Birthday card with magnolias.

Hi everybody!

I've been taking a little leave from crafting since the Stretch your Stamps 2 OCC was a bit heavy and time consuming that I really didn't have time for anything else at nights. But I couldn't stay away for long from the craft room though. At the class Dawn Woleslagle' showed her Sketched outline- technique. I wanted to try that out once again since I really like the look. I stamped Altenew's Magnolias for her and Wild Rose Studio's Bella with Dahlia and watercoloured them. Then I sketched the outline with black Copic Marker- pen. 

Thanks for stopping by and Happy crafting!

Marika

OCC Stretch your stamps 2 - Play Day.

Hi everybody. Today is the last day on the Stretch your Stamps 2 OCC. I've been enjoying the full two weeks of heavy crafting. I think this class has been great - I've used stamp sets that have been laying around and I've not been able to find a way to use them. And now one of my favourite and most used stamp set is one of those. 

Today was a play day. I played with my Purple Onion stamps by Stacy Yacula. I just adore them. My dear friend is having her first wedding anniversary in few weeks so I wanted to make her a card. She especially likes owls and in their love story an owl is one kind of a symbol for them as well. I wanted to create a sunset with these two owls looking that together. I really like how this card turned out. And in this card I used one of the techniques that I learned in the class - Mirror stamping.

Well, my friend's are moving to their new home and I wanted to congratulate them of their new home. In original version their last name is in the sign but I blurred it out. These two cuties are also from Purple Onion designs by Stacy Yacula.

In some parts of Finland we celebrate namedays. In our calendar their is a day named for almost each name and on that day we celebrate it. I had had a pleasure to get to be a godmother for few of my friends children and I try to remember to send a card for each one them on that special day. Since I like crafting and card making, I try to make a card that has the name on it to make it special name day card. I usually make these at the same time and unfortunately I usually forgot to send them beforehand. 

These images are from Purple Onion designs and the first one was inspired by Therese Calvird. Therese's blog - Lostinpaper - is one the first blogs that I started to follow. She is very talented and has really unique designs and smart ideas for cards. I encourage you to check out her blog.

Thank you for stopping by and thank you for your kind words during this class. They really made me happy! See you in the next OCC and happy crafting! 

Marika

OCC Stretch your stamps 2 - Floral stamps.

Hi everyone! Today at the Stretch your stamps 2 OCC we played with the floral stamps. I needed a thank you card made with watercolours since my dear friend gave me a set of watercolour to try out. The image is from Hero Arts Delicate Blossoms stamp set and I stamped it with Antique Linen Distress Ink. First when I started to paint this flower I thought that I would use Dawn's Sketched outline-tecnique but by the time I had painted the flower I chickened out since it looked beautiful as it was. I even put the thank you- sentiment inside because I didn't want to mess the image with bad sentiment stamping. I can't believe I have just made that card. 

The second card for today was inspired Dawn's Sketched outline technique. I do not own any stamp sets that could have worked with that design so I figured, if I could paint the flowers and leaves myself - of course with watercolours. And this is what it looked at the end.

The third card was inspired by the Bonus's day Colour me images. I needed a card for encouragement for a male friend of mine. The owl is from Stacy Yacula's design at Purple Onion Designs. I just love her work, they are so fun to colour and they fit almost for every occasion.

Today I also had a pleasure to craft with my daughter. We watched a few of the videos together from the Bonus Day material and she decided that she wanted to make a card by Kristina Werner. She chose the colours for the watercolour base and had tons of fun doing the background. Then she stamped the images and coloured them with pencils. I helped the cut the images and then she put the card together. I bet there will be a one happy grandmother in few days when that card is delivered by the Postman Pat. 

My daughter's card, age 3.5 years.

Thank you for stopping by and thank you for your kind words on my yesterday's cards. You totally made my day in the morning when I looked at my phone and saw those notifications. Thank you very much! Happy crafting for all of you.

Marika

OCC Stretch your stamps 2 - Floral stamps.

