Beautiful Lady

Hello!

I'm at the Altenew blog today to feature Beautiful Lady from Altenew's November release. I tried to achieve three different looks by altering colouring mediums and style. On the first card I used Zig Clean Colour Markers and Distress Inks to colour my image. I tried to achieve a look from an old floral books - one might say a vintage look.

Stamps used: Beautiful Lady and Thinking of you.

Supplies:
Stamps: Beautiful Lady and Thinking of you by Altenew.
Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers: English Lavender, Dull Blue
Inks: Versafine Onyx Black, Stormy Sky, Dusty Concord, Chipped Sapphire, Peeled Paint, Shabby Shutters, Crushed Olive, Scattered Straw, Hickory Smoke Distress Inks
Paper: Daler & Rowney Simply... Watercolour Paper 190gms/90lb, SSS Slate Card stock

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For my second card, I wanted to go for very clean and simple, sharp and detailed look – one might say: a modern look. I used no-line colouring with copic markers and coloured pencils to colour my image.

Stamps used: Beautiful Lady.

Supplies: 
Stamps: Beautiful Lady by Altenew
Inks: Buttercream and Frayed Leaf Altenew Crisp Inks, Versafine Onyx Black
Paper: Canson Bristol 250gms Smooth Card Stock, Papermania Textured Card Stock

Copic Markers: Y15 - YR15 - YR16 - UG03 - YG67

Faber-Castell Coloured Pencils: Cadmium Yellow (105) - Green Yellowish (168) - Leaf Green (112) - Juniper Green (165) - Dark Crome Yellow (109) - Cadmium Orange (111) - Dark Cadmium Orange (115) - Van-Dyck-Brown (176)

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On my third card, I wanted to gain a fresh and chic – a party like look. Although it ended up being a thank you- card, I’m quite happy with the result. To colour this card, I stamped the image with Distress Markers and then blended the ink from the image with my water brush. For the stem and leaves, I used Zig Clean Color Marker to stamp them and coloured it with same technique. Since that ink had already dried, it was quite hard to get it blend again so I had to add more colour from the marker. While doing so, the stem and the leaves got more details than the flower part, so after I ended up adding  more details to the flowers too. I used a stencil and watercolored though it to make my background. And of course, splatters finishes up every card.

Stamps used: Beautiful Lady and Sohcahtoa.

Supplies:
Stamps: Beautiful Lady and Sohcahtoa by Altenew

Inks: Versafine Onyx Black, Hickory Smoke Distress Ink, Grapevine Altenew Crisp Ink

Worn Lipstick Distress Marker
Pale Dawn Gray Zig Clean Color Real Brush Marker
Paper: Daler & Rowney Simply... Watercolour Paper 190gms/90lb, SSS Slate and Cotton Candy Card stock, 

I had tons of fun colouring these – as always. Thank you for stopping by today and if you please, let me know what is your favourite! 

Hugs,

Marika

Altenew November 2015 Blog Hop

Hello!

Today I'm participating Altenew November 2015 Blog Hop to celebrate the release of ten new stamp sets and six new 8.5" x 11" papers. You probably just came from very talented and sweet Amy Gray's blog, if not please start from the beginning at Altenew blog and see what other members of Altenew's design team have come up with. 

On my first card, I went with a Christmas theme. I used couple different sets to create my wreath. Firstly I stamped them with Altenew Peach Perfect ink onto a desert storm card stock. Then I coloured the images with my Inktense Pencils. To get the illusion of snow, I used my white Gelly Roll pen after I had gotten all coloured. The sentiments were stamped with Altenew Jet Black and Dark Chocolate Crisp Inks.

Stamps used: Winter Cardinal, Poinsettia and Pine, Beautiful Day and Halftone Holidays.
Inks used: Altenew Jet Black and Dark Chocolate Inks.

Stamps used: Winter Cardinal, Poinsettia and Pine, Beautiful Day and Halftone Holidays.
Inks used: Altenew Jet Black and Dark Chocolate Inks.

