Challgene #48 by bastel-traum: It is all about watercolor!

Hello, crafty friends! Welcome to a new challenge hosted by bastel-traum! Edition no. 46 is all about watercolors. I love this medium - it is so forgiving and versatile!

That cutie is a stamp from CC Designs and the series is called "Swiss Pixies". This was an express order for a baby shower party, so I thought this fits perfectly - a cute little girl sitting in an umbrella :-)

I colored the image with a whole bunch of different water soluble colors - a bit of ZIG real brush pens, Tombow markers, pebeo watercolors and for some details colored pencils, too! That is what I love about watercoloring - you can mix and match every medium you like - as long as it is water soluble :-)

The background panel is made with distress inks (cracked pistachio and blueprint sketch). I just smooshed it with a piece of acetate onto my card panel and let it dry by air (drying with a heat tool works as well, but you will get a different look on the paper).

For more fun going on I created a shaker card, filled with bits an pieces of glittery stars, hearts and some beads for a nice sound while shaking it :-) I always save the acetate pieces of packaging; they are mostly very sturdy and nice for shaker windows!

The sentiment on the black cardstock is heat embossed. And that is it already! :-D

I hope you got inspired and I would love to see you playing along with us!

Hugs and have an awesome day!

Used materials:

- White cardstock (300g)

- Black cardstock (300g)

- CC Design stamp

- Zig Real brush pens

- Pebeo watercolors

- Tombow markers

- Caran d'Ache Supracolor pencils

- White embossing powder

- Heat tool

- Double stitched rectangle frames

- Sequins

- Tombow mono multi glue

- Tape runner (for the shaker window)

Happy Insta Girls: Advent Blog Hop

Es ist mir eine grosse Ehre, dass ich nun Teil der Happy Insta Girls bin!! Hier gehts einfach bloss um Spass und anderen Bastelfreunden eine Freude zu bereiten mit einer selbst gemachten Karte :-) und das Spannende daran ist, dass man im Voraus nicht weiss, von wem man eine Karte bekommt, man weiss bloss an wen man eine schicken muss... weil die liebe Birka quasi die Mutter dieser Idee ist und   sie das Ganze dirigiert... Also...! Das Thema war "Advent/Weihnachten/winterlich und dazu mussten nun alle Happy Insta Girls etwas werkeln... Ich habe von der lieben Julia Klein diese wundervolle Karte mit Glitzertannenbäumchen erhalten, sooo süüss!! Ich musste sie natürlich grad fragen, wie sie die gemacht hat und das ist ein Stempelmotiv, welches sie mit Versamark gestempelt hat und dann dieses pinke WOW-Embossingpulver drüber geschüttet und geschmolzen hat... Klasse sieht das aus!! In echt funkelt es noch viel mehr :-D

It is such an honor being part of the "Happy Insta Girls"!! This is all about having fun and spreading some handmade kindness amongst the girls. And the fun part is - no one knows who will get a card from whom  - I just knew for whom I have to create one. How fun is that?! So we can guess first who made which card :-) Sweet Birka is hosting this Blog Hop and she told us previously for whom we have to create a card. So, here we go! I got a card from Julia Klein. Look at that card!! So sweet and sparkly!!! Those trees are so beautiful - I asked her how she did it - it is an embossing powder from WOW. I definitely have to get my hands on that super sparkly stuff :-))

Diese Karte ist doch einfach bezaubernd, nicht?! Auch der Spruch oben drauf.... hmm... ich möchte grad in meinen Pyjama hüpfen und eine heisse Tasse Schokolade schlürfen :-)))

This card is so charming, isn't it?! And the sentiment wants me make to put on my PJ again and slurping some hot chocolate :-)))

Ich meinerseits durfte eine Karte für Anni werkeln :-) Falls ihr sie noch nicht kennt - sie kreiert wuuundervolle Karten!! Und ihr Account auf Instagram ist es definitiv wert,  zu folgen :-D

