Wednesday 31 December 2014

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

Wednesday 24 December 2014

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

Thursday 18 December 2014

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. 
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

Sunday 7 December 2014

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