For my second card I used Oriental Orchid set designed by our fabulous design team member May!! Congratulation May!! Your set is so gorgeous and it is so much fun to arrange your orchid flowers in a way you want them. I stamped the images with Altenew  Frosty Pink Crisp Ink onto a smooth card stock. Then I coloured the flowers with copics and coloured pencils. Hopefully I made justice to this beautiful set, I couldn't get them as realistic as I had wished for - need more practise. The sentiment is handwritten by me and it says (hopefully, I can trust the google translate) Thank you in Korean. I got the English version of May's set but I wanted the sentiment to be in Korean to celebrate the release of May's set in Korean! 

My third card features the set called Beautiful Day. This set has fun multilayered flowers but it also has the outline versions of the flowers and I went for the outline ones and coloured them with copics and coloured pencils. The branch seen on the back is from Winter Cardinal set.

GIVEAWAY

To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away $30 gift certificate to three lucky winners. Please leave a comment on the Altenew blog by Friday November 20, 11:59 pm EST for a chance to win.

And there is more! I will randomly choose a winner from comments left on this post and the prize will be $30 gift certificate to Altenew online store. Please leave a comment on this post by Friday November 20, 11:59 pm EST for a chance to win. I will announce the winner on my blog after the 20th.

GET HOPPING!

Hopefully you are having fun hopping. Next on the hop is fabulous and so sweet and kind Sveta Fotinia. I'm sure you are in for some serious eye candy on her blog. It is also Sveta's first time on our Release hop so please remember to leave her some love. I'm sure she has worked hard and it is always so nice to know that your efforts are appreciated. If you encounter a broken link along the hop, please start at the beginning from Altenew blog.

Thank you so much for visiting us. See you soon! 

Hugs,
Marika

CASEing Kelly Blog Hop

Hello,

As you may know, Kelly Latevola from You and your big dreams, has this awesome thing in her blog. On almost every Monday, she has a new crafter, cardmaker featured at her blog. Firstly, she introduces the crafter through this little Q&A portion. (Always a lot of fun to read) and then she features three cards of the other crafter and based on those three cards, Kelly makes a CASE of her. Doesn't it sound a lot of fun and for moreover doesn't it sound the most kind thing in the crafting world? And this amazingly selfless thing that she does is called CASEing Genius.

Kelly started CASEing Genius a year ago - actually exactly a year ago. We, who has gotten the honour to be featured wanted to give a humble thank you to Kelly and congratulate her on her first anniversary of her blog feature. At least, I personally find the thing she does, is so amazingly selfless, kind and caring gesture to another human beings. This world needs more things like these - more acts of kindness. So, to say thank you to Kelly, we decided to organise a blog hop for her and to do the thing she has done - for her. In her feature, she asks the other crafter to send three cards, but we wanted this to be a surprise (Kelly loves those) so we chose three cards of hers and made a CASE based on those. So here are three cards that I found extra special in Kelly's production:

This was my first touch to Kelly's work. I saw this over at the CTS and well deservingly this was the winning card for that week's sketch. Isn't this just fabulous..?!? Love the design, the colour choices and those little black dots are.. all perfectly executed and all in their right place.

This was another wow! WOW! The frame is just splendid idea! Perfect colouring, striking colours and still yet so simply CAS. In perfection.

In my opinion, this card features Kelly at her best: she's the megatalent of using bright and bold colours without making the card look too grouded. Her colouring is fabulous and the dimension she achieves with her copics makes me want to envy her. And the last one but not the least, she always - and this is truly always - her background is super cool although it stays on the background. 

