Guest Designing for Altenew

Good morning everyone!

Today I have something really special to share. A few weeks ago I received an email from Tasnim from Altenew and she asked me if I were interested to guest design for them. Are you kidding me, of course I am! That was the easiest part of it - to say yes. I really wanted to make something very special for them, since Altenew is one of my favourite stamp companies. I just love their stamps, especially floral ones - they are so beautiful and perfect for watercoloring. This set of three cards are what I created with Altenew stamps - hopefully you like them and they give you some inspiration. 

Stamp set used: Persian Motifs, Painted Butterflies
and Magnolias for her by Altenew.

Stamp sets used: Magnolias for her, Painted Butterflies
and Sketchy Rose by Altenew.

Stamp sets used: Painted Butterflies and
Persian Motifs by Altenew.

For all the three cards I stamped the outline images with light water soluble ink and watercolored them with Distress Inks and Kuretake Gansai Tambi- watercolours (My newest love affair). I created a border stripes with Distress Inks: Picked Raspberry, Dusty Concord and Chipped Sapphire. I trimmed one edge of the watercolour panel to overlap the border edge. The watercolour panels are raised up with foam tape and for the finishing touch I added a few sequins. Sentiments are stamped either black ink or Versamark and then heat embossed with either Clear Embossing powder or Silver Embossing powder. 

Thank you Tasnim for inviting me as a Guest Designer. It has been a true pleasure. 

Thank you for stopping by today and sharing this with me. I hope you liked my cards and got some inspiration for your own work. Have a wonderful day and I wish for all of you all the best for the year 2015! 

Marika

Merry Christmas

Good Morning everyone!

Today is  Christmas Eve and here in Finland we celebrate Christmas today. I don't have a card to share but this picture was taken outside of my parents house here at the Arctic Circle. We usually have white Christmas, and this year was no exception. There is -22 degrees in Celsius outside so it is lovely to gather inside with my parents and my kids, drink hot coco and open presents.

I also wanted to pop in and wish all of you very Merry Christmas. I hope you are able to enjoy your holidays with your family and loved ones, eat well and relax. I also want to thank all of you who I have met here in blogland. I truly appreciate your kindness, lovely comments and support this year and the endless inspiration that you have given me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Merry Christmas to all and enjoy your holidays!

Marika

Let it snow!

Good evening everyone!

This is my entry to the Less is more #202 - Snow
and to the Card Concept #25 - Silent Night.

This is my entry to the CASE this Sketch #103
and to the Merry Monday Christmas Card #139 - Winter Wonderland.
This card got Honorable Mention at CASE this Sketch.

I am back from our vacation to the beautiful city of Oxford, UK. It was very lovely to see the sun really shining again. Well, during those two weeks I had tons of time to gather some ideas and luckily, four of the challenges that I usually enter my cards had a theme that fitted into my ideas. 

In both of the cards the image stamps used are all from Purple Onion Designs and I coloured images with Derwent Coloursoft pencils and Inktense Pencils. I added some snow with two different kind of embossing powders: Opaque White by Zing and White Twinkle by WOW. 

For the second one I wanted to add some colour and I used the sketch from the CASE this Sketch. The owl is made the same way as in the one layer card but I was lazy and didn't want to create a mask so I stamped the owl to a watercolour paper and coloured it with Inktense Pencils and fussy cut it out and glued it to panel after I had made the background. For the background I inked the night sky with Distress Inks: Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry and Chipped Saffphire and Memento Lulu Lavender.

Here are the closeups for the snow with that White Twinkle embossing powder. In real life it really is pretty and shiny. It was quite hard to photograph.

 

Challenge:

The card Concept #25: Silent Night Neutrals - Clean and Simple. 

CASE this sketch #103: the sketch

Merry Monday Christmas Card: Winter Wonderland

Less is More #202: One Layer and Snow

And here are the challenges' graphics:

Thank you for stopping by today, hopefully you like what I have come up with. And thank you for those who has given me such kind comments during last two weeks. I do appreciate them very much. Thank you. 

Hopefully you are having a wonderful day!

Marika

I was featured at the Purple Onion Designs Blog

Good Morning everyone! Hopefully you are having a good day!

I am currently on a holiday with my family that is I don't have anything new to share. Something wonderful happened though, Michele from Purple Onion Designs, have been posting a bunch of cards from her DT and Guest Designers lately and she is so amazing that she included some work from her customers as well. I was one of the lucky ones and now you are able to see a few of my cards at her blog! I am so honoured and thrilled with this opportunity! Thank you Michele!

