despite my best intentions, I still haven't started on the preparations. Besides, as in the previous years, I really have difficulty limiting the number of guests, because there are so many "must haves".
I'll really have to make a start this week-end. 

Meanwhile I'd like to show you two more bird cards I made last week. I really love that set.

For both cards I embossed the image on a water colour card base, so they are true one layer cards. Then I coloured it with my water colours and added a fun Paper Smooches sentiment. 

I know, these cards are nothing incredibly new, but these birds are just so much fun!

Hope you all have a lovely week-end
Ela



Challenges:
Seize the Birthday: Anything goes Birthday
Paper Smooches: Anything goes