Happy Sunda, I won =)

A very happy Sunday indeed. I just saw that I was the winner of Cupcake Inspirations CIC 404. Nice. Thanks!!

With one single tulip...

There's a famous birthday song in Sweden that start with the words "Med en enkel tulipan" which translates to "With a single tulip". I couldn't resist using that sentiment for this simple birthday card. I decided to play along in the Color Throwdown challenge where the challenges is to use yellow, purple and green;

The flowers are stamped with Altenews tulip stamp set and heat embossed in white. I have then watercolored with Distress inks; Wilted violet, Seedless preserves, Mustard seed, Fozzilized amber and Mowed lawn. I used a stiched frame to die-cut the panel, tied a green string around it and popped it up on a craft cardstock cardbase which had been distressed a bit with Vintage photo. Finished off with some Clear droplets 4mm from Pretty pink posh. They arrived in my order the other day. Love those things.

Challenges
Color Throwdown #440

Happy birthday balloon diecut inlays

I saw a video by the lovely Nicole Spohr and wanted to try this technique with diecut inlay. I used the same products as she used in her video since I had them (Lawn Fawn Party balloon die set and also the Scripty greetings). It proved quite difficult to do the balloon-string-stamping correctly though. I'm glad I had the Misti stamping tool to help me line up and stamp perfectly.

The balloons were diecut from the panel and then they were colored with several colors of distress ink. I then flicked some water on them, dabbed it off to get that cool effect. Then I did a bit of a boo-boo. I added Wink of Stella in clear on top of them. Quite a lot of it, which of course made the color to re-activate and then smear. But, I went with it.

The strings are stamped with several colors of pink to try to create an ombré effect. One of the cards is stamped with Memento tuxedo black ink. The balloons are then inlayed into the negative part of the die cut so that the card becomes flat.

One of the cards had the original die cut of the balloon highlight. I didn't end up liking that part so I added white gel pen to the rest.

Happy kitty playing with butterflies

I combined two Lawn Fawn stamp sets to create this card; "Meow you doin'?" and "Mom+me". I also had to try out my new MFT stitched circle. It puts a stiching line on both sides of the cut line. Love that!

I stamped the butterflies on some Nenah Solar Crest White card stock. First time I'm trying that one and I finally understand what everybody's raving about *smile*. I then diecut a circle and also diecut a circle from a plain white version and stamped that with the grass, many, many times! Also stamped and diecut some of the flowers and an additional butterfly. The little swirl by the butterfly comes from a MFT stamp set (with elephants, can't think of the name).

This is very much what our kitties look like when spring finally arrives. The joy of getting to play with an actual butterfly *smile*

Meow you doin'?

One more example of the Lawn Fawn "Meow you doin'?" stamp set. I also used the Lawn Fawn window die and grassy border die.

This is exactly how it looks like when you have cats. One of them will definatley find their way into that carefully planted box outside the window and either play in it or sleep in it. Adorable and totally annoying at the same time! *smile*

Side view where you can see the open window.

View from the other side so yo can see the popped up box.

Challenges
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - Anything goes

Mischievous kitties for mother's day

With all the mother's day card inspiration out there, I thought I would get mine done early (not the same date in the US as it is here *smile*). Since my mom loves cats, I thought this was a great opportunity to play with my Lawn Fawn "Meow you're doing" stamp set.

I saw some great inspiration on the Lawn Fawn blog with the window die and to create a house panel feel by simply using scoring lines on the back panel. I borrowed that idea. Then I die cut the window with the box and flowers. I stamped and colored the kitties with my Zig clean color real brush markers. I also cut the grass from two pieces of green card stock. To finish it off, I also borrowed a couple of flowers and a butterfly from another Lawn Fawn stamp set.

Everything is mounted flush to the card except for the bottom piece of grass which is mounted with foam tape to give it some dimension.

And here is the finished product. I think this will put a smile on my mom's face for mother's day.

Challenges
Lawn Fawnatics challenge 3 - Outstanding occasions
Cupcake Inspiractions - CIC404

Embrace your inner kitten

Over at Inky Paws challenge, the assignment this time is to "use a doily". I'm not really a doily-kind of person but I still wanted to play so....

