Time Out challenge #35 - Nature with animals and CAS(E) this Sketch #132

Good Morning!

I had a pleasure to finally play along with card challenges again. Life has been so busy lately that I haven't really had time to play along. 

I saw the Time Out- challenge with nature theme. I've been so longing to make these little scenes with Purple Onion Designs' stamps for so long. Then I went to look for inspiration and I ended up to the CAS(E) this sketch and I started from their sketch. While making this the card kind of took a side track and the sketch isn't that "seeable" but that was my starting point at least. Here is my card:

I will submit this card to these challenges:
CAS(E) this Sketch - the sketch
Time Out Card Challenge - Nature with Optional Twist of Animals

Here are the graphics:

Supplies:
Stamps: Heartfelt and Snow Cabin by Purple Onion Designs
Dies: My Favourite Things Pierced Square 
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black
Card Stock: Neenah Solar White 80b
Copic Markers: 0 - W0 - W1 - W3 - W5 - W7 (greys), V20 - V22 - V23 - V25 (greyish violet), YG 91 - YG95 - YG97 (greens), BV20 (blue), E23 - E47 (brown), R81 (pink)

Thank for stoping by today! See you soon!

Marika

CAS(E) this Sketch #112 and Time Out Challenge #25

Good Afternoon!

First of all, I'd like to thank all of you for a very warm and kind welcome of my first crafting video that I made. It was a quite a lot of work to learn how to edit it and I am SO pleased that you liked it. There are more videos coming soon. It just have been such a busy weeks lately that I hadn't have time to edit any or even craft. 

But I did have time to make this card inspired by the sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch and the theme from Time Out Challenge:

This is my entry to the CAS(E) this Sketch #112 and to
the Time Out Challenge #25.
This card got Honourable Mention at CTS. 

When I saw the latest sketch at the CAS(E) this Sketch I immediately thought of design paper to be used at the bottom of the card. I don't know why, since I hardly ever use design papers in my cards. Then when I saw the Rock around the Clock -theme at the Time Out, I remembered that one of the stamps on the Label Love stamp set says U Rock! And I got this idea of a brick wall! LOL! I am in a need of a masculine thank you card, so this idea was very handy for me.

I started with masking off the bottom portion of a card and inked up the upper part of the card with Black Soot and Pumice Stone Distress Inks. I tried to be loose and achieve kind of an uneven look. Then I stamped first, second and third generation stamping with Black Soot DI with U Rock from Label Love by Altenew and created this brick wall illusion. This time I went for the distress look in purpose. For the "sentiment" I used Versafine Satin Red. At the bottom of a card I wanted to add some fun and drew a whole with black marker and eyes that looked at us in the whole. This idea comes from Mauri Kunnas' children books, my girls love them I read these a lot. At least my Finnish speaking friends will recognize these eyes for sure but I believe some of his books are translated into English too. After the brick wall was done, I added to here and there very very loosely Black Soot and Pumice stone DI with my ink pending tool to get the scuffed and worn-out look. Then I dry embossed the thanks sentiment from Wplus9 and added a same diecut on top of it. I did this because I really like the look of inlaid die cutting but I don't like the puzzle work that it involves and this die cut has a lot little tiny parts. So by embossing it first and then adhering the die cut afterwords, I think I was able to achieve quite similar look with no puzzle work. For the finishing touch I added a few star confetti from Hobbycraft and clear Wink of Stella onto the sentiment.

Here are some close-ups:

I will link this card into these challenges:
CAS(E) this Sketch #112 - the sketch
Time Out Challenge #25 - I used the word Rock in my card

Here are the graphics:

Thanks for visiting! Have a wonderful day!

Marika

CAS(E) this Sketch #110 and Seize the Birthday

Good Afternoon!

This is my entry to the
Seize the Birthday Card Challenge.

This is my entry to the
CAS(E) this Sketch #110- Challenge.
This card was a Winner at the CTS.

Inspiration for both of these cards comes from this week's CAS(E) this Sketch.  When I saw Leigh's sketch I immediately saw Clouds! I used the sketch for both. For the Balloon I was also inspired by Dawn's way to colour it like old storybook way. Here is Dawn's tutorial for that colouring method. I tried to leave those hard edges for to get the look but... well I will try this again for sure.

I stamped the balloon from Lawn Fawn onto a watercolour paper with Black Soot Distress Ink - I used third generation stamping. Then I watercolored the image with Kuratake Gamsai Tambi watercolour set. I stamped the sentiment - says Congratulations in Finnish and added a few sequins.

For the second card, I stamped the critter and the umbrella from Mama Elephant onto a watercolour paper with Antique Linen Distress ink and coloured it with Derwent Inktense Pencils. I cut them out. Then I diecut a cloud stencil with one of dies and added Faded Jeans DI and Blue Skye Versacolour ink with my ink blending tool. I adhered the critter and the umbrella with foam tape and liquid glue. I stamped the sentiment and added a few sequins to get some interest. 