So I studied these hard and this is what I came up:

THE CASE

Well, I never can achieve the brightness of colours as Kelly has - but I tried. The rose is coloured firstly with copics and then later added details with coloured pencils. Kelly uses stencils quite often, so I went against my true nature and fought with a stencil and got out a decent execution. (Have you seen a card with a stencil from me.. not many because I really can't make them work - this being the exception to the rule.) And then I tried to come up with an idea for a frame. Kelly is fond of one-layer cards so I wanted to keep this one layer so I shaded the frame with copic markers and colours spencils. I hope you like it and I do hope you like it too, Kelly! You are a wonderful source of inspiration and your kindness really makes a difference!  

GIVEAWAY

What is a blog hop without some fun prizes?! Leave a comment by 11:59 pm EDT on Thursday, October 29th along each stop in the hop to increase your chances of winning a prize from one of our sponsors: 

a2z Scrapbooking, 

Altenew, 

Create a Smile Stamps, 

Dee's Artsy Impressions, 

djkardkreations, 

Hero Arts, 

Ink Road, 

Lia Stampz 

Simon Says Stamp! 

Winners will be notified by email after October 29th.

GET HOPPING

If you are hopping you should have come from very talented Maria's blog and your next stop will be Martha Lucia Gomez. I included the list of all blogs in this hop if you get lost on the way. 

a2z Scrapbooking 

Amy Tsuruta 

Ardyth Percy Robb 

Brandi Hall 

Char Kochensparger 

Cindy Chiu 

Darnell Knauss 

Dawn Turley 

Debra James 

Deepti Malik 

Donna Idlet 

Elizabeth Campau 

Ellen Haxelmans 

Heather Ruwe 

Jennifer Loftfield 

Joan Bardee 

Kara Vrabel 

Kara-Lynne 

Kathy Wade 

Katie Gehring 

Kristie Goulet 

Kristina Beagle 

Kymona Tracey 

Laura Jane 

Leigh Penner 

Lin Brandyberry 

Linda Trace 

Lindsay Amrhein 

Lydia Evans 

Maria Sabina Raita 

Marika Rahtu <--- YOU ARE HERE

Martha Lucia Gomez 

Michele Cunningham 

Michele Ferguson 

Michelle Lupton 

Michelle Williams 

Monica Maier 

Niki G. 

Nina-Marie Trapani 

Rubeena Naz 

Shelly Kurth 

Taunya Butler 

Thordis Dogg 

Vera Yates

Kelly Latevola

Thank you so much for stopping by! Have fun hopping and good luck with the prizes! 

Hugs,

Marika

My Favorite Things' Superstar Card Contest

Good Afternoon my dear friends,

Today I'm here to share a card that I made for My Favorite Things Superstar Card Contest. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly encourage you to go and check it out. There's still time to participate.. gallery closes tomorrow. There are awesome set of prizes to win but moreover there are such a wonderful gallery of cards for your inspiration. What a eye candy for sure! 

There's a story behind this card. I made this card for my husband - who is the best husband ever of course but I wanted to make him a card since he's been very supportive with me with this wonderful hobby of mine. Although, it is mainly fun of course, but there's times that you'll feel frustrated when nothing works and the deadline is tomorrow. He's been wonderful in those situations and I wanted to say thank you. 

For those of you who doesn't know, but we went to Hawaii on our honeymoon. What a wonderful place - just loved it there. My hubby also loves maps (God knows how many we have of those..) so I wanted to make a map that reminds him of our honeymoon. That's the inspiration behind this card and here it is:

Firstly, I stamped the flower images with light pink ink and added the base layer of color with copic markers. I love details and sometimes with images this small, details are hard to do with copics so this time I added them with pencils on top of my copic coloured base layer. Found while doing this that polychromos work so much better than coloursofts which blend very well but are so soft that those tiny details where hard to add with them as well. I die cut the flowers and used partly die cutting technique for one of the flowers (second to lowest on right.) Then I inked up my background with Distress inks and added Shimmer mist onto it to give a feel of an ocean. I stamped the sentiment with black pigment ink to the bottom left corner. Before putting my card together I figured the background needed some interest so I cut it to stripes and popped up three of the stripes to get some dimension to my background. Flowers are added with foam tape and liquid glue - as well as the tiny sequins.