Der süsse Schneemann ist ein Stempel von My Favorite Things, welchen ich mit Versafine Onyx Black gestempelt habe und dann mit meinen ZIG Real Brush pens coloriert habe. Danach habe ich den Schneemann abgedeckt und mit Versamarktinte den wunderschönen Schneeflockenhintergrund drüberstempelt und mit weissem Embossingpulver bestreut und geschmolzen. Da das geschmolzene Embossingpulver farbresistent ist, kann man nachher wunderbar den Hintergrund mit einer Stempelfarbe wischen - in meinem Fall war das eine Distress Ink (Tumbled Glass). Das kleine Sentiment und der passende Tag sind von Mama Elephant - ich liebe die!! Sie hübschen einfach jede Karte sofort auf und die Sentiments sind sehr gut ausgewählt - eines passt einfach immer!

Es hat mich so gefreut, dass ich den Geschmack von Anni getroffen habe und ihr eine kleine Advents-Freude bereiten konnte!

I could create a card for Anni - in case you don't know her you definitely should check out her blog and Instagram account - she creates fabulous cards!!!

This sweet snowman is a stamp by My Favorite Things (I got it from a sweet, sweet friend of mine :-) ). I colored him with my ZIG real brush pens. Afterwards I masked it off and heat embossed the background with withe embossing powder. Then I blended in some distress ink (tumbled glass). The teeny tiny tag & sentiment from Mama Elephant and some sparkly sequins finished off that card. I am so happy that Anni liked it!

So, und nun wünsch ich frohes Hüpfen durch unseren Blog Hop! Unten stehend findest du alle Blogs/Mädels, die hier mit von der Partie sind :-D

Now have fun with our blog hop :-D Down below you will find all blogs/girls. Happy hopping!!

Herzgruss  hugs,

Steffi

Julia

Tina (du bist hier! You are here!)

Anni

Wiebke

Nina

Reni

Kerstin

Vanessa

Maike

Jeanin

Biggi

Claudia

Tanja

Jessa

Lisa

Sonja

Nicole

Dana

Katrin

Birka

Advent calendar with MOPPE shelf/drawers by IKEA

As you might have seen on Instagram, I colored all those little drawers while the last Daily Marker 30 days coloring challenge. If you don't know that challenge yet, check it out! Kathy is one of the kindest persons among this amazing crafting community and she is hosting this very unique challenge. HERE  and HERE you can find everything about it.

So here is a closer look to the advent calendar. First, I painted all fronts of those drawers with white acrylic paint. Then I stamped all images with black archival ink. Those super cute stamps are all from Lawn Fawn, about 6 different sets (into the woods, joy to the woods, lets toboggan together, ready set snow, baah humbug and frosty fairy friends). The numbers are from the clark's abc stamp set. That ink is very good for watercoloring. So first, I made some previous tests if it works with acrylic paint too and it did!! As acrylic paint is water soluble, it behaves very similar to watercolors while working with it. Once it is dried, it is permanent and lightfast. That is why I decided to color all those images with acrylic paint - it should last for a couple of years now! :-D

I painted all images with very thin brushes - actually with three different sizes. They are from Marabu (a german brand) and I used the round brushes 3/0 and 5/0 and a flat brush size 6 (for the bottom/snow/shadow/sky parts). They have a good consistency to draw thin lines, such as hair, fur or details on trees. Sometimes I sponged the sky with some dye ink, too (it depended on the surface of the wood; sometimes it was smooth and sometimes it was quite rough and porous) and used white acrylic paint for the stars on top.

An other fun thing is Liquid Appliqué. It comes in a pen and you apply it directly onto your surface. You can let it dry overnight and then heat set it, or you can heat set it directly after applying - you will get different results. Mr. Sheep is heat set directly, Mrs. Sheep is heat set after drying overnight. I like both textures :-D

I hope you got inspired and maybe you give it a try too - probably next year :-)) You have to consider that this takes a while to create - I needed about 25 - 30 hours.

Hugs,