My best nine in 2015!

Hello!

Today I'm here to share my best nine projects for the year of 2015 and I explain a bit why on each one. These come in the published order. So here we go:

1) A window Thank You

This card was made inspired by the CTS sketch. This is special to me because this was first  card that I coloured combined watercolours and Inktense pencils. I'm very pleased how the colouring turned out and that time I was very into window cards. 

2) Pink Flower Thank You

This card was made to the DT introduction post for Altenew. This card is very special to me since I used Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolours that I had just received to colour the flowers and I just love how softly they look. And the window theme continued also.

3) African Sunset

I included this card into the best nine because I love to colour and I usually make cards that have coloured focal point. This card I made without colouring and I really really like the intensity and dimension it has.

4) A beautiful Day 

This fall I found my favourite colouring medium (at least at the moment) and it is copic markers combined to coloured pencils. The flower in this card is one of the best flowers that I personally think I've coloured so far.

5) Modern Congratulations

This card is pretty simple in design and lay-out but for me it is special because I'm very proud of how I was able to colour the leaf at the bottom to look like a real leaf - and I've had issues in colouring leaves.

6) You are made of awesome 

If I have to choose only one card from my 2015 cards, it would be this one. This is absolutely my favourite from this year. I am very pleased with the colouring and the shading and I am very happy that I was able to gain such a clean design to this. The font of the sentiment fits also perfectly to the flower. I wouldn't change a thing in this card.

7) Merry and Bright

I made this card a special crafting friend in mind who usually watches my videos over her morning coffee so I thought this POD owl would be perfect for her. I am really happy how the colouring turned out to be, I think he is the best coloured critter from this year. I'm also very pleased with the sky colour that I recently found and love the effect of white gel pen in the sky.

8) Beauty of the Season

Usually, in the cards that I make there are some parts that I'm very happy with and some parts I would change if I made that card again. In this card I wouldn't change anything and that is very a lot to say after how many days I actually tried to put this card together. I had coloured the image and I played around so many leaves, diets and sentiments. But the end result is what matters and I'm happy with it.

9) Frozen

This card is one of the latest cards that I made for this year and this got its ticket to my best nine because of the sky. I really tried to gain a feeling of a bright and cold winter night with a full moon. I'm very happy with how it turned out. I also practiced back-lit shading for the image and although I have to practise more I like how it turned out.

Well, this was the best nine of the 2015! Hopefully some of your favourites also found its way to this group. If your favourite is missing, let me know! :)

Thank you for stopping by and see you soon!

Make a Wish

Good Morning!

Hopefully your holidays have been peaceful and you've enjoyed the time with your family and friends. I'm here today with another Purple Onion Designs card. I have made this card and the video a while ago for a new release of Stacey Yacula's stamps in October. Somehow I have forgotten to share it with you. If you have visited Purple Onion Designs' blog, you might have already seen it there but here it is on my blog today.

Stamps used: Be mine, Bloom No.2 and Sweet Occasions Sentiment set.

You can watch my tutorial on how to use unmounted red rubber stamps here or in HD in Youtube:

Supplies:
Stamps: Be Mine, Bloom No.2 and Sweet Occasions Sentiment set by Purple Onion Desings
Dies: My Favourite Things Pierced Squares
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black
Card Stock: Neenah Solar White 80lb, Papermania Premium Textured Coloured Card Stock

Copic Markers: YG03 - YG67 (greens), W0 - W1 - W3 (greys), Y38 - YR68 (orange), YR31 (yellow), W5 - W7 (Black)
White Kids Fun Foam

Thank you for stopping by today! See you soon!

Marika

Happy Holidays and a GIVEAWAY!

Hello!

This is my second post for today, please check out the collaboration post with Pia from Pia's Creative World. You can see it HERE. We also have a video tutorial how we made our collaboration project.

I'm also at Altenew blog to share my last post for the year of 2015. Within this card I want to wish Happy Holidays for all my Altenew friends. Please, enjoy the holidays and cherish the time with friends and families.

I used Poinsettia and Pine set to make this CAS card. Firstly I stamped the images with light brown and light green ink and then coloured the images with copic markers and coloured pencils. The background is firstly stamped with Woodpalet Background onto a smoke card stock with Versamark Ink and then heat embossed with Vanilla White Embossing PowderThe background.

I started blogging about a year and a half ago and this journey here in blogland has been such an amazing experience for me. I have met so many kind people whom I can call my friends now although we live in different countries - even continents. I truly appreciate all the love and support that you have given me and because of your encouragement I have become better in crafting, colouring and drawing since I always want to give the best of me to you. Finding out that I have that kind of skills in colouring, has been one of the biggest discoveries for me and without the support of this loving crafting community, I may never have found it. So thank you all of you! 