I pulled out the closest thing to a doily that I have in my stash with turned out to be a stencil ("Lace") from Tim Holtz. I masked off a piece of Canson XL water color paper and ink blended Cracked pistachio and Mermaid lagoon on to it. Then I placed the stencil over and went back in with the same colors for a bit of a more interesting background.

 I then chose to play with the cute stamp set Newton Unwinds. Here Newton has tangled himself up in balls of yarn. It's so cute. I had also just got some Bristol Smooth cardstock to test so I stamped on that and then colored with my Zig clean color real brush markers. Boy did they go on smooth. One has to use a bit of a different technique compared to the other water color papers I tried. Need to play more *smile*.

This is then the finished piece with the sentiment heat embossed in white on a black strip of card. 

Challenges
Inky Paws challenge #45 - use a doily

Sending you sparkles, rainbow ponies

I saw the challenge on Cupcake Inspirations and had to play along. The theme for this one was "Mystical" and this was the inspiration image:

So, I pulled out my stamp set from the Greeting farm and colored some ponies with my Zig clean color real brush markers. I then fuzzy cut them out and painted around them with a black pen to hide the somewhat imperfect cut *smile*

I then also got to play with my new stencil from Tim Holtz and made a "rainbow" sunset with Distress inks and an ink blending tool. I added some clouds using Lawn Fawn's puffy cloud border. The sentiment is heat embossed with gold embossing powder. As a last finishing touch, I also added some sequins.

Challenges
CIC403--The Greeting Farm

Circling rocket and flame with galaxy background

Another card with my new stamp set "Out of this world" from Lawn Fawn. I started by creating a couple of galaxy backgrounds with distress inks and also white Distress paint. I then stamped and colored the images with Zig clean color real brush markers.

I created the interactive element by die cutting 2 circles with my circle dies. I taped two dies together and die cut it at the same time. The frame cirle is then glued to the card base, the rest is popped up with foam tape. The rocket and flame is mounted on a coin with foam tape and placed in the gap. The flame is attached with a piece of acetate *smile*. I have used the EK Success powder tool quite heavily so that everything would glide friction free.

The sentiment is heat embossed in white.

Rocket on the other side. That trailing flame looks really cool in photos because you can't really see the acetate.

This is the inside of the card.

(A complete side note: I bought the co-ordinating dies for this stamp set. It really comes in handy with all these planet images. However, I'm wondering why they didn't include a die for the flame? I have other stamp sets where they have included the smallest dies such as bowties for critters etc... Just wondering... *smile* )

Challenges
Lawn Fawnatics Challenge 2 – Interactive Cards!

Interactive card with galaxy background

I just had to get the new stamp set "Out of this world" from Lawn Fawn. I now finally had some time to play with it and thought I would join the Lawn Fawnatics challenge and make an interactive card.

I started by creating a couple of galaxy backgrounds with distress inks and also white Distress paint. I then stamped and colored the images with Zig clean color real brush markers.

I created the interactive element by die cutting 2 circles with my circle dies. I taped two dies together and die cut it at the same time. The frame cirle is then glued to the card base, the rest is popped up with foam tape. The "earth" is mounted on a coin with foam tape and placed in the gap. I have used the EK Success powder tool quite heavily so that everything would glide friction free. (Note to self, the next time I try this out, the foam on the coin needs to be a bit smaller so it can swirl more easily in the circle shape!!)

So this is my card with the earth revolving around the little space guy or girl.

I have some more backgrounds and more colored images to test this with as well.

Close up.

And this is the inside of the card stamped with blue and grey ink.

Challenges
Lawn Fawnatics Challenge 2 – Interactive Cards!
Simon Says Wednesday challenge - Happy birthday

Yellow, pink and purple with Newton

In this weeks challenge with Newton's Nook, you should use the colors; yellow, pink, purple and white.

I was inspired by a card I saw on Pinterest and then made my own version of it.

