Fusion Card Challenge - Blue Christmas

Hello Friends,

I'm back as promised to share another card with POD cuties. This was actually made this morning after seeing FUSION's current inspiration picture. I'm not really a blue person but for some sort of reason, I like to make blue Christmas/holiday cards. Fusion's inspiration picture was so beautiful that I couldn't walk pass it. :) So here it is:

Stamps used: Jolly, Little Packages, and Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

I started with the picture, I really loved the colours in it but when I started to colour this cute little snowman called Jolly designed by Stacey Yacula, I realised that I don't have copics that would match to the colours in the picture. So I used the closest colours that I could find in my collection. I coloured Jolly, and the presents with copics and added white details with white jelly roll pen. For the background I used Distress Inks and the fireworks are just stamped. My hubby found my blog all of a sudden and complained that I really don't craft anymore.. so in this card I tried to "craft" more.. LOL!  There's fussy cutting, stamping, heat embossing, popping up images and inking up the background, masking.. LOL! 

Oh, and just a reminder that if you like Stacey's images as much as I do, Purple Onion is having a Holiday Sale as we speak that runs until December 6th. All stamps are 25% off! 

Supplies:
Stamps: Jolly, Little Packages, and Have a Holly Jolly Christmas by POD.
Inks: Mementon Tuxedo Black, Frayed Leaf, Sea Glass and Dusk Altenew Crisp Dye Inks, Peacock Feathers and Tumbled Glass Distess Inks, Versafine Onyx Balck
Paper: Canson Bristol 190gms Smooth Card Stock
Superfine Clear Embossing Powder by Ranger
White Jelly Roll Pen

Copic Markers: Blue (on the snowman): B91 - B93 - B95 - B97, Presents: YG11 - B66 - B91. E40 - E42, Orange: Y21 - YR21 - YR23, Grey: W0 - W1 - W3 - W5, Shadows (on the snowman) 0 - E40 - E42 

Here's the inspiration picture:

I'll be back very soon. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your weekend! :)

Hugs,
Marika

Holiday Sale at the Purple Onion Designs

Hello,

There's this fun challenge at the CASology where the cue card is - OWL. Kymona from Creative Kymona gave me a hint of this challenge and of course I took the bate. :) I used Louis and Winter Bough from Purple Onion Design designed by fabulous Stacey Yacula. I used no-line colouring technique -firstly laid down my base colour with copics and then added shading and details with coloured pencils. Thank you - Kymona - for giving me a hint; I had a blast making this card!

Supplies:

Stamps: Louis, Winter Bough, and Merry and Bright- sentiment from POD.

Inks: Memento Bamboo Leaves and Desert Sand, Versafine Onyx Black, Tumbled Glass Distress Ink

Paper: Canson Bristol 190gms Smooth Card Stock

White Gelly Roll Pen

Copic Markers: Gray: 0 - N0 - N1 - N3, Red: E04 - R56, Brown: E42 - E43 - E44, Black: N7, Gray shadows: 0 - W0 - W1, Green: YG03 - YG67, Orange: YR15

Faber Castell Polychrome Coloured Pencils: Cold Grey IV (233), Cold Grey II (271), Warm Grey II (271), Warm Grey V (274), Dark Red (225), Pompeian Red (191), Venetian Red (190), Cadmium Orange (111), Dark Chrome Yellow (109), Sanguine (188), Green Yellowish (168), Chromium Green Opaque (174), Raw Umber (180), Van-Dyck-Brown (176), Walnut Brown (177), Black (199).

Just a quick note to let you all know that the holiday sale is underway at the Purple Onion Designs.  All stamps are 25% off through December 6, 2015.  There are also a few pages of Black Friday specials.  They will run all weekend since Monday is Cyber Monday.  These stamps will receive an additional 25% from the Holiday Sale. 

I have quite many Purple Onion Cards coming up soon. As you know, my filming set has been down due to a move of my crafting space. I haven't shared some of my cards since I kinda wanted to make them into a videos. It seems that it is going to be some time before I'm able to film again so I'm going to go ahead and share these cards since they are all Christmas / Holiday themed. So stay tuned! LOL!

Thank you for stopping by today. Hopefully you are having a great day!

Hugs,

Marika

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

---

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)

---

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

A winner of Altenew November Blog Hop

Hello!

I'm here to announce the winner of the Altenew November blog hop. Thank you all who participated on the hop.

The winner is the 28th comment left on the blog post, who is:

Deepti Stephens13 November 2015 at 18:36

"You are really a TRUE ARTIST <3"

Congratulations Deepti! I've emailed you how to claim your prize.

Tomorrow I'm at the Altenew blog and mine to feature Beautiful Lady set from November release. Hope to see you tomorrow! Have a great day!

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 Winners

Hello All,

I'm here to share the lucky winner's of CASEing Kelly Blog Hop. Those of the winner's whose contact info we were able to find, have already been contacted through email. There are still some winner's whose contact info has not been found, so if you find your name on the list and you have not been contacted already, please email me and I will set you up with the prize.