Supplies:
Stamps: Polynesian Paradise by My Favorite Things
Dies: Polynesian Paradise by My Favorite Things
Inks: Versafine Onyx Black, Spung Sugar, Peacock Feathers, Broken China Distress Ink, Milled Lavender Distress Marker, 
Paper: Canson Bristol 250mgs (flowers), Neenah Solar White 80lb (the see)
Sequins: Simon Says Stamp White Iris

Copic Markers
Flowers: RV00 - RV11 - RV32 - YG21 - Y15 - YR18
Leaves: YG11 - YG03

Derwent Coloursoft Pencils: Pink (C190), Blush Pink (C180), Orange (C070)
Faber-Castell Polychromos: Green Opaque (174), Green Yellowish (168)

Thank you so much for stopping by! I appreciate everytime. Enjoy your day.

Marika

Blueberries in a Golden Garden

Hello Friends,

It is my turn to host Altenew's blog today. On the next week and so, we are having focus posts at the Altenew blog. Each design team member features a newly released stamp set and shows different ways to use. So much inspiration and a lot of fun techniques. Today is my turn so here are my cards:

Stamps used: Golden Garden and Baby Zoo

It is a blueberry season here in Finland it seems I see them everywhere. I created this card with the Golden Garden set. Since there is only one "blueberry" image, I used mirror stamping technique to get the mirror image and more natural look to my card. I try to explain it in my tutorial. You can watch it here or in HD in YouTube.



Supplies:
Stamps: Golden Garden and Baby Zoo by Altenew
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Altenew Crisp Dye Ink: Jet Black
Paper: Neenah Solar White 80lb, SSS Olive Card Stock, Balck and Light Blue Texured Card Stock by Papermani
Copics used: BV20 - BV23 - BV25 - BV29 (blue), YG91 - YG95 (green)

For my second card, I stayed in my comfort zone. I stamped and coloured, did a bit of masking and then to retain some contrast and to add little interest I doodled around my flowers and leaves with a black marker. Here's the card:

Stamps used: Golden Garden, Halftone Hello and co-ordinationg die
and Sentiments and quotes.

Supplies:
Stamps and dies: Golden Garden, Halftone Hello and co-ordinationg die and Sentiments and quotes by Altenew
Inks: Altenew Crisp Dye Inks: Frosty Pink, Frayed Leaf and Grapevine, Versafine Onyx Black
Paper: Neenah Solar White 80lb, Red Textured Card Stock from Papermania, Black card stock
Copics: R81 - RV34 (pink), YG91 - YG95 (green)
Black Copic Multiliner 0.1


For my third card I went to a different direction. My first thought was to make a white-on-white wedding card but the idea grew while creating. A few weeks back, there was this awesome sketch by Michelle Williams at the CTS. At that time I didn't have time to play along but I wanted to use the sketch sometime. This card is created inspired by Michelle's awesome sketch:

Stamps used: Golden Garden, Baby Zoo and Ori Kami.

Supplies:
Stamps: Golden Garden, Baby Zoo and Ori Kami
Inks: Altenew Crisp Inks: Forsty Pink and Coral Berry, Versafine Onyx Black
Paper: WHSmith Linen Paper, Silver Glitter Paper by Primeco
SSS White Iris Sequins
Superfine Silver Embossing Powder by Ranger

Thank you for stopping by today! See you soon!

Marika

Freshly Made Sketches #183 and ColourQ Challenge #288

Hello my friends,

This is my entry to the Freshly Made Sketches #183
and to the ColourQ Challenge #288.
This card was Princess of Clean in FMS and
was chosen as ColourQ at the ColourQ.