I would like to send you all a thank you card but that is just impossible. So within this project, I would like to say thank you to you all. And I would like to send this to someone, so if you like to receive this item, please leave a comment on this blog post before the 29th of December 2015. I will randomly draw the person whom I'm sending this and I will announce it soon after. I'm also having a giveaway over at Altenew Blog, if you want to participate please head over there to enter into the drawings.

If you wish to see a video tutorial on this technique that I used to colour the Rose piece, you can watch the speed colouring video HERE and a similar card made in this following tutorial. You can find it HERE. 

Thank you for stopping by today. Please, check out our collaboration project with Pia as well, we really had fun within that project. I also have a few holiday cards to share which I will do over the holidays. They are holiday cards but can be used as everyday cards as well. 

Hugs,

Marika

Video Collaboration with Pia - Sparkle and Shine

Hello Everyone!

Today I have something special planned for you. Today is the day when we share our first part of our collaboration with Pia from Pia's Creative World. 

Back in the summer we started talking and planning that this kind of collaboration would be a lot fun - it's like crafting together and finishing up card together although we are living (and crafting) in different countries. In this first part, I made some individual stuff and sent them to Pia and she finished up the card. 

Firstly, if you don't know Pia already - you should! She is so sweet and kind, always happy to help and she happens to have such a creative mind and very talented hands. I find that the name of her blog is just Genius and sums up everything so well! Her style is different from mine  - and I just love that - and that makes this collaboration so interesting. I love her CAS style combined sort of graphic style in card making but still she has a lot of clever and neat ideas that just leave me speechless - oh, I-never-thought-of-doing-that-like-that -kind of way. She has a Youtube channel where she shares some of her work and ideas and if you haven't subscribed, please do so! She speaks such a fluent English and her videos are very easy to follow. If you are interested in new techniques, then her channel is one that you must follow. :)

So here's the card that we've made together:

You can see how we made this card in video tutorial that we made together. You can watch it here or in HD in YouTube.

Supplies that I used:

Stamps: Joe the Skating Snowman from Purple Onion Designs, To the Moon by Altenew.

Dies: Tiny Pine Trees by Marianne Designs

Inks: Versafine Onyx Black, SSS Smoke Ink, Fairy Dust and Falling Star Pure Color Ink by Wplus9.

Paper: Canson Watercolour Paper 220gms, Neenah Solar White Smooth Card Stock, SSS Slate Card Stock

Derwent Inktense and Metallic Pencils

Hopefully you found this fun and entertaining. We surely had fun doing this and we both learnt so much in the process. Thank you for stopping by today and see you real soon!

Hugs,

Marika

Merry and Bright Season Greetings

Hello!

I'm here to share an other holiday card. I used a few Stacey Yacula's cute images that you can find at Purple Onion Designs.

I had a bit of trouble while making this card. Firstly I stamped the images with black die ink. Then I cut a mask for the birds and the top of the trees. I didn't bother to cut a mask for the trunk of the trees, since I was going to colour them quite dark so I can hide the ink with my colouring. While I was inking the background I noticed that the black ink started to bleed, you can see it on the bigger bird on the bells. I don't know why, maybe I should have waited longer before I started to ink up background but then I figured that I should have done this in different order. I think the smarter thing to do this, would have been first stamp the trees and cover them with the masks, then just put the masks for the birds, ink the background, let it dry and then stamp the birds and colour them. Have you had this kind of trouble and how have you solved it? Please, feel free to share. 

The birds are coloured with copic markers and I added a little bit yellow copic marker to the trees and added white jelly roll pen and wink of stella on top. 

Supplies:

Stamps: Maple, Juniper and Seasons Greetings by Purple Onion Designs.   

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black (sentiment), Memento Lulu Lavender, Cantaloupe and Tumbled Glass Distress Ink (I think or Peacock Feathers).

Wink of Stella

White Jelly Roll Pen

Copic Markers: Birds: E40 - E42 - E43 - E44, E04 - R56 - R59, Trees: YG03 - YG67, E47.

Thank you for stopping by today. See you real soon!

Hugs,

Marika

Festive Christmas

Hello,

I'm here.. again! :)  You can't believe how much fun I've had during the last two weeks, I've played a long with many challenges and I can say, I've had a blast. I've missed playing along and what I've noticed, these card challenges are a such a great source of inspiration. 

