Stencilled stamp storage and card

Hello fellow Crafters, 

how have you been?

As you know I have moved house and am still trying to unpack the last boxes of nic nacs, which is my declared goal for this week, while I am on holiday.

Also in line with the move, I am trying to re-organise a few things in my new craft room. The new room is very different from my old craft corner in the living room, which is why a lot of the old shelves ended up somewhere else in the house. So I have to find new storage solutions. 

I found these adorable boxes the other day at a dollar store. I loved the design so much, I absolutely wanted to use it in my craft room, especially since the colours really pop against the complimentary wall colour.

First I thought of stamp storage, because I really didn't like my old containers anymore, but the shape is not very well suited for that.


Now I am using one of them for my embossing folders, which just fit in. Remind me not to buy any more embossing folders.
The others is currently still occupied with random stuff, but I will find a good use for them eventually. There is still a lot to re-organise.

That left me still with the problem of my ugly stamp containers and I spent a few weeks looking for a solution. In the end, I took my inspiration from these boxes and got some very cheap Ikea Tjena boxes and customised by sponging on ink through a stencil. Here is the finished result. 

I now keep my stamps and dies in these four boxes and they exactly fit the shelf. I am also planning to stock up on these boxes, in case I have to enhance my storage and also to replace the ones on the shelf below. I am still figuring out how I want them labelled, now that the boxes are so pretty, the label maker is no longer good enough.

Inspired by the success of my ink blending, I created a card to go with it. To keep the focus on the ink blending, I just added a simple die cut shaker element. I love how it turned out. I think I might make a set of it in different colours.

I actually blended a few more card panels that day and will hopefully make them all into cards eventually.


Have a lovely day
Ela


Challenges:
Simon says Stamp: Anything goes
Seize the Birthday: #175 Add a Geometric Shape
The Paper Players: #461 Tic tac Toe (Birthday - Die Cut - CAS)

Another Birthday card

Hello Crafters, 

I am running very low on Birthday cards, I will really have to make more in the next weeks, before I have to start my holiday crafting. This one I made a while ago. I gave it to my father-in -law, who liked it enough to keep it on the shelf.

Before I show you this card, I have to make my confession of the day: I am in LOVE with the discontinued Hero Arts background stamp "flower dot pattern". 

I really wish I had that stamp, but I can't get it anywhere anymore. If any of you want to get rid of it, think of me.

Since I can't buy it anymore, I set out to find a similar stamp to use and I actually found one that works for me: the "Wavy Coloring Book Background" stamp by MFT. It's watery instead of flowery, but it works for the things I have in mind for it. 

So, here's my very simple card.

I created a black card base and heat embossed the stamp on watercolour paper. Then I coloured the image with water colour markers (ZIG) and spritzed it with water. After it had dried, I chose a swirly line along which  to cut. The sentiment is from an amazing German stamp set, I really love the quality of these stamps. It's heat embossed in black on a piece of vellum. 

I added the panel to the card front with foam tape and added some sequins to finish it of.
To tie in the vellum strip, I also used a vellum envelope.

So, that's it for today, hope you all have a brilliant day
Love
Ela





Challenges:
Shopping our Stash: #405 Dream the embossible dream
Simon says Stamp: Anything goes
Seize the Birthday: Anything goes Birthday
 

 

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) 

Another gardener's Birthday

Hello Crafters,

today is our grandpa's 78th Birthday and it's a tough one, since it's the first as a widower. So we wanted to do something especially nice for him, and planned a little garden party, with barbecue and all the family. My landlady graciously allowed us to use her lovely garden.I do hope he'll not start weeding or something.

Since he's a gardener, I used the same set with all the planters and tools as for my landlady's card. This time I did some no-line colouring with my ZIGs. I decided on ZIGs again, mostly because they are on my desk in two buckets, whereas my traditional water colours are in a drawer out of sight. Considering how intricate the images are, this was definitely a good decision.

For the backdrop I coloured some embossing paste in a sandstone colour (ZIGs again) and stencilled a wall on a white card base. In hindsight, I think it should be more yellow, less pinkish, but it's good enough. The wall idea is not original, I have seen several similar cards on the Internet, mostly with cacti or succulents. It's just so fitting for these images. 
Also the idea to use the table as a shelf isn't mine either. I've seen Therese use it like this at Lostinpaper.

I rarely get the coordinating dies, since they are quite an investment and not quite as versatile as sentiments or general shapes. But for this set I actually did, so I decided to use them this time. 
When I had arranged my images like I wanted them, I simply couldn't find a Birthday sentiment to go with them. I seriously have a lot of Birthday sentiments, but none was just right. So I just decided to make do without.



He is one of the people who actually appreciate a handmade card and so far he kept several of my cards from previous years, so I think he'll like this one as well. 
 

Lots of Love
Ela 


Challenges:

Seize the Birthday: Anything goes Birthday 

 

Colouring books used for Birthday cards

Hello Everyone, 

how are you?

Today, I'd like to show you two cards I created from a colouring book page. 

The page was about 15 by 20 cm and I had coloured it with my ZIG Clean Color Real Brush Markers. I loved the design and also how the colouring had turned out, so I decided to use it for a Birthday card. 

I covered the whole card front with the part of the page I wanted and added a very simple sentiment. My apple green cardstock matches the green in the colouring pretty perfectly, so used it to die cut the word Happy and stamped the Birthday on a black banner and heat embossing it in white.
  I combined it with a vellum envelope, which I thought looked really cool. 

As I had chosen the best part of my sheet I didn't have enough left, to cover another card front, but I wanted to use the rest anyway. 
So I covered my card front with a wood print patterned paper. I cut along the edge of the flowers, leaving a white border. Then I adhered the piece to the card with foam tape.

