"The Journey is the Destination"

 And the string of birthdays continues... It seems to be almost the only occasion I make cards for these days - what about you? Text is faster and more convenient, phones have been invented, there is seldom a real need for a card these days.

My GD is turning nine, and this whilst the family is traveling over half Europe for their holidays. As she is a bright young one and prone to philosophy, I decided to give her some tea-bag wisdom that might make her spending a birthday on the road more palatable.

A couple of challenges gave me great ideas as for where I should be heading. No flowers this time, but a cheerful dinosaur on roller skates, also on road, so to speak. The tea-bag label morphed into a balloon, also inspired by a challenge prompt. And a huge bonus: I got to use random off-cut strips that I tend to collect, but seldom use.

 

"The Journey is the Destination." 

 

Entering this card into these inspiring challenges:

We Love Stamping: May / All creatures great and small 

Stamping Sensations: Cute creatures - dinosaurs are cute, no?

Alphabet Challenge: B is for Balls - I hope balloons qualify!

Darnell's Weekly I.D.E.A.S.: 1. Inks 

Stamploration: May AG  - I used another company stamp

Cherries

 A good friend of mine was born at cherry time. Or, at the time when the cherries used to ripen; now they are ripe much earlier (courtesy of global warming). So "of course" there needed to be cherries on her birthday card.

Good fruit and berry stamps are hard to find. I am not keen on juvenile berries, those are galore... I am looking for more naturalistic looking fruit and berries and finally found a good one. (Hero Arts' Layered cherries)

I started by color blending the entire background.

Then I stamped a bit of noise, barely visible.

Lastly I stamped some leaves in one of the background colors and adhered the cherries as the focal point. The cherries - my goodness did some work go into them. Color layering means you get to stamp it four times instead of just two. The bottom layer was stamped with dark green and brown Versafine pigment ink, then embossed with clear embossing powder. Then came the second layer of stamping, this was done in Oxides. The cherries received one more layer with patches of red and pink embossing powders.

Entering this in:

A Blog Named Hero: Smooth

Stamping Sensations: June challenge bright and colorful

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Emboss it

Alphabet Challenge: F is for fruit

 As You Like It: With or without words (and why) - the type of card I am making (semi-clean) does somehow need a text to look complete. I suppose with mixed media cards I wouldn't do it. But yes, my cards are with words so they already spell out the occasion and I can concentrate on writing something personal on the inside.

And because this was the first time using these two stamps I am showing it in NBUS (Never before used schtuff) #63

Here's to you!

 A new year and #newbeginnings. To celebrate the event, I gathered festive pinks and reds and ventured into new territory myself. 

The background has a wax imprint, made with some wax paper and an embossing folder. The imprint needed to be ironed so the wax can melt - this makes the pattern transfer into the paper. When I colored the background with distress oxides - Picked raspberry and Festive berries - wax resisted the color and a pattern was created. There's an old Youtube video on the technique, I will link it when I find it again.

 

That of course created a lovely texture on the paper - the wax imprint is never 1-on-1 with the embossing folder, as the wax paper will crease and those creases will imprint themselves onto the card base.

A huge bouguet of die cuts, mostly gelliprints, and a wax seal round up the design.

Entering it into these challenges that inspired me:

Creative Crafting Uncles Challenge: #48 Christmas / New Year

Tuesday Morning Sketches: #737 Annual AG

Crafty Chicks: #696 All occasions

Alphabet Challenge: T is for texture 

 

Thank you for your visit and see you again in 2024!

Just snippets

 With just how little can you make a card? My previous cards have been very labor and material intensive, it was time to try to make one with less.

A couple of challenge are very inspiring in this, the Snippets challenge and a CAS challenge. There were others, too, that I took cues from. Here is what I started with,  some gelli print remnants and a washi tape. I also wanted to use my minimal star die, it only punctures dots onto the base.

And here is what it became:

Entering it in the challenges that inspired me today:

A Place to Start: AG/ option New - I played with that option

Snippets playground: #469 December challenge

Alphabet Challenge: S is for Stars

AAA Challenge: #255 sketch - it's cold

Double Trouble partnering with Use Your Stuff #481: Challenge #155 - I am entering all three categories: die cut -check, washi tape -check, Double Dare -check.

Autumn

Autumn is all about produce. I love roaming through fields and forests and amidst the brown leaves and bare branches there is a red highlight: the rosehips. I was overjoyed to find this stamp, a recent PaperArtsy release.

I started with a misty, layered background. I used two stencils, and colored the card in with Victorian Velvet and Pumice Stone DO's using copious amounts of water.

I colored the berries in with watersoluble crayons and added some washi and light stamping for added 'noise'. 

