Stempel Spass

Hallo Everybody, today I want to welcome 2 new readers to my blog: Dewi  from Indonesia and Nicole -  BaNiKa  from Germany I am so happy you found me and hopefully you will enjoy your future visits here as well. I found a welcome picture for you in my "stash" - perfect for this time of the year: Its a Dogwwood - they are flowering right now, but I took this picture 2 years ago when I visited the Walter Reeds Arboretum near my home in New Jersey. --X-- But now back to cards....... I made this card for two challenges. One is Less is Moore , which is a sketch challenge this week and the second challenge is Simply Create Too , where the theme is "All about Babies". I have copied the sketch below. The sentiment is from Kaisercraft. And since its "Anything goes" at Simon Says" I am linking this card with them as well. The second card is done with the ink blowing technique that I tried yesterday  (see det

Hi all my dear followers and visitors! I have a little blog candy to give away. The reason? It is my Birthday month and I have recently been so incredibly lucky winning other blog candies that it is time to give back! And here are my goodies: So if you want to win: - you must leave a comment on this blog post. It would be nice, if you would link the candy on the sidebar of your blog to spread the news You should be a follower on my blog. This post will be up until April 30th, I will draw the winner May 1st - and announce it shortly thereafter. Please only join, if you like my blog, not just for the chance to win the candy...  ;)

I just had time to watch the Make it Monday video at Nichole Heady's blog . Dawn McVey shares a technique that I remember from my childhood when we had fountain pens and blew the ink around on paper.  I guess good things never die...  I experimented a bit. My regular card stock that I use did not really work well - it just soaked up the ink. I took some glossy paper then - nothing fancy, just some advertisement that had a white back, dripped a drop of ink on it and blew with a straw. On glossy paper you can get real detail and it looks quite cool, I think. The sentiment is from one of my favorite Papertrey sets called Happy Trails, the bird I die cut from a paint chip - its from Memory Box, called perched Reed Bird. I gave it a little enamel eye and beak.

Here are the two challenges - one  sketch , one color challenge                   By pure change on one of my latest Michaels visits I bought this Washi tape and they had cork Stickers - both were on sale, of course.... I mounted the Washi tape on cardstock and cut out the bottom triangle to make it into a banner. The birthday die cut is from Papertrey and the little happy stamp is from Stampendous. I will also submit this to the Die-cut Divas April challenge - Washi or Birthday challenge. I am not sure which background I like better, so I kept both photos. What do you think? Fro now I am going back into my garden - there is weeding to be done...... 

I almost forgot about the Avery Elle challenge . Below you see the inspiration picture. Avery Elle offered this beautiful digital image for free. I used it to make my card.  I am not a big friend of digital stamps - I guess I am old-fashioned. Or perhaps I don't really have good image processing software. I just find it cumbersome. And the ink seems to rub off, despite that I have recently changed the ink cartridge in my printer....But regardless I do like my card. It looks cheerful, I think. Thanks everybody for visiting my blog and leaving me lots of great comments - so much appreciated!

Virginia Lu is the Muse of the week and here is her beautiful card. I love those colors, the layout, just everything about it! Such a cheerful card - just like I picture Virginia! A little while ago I was the lucky one and won Mel's blog candy . She has such a fun blog and I always read it with pleasure. But it is in German, so my German speaking members - if you don't know Mel yet, head on over - I bet you will enjoy it, too.  Here is a picture of the blog candy: (and she also made me such a cute little card!) So, time to put that candy to good use: For Virginia's card I needed more color - my Copics came in handy. I masked the sentiment stamp (Hero Arts Four Bold Messages Cl226 ), tied little twine bows around the flowers and voila - its ready for the Muse challenge!

