Books for birthday

I seem to have an fair amount of supplies, enough to make most anything that I can think of. But then, I usually pop a flower on most any birthday card. There has been a challenge since the beginning of the month that has been quietly calling my name: that for 'books'. I actually need a card for a book lover who is going to get a gift card for a bookshop from me.

I finally stumbled upon a piece of wallpaper in my deep stash. I got it several years ago from a crafting friend and never knew what to do with it. What you see in this photo are the sad, neglected supplies: a stamp I bought a year ago that has never seen ink, die cuts also received from a friend long ago (but always the wrong color for my projects) and that piece of wall paper.

I selected a square card base and cut the wallpaper to size. I stamped the sentiment in three parts, covering only one line with ink at a time. Then I cut them out and mounted them with foam strips in the stripe that was between the books, and finally glued the boughs and berries to flank the sentiment. It reads: "The small moments which we so love in our daily life". Very fitting for book reading, I think.

 

Entering this in these challenges:

Die Traumfabrik/ The Dream Factory: #153 The Reader 

The Neglected Stuff: August challenge / 3rd entry

Everybody Art Challenge: #604 Alles geht / AG

A Perfect Time to Craft: #8 Open challenge

PIP: #2634 AG 

Summer at the waterside

 The ultimate summer feeling for me is keeping my toes wet, preferably at waterside, which is a river - or just the bath tub - in these parts. I spent my childhood summers at a vast lake and wanted to make a card reflect that feeling. (You kind of stand at the world's edge, if you know what I mean. Only sky and water exist.)

 

Out came the supplies: a stencil for waves, a stamp suitable to double up as a swimmer as well as some designer papers and a die for the underwater life. 

I stenciled the background with Distress Oxides Salvaged patina, then cut it out by hand in a wavy form. I stamped the lady, cutting her out without the intended wings and colored her suit with watercolor markers. I found a ready cut large cloud and a sentiment in my ready-to-go stash and used those as well.

 

I raised the swimmer and the sentiment out of the flat surface with foam strips.

 

I am entering this in the following challenges that made me think of my childhood summers:

 Everybody Art Challenge: #603 Sommerzeit/ Ferienzeit

Stamps+Fun=Creativity: #498 Ferien

Simon Says Monday: At the beach 

Creative Knockouts: #573 Summer Fun

TGIF: #tgifc583 Technique challenge: Popping it up

 

Girlz Creative Fun Art of Scrap: #23 Gebruik designer papier

Flowers galore

I have lately been watching a lot of YouTube videos. In one of them Ardyth tried to reason whether she needs a new set of dies or whether she can replicate the look with her existing ones. 

Well, today I wanted to try the same. I pulled out all my single flower dies, applied them on colored papers. And here is one of the results. (I made many, couldn't stop myself...)

 

As it is birthday season and birthday is also a theme in one of the challenges that inspired me today, a birthday card it is.

 

Entering this in the following challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Use Craft Dies 

Everybody Art Challenge: Happy 600! 

AAA Birthday Challenge: Game 85 

A Cut Above: May Challenge 

Fab 'n Funky: #637 Monochromatic

These are the cards I have made so far...

 

Woodblock flowers

 It's that time of month again - yes, time to show those wood block stamps some love. Always slow to get ideas I took a look at some challenges to see what I could pair wood block stamps with. And I found polka dots and circles, and that let me select these solitary flower stamps.

The background was done with two stencils on a gelli plate. The flowers were stamped with purple and brown inks on some previous tries to paint flowers with watercolor (which did not work for me - but I could use it anyway, hooray for that!). The text says: Hugs.

Entering this card in these lovely challenges that inspired me today:

Woodblock Wednesdays: May Edition

Everybody Art Challenge: #558 Circles and / or stripes - I did circles

Double D Challenge: Polkadots

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything goes 

and my 2nd entry for Simon Says Monday Challenge: Lots of texture

It's spring!

 After this long and dreary and seemingly everlasting winter it is nice to have sunshine and flowers and warmth.

My card features a wax transfer background that I inked in various hues of green. (With wax transfer you take a piece of wax paper, run it with your substrate through in an embossing folder, then iron the substrate through a paper so that the wax can sink in. Then, when the time comes, you ink it. The wax creates images that resist ink.)

On top I added a selection of die cuts from papers that I had pulled from a gelli plate.