• the Winter 2015 card kit from Create a Smile Stamps #3 Maaike Uijthoven (from Jen Lotfield’s blog)

• $25 gift certificate from Simon Says Stamp #38 Arianna Barbara (from Shelly’s blog)

• $25 gift certificate from the Ink Road  #10 Henriette (from Brandi’s blog)

• a Police Woman digi stamp from Lia Stampz #83 Angela Restad (from Ardyth’s blog)

• $25 gift certificate from a2z Scrapbooking #24 Charlene (from Dee’s blog)

• a crafty goodie bag from a2z Scrapbooking #19 Leslee (from Amy’s blog)

• a crafty goodie bag from Hero Arts #37 Liz Gessner McAlliston (from LauraJane’s blog)

• a $25 gift certificate to any online craft store (winner’s choice) from DJ Kard Creations #56 Cat Craig (from Kristie Goulet’s blog)

• a $25 gift certificate from Altenew #53 Vinita Jain (from the A2Z Scrapbooking blog)

• a stamp set from Dee’s Art Impressions  #53 Jeanne (from Char’s blog)

Thank you all who participated on the hop, it was wonderful to see your lovely comments left to all the blogs along the way! Hopefully you'll had fun!

See you soon!

Marika

Spread the Kindness

Hello,

I'm at the Altenew blog to today to share a card with Wild Hibiscus set. I coloured it with Copic Markers and coloured pencils - my favourite colouring medium at the moment. Hopefully you'll like it!

Supplies:
Stamps: Wild Hibiscus and Lace Up from Altenew
Inks: Sea Glass , Forest Glades and Jet Black Altenew Crisp Inks
Paper: Canson Bristol 250gms 

Copic Markers used: Blue: B91 - B93 - B95, Green: YG11 - YG03 - YG67, Grey: N0- N1 - N3 - N5
Faber-Castell Polychromo Coloured Pencils used: Phetalo Blue (110) - Pressian Blue (246) - Ligth Green (171) - Leaf  Green (112) - Pine Green (267) - Cold Grey II (233) - Cold Grey II (231) - Black (199)

Thank you for stopping by today! Have an amazing day!

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

Snowflake Grove - A new release from Purple Onion Designs

Hello,

Today's the day that all POD fans have been awaiting for - A new release from Stacey Yacula is available. The new release is called The Snowflake Grove and currently you can get the whole release just $100 until 11/4/2015 or you can buy your favourites separately.  I had tons of fun with these stamps and I'll be sharing my examples within next two weeks. 

For my first card I used Birch House stamp and when I saw it for the first time it figured that if there was a house at the North Pole, that is what it would look like. Since Christmas cards are usually sent in bulk, I tried to keep the design simple enough to be easy to reproduce. 

Stamps used: Birch House and Handwritten Holiday.

First, I coloured the base layer with copic markers that I have listed below in the supplies list. Then I added a bit of details with Faber-Castell Polychromo Coloured Pencils. I blended the sky with ink blending tool and used Distress Inks for blending. I let it dry completely and the I used a stencil to create the snowflakes. I stamped through the stencil with Versamark and then heat embossed the snowflakes with a white glitter embossing powder. They look really neat. I added the snow on the ground with the same technique but used my Versamark pen for it. The die cut panel is popped up with fun foam.

Supplies:
Stamps: Birch House and Handwritten Holiday by Purple Onion Designs
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black, Faded Jeans, Stormy Sky, Chipped Sapphire, Peacock Feathers Distress Inks, Versamark.
Dies: Die-namics Pierced Rectangles by MFT
Stencil: Falling Snow stencil by SSS
Embossing Powder: Vanilla White Opaque and White Twinkle Embossing Powder by WOW!

Copic Markers: Green: YG03 - YG67, Grey: 0 - N1 - N3 - N5, Brown: E43 - E44, Yellow: YR21

Thank you so much for stopping by today and leaving me such a kind comments on my last post. I've read the through I truly appreciate your kindness. Thank you! Have a great day!

Hugs,
Marika

Altenew and Pretty Pink Posh Blog Hop

Hello!

Today I'm participating an awesome collaboration of Altenew and Pretty Pink Posh. You probably just came from Lisa Elton's blog if not, please start at the beginning from Altenew blog and hop along and have many chances to win prizes along the way.

A few week's back I made my first shaker card and I had so much fun making it so I decided to try to make another. I used a co-ordianting die to cut my shaker window and I used the same die to cut the shaker "space" from fun foam. I found that making a shaker card this way was very easy since you can just glue the layers together. So here is my card:

I made this into a video tutorial. You can watch it here or in HD in Youtube.

Supplies:
Stamps: Bejewelled and Striped Florals from Altenew
Sequins: Lilac Garden Flowers Sequins Mix from Pretty Pink Posh
Dies: Bejewelled Die from Altenew
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black, Picked Rasperry Distress Ink
Superfine Silver Embossing Powder by Ranger
Copic Markers: 0 - N0 - N1 - N3 - N5
Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Pen

GIVEAWAY

To celebrate this blog hop, Altenew will draw two winners who will each receive a $30 gift certificate to their online store. Also, Pretty Pink Posh will draw two winners who will receive $30 gift certificate to their online store. Winners will be randomly drawn from all comments left along the hop, comments must be left by Monday, Oct 26 11:59 EDT. Winners will be announced at Altenew and Pretty Pink Posh Blogs shortly after.

GET HOPPING

Your next stop will be incredible Joni Aldaya. Here is also the full list of participants.

Altenew Blog 

Gayatri Murali

Anna Kossakovskaya

Yoonsun Hur

Carissa Wiley

Yana Smakula

Nina- Marie Trapani

Lisa Elton

Marika Rahtu <-- YOU ARE HERE

Joni Andaya

Amy Kolling

Agnieszka Malyszek

Nichol Magouirk

Julia Altermann

May Sukyong Park

Yuki Yoshioka

Amy Gray

Pretty Pink Posh blog

Thank you so much for visiting. Have a great day and have fun hopping! Good luck!

Hugs,
Marika