I found this card that I have made a few months ago from my laptop. I made this for my sister's boyfriend for his birthday. The stamp is from Purple Onion Designs by Stacey Yacula and I coloured it with Derwent Inktense Pencils. Background is made with Distress and Memento inks. The sentiment says Congrats in Finnish!

I just want to let you know that you if you are as keen on these POD stamps as I am, please visit the Purple Onion Designs online store. Michele is having Holiday Sale 25% off all stamps!! Sale ends on Wednesday the 10th!  

Thank you for stopping by today and sharing these wonderful news with me! This is my first time to be featured for my cards somewhere so this really is a big thing for me! Hopefully you are having a wonderful day!

Marika

Inkspirational Challenge #70, Muse Challenge #95 and Merry Monday Card Challenge #136

Good Morning All!

This is my entry to the Merry Monday Card Challenge #136.

My entry to the Inkspirational #70 Designer's Choice and
to the Muse Challenge #95- challenge.

Inspiration for these cards comes from the Muse Challenge. Caroline's card from KISS - Keep It Sweet and Simple is just wonderful wintery scened card. I love to make scenery cards so this was no exception that I wanted to participate. I don't have a tag die (yet) so I ended up making the background scene and then popping up the main image onto the front card panel. 

All the stamps are from Purple Onion Designs and I coloured the main images onto a watercolour paper with Derwent Inktense Pencils and fussy cut them out. For the background I used London Fog ink to stamp the image to get the illusion that they are more further away on the back. I coloured them with Derwent Coloursoft Pencils and for the sky I used Distress Inks: Spung Sugar and Dusty Concord and Memento Lulu Lavender. To create a illusion of snowbanks I added Versamark pen to stamped image and then added Vintage Champagne Embossing powder and heat set it. 

Here is the close-up where you can see the snowbanks and the glitter on there better.

I will link the snowman card to Merry Monday Card Challenge #136. I am bending the rules a bit, the background sky needed some dimension so I added a hint of purple. And pink is just light red, right? :) I will link the bunny card to the Inkspirational #70 Designers Choice Christmas with a twist. Unfortunately, I had to add a hint a green so I don't qualify for the drawing. And I will link this also to the Muse Challenge #95 - my inspiration from the inspiration card is to make a wintery scened Christmas card. 

Here are the challenges' graphics:

Thank you for stopping by today! I am on a holiday for the next two weeks with my family so I am forced to take break from blogging also. :) Have a wonderful day and see you again in two weeks time.

Marika 

CAS(E) this Sketch #101, Less is More #199 and Uniko Studio Challenge #16.

Good Evening!

This is my entry to the CAS(E) this Sketch #101, Less is More #199
and Uniko Studio Challenge #16.

I am a mother of two little girls and that means that in our circle of friends there are many  little girls and boys as well. That is the main reason why my cards mainly are "children friendly" and have cute critters and so on them. I want to make cards that recipients would like - and that's why you'll see a lot of pink and glitter in the beginning of next year when I start to make a new set of birthday cards for my daughter's friends.. :) But this time I wanted to make something that would please an adults eye. Maybe, at least my daughter didn't like this (It wasn't pink, was the main reason!) so that is a start. I used the sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch. 

The rose buds and leaves are from Sketchy Rose by Altenew. I watercolored them with distress inks: Fired Brick and Peeled Paint. After colouring I took my Versamark pen and went through some areas and then added Clear Sparkle Embossing Powder and heat set it. You can see it better in the close-up below. Die cuts are from Marianne Design, I die cut them out off craft cardstock and added a little bit depth with Gathered Twigs Distress ink. The sentiment is from Purple Onion Designs. I needed to ground my "Christmas bouquet" into something so I added a little bit of Antique Linen onto the background.

I will link this card to the CAS(E) this Sketch #101 since I used their sketch to make this. To the Less is More #199 - Anything Christmassy. Hopefully this card still is CAS, I am not sure and to the Uniko Studio Challenge #16 - Christmas, Anything goes.

Here are challenges' graphics:

Thank you for stopping by today! And Thank you if you have the time to leave me a comment. They are always appreciated. Have a Wonderful day!

Marika

Muse Challenge #94

Good Evening!

This is my entry to the Muse Challenge #94.

This is my second post for today but I want to participate to the Muse Challenge #94 and it closes tomorrow. I wanted to do this tomorrow but I may not have the time. The inspiration card is seen below. It was really fun - I was inspired by the bright colours and the balloons of course. I don't have those word dies but since Marion used die cutting I wanted to add it also into my card. So this is my outcome.