So today's card is made inspired mainly by Fusion - Season's Greetings. I went for the inspiration picture and tried to use as many elements as I possible could. At the same time, over at the Paper Players there's a new colour challenge so I tried to use only those colours. So here's my take:

Stamps used: Birch, Winter Bough and Handwritten Holiday

Well, I started with the woodgrain background. I can't believe how identical it looks to Altenew's Woodgrain Palet Background heat embossed vanilla white EP onto SSS Smoke card stock. I love the look! Just beautiful! Then I took a stripe of red card stock and white jelly roll pen and tried to mimic the pattern seen on the table cloth. In the inspiration picture, there's this bird but I so wanted to use this little cute bunny. I think he is so darn adorable. Oh and I used a stencil to ink up the little red and grey dots on the background which can mimic the berries in the picture. The bunny is coloured firstly with copic markers and then added details with coloured pencils. I didn't write down the exact numbers, so I don't list them since I can't be sure. If someone is interested in the colours, please let me know - I can give a good guess. :) I was trying out a new copic combos, the hat on the bunny came to be more pink that I would have wanted. Hopefully the PP gals don't mind. 

Supplies:
Stamps: Birch, Winter Bough and Handwritten Holiday by Purple Onion Designs.
Inks: Memento Desert Sand and New Sprout and Versafine Onyx Black
Paper: Canson Bristol 250gms Smooth Card Stock, SSS Smoke Card Stock and Textured Card  Stock from Papermania.
Vanilla Opaque White Embossing Powder by WOW!
White Jelly Roll Pen

I will enter this into following Challenges:
Fusion - Season's Greetings
The Paper Players #275 - Cherry Cobbler, Mossy Meadow and Very Vanilla

Thank you for stopping by today! See you soon!

Hugs,
Marika

Jolly Critters

Hello,

Thank you so much for encouraging comments left on last post of mine. Well, if you're not tired yet... just let me know when you are, I still have a few to come. :)

Today I'm sharing something that was meant to be very simple but what came to be quite more difficult. I planned to stamp the puppy, colour him and add the sentiment. Well, I did that until I had coloured him and noticed that there is this stocking hanging on the air... Hmmp. Well got to do something to it, so I drew the table. There is something wrong with the perspective but for a holiday card, it'll do. This is sent to my dear friend that I've known since we were four years old, she loves dogs.. 

Stamps used: Jolly Critters and Beauty of the Season.

---

Supplies:
Stamps: Jolly Critters and Beauty of the Season Penny Black
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black
Paper: Canson Bristol 250gms Smooth Card Stock

Copic Markers: Puppy: E40 - E42 - E43 - E44, Pink Stocking: RV91 - RV93 - RV95, Candy Cane and the Tablecloth: E04 - R56 -R59, Present: BV20 - V22 - BV25, Floor and the shadows: 0 - N0 - N1 - N3 - N5

I will enter this into following challenges: 
Less is More #254: One layer week and What's in my Stocking?
Merry Monday Card Challenge #183: Candy Cane (Hopefully a "candy bone" works as well, that was the closest to a candy cane that I had...)
Simon Monday Challenge: Holly Jolly Stamping

Thank you so much for visiting me today. I'll be back tomorrow with an new holiday card. See you then!

Hugs,
Marika

Blue and Green Christmas!

Hello!

You probably are getting tired of seeing Christmas cards from me and surely I'm running out of ideas. I still have a few to make so please.. bear with me. I seek inspiration from challenges that are going on at the moment. Less is more is having a colour theme: Blue and Green. That is the base for today's cards. Here they are:

Stamps used: Snowflake Grove Decorated Tree and Happy Holidays - Scripty.

Stamps used: Holly and Happy Holidays - Scripty

If you are familiar with my blog and visited me yesterday, you probably recognise the design on the first one. Yesterday I entered a similar card to CTS, the color theme yesterday was pink. I really liked how the card turned out to be so I replicated it, I just used a different tree stamp for it. My colouring could be better, but you know, holiday cards are made in bulk so I really didn't have the time to use for more detailed colouring this time. Funny thing though is that I kinda had an issue with green stars... Then I figured, if I don't have a problem a tree being blue... surely I can't have a problem with a green star, can I?

On the second I wanted to use the mouse that I had had for about a year now. I think he is really cute but he has never made into a card. One problem with him was that he is quite hard to cut out and before I had copics, I usually cut everything out. I like how he is coloured but I kinda regret inking the blue snowflakes on the back.. and seriously, I'm so running out of ideas. LOL!