Edit: I filmed this while making it but edited it a week later. If you want to see how I made this, please head over to my youtube channel:

I will link these cards into these challenges:

CAS(E) this Sketch #110 - the sketch (I was actually able to follow the sketch this time! Very proud of myself! LOL! In case you are new to my blog, I usually never am able to do that, I have to add or leave something out for some odd reason) 

Seize the Birthday Anything Goes - A birthday card for a boy

Here are the Challenges' Graphics:

Thank you for stopping by today! Always pleased to here what you think. Have a great day!

Marika

CAS(E) this Sketch #106 and CASology #129

Good Evening!

This is my entry to the CAS(E) this Sketch #106
and to the CASology #129
This card was CTS Favourite.

Well, there is a reason why I colour images almost in every one of my cards - and I usually use "no line colouring"-tecnique. The reason is that I really can't stamp. :) When I saw the sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch this week I immediately knew that I wanted to use Altenew's Label Love for this card. I still think it really is cool design BUT this is my second attempt and I really can't do better than this. Sorry. 

Anyhow I started with stamping the Just for you- label either Black Versafine or Memento London fog. For the first attempt I used second generation stamping for the gray ones, I liked the colour better but the way that I was able to stamp it was so horrible that I had to use grey ink. All the labels are heat embossed with either Clear Embossing powder (black) or Clear Matt Dull (grey). I die cut some little tiny hearts and coloured them into black and grey. For the main sentiment I used Red Versafine and heat embossed it with Clear Embossing powder. And that's it.

Not really my usual style - no flowers, tiny bit of colour and not colouring at all. Refreshing, but I think I will stick in my usual style...

I will link this to

CAS(E) this Sketch #106 - the sketch

CASology #129 - NBUS - I used stamps Just for you and Congrats from Label Love for the first time.

Edit: My blogfriend, Sarah, reminded me that there are challenge for masculine cards going on this week SSS Wednesday challenge. Thank you, Sarah! I will enter this also to

Simon Says It's a Guy Thing - a masculine card

Here are the challenges' graphics:

Thanks for visiting. Have a wonderful day!

Marika

CAS(E) this Sketch #100

Good Evening!

This is my entry to the CAS(E) this Sketch #100.

I am SO out of my comfort shone. For me, this sketch was really really difficult - it says: "I'm graphic - NO flowers or critters, please! Well, since it's graphic it can also be masculine. I think I would say I CASEd myself with this card, I made a similar one few months ago during OCC. And at the end, I would say I like the outcome and had fun making it! Mission accomplished!

I used Versafine Onyx Black and Smokey Gray inks to stamp the sentiment stamp from Altenew. I heat embossed the outer edge of the triangle and the main sentiment with Silver Embossing Powder. I used Peacock Feathers, Faded Jeans and Stormy sky Distress Inks to ink up the panel. And that's it. 

Here is the challenge's graphic:

Thank you for stopping by today. Have a wonderful day! 

Marika

Altenew November Challenge and Inkspirational Challenge #69 -Shine

Good Afternoon everyone!

This is my entry to the Altenew November Challenge
and to the Inkspirational Challenge #69.
This card was one of the top picks at the Inspirational.

This is a card for my husband's friend who is getting his doctoral thesis today and my husband needed a congratulation card for him. In my opinion, masculine cards are really hard to do and I find it more hard to do a masculine card for a special occasion like this. So, I went for blogland to get inspiration. I saw the November Challenge at Altenew and was really drawn to those metallic embellishments but  thought that silver would be more masculine rather than gold. I chose to play with this Persian Motifs stamp set from Altenew since I think this would make a really elegant card since the flowers are so beautiful. But I couldn't possibly colour these gorgeous flowers in red for a man... so I thought why not to colour them monochromatic black! Would that be cool and masculine?!? But the card needed something "it" to be something special. Search continued. For the past week I've had in mind this challenge at the Inkspirational where the theme for this fortnight is Shine! I love the theme, I just couldn't get the idea until now! The little shine is the thing that this idea was short of. So there is the inspiration for this card.

I started stamping the Persian Motifs with Black Soot Distress ink. I didn't want the black outlines to show so I think it was the forth generation stamping which ended to the card base. I coloured the flowers with Black Soot Distress Ink as well. To get the shine I added Perfect Pearls to the water.  I heat embossed the silver edge on to a scrap watercolour paper to get some masculine texture to it. For the finishing touch I added some black dots with a black marker. Here is the close-up where the shine/shimmer from the perfect pearls is seen better.

Close-up where the perfect pearl shine is seen better.

Here are the challenges' graphics:

Thank you for stopping by today. I really had such a fun time watercolouring these and I am really pleased with the outcome. Hopefully you like them also! Have a wonderful day! 

Marika

OCC Stretch your stamps 2 - Alphabet and sentiment stamps.

Day 3.

Hi to all. It's time for day three in OCC Stretch your stamps 2. Today's topic was alphabet and sentiment stamps. The first idea what came to my mind when I was watching the teacher's videos was that I wanted to do a masculine card. This is what I came up with.  I also redid yesterday's design and I am more pleased with the end result this time. Thank you for stopping by and happy crafting!

Sentiment says congratulations in Finnish.