Entering it into these lovely challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Stencil Fun

TioT: Autumn

Alphabet Challenge: N is for Nature

Thank you for your visit!

Life is wonderful, says the cat

 There are a few challenges again that collide in the nicest possible way and provide a lot of inspiration. The basic idea for the card comes from a tic-tac-toe row of die-cut / stencil / own choice (=stamping). Now when it came to the die cut I remembered another challenge which wants to see four-legged friends (my choice is a cat). And because Humor is always high on my list I chose to stamp fish and a sentiment that gives a humorous spun to the card.

Both the sentiment stamp and the fish stamps were purchases from two years ago. The speech bubbles are much older. When you add up everything this is what I got:

The text reads "Life is wonderful".

Entering this in:

Retro Rubber Challenge: #211 Tic-Tac-Toes! - I selected diagonal "your choice - die cut - stencil"

Friendship Challenge: #89 Tiere / Animals

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Four legged friends

The Alphabet Challenge: H is for Humour 

Addicted to Stamps and more: #450 Die cuts and/or stencils- I used both

A greeting card for winter

 There is something very reassuring about the shape of snowflakes. And as many of you may already know, I like to take cues from challenges. Right now there are quite a number suggesting the use of snowflakes. I like making winter themed greeting cards.

I started with this sketch by CAS Colours and sketches. It intrigued me, because you have to follow the layout as well as colors.

I turned the sketch sideways, reaching from top to bottom instead of left to right. 

I used the colors, too.  The text says "Wishing you a magical winter".

I am entering this into these challenges:

CAS Colours ans Sketches: #498 Double

Perfectly CAS: #33 Snowflakes

Basteltraum: #119 Schneeflocken / Snowflakes 

CAS on Friday: #245 Greeting Card

Alphabet Challenge: R is for Reduce

Thank you for stopping by!

With a touch of gold

Today I am showing a clean and simple card, although I should add that it is not CAS since it's not predominantly empty. (Which I believe is the official requirement.)

I made the background by painting it partially along the right side with a very diluted distress ink. Then I stamped two flowers (Wendy Vecchi), watercolored and fussy cut them. Next came the 'happy birthday' wish, the letters for which I die cut from a gold paper. I adhered them to vellum and pinned it down first, then adhered the flowers so that they sit partially on top and hold that vellum in place.

 entering in:

Use your Stuff: #448 A touch of gold

Card4Gals: Sentiment as focal point

Alphabet Challenge: D is for die-cuts

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything goes 

Stamping Sensations: AG/ option fauna or flora - entering with the flower option

A restricted color palette

 I find using a restricted color palette very challenging. So of course I had to challenge myself!

I started by stamping the Stampers Anonymous Glorious Bouquet onto a card base. The stamp is extremely large, there is some overhang that simply didn't fit in.

I then colored it in with two colors only: Shaded Lilac and Iced Spruce. I have them as refills, it's perfect for watercoloring technique. I filled in the flowers in the center only, leaving the ones along the edges uncolored.

Lastly I matted it with dark forest green, added Glossy Accents on the leaves - which sadly don't show very well in the photo, but it adds such a nice detail.

I am entering this in:

The Alphabet Challenge: B is for Blooms

Inkspirational Challenge: #263 Watercolor    

Color Hues, the color challnge: #39 Purple and Green 

Seize the Birthday: #236 Signs of spring 

The Flower Challenge: #67 Add a heart

Sweet spring

 I was inspired to show my favorite color which is pink. Anything pink will do. If, like today, pink is playing the lead role the results are overly sweet. The sweetness may be even underlined by the fact that I used neon watercolors from the 90's (a great thrift store find).

Pink combines well with green, and i do like the two together, it is a very natural combination. To that end I underlaid the sweetness with craft paper which was stenciled with a lightly shimmering paste.

entering in:

AllSorts Challenge: Spring is in the air

Alphabet Challenge: Y is for Your favorite color combination

NSS Challenge:  #10 Bekennt Farbe - Lieblingsfarben

Friendship Challenge: #75 Alles geht 

Happy Stampers March Watercolor Challenge: Anything goes

Follow your heart

I love die cuts. Especially the kind I make from scratch by stenciling, gelli printing or just painting the papers I use. You can see

Today I selected a background from an ancient stack of papers by Crafty Individuals. It has the same feel of gelli print, and incorporates colors that I had selected for my die cuts.

The sentiment "follow the voice of your heart" fitted the occasion. Someone standing in the crossroads of life can use some gentle encouragement. I just bought this stamp for the occasion.

 

Entering in:

Allsorts Challenge: #644 I love... 

Addicted to Stamps: Die cuts and/ or stencils

Alphabet Challenge: M is for motivational / encouraging sentiment

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything goes