I will enter these into followering challenges:

Less is more: Blue and Green

Paper Players Card Challenge #274: Let it snow 

Supplies: 

Stamps: Snowflake Grove Decorated Tree, Holly  and Happy Holidays - Scripty.

Inks: Memento London Fog and Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black, Tumbled Glass Distress Ink

Paper: Neenah Solar White

White Jelly Roll Pen

Copic Markers: B91 - B93 - B95, YG03 - YG67, 0 - W1 - W3, E40, 0 - N0 - N1.

Thank you for stopping by today. I really appreciate your kind comments, especially this very hectic time of the year. Thank you. You really are so kind people in all. Hopefully you are all well and having a wonderful day!

Hugs,

Marika

Beauty of the Season

Good Morning!

I'm back as promised to share another Penny Black Holiday card. Back in July, while I was designing the cards for the Guest Design week, when I saw these two products this was something that I had in mind how I would use them. But you know, sometimes the colouring just doesn't work - especially when done in a hurry. So back then I went for something more simple than this with these. You can see the cards HERE and HERE. But I find this particular Poinsettia called Sparkler to be so beautiful that it deserved to be coloured in. So here is my take on it:

Products used: Sparkler, Glorious and Beauty of the Season.

Products used: Sparkler, Glorious and Beauty of the Season.

I started by stamping the Sparkler with light brown ink onto a smooth card stock. Then I coloured it with copic markers and coloured pencils. Since the flower took a while to colour, for the leaves I used Glorious die. I trimmed it a bit (I think I just cut off the stem and one pedal from the right side). Then I die cut it again, this time from light brown card stock and used the ones that I had cut off from the green card stock and glued them in place. So the Glorious die seen on the back is almost identical for the actual die. While putting the card together, I glued them where they fitted the best in a card. The background is just a square piece of cream coloured vellum and the sentiment was heat embossed with gold embossing powder.

Supplies: 

Stamps: Sparkler and Beauty of the Season by Penny Black

Dies: Glorious die from Penny Black, Die-namics Pierced Squares by MFT

Inks: Versamark

Card Stock: Canson Bristol 250mg Smooth Card Stock, Brown and light green textured card stock

Metallic Gold Rich Embossing Powder from WOW!

Cream vellum

Small Permanent Adhesive DODZ  by Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L

I will enter this into few challenges:

Penny Black and More: Anything goes with a stamp

TIME OUT Challenges #46: Photo Inspiration

Thank you for stopping by today and have an amazing day!

Hugs,

Marika

Pink Christmas!

Hello!

I'm here to share a very quick post since CTS is closing in 3h hours. :) When I saw the sketch, I knew immediately what to do. I know there are circles in the sketch, my circles are on the trees, hopefully that counts! And the colour theme is inspired by my two girls. They don't really care about the colour as long as it is PINK! Pink made this card to be quite cute, what do you think?

Stamps used: Snowflake Grove Bright Trees2 and Happy Holidays (Scripty).

I started with the sketch and drew a grid with my pencils to my card panel. Then I stamped the trees with light grey ink to make the pattern seen. Before I started to colour the images, I erased the pencil grid. All images are firstly coloured with copic markers and then added white details with white jelly roll pen. Next, I die cut a window to an lower right corner and stamped the pattern with black ink - I tried to make sure that the pattern would continue through the die cut window. Then I die cut a square panel out of white card stock and added two coats of the same copic colours as used to colour the trees. Next I stamped the sentiment with light pink ink onto the panel and "wrote-over" the stamped sentiment with white jelly roll pen. The sentiment panel is then popped up with fun foam to add a little bit dimension. 

Supplies:

Stamps: Snowflake Grove Bright Trees2 and Happy Holidays (Scripty) from Purple Onion Designs.

Inks: Memento London Fog and Tuxedo Black and Altenew Cotton Candy Crisp Ink.

Paper: Canson Bristol 250gms Smooth Card Stock

White Jelly Roll Pen

Fun Foam

Copic Markers used: RV91 - RV93 - RV95. N1 - N3 - N5.

I will enter this card into to following challenges:

CAS(E) this Sketch # 151 - the sketch

CASology #176 - Cue Card - Tree

Thank you for stopping by today! Hopefully your day is beautiful!

Hugs,

Marika

Joy to the World

Hello All,

I'm here to share these two cards with Purple Onion Designs. I don't know about you, but I find it difficult to make two cards that are exactly the same. But since holiday cards are often needed more than one, I've found it easiest to use the same design but alter it a little bit. The inspiration for these two cards comes from the sky. I've had in mind this vision hat I would like to have Aurora Borealis on the sky for some Christmas cards of mine. This year we've had many beautiful moments here when the sky has just bloomed, but it turned out to be quite difficult to mimic the boldness and the softness that those beautiful blooms of the sky have. This is the best one so far. 