The stamp is from Mama Elephant's Up and Away set and the balloon is by Marianne Design. I used Memento Cantaloupe and Lulu Lavender and Spung Sugar Distress Ink on the background. The sentiment is from Purple Onion Designs.

Here is the close-up where the technique I used is seen better. I apologise the unevenness on the balloon's glossy accents. My daughter got it on her hands before it was completely dry. Things happen...

Here is the inspiration card by Marion Vagg:

Thank you for taking the time to come and see my card! Always pleased to here what you think! Have a wonderful day!

Marika

Color me...Subtle! #47- challenge

Good Evening!

This is my entry to the Color me... Subtle! #47- challenge.
This card got Honourable Mention at Color me...!

I wanted to participate this week's Color me...! Challenge and the colour combo there is Early Espresso, Soft Suede and Cajun Craze. A lot things went wrong while I was making this card, so the end result is way different than I originally thought it would be. Isn't it just fun though, that just changing the design you can hide your mistakes pretty well. :) I also bended the rules of the challenge a little bit, I needed to add some interest on the background ( read = among others hide my fingerprints) so I added a little bit of golden/yellowish colour.

All the stamps are from Purple Onion Designs and I coloured the images with Derwent Coloursoft pencils. 

Here is the photo of the same card. Hopefully, the shine of the Vintage Champagne Embossing powder is seen better here. I believe, the "wow" effect of this card is in those snowflakes, which catch your eye when looked at from a different angle. 

Here is the challenge's graphic:

Thank you for stopping by today and always pleased to here what you think! Thank you for your lovely comments on my previous cards. They have made my day many times!

Marika

Muse - Design Team Call and Time Out Challenge #19

Good Afternoon everyone!

This is my entry to the Muse - Design Team Call and to
the Time Out Challenge #19. 

I have recently found the Muse Challenge and very much like its concept. I really like the fact that other crafters can vote what is the best work in the gallery - fair game for everyone! The Muse card club has a design team call for the next term and I really much would like to participate and of course be selected as a member of that design team. They are asking to link up one's best work that represent ones style the best way possible. One can link up only once, so I had to really think about this. The project can be old or new so I ended up combining two of my older projects into a one. Here are the cards that I combined:

I liked the design on the first one but like the the colouring on the second. I left the splatters out since I wanted to give the flowers the glory they deserve. I think, this stamp set - Persian Motifs - is just so beautiful! 

I stamped the flowers with Spun Sugar Distress Ink and watercolored the flowers with Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry and Black Soot Distress Inks. I added Perfect Pearls into the water while I coloured the flowers to give the shine and shimmer for them. I heat embossed the sentiment by Altenew, the open flowers and the silver stripe with Silver Embossing Powder.  

Here is the close-up where the shine from embossing and the shimmer and sparkle from Perfect Pearls is seen better.

I believe this is my best work by now and I am very pleased with the outcome. If you like my card and my creations generally and think that I would qualify for the spot in the Muse Design Team, I kindly ask that you go and vote my card at the muse on the 12th - 13th of December. I would be so grateful! If you want to see more of my work, please check out the link to my Pinterest board at the right hand side on my blog - it's the easiest way to see my projects at single glance.

I link this card to the Time Out Challenge #19 as well. The theme there is Embossing with optional twist of sparkle. 

Thank you for stopping by and thank you if you have the time to leave me a comment. And if you still remember in December to vote my card if it really pleases you, I would be so grateful! Thank you! 

Marika

Less Is More #198 - More than one tree

Good Afternoon Everyone!

My entry to the "Less is More" #198 -
More than one tree- challenge.

Well, I will enter this card to one of challenges since it's been quite a challenge for me. I started to make this card for the past week's Muse but it never made it there. Firstly, I've been watching Therese Calvird's tutorials with my girl for a while now. She is amazing with Prismacolors and blending them with gamsol. My crafting friend brought me a bottle of similar stuff for me to use blending with my Derwent Coloursofts. Well, what seems to be very easy thing on those wonderful tutorials, isn't that easy in real life - at least not for me. I also need to buy better greens, my set of pencils had such an awful set of greens. Secondly, that sentiment is my third tryout, the first two were not publishable. Thirdly, when I looked at the gallery of the this week's challenge at Less is more, there is almost similar card already made for this challenge, but I will link this anyhow since I am not copying or CASEing it since this card has been sitting on my desk for about two weeks now awaiting me to come up with something for the sentiment part.

The theme at the "Less is More" #198 is More than one tree. The stamps used in this card are from Purple Onion Designs.

