Thursday 31 March 2016

New Challenge at TIME OUT!


Hi friends!
We have a new, very inspirational challenge for you at TIME OUT!
We are Inspired by Words:

'A woman is like a tea bag - you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water' 
 Eleanor Roosevelt

I chose to be inspired by the whole phrase but you could choose just tea, woman or water for example. Head on over to the challenge blog to check out the amazing samples by out DT and Guest Designer Elaine who I'm sure many of you know from her blog Craft E-Place. Fun blog filled with pretty cards! 

I chose to work with the sentiment "I believe in you" and made this as an encouragement card for some woman whose strength is about to be tested in a difficult situation. :) Girls like flowers don't they (at least I do!) so this became a floral card with my all time favorite flower stamp set by PTI. This set and Altenew's Hennah Flowers are constantly fighting to be my number one choice when it comes to creating cards with flowers. :) Anyway, I did some simple Copic coloring and used white gel pen for the flowers too. I also used a Prima background stamp that is becoming a new favorite as well. I predict you'll be seeing a lot of these small dots in future! I used a very pale blue ink so the bg might be hard to see in the photo but take my word that it looks nice IRL. :)

Please join us in the fun. This time our challenge only lasts for ONE WEEK so don't hesitate, take some TIME OUT and craft! 

Saturday 26 March 2016

New Challenge at Inkspirational!



Happy Easter and Welcome to join the latest Inkspirational Challenge!
You'll find all the challenge details HERE. We are being inspired of this fabulous photo:


Our DT and our Guest Designer Rae Ann have a lot of inspiration for you in the blog, don't miss it! 

In my card I've used a bg stamp by Marianne Design and made the fun sentiment and smiley face by CASual Fridays Stamps the focal point. I was going for super CAS at first but then added some gems and patterned paper anyway. :) Hope you like! 



Thursday 24 March 2016

Springtime Flowers / TIME OUT Challenge Reminder


Hi friends!
A quick reminder of our current challenge at TIME OUT where we are CASEing Marjan's card (below). Check the challenge blog for all the details!



In my card I've used flowers stamps by Uniko Studio and also used an embossing folder called "rock" to the lower part of the card (this idea comes from my good friend Sandie who I just spend 3 great days with!) . I stamped the flowers with light colored DI and then colored a base layer with Copic markers, then used Intense pencils for added interest. This was the first time that I dared to blog a card with these kind of flowers -I've been super intimidated with this coloring technique! Marika from Me and Minime Crafting has several amazing tutorial videos on this if you'd like to give this style a go. 

I'd like to play along at current Mod Squad Challenge: Springtime Flowers along with Uniko Studios March Challenge: Spring/Easter. CASology this time is Weather: I think these sparingly flowers reflect sunny weather really well! Hope you like!


Monday 21 March 2016

Butterfly Card in Rainbow Colors!


Hi friends!
A quick post to share my card for the current and soon ending Mod Squad Challenge: Rainbow Colors. I've used all the six colors (yellow, orange, red, violet, blue and green) in creating this simple card. My coloring is done with Copics. I've also added Wink of Stella + Sakura Stardust glitter pen. The bg stamp is by Marianne design (stamped with Memento Inks) and the butterflies and sentiment come from Happy Little Stampers. I was able to have a play with these stamps because my crafty friend Sandie is visiting me from London (to be honest while I'm writing this she is sleeping in another room, I'm a night owl!), thanks so much Sandie! Those of you who don't know these stamps yet should check them out -the quality is superb. They even smell wonderful! :) I'm also entering this to Anything Goes with HLS Stamps Challenge.  I hope you like! 



Thursday 17 March 2016

New Challenge at TIME OUT!


Hi friends!
I'm here to share my DT card for TIME OUT Challenges. The next fortnight we are CASEing this beautiful card:


It's made by Marjan Kuppers and I'm sure you'll all agree it's very special! I decided to be inspired of the pink flowers and the circles in Marjan's design and I really love how this card turned out. I used an Altenew flower stamp and colored it with Zig Clen Color Brush markers, blending with water, and added a coat of Wink of Stella to the flowers too. There's white gel pen on the small top pedals of the flower and that really made them pop. Hope you like!

