Basteltraum's challenge #60 Packaging / sugar sweet

Hello, my crafty friends!

I am back with an inspiration card for the newest challenge, hosted by bastel-traum. And it is all about packaging and/or sugar sweet. So I went for a sugar sweet card - almost literally, lol :-))

My card has a very little color on it, I just sponged the background with some Mama Elephant pigment ink called "piggy bank" and stamped the sentiment (from the latest simon says stamp December kit) and the rest of the card are all die cut pieces. It's a whole set by Your next stamp and it brings you all the pieces you need to build up a gingerbread house and some pretty embellishments. I simply diecut everything out from white, colored and kraft cardstock and assembled everything with liquid glue. For the background I used 2 different border dies by Lawnfawn - forest border and  Stitched hillside border dies. They create the perfect background scene for my little gingerbread house! Some touches with a white gel pen finished off my design. It's that simple :-) and the result is great, isn't it??

I would be happy to see you creation over at bastel-traum's blog!

Happy crafting and enjoy the advent - only 2 weeks until Christmas, wohooo!

Basteltraum's Challenge #59 Winter/Christmas/shiny stars

Hellco my friends!  

As it is already the 15th of the month, the new challenge of bastel-traum starts today!

So this time it is all about winter, Christmas and/or shiny stars; you can use one, two or all of them to create a card with. I decided to go with all three of them :-)

First, I created my background panel. I diecut a piece of black cardstock (300g/m2) and sponged distress oxides over it (vilted violet and faded jeans). Then I spritzed some water droplets on it and wiped off the excess with a paper towel. After it dried completely, I splattered some white thick acrylic paint over it with an old tooth brush to create a nice, shiny starry sky. I recommend not diluting the acrylic paint because it would react immediately with the distress oxides (the stars would turn into purple though). To avoid any mixing between the distress oxides and the acrylic paint, you might put a layer of micro glaze over the oxides and then splatter the acrylic paint. That is what worked for me the best.

For the little campfire scene, I used a tree border by lawn fawn, also diecut from the same black cardstock as the background. I put some white pencil (Polychromos by Faber Castell) to show the snow shining in the night. For more shine on the top of the trees (highlight of the moonlight), I sponged some white pigment ink.

The moon is diecut from a piece of watercolor cardstock and I used regular watercolors to give it some dimension on its surface. Then I created a mask out of a sticky note and sponged some white pigment ink over it to create a halo for the moon. After it dried completely, I adhered the moon over it. Then I zook a little santa/deer/sleigh stamp and stamped with archival ink over the moon. A MISTI tool might be very helpful here because the moon is raised and it needs to be stamped several times to get a nice impression. The sentiment (by lawnfawn) is heat embossed with white embossing powder.

Those adorable bears and the campfire are one of Isabel's latest digital stamp releases where I colored with Copics and Polychromos pencils. I tried to imitate the glow from the fire on the bears by using yellow colors. Aren’t they adorable???!

I hope you got inspired and you will play along with us!

Crafty hugs,

Basteltraum's Challenge #58: Thank you

Hello my friends!

I hope you are enjoying our awesome fall weather we have lately as much as I do! All those beautiful colors outside are inspiring me for my cards... and so I created a quite fall-ish one for the current challenge of Bastel-Traum. And the theme is all about saying thank you.

I colored that adorable basket of apples (stamp by Lawnfawn) with my copics, cut them out with my ScanNCut and adhered it onto a circle of kraft cardstock. The background panel is from the same cardstock and I embossed it with an "Next Level" embossing folder by We'R'Memorykeepers.  Love the structure - like a real basket! For some more interest, I added a strip of gingham patterned paper which I made by myself with a background stamp. The "thank" die is by WPlus9 and the "you" is from a labeling set by MFT.

So I really hope you will play along with us - since Thanksgiving will be soon and you never can have enough cards which are thank you related ;-)

I am off now for a vacation in Austria - so excited!!

Happy crafting and enjoy your Sunday!!

Hugs,

Birka's Birthday Blog Hop

Hallo ihr Lieben!

Hello, crafty friends!

Der heutige Blogpost ist ein ganz spezieller - eine meiner liebsten Kartenmacher-Freundinnen hat nämlich heute Geburtstag!!! WOHOO, alles alles Gute für dich, liebe Birka!!