Entering it in these lovely challenges:

Make My Monday: #225 Florals

Everybody Art Challenge: #557 Garden / Garten

Four Seasons Challenge: Spring season

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Feminine

Inkspirational Challenge: #315 Seasonal - mine is Spring

This card has already been sent to lovely Brenda through our mutual participation in the Daisy Chain challenge. Won't you join, too?

Hmm - stars and stripes for Christmas?

 A couple of challenges gave me inspiration for this early Christmas card. I chose two embosing folders (but ended up using just the one with radiant stripes). The stripes are kept on the left half of paper, I found my inspiration for the layout in a challenge.

 I used Distress Oxides in two colors and added shine with Simon Hurley's Lunar Paste in gold ("Slippery when wet" is the name of the hue) and heat embossed the text with WOW golden shimmer embossing powder.

I am entering this into the challneges that I combined to achieve this look:

TioT: Use three colors

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Shimmer ans shine

Can You Handle the Pressure: AG with a twist of stars

Everybody Art Challenge: #540 Sketch - I turned it 90 degrees.

Double Trouble: #143 Christmas in July - I am entering with Thing 1, and 2.

It's summer - enjoy!

 Summer on the beach, at water's edge - the idea came to me when I saw a scrap of an old gelli print. Th seals were also stamped on a gelli print, a hardly visible speckled grey. That stamp is several years old, it's from a set but all other parts of it have been traded so I have no idea who it is by.

The layout was inspired by a challenge (even though my base rectangle is longer - I could just not bear to cut it shorter and lose the grass...)  

(The text reads: Enjoy)

Entering this in:

Retro Rubber Challenge: #201 Sketch Time!

Stamps&Fun=Creativity: #436 Sommer und/oder Meer

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Summer Moodboard 

Allsorts Challenge: #735 Summertime

Vintage travel - let your heart take you

 Let your heart take you was my motto when I created this travel-themed card. I have done less vintage now that I have moved to greeting cards from ATC. But today I saw a prompt for "vintage" ans wanted to do that again. I recently bought a roll of Tim Holtz collage paper which has people and sceneries on it and I thought that would also fit nicely. Other than that I have too many stamps that needed an outing...

I was also inspired by the color palette of SCC311, from which I picked four: red, brown, tan and the blue-grey.

I got the idea for the olden day "paraglider" thanks to another challenge and the travel aspect from yet another. It was so much fun creating this card!

 

Entering this into the challenges that inspired me:

CountryViewChallenges: Vintage

SCC: #311 Color palette "Beach House vibes", use at least three (see above)

Everybody Art Challenge: 538 Transportmittel / vehicles of every description

Stamping Sensations: Around the world 

 

Thank you for your visit!

 

Birthday wishes

 Again - a card inspired by several challenges. I was inspired by a color palette and by a prompt 'make it pop' - I think these two challenges went nicely together. I then was inspired by another to use die cuts. Lastly I wanted to see if I could keep it simple.

I have a new set of heart dies and wanted to combine it with flowers in the palette colors. It was admittedly a lot of fiddling to get the flowers inside the heart die, but I am so glad I persevered. The next one will go so much faster.

Entering in these challenges that inspired me to create this card:

for the colors: Through the Purple Haze #204

For using the die cuts: Everybody Art Challenge #536

For keeping it simple: Tuesday Taggers 

For making a birthday card with colors that pop: Seize the Birthday #262 

and finally, because all these dies were used the first time, this was also a NBUS project.

Thank you for visiting!

Recycled and never been used...

 Yes, it's sad but it happens! Some items for whatever reason will stay unwrapped for a while (or a long while...). Today I decided to do something about them.

Firstly vellum, secondly Pearly Pigments. And last week I took home some stickers (as I thought) of apple blossoms (that I adore) that a neighbor had laid out. (We have this great habit in the building, a tiny recycling center for neighbors near the mail boxes.)

I started by stamping the vellum with white ink. The stamp was bought from a flea market last summer but never put to use yet.

The white ink is slow to dry and I didn't want to use a heat gun. Then I remembered the pearly pigment that dries the ink and pearlizes the whole surface.

What I thought were stickers were in fact wet transfer pictures. Luckily the water did not mess up my stamped background.

Entering the card into these challenges:

Simon Says Monday Challenge: Recycle

Everybody Art Challenge: #510 Frühling / Spring

Arty Divas: March AG

Stamps& Fun=Creativity: #407 Lieblingsblume - ich sehe diese als Apfelblüten die ich sehr gerne mag

NBUS: #36 AG as long as it's never used stuff

Thank you

 I just love peonies. Technically they are not really spring flowers, but I can observe their tentative efforts as they are starting to emerge.