For both cards, I colored the background with the help of an embossing folder with kitty paws. The top card is done by spraying the watercolor paper with water first, swiping ink directly in the embossing folder, placing the paper in the folder and running it through the Big shot. The second card is almost done the same, except, here the paper was dry and I instead sprayed the ink with water. Fairly similar results. The wet paper gives a bit more intense and even color.

Here Newton's colored like a siamese cat with Zig clean color real brush markers. I have mounted Newton and the sentiment with foam tape, the rest is mounted flush to the different layers.

Another try to color Newton as a siamese cat. Turned out a bit too dark but ah well =). Here everything is mounted flush to the different layers. The thread behind is actually white sewing thread.

Hope you like them.

Challenges
Inky Paws Challenge #44 Color challenge
Simon Says Wednesday challenge - Happy birthday

Happy purrthday with rainbow balloons

There are some new stamp sets out with hot air balloons and critters riding them. Newton's Nook has one, MFT has one. They are sooo cute. I don't have any of them so I thought I would make a version of it with what I have.

I dove into my Newton collection and found Newton sitting in a box and paired that with Lawn Fawn's Party balloon dies to make a birthday card.I also used a Darice embossing folder for the cloud background and the sentiment is from Lawn Fawn's latest cat release "Meow you doin".

Challenges
Simon says stamp Monday challenge - Make a rainbow
Simon says stamp Wednesday challenge - Happy birthday

Practising Altenew tulips

When I saw this stamp set from Altenew, I new I had to have it. I LOVE tulips! They always bring feelings of spring which is much appreciated up here in the cold north =).

I stamped them on Canson XL watercolor paper with Versamark ink and then heat embossed them in white. I used the Misty to stamp to get a perfect impression but also to help me line up the different leaves and flowers. I stamped them in several rounds, heating them in between so I could overlap some of the leaves.

I used a lot of water on the background and then used Broken china distress ink to dab in the color and let the water transport it on it's own. Fun technique. I used Mustard seed and Squeezed lemonade for the yellow flowers and Mowed lawn for the leaves.

However, need to add a second layer since I didn't get paint all the way up to the white line of the stems and leaves and vice versa. More practise, more practise!

Creating galaxy backgrounds

I've always been amazed by galaxy backgrounds since I first took an interest in cardmaking. Since Lawn Fawn's new release included such an adorable set with planets and a spaceman, I just had to try it. I got the LF set just the other week. So, I took out a bunch of colors of distress inks including; Picked raspberry, Mustard seed, Peacock feathers, Mermaid Lagoon, Cracked pistachio, Salty ocean, Chipped saphire and of course Black soot and simply "went to town". I sponged on the colors really heavily in streaks across a regular piece of card stock. When I was happy with the different bright colors, I switched to Chipped saphire and Black soot. To finish it off, I sprayed some water on them to get the cool "star effect" and then I also took out some Picket fence distress paint, diluted it with a bit of water and splattered it all across the cards. This is the final result;

This is my make shift "splatter cubby". You use what you have *ha ha*

Now, all that is left is to stamp the new Lawn Fawn set and get to coloring. Some of the backgrounds I will try to make interactive by having the spaceman or rocket swivel around but... we'll get to that later =)

Birthday invitations, son is turning 3

Time to get those invitations out, the little guy is turning 3. He absolutely loves cars, trucks, buses, trains, basically anything that moves. I looked through my stash and found the Lawn Fawn Season Greeting's stamp and created a card based on that.

I wanted to layer the card with different borders such as "stiched hillside", "stiched cloud" and also "little town" so there was a lot of die cutting to begin with.

I then colored the cars and packages in different colors and I also cut out balloons that the cars would be trailing behind them. There was also tons of ink blending involved ;). The sentiment "Välkommen" reads "Welcome" in Swedish. The different backgrounds are assembled only with tape runner.

And here is the finished product. The car, packages and balloons are mounted with foam tape. I've added a little sewing thread to attach the balloon to the car.

To finish off, there is some Spectrum Noir shimmer pen on the balloon and packages as well.

Now all that is left is to plan the party =)