The inspiration to this card comes from a few challenges. I started to make this card to The Paper Players watercolour challenge but when I started to submit it I noticed that I had missed the deadline. I took the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and the colours from ColourQ. I have to admit that there is a bit of grey in the background because while making this I remembered the colours wrong. I thought the grey was in the colours, I am entering this anyway since grey is one of the neutrals and I could have achieved the same look with second generation stamping with black ink. But if the ladies at ColourQ interpret my colours differently, please remove my card from the gallery. I just love the look of these butterfliers - the embossed white veins are think are so beautiful. This stamp is so detailed that it was a pleasure to colour these.

I will enter this into the challenges:
Freshly Made Sketches #183 - the sketch
ColourQ Challenge #288 - the colours

Supplies:

Stamps: Flora and Fauna 2 and Borders and Backgrounds 3 by Wplus9

Dies: Hand Lettered Thanks Die by Wplus9

Inks: Versamark, Pure Color Fairy Dust by Wplus9

Papers: Canson 180gms Watercolour Paper, Neenah Solar White 80lb, Neenah Desert Storm 80lb, Papermani Textured Card Stock 180gms

Embellishments: Neat and Tangled Spring Mix Sequins

Thanks for visiting! Have a wonderful day!

Marika

CAS(E) this Sketch #117, CASology #140 and ColourQ #285

Good Afternoon!

This is my entry to the CAS(E) this Sketch #117, CASology #140
and ColourQ #285
This card was CTS Winner, ColourQ at the ColourQ 
and the Winner at CASology.

I made this card a few challenges and more importantly one crafting friend in mind. The sketch is from the CAS(E) this sketch and the theme is from CASology. What can be more spring than butterflies and bright, rainbow colours - at least that was what came to my mind when I thought of the word spring. And so conveniently the ColourQ almost had the colours that I would had gone anyway so I used their colour combo. Then I stopped and one particular person came into my mind who might like this card and she is my dear crafting buddy Kelly! If you haven't visit her before, I encourage you to do so. She is fabulous in her designs and colouring but the talent that I admire the most is the fabulous way how she uses bold and rich colours and she still is able to maintain CAS and very stylish look! This is for you Kelly! Thank you for your endless inspiration! 

I was kind of horrified to start to colour this since I don't think I am good at using this much different colours - I usually stick with neutrals plus one to two colours the most. I stamped the butterflies with light yellowish ink onto a watercolour paper and then watercolored the butterflies. I die cut the sentiment and out of white cardstock (yes! I finally got the courage to do this!!) and adhered four layers on top of each other to get the sentiment to pop up. The little butterflies are hand cut with scissors and then adhered with either foam tape or liquid glue. The watercolour panel is then adhered to the card base. 

I will enter this into these challenges:

CAS(E) this Sketch #117 - the sketch

CASology #140 - spring - butterflies and rainbow colours reminds me of spring

ColourQ #285 - Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Kiwi Kiss, Cool Caribbean

Supplies:
Stamps: Flora and Fauna 2 by Wplus9
Dies: Hand lettered Thanks by Wplus9
Inks: Antique Linen Distress Ink
Watercolour: Kuretake Gansai Tambi No. 34, 43, 33, 5, 63 and 20.
Cardstock: Daler Rowney Aquafine Watercolour paper 300g/m2, Canson Watercolour paper 180g/m2, WHSmith Linen Effect paper 150g/m2

Thank you for stopping by today! Have a wonderful Easter holidays!

Marika

Altenew March 2015 Blog Hop

Hello Everyone!

EDIT: You can see the winner of the giveaway here.

Today I'm participating Altenew March 2015 Blog Hop to celebrate the release of Dies and Antique Trims. You probably just came from Jocelyn Olson's blog, if not please start from the beginning at Altenew blog and see what other members of Altenew's design team have come up with. 

Within this release, Altenew brings coordinating dies and some lovely trims into their selection. I played a little with my copics, Lacy Scrolls stamps and dies and the new trims from Altenew. 

Stamps and dies used: Lacy Scrolls and coordinating dies, 
Wood Pallet Background and Birthday Greetings.