Hello everyone! Today's topic at the ongoing OCC Stretch your stamps 2 was floral stamps. My first card was inspired by Julie Ebersole's Make a window card. Instead of a window I wanted to create a kind of a half a circle with these Penny Black stamps. I am a huge fan of Dawn Woleslagle's style and ideas and her wonderful talent of watercolour so this card was also inspired by her Sketched outline- technique. 

For the second card for today I wanted to watercolour magnolias and arrange them around the edges. Like I said few days earlier I am new to a world of watercolour and today I learned the hard way that while water colouring one should trust the water to do its work. I'll keep practicing though.

Thank you for stopping by and happy crafting! 

Marika

OCC Stretch your stamps 2 - Graphic stamps.

Hello to everyone and thanks for stopping by. Today is the day 8 at the Stretch your stamps 2 OCC. Today we were to play with graphic stamps. This topic was quite hard since I really not own any that kind of stamps that they used in the class. Well I went to my stash and chose the ones that resembled nearest being graphic-style stamps. The first one was inspired by Kristina Werner's card: repeated stamping with ombre colours. I think it came out nicely but this style of card is not my favourite. 

The second card for today was inspired by Taheerah Atchia's watercolour stamping. I tried it out but it didn't work as wanted so I stamped another colour on top. I thought, it was my stamp to blame and I tried it again but the result was the same. I still really like to look of a welcome baby card. One of my favourite. 

The last one for today was inspired by Kelly Rasmussen's idea of creating a border with stamps. My sister likes this kind of stuff and I really like how it turned to be and how it yells my sister to have it on her birthday.

Thank you for stopping by and happy crafting!

OCC Stretch your stamps 2 - Outline image stamps.

Hi to all!

My daughter and I went out of town for the weekend to visit my daughter's Godmother. We had a very wonderful weekend but a little time for crafting. I'm a little bit behind with the class and yesterday I tried to catch up for the previous four days homework. For the first card I was inspired by Debbie Hughes's card when she encouraged us to colour on non-white medium. I used to Neenah desert storm craft card stock for the base of my stamped image and coloured it with Derwent Colorsoft pencils. 

For the second card I wanted to try out Donna Mikasa's idea of water painting. I think I should have used more vibrant colour for the distress ink since I wasn't able to get enough contrast between inner and outer side of the stamped image. Though, in my crafting body's opinion this card was the best one for the day since it had enough pink! For the third card I just wanted to colour the magnolia with watercolour and make it a clean and simple card. I have not been using watercolours for a long time so this was quite challenging for me but I think it turned out nicely. I really like the look of watercolour!

Thank you for stopping by and thank you for the previous comments on my cards. I'm very pleased to see that someone else also likes my creations! Thank you! Happy crafting! 

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.

OCC Stretch your stamps 2 - Background stamps.

Day 2.

Today is the second day at the online card class Stretch your Stamps 2 and today's topic was background stamps as yesterday. Today, I actually had quality time by myself in my craft room, I was looking forward for it for the whole day. When I started I was so exited but then somehow nothing seemed to work out. Too much pressure I guess. 

Anyhow, I was inspired by Laura Sterckx's Ombre Card and I came up with this card. I am pleased with the design but the end result just didn't came out technically as I would have wanted. The second card for today was actually inspired by Lisa Spangler's card from yesterday. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

OCC Stretch your stamps 2 - Background stamps.

Stretch your stamps!

Hi to all! I am participating on a ongoing online card class Stretch your stamps 2 and today is the first day of the class. First I thought that this is going to my alone quality time during the next two weeks but I couldn't be more wrong. This afternoon when I started to watch to first videos of the class, immediately I had company - my oldest daughter age of 3,5 years. Since I needed a place to share the results for class's assignments, that is the beginning of this blog: My daughter and I crafting together! Todays topic was background stamps and how to use them creatively. Here are what we came up with. 

My card.

My daughter's.

My card.

My card.

My daughter's.