Today's blogpost is a very special one because today is the birthday of one of my dearest crafty friends *drumroll* : Birka!! WOHOO, wishing you a very happy birthday, sweetie!!! 

Und falls ihr Birka noch nicht kennt, dann rate ich euch dringend, ihr auf Instagram, ihrem Blog und ihrem YouTube-Kanal zu folgen  - das Mädel ist nicht nur super talentiert und kreiert spitzenmässige Karten, sondern hat auch einen extrem guten Sinn für Humor und nimmt sich auch gerne mal selber auf die Schippe :-)) Birka hat ein Herz aus Gold, wie man so schön sagt - aber ich bin überzeugt, dass ihres pink ist. Und ganz viel Glitzer drumrum hat :-D Denn Pink ist ihre absolute Lieblingsfarbe.

In case you don't know Birka, you definitely should check her out on Instagram; she's an amazingly talented papercrafter and has a super good sense of humor :-) That girl has a heart of gold - but I assume that hers is pink - very pink. With a lot of glitter on top :-D Because pink is her absolute favorite color.

Ich habe Birka 2014 beim Stöbern im Netz gefunden - man findet bei ihr aufm Blog auch viele tolle Anleitungen für allerlei Papiergebasteltes und digitale Freebie Stempel und... aber schaut doch selbst vorbei :-))

I discovered Birka's blog (only German) in 2014. She has lots and lots of freebies and DIY's for many different paper projects.

Birka ist immer für uns da, organisiert unsere Insta-Girls-Hops, erinnert uns an die Geburtstage aller anderen... sie ist einfach von A-Z ein Riiiiiesenschatz. So. Und deshalb haben wir total im Geheimen einen Geburtstags-Blog-Hop für sie organisiert, inklusive eines pinken Geburtstagsblogs. Ihr glaubt nicht, wie wir alle auf unseren Mündern sitzen mussten!! :-)) Und natürlich gibt es viele tolle Preise zu gewinnen und digitale Stempel als Freebies! Boah. Alles was ihr machen müsst, ist, eine pinke Karte zu gestalten und auf dem Geburtstagsblog verlinken. Alle weiteren Infos dazu findet ihr dort.

Und das ist eine weitere Überraschung für Birka - eine Collage aller Mädels, die hier mitgemacht haben. Wir mussten uns alle mit einem DIN A4 Papier ablichten lassen und Nina hat dann im Schweisse ihres Angesichts diese zauberhafte Collage daraus fabriziert.

Birka is always there for us, she organizes so many things, reminds us for all birthdays... she's simply amazing. And that's why we planned that bloghop surprise, including a super pink birthday blog! And there are prizes to be won, yayyy! The only thing you have to do is creating a pink card and link it onto the birthday blog. You will find all further information there.

And here's a further surprise for Birka - a photo collage with all girls who participated on this surprise. We just had to take a photo of ourselves with a white typing paper and Nina created this amazing collage out of it.

Aber nun will ich euch endlich meine Karte zeigen, welche ich für sie gemacht habe - ganz stilecht mit viel PINK und noch mehr Glitzer, HA! :-)) Die super süsse Einhorntorte ist übrigens eins der Freebies ;-) Coloriert habe ich die Torte mit meinen Copics, das Innere der Ohren und das Horn sind mit Finetec Goldfarbe gepinselt und das Topping besteht aus pinkem Glossyglitzerleim - natürlich :-D

But now I want to show you the card I made for Birka - of course it's pink and sparkly, HA :-) that super cute unicorn cake is one of the freebies (available on the birthday blog). I colored it with my copics, the ears and the horn are colored with Finetec gold watercolor and the topping is covered with pink glossy glitter glue, of course! :-)

Also ich muss ganz ehrlich zugeben - so alle Karten auf einem Haufen sehen in der Tat gigantisch aus, nicht?? Alles PINK, alles glitzert - jetzt hoffe ich nur, dass es Birka so richtig umhauen wird :-)))

I mean... look at all those cards - aren't they amazing?! 
Everything pink and sparkly - Birka will be a ball of tears! :-))

Falls ihr immer noch nicht überzeugt seid, mitzumachen - von diesen Sponsoren gibt es TOLLE Preise zu gewinnen!! Waaahh!!