I started by cutting a circular window mask and then stamped the wood grain from Wood Pallet Background with grey ink. I added a little bit of shading with black ink to get more defined edges. Then I stamped the flowers and leaves from Lacy Scrolls with light lilac (flower) dye ink and light green ink on to a white card stock. I added shading with my new (yey!) copics and die cut the flowers and leaves with the coordinating dies. I adhered the elements onto a card front and stamped the sentiment with black pigment ink from Birthday Greetings.

Stamps and dies used: Lacy Scrolls and coordinating dies,
Wood Pallet Background, Label Love.

Inspiration for this card comes from sauna. Well, sauna is very very important part of Finnish culture and way of living so when I saw the wood grain I immediately thought of sauna. During midsummer, when the sun shines during the night, flowers bloom and fresh scents of early summer are mixing with mist... just sitting and relaxing on your front veranda after sauna. Just love summer! Techniques used in this card are the same as in the first one. 

For the third card, I was inspired by Altenew March Challenge. This month's theme is From places Abroad: Masjid Sheikh Zayed, Abu Dabi. I was drawn into those beautiful, repeated patterns and designs in the photo and used them as my inspiration for this card.

Here is one of the inspiration photos for this
month's Altenew monthly challenge. 

Stamps and dies used: Lacy Scrolls and coordinating dies,
Label Love and new Fenstone Decorative Element.

I started with stamping the flower from Lacy Scrolls with light grey ink onto a white card stock and added shading with my copic markers and a little bit highlight with clear glitter pen. I stamped the curls from the same set and the sentiment from Label Love with Versamark onto a craft card stock and heat embossed using white embossing powder. I adhered all the elements with liquid glue and foam tape onto black card stock. At the end, I added a few golden and white sequins in order to get some details.

Supplies: 1st and 2nd card

Stamps: Lacy Scrolls, Wood Pallet Background, Birthday Greetings, Label Love

Dies: Lacy Scrolls coordinating die set, a circle die - manufacturer unknown

Inks: Memento Lulu Lavender and New Sprout, Black Soot Distress Ink, Versafine Onyx Black and Smoky Grey

Card Stock: Neenah Solar White 80lb, Canson Vivaldi 185g/m2 Black

Copic Markers: RV91, RV93, RV95, YG91, YG95, YG97, W1, W3, W5

Copic Multi-Liner 0.1 and 0.3 Black

Card Base: Papermania A6 300gsm

Supplies: 3rd card

Stamps: Lacy Scrolls, Label Love

Dies: Lacy Scrolls coordinating die set

Card stock: Neenah Solar White 80lb, Canson Vivaldi 185g/m2 Black

Inks: Memento London Fog, Versamark

Copic Markers: W1, W3, W5

Copic Multi-Liner 0.1 and 0.3 Black

White Gelly Roll Pen
Clear Wink of Stella Pen 

Embossing Powder: Opaque Vanilla White by WOW!

Embellishments: Neat and Tangled Pixie Dust Mix- sequins and Fenstone Decorative Element

Card Base: Papermania A6 300gsm

Tools:

Acrylic blocks

Ranger Mini Blending Tool

Paper trimmer

Papermania Basics Heat Tool

Tomboy Multi Liquid Glue

Scotch ATG & tape

GIVEAWAY:

To celebrate this release, Altenew will draw three winners who will each receive a $30 gift certificate to their online store. Please leave a comment on the Altenew blog by Friday, March 20 11:59pm EST in order to have a chance to win. The winners will be announced on Saturday, March 21. 

And there is more! I will randomly choose a winner from comments left on this post and the prize will be $30 gift certificate to Altenew online store. Please leave a comment on this post by Friday, March 20 11:59pm EST for a chance to win. I will announce the winner here at my blog on Saturday, March 21. 

GET HOPPING!

Your next stop will be very talented Yana Smakula. If you encounter a broken link, please go back to Altenew Blog.

I hope you have fun! See you soon!

Marika