The 10 Minute Craft Dash has 3 pretty colors this week. After I pulled out my Watercolor stamps by Hero Arts a little while ago for the scramble I though I may as well use them for the dash.  I knew exactly what I wanted to make and thought it would be rather quick. I masked my panel off the white card base and started sponging leisurely. Inked up my stamps with the same colors and put them over the panel, placed the sentiment and checked my stop clock - panic - only less than a minute to go - grabbed my bottle of glossy accents and tried to adhere the sequins - lost one, grabbed the next and puh.... 9 minutes and 58 seconds, just made it in the nick of time....If I would have gone over I would have just done it again - wasting less time sponging and maybe omitting the sequins. But I think it looks prettier with them. What do you think? I am also submitting this card to the Simon Says Anything Goes challenge Materials: Hero Arts Real Garden Petals (Cl430), s

One layer card is the theme at the Paper Players this week. This card is not a novel idea - it has been around. But I like it very much. It is simple and effective. I inked up a Hero Arts flower and clear embossed it. Icolored it with Prismacolor pencils, drew the frame around and stamped the sentiment inside. I also used some Liquid Pearls and Stickles in the center of the flower. I am submitting this card to the  Addicted to CAS  challenge "Flower". Materials: Hero Arts Blossom Art (Cl495), Hero Arts Heart Felt Messages (Cl150)

  As promised here is my belated welcome picture for my three newest blog members (see yesterdays post)  - I did not just want to greet you with the hamster.... This picture I took may years ago in the Botanical Garden in the Bronx, when Dale Chihuly was exhibited there. He is an american glass artist. I loved the exhibit so much I went there three times. This picture is taken at night - the sun is almost completely down, you can just see a hint of the sunset reflecting in the water. There also was a little drizzle coming down  It was just magical... --X-- I have a lot of Perfect Pearls at home - I got them a while ago when a crafting store somewhat close to my home went out of business and you could go there, pay $20 and fill a bag with goodies....I ended up with lots and lots of supplies, some of which have been collecting dust - such as those Perfect Pearls... I was wondering what to do with them, until Nicole Heady from Papertrey posted that video on her blog.

Not only do I have 3 new members  INEKE  (Sorry, can't find a link) CATHY JUDY to welcome to my blog. Go and checkout their's if you have time - its definitely worthwhile. Cathy has a new blog -great finds can be made there and Judy I have known forever from flickr, but just discovered her blog 2 days ago (spent quite some time there), funny, how things go... AND   I can also welcome a new member to my family:  Andromeda  a Russian dwarf hamster - my son got her for his birthday. He is sooo happy to have her!  I don't want to test your patience - usually I have welcome picture for my new members, but lets just keep it with the hamster pics for now, I don't want this post to get out of hand. I post a welcome picture in my next blog post  - I guess you have to come back and check it out ;) --X--   BLACK and GREY    that is  the challenge at   Dynamic Duos this week. Uh-oh, for me that IS a challenge. What happen

One of my all time favorite stamps is the water droplet stamp by Ryn Tanaka . I have used it often. In fact she has come out with new versions of it, I have ordered some, but the order has not yet arrived. Everyday when I check my mailbox I am disappointed - not yet here.... Well, they are coming from Canada - hail to snail mail..... So when Black Tie Friday had this theme "under the sea" I had to pull this stamp out again.  I used a Cuttlebug Embossing Folder and sponged it with distress inks. I put little enamel dots on the droplets and used some Washi Tape. The sentiment is by Amuse. I also put Stickles onto the Koi, but it does not show very well...                                                                                  

Before I show you my latest card, I want to welcome  ANGELA  to my blog. She is my latest member - HELLO and WELCOME to you! She has a beautiful blog and is  very creative! Head on over, if you have time - its a worthwhile visit! And here is your welcome photo: Its a Magnolia from my garden - its blooming right now. I hope you like it!  --X-- Such a gorgeous inspiration picture is featured on the For your Inspiration challenge this week! I went very close with my card to the picture. I masked a strip and sponged it with distress inks, stamped the  silhouette over it and adhered grey card stock above and below the masked strip. I will also participate with this card in the  Simon Says...Travel/Cityscapes challenge . Materials: Hero Arts International Skyline H5470, Recollections stamps Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and thanks for all your lovely comments!