The sentiment reads "for your Birthday" and was heat embossed in white on a black banner. 

Which one do you prefer? My clear favourite is the first, simply because I love the falling petals and that was the piece of the image I wanted to use most. But I still like how the second card turned out.

Hope you have a great day!
Ela






Challenges:
Seize the Birthday: Anything goes Birthday
Addicted to Stamps and More: #357 Make your Mark
Creative Friday: #238 Bingo
CAS on Friday: #163 Use a die cut word
TCP Tuesday Challenge: #361 Layer it up

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Birthday Shaker card

Hi Crafters, 

this is yet another mother daughter collaboration card. 

Same as the last I created the panel when playing with my new blending brushes, and my daughter picked it up to turn it into a shaker card.

We are all very much in love with ink blending at the moment.

Love
Ela 


Challenges:
Simon says stamp: Anything goes
Seize the Birthday: Anything goes Birthday
Always fun challenges: #126 Shaker card


  

Shaker for you

Hello Crafters, 



how are you keeping?

Today I'd like to show you a mother daughter collaboration card.

I created the sunburst panel when I received my new blending brushes (the cheap option) and wanted to try them out. I used a stencil to blend on reds yellows and oranges. Strictly speaking a sun burst probably has straight rays, but with the fiery colours I think it simply screams sun...

I didn't use the panel immediately when I was done, so my girl picked it up and crated a shaker to  go with it. She kept the sequins in matching colours and the sentiment very versatile. It reads "for you".

I especially like that she kept the centre visible, I would probably have covered it up with an image. 

Have a sunny day
Ela


Challenges:
Addicted to Stamps and More: #356 Anything goes
Simon says Stamp: Anything goes

 

Slumber Party and barbecue

Hello Crafters, 

how have you been?

As you probably don't know, my girls' Birthday is in summer. Traditionally we always had rather big parties in our garden. Since we moved, we don't have a garden anymore and rather more guests on top, inviting old and new friends. 

Therefore party planning was a bit of an adventure for me this year. I decided on inviting just a few girls for a sleep over on the night of the Birthday itself, and to invite all the other guests for a barbecue party a day later at a barbecue hut that is rented out locally. 

Running late with the invitations - as ever - I decided on a very clean and simple design. I let my girls do the ink blending with my new make-up brushes (I got the cheap option, not the original) and added two heat embossed sentiment strips on foam tape. We embellished the envelopes with the same patterns and that's it. I think they turned out gorgeous.

Above are all the designs for the slumber party, but the BBQ invitations were the same, we only changed the sentiment a bit. 

Both parties were a bit of a challenge for me. For the sleep over we played Exit - the game and it was huge fun, but also a bit hard to keep the girls happy and concentrated. There was always one feeling left out because not all could look at the material at the same time. 
It also went way too long, we had to break off just before midnight, when they became too tired. We finished the game the next morning, which was a bank holiday, so there was enough time.

After the sleep-over guests had left - amazing what a mess 5 girls can make in just one night - I had to finish preparations for the barbecue party. And the weather wasn't looking good. I had been watching the forecast with growing desperation for days, and it proved right unfortunately: rain and thunderstorms. 

At some point I had to make the decision to either clean up the place and party at home (35 person, OMG!) or risk the weather and go to the hut anyway. Had it just been rain, the hut might have won, but with thunderstorms coming I decided that was too risky. 

I have two wonderful friends who helped me a lot that day, one came over to help me cleaning up the slumber party mess and the other brought so many things I can't even remember them all. Plates, glasses and cutlery, so we didn't have to use throw-away things, salads and meat for the BBQ, the list is endless. She also kept constantly cleaning up in my kitchen during the party, so I hardly had any mess afterwards. Girls I love you, you're the best! Thanks so much!

Since I didn't own a barbecue, I actually had to borrow that as well. First thing I bought after the party is a gas powered barbecue for our balcony. We've used it so much since, that my girls are already growing tired of it. 

Meet my new baby, first time in use.

Despite having to improvise so much and not really having space for so many people, we had a lot of fun. I think next time I'll skip renting the hut, the weather seems never to be stable at our Birthday parties anyway.



Love
Ela




Challenges:
CAS on Sunday: #162 Use a Stencil
TCP Tuesday: #360 CAS 

Gardener's Birthday

Hello Crafters, 

as I mentioned a while ago, my new landlady is a marvel. 

My daughter and I visited her the other day at the optician where she works, and I saw a pair of glasses there I really liked. However, I didn't really need new ones, I wasn't even looking actually, so I didn't buy them. 

Two days later, I brought over some mail I had accepted for her, and she presented me with those glasses, just like that. She had secretly measured my old ones and ordered the new ones with the same parameters. 
Isn't that amazing? I was seriously speechless, she is such a nice person.

I am now very happy, that I already made this card for her upcoming Birthday. Now I need to find a special gift to go with it. And I think I'll bake a cake as well.

Since she has such a big garden and is constantly working in it, I immediately thought of a garden themed card for her. Those planters seemed perfect so I arranged a few of them on watercolour card and coloured them with my ZIGs. As usual, I was very unhappy how it looked during the process, but now I am content with the finished card. 

Initially I meant to use blue to frame the images, but then I thought they would look like they are floating. So I went for green instead, like they are standing on grass .

I added two thin strips of patterned paper with an ombre effect on the card base and adhered the panel on top with foam tape. 




Wishing you a happy day
Ela




Challenges:
Seize the Birthday: Anything goes Birthday 


  

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