Thank you for stopping by today and thank you if you have time to leave a comment. I am always pleased to hear what you think. 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

Muse Challenge #93

Good Evening!

This is my entry to the Muse Challenge #93 and 
to the Card Concept Challenge #23.

Inspiration for this card comes from this week's Muse challenge. Therese Calvird's card is beautiful with it's simplicity and makes a perfect holiday card since it is easy to duplicate. I wanted to make something with that inspiration. I usually colour something into my cards but that is quite time consuming and this time I wanted to make something quicker. I ended up die cutting these snowflakes by Marianne Design from white and craft cardstock and embossing them with different glitter embossing powders. The sentiment says Merry Christmas in Finnish. I am also linking this card to the Card Concept Challenge #23 - A Krafty Christmas. My will enter this into a Clean and Layering- category.

Here are the inspiration for the challenges:

Quite easy card this time, while I had made this card my mother-in-law said that this would be nice to see white on white! It really would be!

Thank you for stopping by today and 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

CAS(E) this Sketch #99 and Color me...! Card Challenge #45.

Good evening!

This is my entry to the CAS(E) this Sketch #99 and
Color me...! Card Challenge #45.
This card got Honourable Mention at the Color me...!
and was also one of CTS Favourites.

This card is made for the CAS(E) this Sketch #99- challenge and for the Color me...! Card Challenge #45. The wonderful guest designer this week at CTS is Kelly Latevola, whose blog is just full of inspiration, good use of colours and amazing colouring! So, I wanted to create something inspired by her designs. At Color me...! there is this Real Red Monochromatic theme this week. 

The flowers are Persian Motifs from Altenew. I watercoloured them with Distress Inks: Fried Brick and Black Soot. For the sentiment and for the background I ink them with Versafine Onyx Black and then embossed it with Clear Sparkle Embossing Powder. 

Here are challenges' graphics:

Thank you for stopping today. Have a wonderful weekend!

Marika

Merry Monday Christmas Challenge #133

Good Morning!

My entry to the Merry Monday Card Challenge #133.
This card got Honourable Mention at the challenge.

Well, it's time for another Holiday card. This time I wanted to participate in the Merry Monday Card Challenge. This week the theme is to make a rustic looking card using creams, tans and browns. 

I've had this die from Marianne Design but I haven't used it yet. I diecut it out from white watercolour paper and then added shading with Derwent Inktense Pencils. I inked the background with Distress Inks: Walnut Stain, Gathered Twigs, Rusty Hinge and then used a little bit Memento Cantaloupe. Here is the part that I may have broken to rules but I needed some interest on the background so I added a little bit orange and yellow. Hopefully that's okay. The snow is Vintage Champagne Embossing Powder and in the sky there are some stars made with Clear Sparkling Embossing Powder. Unfortunately, they are not seen very well.

Here is the challenge's graphic:

Thank you for stopping by today! Have a Wonderful Day! 

Marika

Muse Challenge #92 and Fusion Card Challenge - Embossed Ombre

Good Evening!

First of all, thank you for your kind comments. They warmed my heart, they really did! Kelly, I think we are kindred spirits.. You are just the greatest! :D Thank you all for making me look at that card again in a different light. Just to explain a few things, I was not on any kind of spiritual substance, I just have two really adorable monsters at home who happens to share half of my own genes which usually means that they are the greatest human beings finding the best ways to annoy and irritate you! My darling girls! What comes to that particular card, I had this great vision how that owl card should look like and then when I put it together and looked at it, it was nothing like that. With the preheated annoyance already existing... well let's say that the card got more than it really deserved. Thank you for your understanding and kind words! 

Well, here are today's outcome. 

This is my entry to the Muse Challenge #92 and
to the Fusion Card Challenge - Embossed Ombre.

This card was in Top 3 at the Muse and got 
Honorable Mention at the Fusion.

The inspiration for this card comes from Muse. Instantly, when I saw that card I knew what I wanted to do. This design isn't new, this has been made many times before this, but I've always looked at them with awe! This is my take on it. I also saw the ombre cake at the Fusion and took the colour theme from their challenge. 

Those flowers are Persian Motifs from Altenew. I embossed the background with Superfine Silver Embossing Powder by Ranger. That stuff just gives the best outcome. I watercolored the flowers with distress inks: Broken China, Peacock Feathers and Black Soot. The sentiment is also from Altenew set called Sketchy Rose. 

Here are the challeges' graphics:

Thank you for stopping by today! I am always pleased to hear what you think. I hope you are having a wonderful day!

Marika