Yesterday evening was another scramble at the Hero Arts Flickr group . I enjoy being part of that and to my big dismay I have missed the last two. For the people who are not familiar with this, the rules are:  you have 90 minutes to create a card,  you have to use at least one Hero Arts stamp or digi and  you have to upload your creation within those 90 minutes onto the flickr website.  Very straightforward. Give it a try next time! Since 90 minutes is not that long I choose to go with watercolors - very forgiving technique....I stamped distress inks onto an acrylic bloc, misted it with water and pressed it onto watercolor paper. I then overstamped it with various plant stamps - all Hero arts. The second card I first clear embossed the poison ivy plant (it looks like one) before I did the other steps and doodled around the edges in the end. The sentiment is from an Impression Obsession set. I hope you like it. Ah, I just remembered - Moxie Fab has a

Look at those colors - I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE those!  Oh, this is just totally up my alley! So this is what I did: I needed a birthday card. I love those colors - did I mention that before? And at Make it Monday the theme is embossed alphabet - I used a number - I guess you can always stretch those challenges a bit.... And how convenient is that - CAS-ual Fridays theme is Birthday Bash. I usually do not combine three challenges, but what the heck, why not... but those  Play Date cafe  colors may go into an second project..... I die cut the number and clear embossed it with a 100 Proof Press stamp - you can see this better in the close-up photo. I am also submitting this card to the Divas that Die Cut Paper challenge  - the theme is Washi or Birthday card. Obviously its birthday only, no Washi, but I used embossing and a die cut! and the last challenge I am participating in with this card is KIS - the theme is numbers . Materials: Papertrey Zig

Due to time constraints I am combining two challenges.... .Just Us Girls  has "Ombre" as a theme and it's "all that glitters" at CAS-ual Fridays . So the dragonfly glitters over an ombre background. It kind of hard to photograph the glitter.  A while ago I saw on the Stampendous website the Kaleidoscope embossing powder  - that is really cool! It changes color depending on how long you heat it starting at blue to green, to golden brown. I only heated it at its blue and green stage, going with my background colors. I love the effect. I found another cool challenge to submit this card to: Catered Crop - the theme is glitter, too. How perfect is that? Materials: Dragonfly  - Stamping Ground, Gradation background by Impression Obsession, sentiment Papertrey Happy Trails, Kaleidoscope embossing powder by Stampendous

I have been very busy the last couple of days - so sorry my new members for the late greeting! But here it is - thank you Kate  - sorry, could not find a link Beverly  - sorry, could not find a link Sherrie  for joining my blog. I so much appreciate you and everyone else who just comes and visits. I have a welcome picture for you: Generally I like to show art pictures -  this is actually art made by a spider or insect, who nestled the egg sac into a leave. So sorry I neither know the critter, nor do I know the name of the plant - let me know, if you do. But I do think its amazingly beautiful and I hope you like it as much as I do. --X-- Recently I was the very lucky winner of Rosi's  generous blog candy. Not only did she send me a lot of goodies, but she made me a beautiful card and an adorable mini album that you can see HERE . I had to make a special than you card for her. I finally tried out those fuseable fibers that I bought a

Recycling is the theme with the Paper Players  this week. That is just up my alley! I am an avid recycler - I recycle everything possible and make sure the rest of my household complies..... I love those little Reeses peanut butter cups -    oh, they are sooooo yummmy! I "sacrificed" myself  to get those wrappers...... to make this card: The idea with the vase I got from Kelly at Notable Nest  - she made several brilliant cards with that - worthwhile to see. So I made a flower and two buds out of the wrappers, using thin wire and gluing a ready made flower into the center. The white background paper I ran through my Big Shot with the Papertrey Linen embossing plate - it needed some texture. The sentiment is Hero Arts Heart Felt Messages (Cl150).