This is a Thank you card - very approriate also for Mother's Day (unless I have some other uses for it before that - we'll see).

I made used Distress inks for the colors. The background is a medley of Stormy Sky and Chipped Sapphire with some drops of Broken China.

The flower was colored in with Victorian Velvet and Picked Raspberry. (It was stamped and colored separately, then fussy cut and glued onto the stamped blue base.

The stems and leaves were brushed over with Frayed Burlap - which had turned bright green in the bottle!

 I am entering this into the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge: #666 AG - I go with the option of Distress

Country View Challenge: Mother's Day

Everybody Art Challenge: 509 B - für Blume

Simon Says Monday Challenge: Bit o' Green

Stamping Sensations: Something for Spring

Let it be autumn

 I just love it when challenges coincide and you can let your creativity be challenged twice or even three times in a single card. I call it serendipidity.

So this little card was inspired by all three challenges I am entering it into, one for autumn, one for suggesting to use picture of an animal with a tail and one challenging us to use book pages in your creation.

I make my gelli prints either on tissue or onto book pages, because the text showing through gives a nice additional texture. So I already had a nice stash. I am very much into die cutting at the moment, so that seemed like a natural way to go.

I have also been shopping on FB marketplace and there I recently found this cute stamp set by Rosie's Studio. I just love that little fox, all curled up and happily drowsy amongst the roses. 

I placed the fox sleeping under leaves, and some more leaves falling down on her.

 "Let fall come" seemed like an ideal sentiment for an autumnal card apropos of nothing.

Entering this in:

Try it on Tuesday: Use book pages

Everybody Art Challenge: #496 Herbst / Autumn

Double D Challenge: Anything with a tail

And because this is my first time using this stamp, I'm also entering it into the current #30 NBUS challenge

Gather moments

 ... and don't forget to enjoy them as well!

Again I played around with several challenges. Today I combined the themes 

Summer -  Enchanted garden - Musical - Layering

I started by tearing strips of sheet music and adhering that to a giant tag. I then painted it over with diluted chalk paint and stamped on with a round stamp. My first thought was to include numbers and letters (as per one other challenge) but then I decided that would be too much.

For me flowers represent the quintessence of summer. The air is heavy with their scent, the sun is hot and the insects are lazily buzzing around.

I then stamped six different flowers, fussy cut and watercolored them and arranged as a central panel. Lastly I applied the TH remnant rubs and a silk ribbon.

entering in:

Everybody Art Challenge: # 495 Summer

Simon Says Monday Challenge: Lazy days of summer

Tag Tuesday: Musical

Incy Wincy designs: Enchanted Garden

Crafters' Cafe blog Challenge: Layer it up

Meet Mr. Sunshine

Mr. Sunshine was born in the year of Tiger, yet he is not a go-getter but rather likes to lay and wait for his opportunities to arise. He has a sunny disposition and it must have been the Fate that brought us together...

The background was made by stenciling onto a pale yellow Canson paper. I stenciled with inks, which allowed me to sprinkle on transparent embossing powder and now everything has a transparent, shiny overlay.

The Tiger image is a museum badge that I have kept for years and years. It is so satisfying to collect items but also to let go of them. Text was found in a book.

entering in:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Hello Sunshine

Allsorts Challenge: #632 Masculine

Everybody Art Challenge: €494 Anything goes

Make a wish

 I love new stuff - I mean who doesn't? But then there are papers, paints, stamps and ephemera just lying around and asking to be used.

I have been holding on to this ScrapBerry bird themed paper for ages, not daring to use it up. But why save? There will be other gorgeous papers!

I started by painting the background all white. Then I added stamped images (ancient Above the Mark rubber), the said bird and a bough of rose hips for good measure. Lastly I flicked with black and white paints to create some interest and adhered a piece of text that seemed suitable.

This is an uncharacteristically sober piece for me, but I am glad I challenged myself.

 Entering this in:

Use Your Stuff: Black &white with a pop of color

Everybody Art Challenge: #494 Anything goes/ Alles geht

Tell your story

A real photo of a long forgotten someone... I have no idea where it came from, I probably purchased it at a fleamarket as I often so.

Now it was time to let her shine a moment in the limelight. The background was first watercolored, then stamped with ancient writing. I added the sentiment 'tell your story' which seemed apt.

Entering her in:

Everybody Art Challenge: #493, Bingo. I was inspired by the row 'vintage-photo-flower'.