In case you aren't convinced yet to participate - those are our sponsors and the prizes area AMAZING!! Wohoo!!

Und jetzt wünsche ich euch viel Spass beim Weiterhoppen  - zur Übersicht und Orientierung habe ich euch hier alle Blogs aufgelistet:

And now enjoy your hopping - I listed all girls again for your orientation:

Sonja

Kerstin

Sandra

Biggi

Jeanin

Claudia

Jessa

Reni

Vanessa

Nicole

Anni

Wiebke

Dani

Nina

Katrin und Jennifer

Christiane

Tina <-- (du bist hier / you are here)
Maike
Dunja
Steffi

Alles Liebe,

Crafty hugs,

Basteltraum's Challenge #57: TIC TAC TOE

Hi guys!

As always on the 15th of every month, a new challenge starts over at Basteltraum's blog. This time it is a very special one: have you ever heard of the "Tic/Tac/Toe* recipe? It's like the game you made as a kid - you just have to choose from 3 ingredients in a row, either vertically or horizontally or even diagonal. So I chose the first row vertically: dots / cute / stencil.

Here you can see all possibilities you can choose from:

I stencilled those hearts by sponging dye ink onto a card panel, took the stencil away and blended again over the whole panel. The whole panel looks more soft like this because the gaps between the hearts are not plain white anymore.

The cute mouse in its bunny onesie (I mean seriously - can it get any cuter?!), the banner and the cookie plate is colored with Copic markers and Polychromos pencils. By the way: that mousie is available soon in Isabel's etsy shop - in case you don't know her, you definitely have to check her out - she's amazingly talented in drawing but also a fantastic cardmaker and became a very sweet friend of mine :-D

So I hope you will play along with us - see you there!

Hugs,

Krumspring Stamps 1 year anniversary

Hi guys!

Can you believe it - Krumspring Stamps is celebrating its first anniversary!! Yayyy, congrats to Maria and her awesome little business! And there are 8 amazing new stamp sets available!!

For this occasion, we prepared a blog hop for you. If you're already hopping, you come from Amy Yang's fabulous blog :-) So be sure to hop along and leave comments on every participating blog, there are amazing prizes!!

But first, let me show you the card I created for your inspriation and showcasing the brandnew set called "Bloom".

Isn't it gooorgeous?? It's actually a Magnolia blossom and it is huge! So that means you have a lot of space to put color on :-D

First I stamped the image with Versamark ink and heat embossed it with silver embossing powder.  Heat embossed lines are raised and this is quite helpful while watercoloring ;-)

I mixed traditional watercolors with peerless watercolors and colored pencils. This way you will achieve lots of depth on your image. Here  you can see what I used:

The Happy Birthday is from the set "The Necessary One" which I heat embossed with a kind of caramel colored embossing powder. To finish off the card, I adhered my panel onto a soft pink card base. Voilà! :-D

So beside those 15% off, you get the chance to win a 10$ gift certificate to the Krumspring shop!!
Leave a comment on each step on the way of the blog hop for 16 chances to win a 10$ gift certificate OR the grand prize - which is a prize package containing lots of Krumpspring Stamps!

Giveaway ends August 23 at 12 pm Central European Time. Winners will be announced on Krumspring Blog on August 23.

So here are all blog hop participants:

Krumspring Blog (Maria)

Vera Rhuhay

Michelle Short

Amy Yang

Tina Krauer <-- you are here!

Niki Bee

Jessica Frost-Ballas

Anna Kossakovskaya

Kathy Racoosin

Amy Lee

Natalie Elphinstone

Mayline Jung

Keeway Tsao

Amy Kolling

Birka Reinitz

Dana Gong

Thank you so much for celebrating with us!! Good luck and happy hopping!

Hugs,

Guest designing for Simon Says Stamp flickr challenge

Hi guys!

I am tickled pink that I was asked to be guest designing for the Simon Says Stamp flickr challenge #78, yay!

This time it is all about dots and/or stripes, such a fun and easy one!! :-)

I created two cards for your inspiriation - let's start with the first one!

