Stempel Spass

I made this card for the Lavinia challenge - its bright and hot colors this month. I used watercolor paper and distress inks, which I stamped onto an acrylic block, misted it with water and stamped it onto the watercolor paper.  I doodled around it and used this pretty poppy silhouette stamp from Lavinia stamps, which I stamped twice, since its kind of small. Added some white dots as accents. I kind of like it - nice to make something different from my Christmas card frenzy... --X-- I did add a sentiment later, however the challenge rules are to use ONLY Lavinia stamps - uh oh - I wonder if they kick me out now.... Well I am taking the risk - it needed a sentiment (Mama Elephant) Have a great day! I'll be in Chicago next week, so don't expect too much from me over the next couple of days.....

Its sequins and stamps at Stamplorations  and I made this shaker card using the child theme at Festive Friday . I love shaker cards - I made them before for children's birthday cards. I put sequins and microbeads into the shaker pocket. The snowman is an old Hero Arts stamp and the sentiment is by Paper Smooches - Christmas sampler.  I embossed the white card stock with my favorite Sizzix Embossing Folder and used some snippets of patterned paper as accents. And of course this card is going to joint the  Snippets Playground    and  Simon Says Wednesday challenge  - Anything goes

I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving! I hope you had a great time with your family - I certainly did. My daughter came home from college and this year we just had a small Thanksgiving - just the 4 of us. We had a delicious meal together. We don't do turkey... we had ham, Brussels sprouts, cranberry quince sauce, mashed potatoes with crispy onions and a salad. Desert was a pumpkin tiramisu - delicious! I took some pictures, but they did not come out well, so I won't bother to post  them. I find it quite hard to make good looking pictures from food. I admire the photographers in those cooking magazines - there is an art to it.... I wanted to share two Thanksgiving cards I got - I did not manage to make even one.....I am totally stuck on Christmas cards... This card is from my friend Susanne And this card is from my sister. It is so nice to get a totally unexpected card in the mail! Thank you both! --X--- And of course I want to share a ca

Hi, I had fun using this great sketch from The Deconstructed Sketch  and my brand new Paper Smooches set Chubby Chums. That reindeer just cracks me up and the sentiment - just fabulous! I colored the reindeer with Copics and mounted it onto Kraft. Some twine and the background paper I embossed with the subtle PTI canvas impression plate (the other side of the linen plate..) It does not really show in the picture, but it looks really good in real life. Much better than smooth card stock... I added that little red kiss... I will also put this card into the   Rudolph Day  challenge for November and my all time favorite place -  the  Snippets Playground - basically everything except the white background were snippets and  Catered Crops  - Animal House recipe swap Ribbon Carousel  - Holiday and Celebration Have a great evening and thanks for coming by!

I was recently at the birthday bash for Mama Elephant and there I met Cammy from Pink Room Therapy , my new stamping friend. She invited me along with her friends Michele from the Enchanted Stamper  and Claudia (so blog) to a Christmas card making get-together. Everybody designed a card and brought materials for the others to make their own. We all have a similar style of card making, so that was easy. I designed my card the night before - had to work until 9 pm  - that did not leave me much time - CAS it had to be.  So here is a photo from the cards we made: From left to right you see Cammy's, Michele's, my card and Claudia's card.   Above is Cammy with her sweet daughter and below are Michele and Claudia proudly showing off their works And that is all of us with our cards! Here is a close-up  of the card I designed. Materials: Memory Box Pine Border Die, mounted on dimensional tape, sentiment - Mama Elephant Merry Greetings, Paper

There is a new challenge starting at the Simply Create Too challenge blog - the theme is SNOW or USE ONLY WHITE. You have two weeks to play in it! I made my own embossing paste for this card - the recipe you can find    HERE . It costs  literally  nothing and its quick and easy. When I first made it I was worried, that it would flake off, but that has not happenend.  It stayed silky smooth and pliable.   I took one of my TCW stencils, took a PTI star die and masked the star of the stencil with washi tape. I then smeared the embossing paste onto the stencil, which I had taped onto textured card stock and let it dry.  I die cut two stars using glitter paper, mounted them on dimensional tape and "hung" them on a silver string. The sentiment is from Mama Elephant - Merry Greetings. I am also entering this card into: The  Snippets Playground  CHNC challenge   - anything Christmas    Simon Says Monday Challenge   - it's a Mystery I got insp

Leaves is the theme this week at the Paper Players and I was in the mood for a sympathy card - hmmmm, that does not sound to good, right? Well, I recovered, after making this card... I got this beautiful Stampin' up set on ebay and had to use it right away. I heat embossed the leaves in white and then I also stamped them in grey "behind". Sponged around the edges and mounted it onto white card stock. The sentiment is Impression Obsession. The little leaf I punched from a separate larger leaf. I like it - very serene...

I have been incredibly busy the last few days and it looks like its going to be like that for the next weeks.....But it has always been like that - as soon as thanksgiving rolls around all sorts of things pop up and eat up my time. Do you feel the same way? But tonight I took some time - I needed to get my mind off stuff and made a card. But before we get there I have more important business to take care of. i have two more new members to welcome to my blog: Linda (no blog I'm afraid) and   Shirely . Shirley is a master of CAS cards, go pay her a visit - you won't be disappointed! I have a welcome picture for you Ladies: The sculpture is by  Anna Chromy  and is titled Olympic Spirit. It stands outside the Archaeological Museum in Athens. I like it a lot - so dynamic! And now the card, of course. I made this for Inkspirational  - White is the theme. I made another batch of embossing paste - the recipe you can find HERE . I took one

I have literally no time right now, but I just found out that I was one of the top three at the last CAS Colours and Sketches challenge and I had to play - a quick card it was.... I modified the sketch a bit, but not much. The stamps I used are from a Fiskars set called Winter Wonderland. The sentiment is Mama Elephant Merry Greetings. Used some twine. The frame around the periphery I drew with a Copic marker. Since I used a snippet this card will also go into the  Snippets Playground ! I will also enter this into the CHNC challenge extra for November Tomorrow I'll have hopefully a bit more time - I have new members to say hello to - I have not forgotten you....so happy you joined, but you will get an "official" greeting, I promise!