There's brilliant DT samples for you in our blog... Don't miss them! After having a look, take some TIME OUT and join us! 


Monday 14 March 2016

Lots of Green :)


Hi guys!
I'm here with a quick post sharing a card I did especially for the current  Mod Squad Challenge. The theme was fun -all green- and I love CASual Fridays that is sponsoring the challenge. The sentiment comes from their stamp collection. The leaves I used are by Stamping Up. Green Memento Inks, some green gems and two different green cardsock, there's the other ingredients of this simple CAS card! Hope you like! 

Saturday 12 March 2016

New Challenge at Inkspirational!


Hi everyone!
We have a new challenge for you at Inkspirational Challenges:


I used a Clearly Besotted butterfly stamp (a freebie I once received with a crafty mag, my first time using it actually!) along with a sentient from the same set. The sentiment is heat embossed on vellum and the coloring is done with Zig Clean Color watercolor markers. I also added Wink of Stella to the butterflies and shaded the bg with grey ink to make the strip of butterflies to pop a bit more. Love how it turned out. 

 I hope to see you joining us! Please check out the amazing work of our DT and guest designer Susan for more inspiration, simply click here!


Thursday 10 March 2016

TIME OUT Reminder!


Hi friends!
I'm here to remind you of our current challenge at TIME OUT Challenges. You still have about one week time to enter our challenge

Easter and/or Spring with the optional technique twist of masking.

In my card I've used a Hero Arts flower bg stamp and colored it in with Zig Clean Color watercolor markers. The sentiment is Finnish for "Happy Easter" and I've heat embossed it on vellum. The card base is embossed with a "zebra" folder. First time I'm using it... Looks lovely I think! 

Do enter our challenge if you haven't already: there are great prizes for grabs by STAMPlorations and the DT samples along with the gallery look amazing! Join in the fun! 

I'd like to enter a2z Scrapbooking March 2016 Challenge: Embossing here

Thursday 3 March 2016

New Challenge at TIME OUT!


Hi friends!

TIME OUT Challenges is turning 2 years today! Congratulations to us! :) We are celebrating with a theme challenge

Easter and/or Spring with the optional technique twist of masking.

Our sponsors for this challenge are STAMPlorations


The winner of our challenge will get a $20 gift voucher. Plus we will do a random draw for those who twist with us by using masking on their project. The winner of this draw will get  2 standard sized ARTploration stencils.

Our guest designer in our birthday challenge is TaeEun. She is a TIME OUT regular and her blog is so inspiring -do visit her blog and leave her some love!

My card was a quick make. I stamped a large Stampendous lily stamp on watercolor paper with black Versafine ink and water colored it with ZIG Clean Color Brush Pens. Those of you who know me are now like "Whaaaaaat?!? Nonni uses water coloring?!?" But that's the truth... ACTUAL WATER has been used in making of this card. ;) I'm usually terrified of using water (I'm too much of a control freak...) but these pens have completely changed my opinion on water coloring. I used only 20 minutes in coloring this image and although it's not perfect, I think it looks rather nice. I looooove these pens. I think I own some stamps that will work a lot better with these pens than with my Copics. And I usually love my Copics... But these pens are so easy to use and they blend like a dream and leave no streaks to the paper... I need more colors, I only have 12! :) I had to take the pic in unnatural light -in nature the blending looks a lot smoother. The sentiment is "Happy Easter" in Finnish and I also used a brick wall stencil for inking the background. I don't actually love the retroish color palette of this card but well, as I said... It was a quickie! Quick decisions were made! :) 

Please join us in our birthday challenge. Happy crafting! 

I'd like to enter a car mix up challenge in brand new challenge blog. The theme is water coloring. Check it out here!