I love this set called "Coffee and Tea"! I wanted to create a cozy and homy feeling so I grabbed lots of different patterned papers out of my stash. I combined a red gingham patterned paper with some wooden patterns. And of course I had to create a coffee cup with dots! This is also stamped onto patterned paper. I just added shadows in different shades of blue Copic markers. Then I diecut that beyond adorable coffee mug out of white cardstock and added a piece of the same dotted patterned paper as a sleeve and added some shades to it, too. Eyes and mouth are colored with Copics as well. Then I glued the arms onto the sleeve and added a full heart diecut (it is separate since the one of the dicut won't be a full one). I love how those teeny tiny arms are holding that heart :-D

To give my red and white striped gingham tablecloth a special something something, I added a white scalloped border diecut. I think at least such details make the difference! The sentiment is heat embossed twice (make sure the first embossing is cooled down well before starting the second layer!) with white embossing powder. To finish off my design, I added a little bunting with the same gingham paper.

I really like how it turned out, I hope you like it too!



My second card is a complete different style, using lots and lots of layers of Distress Oxides and regular Distress ink:

This stamp set called "Look for the miracles" is so versatile and gorgeous! The design of the flowers and leaves allows a lot of different techniques.

First, I heat embossed all pieces (flowers and leaves) and the sentiment with white embossing powder. Then I added Distress ink over the entire images with a finger dauber (mowed lawn and twisted citron for the leaves and fossilized amber and picked raspberry for the flowers) and just added some dots and details to the flower petals with a Stabilo marker. Now I fussy cut all images and left a small border around each image.

The main panel is a blend of Distress Oxides (fossilized amber and spiced marmalade) and regular Distress ink (fired brick) . I love the heat embossed resist technique (the color won't stay onto the white heat embossed parts), you can create easily outstanding backgrounds!

So now I could start assembling my bits and pieces onto the panel. I always take my time for a nice composition; I try to create a well balanced design so that the eye is a kind of guided when looking at the card.

Then I stamped the dots cluster (also included in the stamp set) with white pigment ink between the free spots on the panel. This makes such a difference!

I hope you got inspired and you will play along with us on the Simon Says Stamp flickr challenge! 

And thanks again to Simon for having me!

Have an amazing day!

Hugs,

Basteltraum's challenge #56: Anything goes

It is the 15th of the month again and this means a new fun challenge is starting over at Basteltraum's blog!

And this time you are TOTALLY free of what you come up with because anything goes!!! YAY!

I definitely did my doctorate with this card, lol. Well, I blame myself because I could have done it way easier... but let's begin from scratch :-)

Lawn Fawn released this year an amazing diecut set called "Magic Color Slider". It is a huge set which allows you to create beautiful color slider cards. All pieces you need for it are included in this diecut set. Lawn Fawn has a nice intro tutorial where you can see a step by step tutorial how the mechanism has to be assembled. So... I did my magic color slider card with the adorable pirate set, also by Lawn Fawn. I stamped and masked a little scene onto a piece of cardstock and stamped the exact same scene on a piece of acetate again (including masking! this was quite a bit tricky :-)) ). Then I colored the scene with colored pencils and assembled the whole mechanism together. So when you are now pulling the kraft cardstock slider, the color will be revealed like magic because the acetate and the colored piece are layered on top of each other. How cool is that?! I barely could stop playing :-))

Then I stamped the sentiment on a banner stamp and embellished it with several flowers and leaves. A little anchor diecut out of my stash and a piece of red and white striped patterned paper finished off my design. As the interactive part is super cool, the card itself doesn't need a lot of additional embellishments.

This kind of card might be a bit more time consuming - but trust me, totally worth it! Color slider cards are SO MUCH FUN!! :-)

I hope you will play along - you have to - because anything goes! :-)

See you there and happy crafting!

Hugs,

Basteltraum's Challenge #55 : Color scheme

Hello fellow crafters!

Have you been on holidays already? Or are yours coming soon?? Well, mine will start tomorrow! We are going to Italy for one week, I am so excited!!

But first I have to announce an new challenge for Basteltraum. This time it is all about colors. You are totally free what subject on your card will be, just use one (or even all) colors of the inspiration image! (You will see it at the very bottom of this post).