Hi, today my friend Kanan was hosting the Scramble over at the Hero Arts flickr group . I had to play, of course.... She had some challenging themes: P-1 :  Old Fashioned & Earth - Old-fashioned  – something inspired by vintage design or old look Earth  – your own interpretation of the word earth (say, earthy colors (shades of brown, blues, greens...any other you can think of) , the shape of earth) OR P-2 :  Simplicity & Layers - Simplicity  – displaying a clean and simple design Layers  – you can use layered stamping technique or layers of papers or both, the choice is yours. Of course I had to do the second options - easier and suits me better.... I used the Hero Arts Zig Zag Background Cling stamp at an angle, layered some Washi tape across, but the thinner one I first put on card stock paper, since I did not like the see-through of the background. I punched the speech bubbles and stamped the words inside. The little ampersand is Hero arts as well. Added so

Hello Everybody, I am so excited, to be part of this blog hop. It is hosted by the amazing Amanda Clapper from Cricktn Crafts. The blog hop  is to rise awareness for canine cancer.  November is Canine Cancer Awareness month and so for all those cute puppies we have organized the Canine Cancer Awareness Blog Hop!! We have a lot of talented ladies with some great projects to share with you today with the theme of Dogs. Did you know that 1 in 4 dogs will be diagnosed with cancer?! I didn’t realize that canine cancer was so common. This is the very same cancer that takes many young children’s lives also. Humans and dogs suffer from the same cancers and I believe when there is a cure for human cancer there will be a cure for Canine cancer also. So we must all stick together and not only hope for a cure but bring awareness to these horrible cancers! So there will be blog candy for this hop! You will have to do a few things to be entered in it but they are super easy But the CANDY IS

Wow - I have two new members - so nice to see you two! I am glad to see my membership growing, even without the lure of a blog candy.... Ladies, you made my day! I want to welcome  Susan from Cat's INK Corporated and  Caroline - sorry I can't find a link, but I will happily add it, if you let me know :) I have a welcome picture for you: It is showing glass art by Dale Chihuly , an American glass artist, who did an exhibit in the Bronx Botanic Garden in 2006. This foto is taken at dusk, there was a light rain and the colors were just amazing, with pink clouds reflecting in the lily pond and the glass among the lotus seedpods. I was so fascinated by this exhibit I went there three times. So have plenty of pictures to share....Perhaps I'll show you some more some other time - I guess more members need to join ;) --X-- I have not played with 52 CCT in a while - there are just too many challenges out there, impossible to play them all. But I

The   CAS Colours and Sketches  challenge is almost over and I need to get this card in before it is too late... I used an off white card stock - that does not really show here... The stamp is Studio G. I clear embosssed it and then sponged around, masking only the bottom and left side. The sentiment is by PTI. I mounted it onto suede colored card stock, added tiny Memory Box pearls and some Stickles. You can see the Stickles better on the close-up: It came out nice. It has such a light feel to it and I like the subtle glitter! I wish you all a great day - hope you liked what you saw and come back soon again!

Make it Monday is basically a direct to paper technique, where you smear the ink on paper, without dirtying up your stamps, hahaha.... Ashley Newell shows you how to do that in a video. Simple and quick - my kind of schtuff.... I needed a masculine birthday card for a friend of mine - so I picked a masculine(?) color scheme, smeared the ink on white cardstock, which I had embossed with the PTI numbers embossing plate.  The little numbers and the sentiment arealso PTI (Global Greetings) The possibilities are endless - can think of lots of color schemes here.  I am also linking this card with Seize the Birthday - the theme is texture - love it, when things just fall into place... And with Simon Says Monday challenge - got ink

Its my favorite part of blogging  - to welcome 2 new members to my blog: Annelies and  Cammy Annelies is from Belgium and unfortunately I still can't look at her blog - google does not let me - perhaps you are going to be more successful than I.... Cammy is from New Jersey - close by to where I live and we met at the Mama Elephant Birthday bash in Hoboken. We went to the Edison stamp show together and had a blast! Her beautiful blog is linked  - pay her a visit if you have time.  Of course I have a welcome picture for both of you: I took it last year at the Grounds for Sculpture , which is just a fantastic place to visit! Unfortunatley I don't know the artist who made this sculpture. I really like it - it looked gorgeous in the mist..... --X-- Guess what - it going to be more Holiday cards - I just don't think I'll ever have enough......I am so happy I started early this year - my pile has been growing nicely......... I am

Hi, I just really liked this sketch from Freshly Made Sketches  - so perfect and the ornament on it just calls out for a Christmas card. This sketch may go into my favorites file - to be used over and over again.... But for now it is the holiday theme. I used my favorite Sizzix Embossing Folder. The snowflake is from Memory Box, but it gave me grief again. It would not cut through the glitter paper, despite all the tricks I know now - extra shimming, wax paper, running it through the Big shot in different positions and multiple times.....I just gave up and pretended I wanted all those little pieces still in there, after I fuzzy cut a fair amount of the outside.... I colored some of those with Copics - looks quite nice after all....The sentiment is Mama Elephant Merry Greetings So hard to photograph the glitz - the closeup shows it best - it looks really pretty! I am also linking this card with the CHNC challenge - Anything Christmas and Simon Sa