The stamps and dies I used are all from Lawnfawn this time. I diecut everything from white cardstock and colored in all pieces with my copic markers. The background is sponged with a finger dauber and two different dye inks, also by Lawnfawn (butter and fake tan). The cute owls are colored with copic markers, too. I really enjoy creating scenes like this one, although it takes me quite a lot of  time to figure out my final design, lol. But that's what cardmaking is all about, being creative, right??!

So I would love to see you playing along with us!

Enjoy the summer!

Crafty hugs,

Birthday happy mail for a lovely friend

Hi guys!

Today I have a very special card for you. First, because it is for a very sweet and special crafty friend of mine, sweet Steffi. So again, happy happy birthday to you, Mausi!! And this brings me to my card for her. As we call each other "Mausi" (which means "mousie" in German) this digital stamp seemed PERFECT for this occasion! You can find that image over on Isabel's etsy store and many more adorable digital stamps. Isabel is crazily talented and super sweet. And I am so proud to call her as dear friend of mine, too. So you might check out her instagram feed too, she creates so many adorable things!

I wanted to create something special for Steffi, so I went for a flexible shaker card with no bulk at all. I used my fuse tool to create a pouch for my shaker elements. This tool is super handy and so easy to handle. I definitely can recommend it! I filled my pouch with all those tiny bits and pieces and closed it with the final fusing line. So easy!

As the whole front will be transparent, I had to create a back part of the hot air balloon. But Isabel made it an easy job, as she did include the back side of the mouse in the digi stamp set. So I cut out the mouse and adhered it to the plain hot air ballon. Voilà, here is my backside! ;-) The images are all colored with my copics. The cloudy sky is sponged with Disdress oxide ink (broken china). I have to admit - those inks are GREAT for seamless blendings!  They flow like butter ;-)

I diecut an extra frame out of white cardstock for sandwiching my shaker pouch between the card base and that frame. I used a very strong tape adhesive, I think this works best for such small and thin areas.

Then I glued the hot air balloon onto the pouch and the back on the inside onto the pouch and voilà - here is my special birthday card for Steffi! :-)

I hope you like it and you will give it a try as well!

So I just hope my card has arrived today and Steffi will like it, too!

Thanks for stopping by and have an amazing day!

Hugs,

Basteltraum's Challenge #54: Water

Hello fellow crafter!

We are back with a new challenge over at Basteltraum's blog. Theme of the month is everything water related. So let's jump into a crafty world full of splashes and fun!

For my inspiration card I chose the uber cute mermaid by a newer set from MFT. I colored everything with my copics and gave the mermaid's hair more definition and depth with some colored pencils (I used Faber Castell Polychromos). Then I heat embossed the background with this gooorgeous background stamp (also from MFT) and colored it with regular water colors. And because I had so much fun creating it, I made an other one, same coloring and background technique, only a different stamp. The big "Happy Birthday" is one of my favorites (by Mama Elephant).

I hope you got inspired and will play along with us! I would love to see your creations!

Crafty hugs,

Basteltraum's Challenge #53 : All about men and boys cards

Hello my friends!

I am just popping in with a veeery simple and quick card! I was thinking of a solution to use my, let's say, 1278 rolls of washi tape I have in my stash.... I bet you are with me, huh??! :-)))

So for the new challenge of Basteltraum (which starts today) we had to create a card for men and/or boys. So I grabbed all my blueish and greyish washi tapes and created those super simple birthday cards: I just taped side by side pieces of different washi tapes in a row, cut out a "Happy" (it is a word die from MFT which does not cut at the bottom. Then I extended the cut with my craft knife in a straight line to the end of the paper) and glued this stripe over the washi tapes.  For more interest, I diecut a frame and mounted it with some foam tape over to the panel. Some stars and a tiny birthday tag (bot cut out from balsa wood) finished off my design. So easy! Most of the time took me to figure out my design - the cards were made in 20 minutes both!

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

Crafty hugs,

Exciting News!!!

Hello crafty friends!

I am SO excited to announce that I am a part of the Krumspring Stamps dream team from now on!! Wohoo!!!

Head over to her blog to read all about it! Also, how I made this mother's day card for my mom :-)

Have an amazing Sunday!

Crafty hugs,