Stamps used: Flora, Toadstool Cluster and Handwritten Holiday

Stamps used: Fawn and Merry and Bright.

I started by stamping the images on my card panel and drew the snowbanks with copic friendly marker. Then I cut a mask for both main images and covered the stamped image. For the latter card, I also cut a mask for the moon. Then I used my ink blending tool to ink up my sky with Distress Inks. I used two shades of Distress Inks: Tumbled Glass and Stormy sky. The halos around the aurora borealis and the moon were created by leaving Tumbled Glass to show; that is for all the darkers areas seen, I laid second layer of Stormy Sky on to firstly laid Tumbled Glass. Do I make any sense here? I made Flora-card first and after I had made it I realised that in real life if there is snow on the ground and clear sky during the night, the moon light is reflected from the snow. So on the Fawn- card I left a bit of white to show near the snowbanks to make it more real. 

Next I coloured the images with copic markers, I'll list the all the colours in the supplylist below. In the Flora-card I really didn't think the direction of the light source but in the Fawn-card I practiced back-lit shading. I added more highlight with white jelly roll pen and used that to add the stars to the sky as well. Not really sure if the shadows or highlights are in correct places, but it was quite hard learning experience for me to really think where to put the shadows and highlights. 

In the Flora-card I created the Aurora Borealis with Faber-Casstell Polychromo pencils with many different shades of green and yellow. The sentiments were then stamped with black pigment ink.

Just a last reminder, Purple Onion is having a sale - all stamps 25% off until tomorrow.

I saw that Addicted to CAS has the Code Word: JOY. I think the latter one might express the feeling of Joy, just love that cute critter by Stacey Yacula!! She is so joyful, isn't she? Here's the graphic:

Supplies:

Stamps: Flora, Toadstool Cluster, Handwritten Holiday,  Fawn and Merry and Bright by Purple Onion Designs.

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black, Tubled Glass and Stormy Sky Distress Inks.

Card Stock: Canson Bristol 190mgs Smooth Card Stock

White Jelly Roll pen

Copic Multiliner 0.1

Copic Markers: Flora and Fawn: E40 - E42 - E43 - E44, YR23, Scarfs: B91 - B93 - B95 - B97, Stump: E42 - E43 - E44: Toadstool and berries: R56 - R59 - E43 - E44, Shadows: 0 - N0 - N1 - N3 - Y13, Leaves: YG95 - YG97.

Thank you for stopping by today! And thank you for all lovely comments left for two earlier posts, I'll come to visit you soon! 

Hugs,
Marika

Rustic Scene with Penny Black

Hello!

I'm here to share a card with a stamp from Penny Black as mentioned earlier this week. As some of you may remember, I was lucky enough to be asked to guest design for Penny Black in Christmas in July- event a half a year ago. Then, I quite felt that I had gotten a few stamps that I didn't quit did justice back then, so I'm here to correct my error and tried again. LOL! First one of those was/is this Snowy Hamlet stamp. 

Stamps used: Snowy Hamlet and Beauty of the Season.

Stamps used: Snowy Hamlet and Beauty of the Season.

Firstly, I stamped the Snowy Hamlet with light brown ink onto a smooth card stock. Then I die cut it with a square die. I used my go-to colouring technique at the moment: I laid down my base layer with copic markers and then added details with coloured pencils. I think I did the coloured job for this particular image way too complex - as far as the main church image is concerned. The areas that can be coloured in are so tiny that the copic base layer doesn't really show, but it can be seen better in the mountains, sky and the snow. For colouring wise, I used cool greys for the mountains. After putting down the base colour, I noticed that it looked way too blue compared to the rest of the image and the feel in the image. Then corrected the error for going over it with warm grey marker and it toned it down and I liked the result. Then I used the same technique for the sky, first I went over with C1 marker, added some yellowish glow to the horizon and then went over with warm grey marker to make it toned down. After the whole image was coloured, I took my white jelly roll pen and went crazy with it adding snowy details. LOL! 

Then I partially stamped the trees from the same stamp to my card front to make it look like continuing scene. The main coloured image was then adhered to a piece of craft foam and popped up a bit. 

Supplies:

Stamps: Snowy Hamlet and Beauty of the Season by Penny Black

Dies: Pierced Square Die-namics from My Favourite Things

Inks: Desert Sand Memento Ink, Versafine Vintage Sepia and Onyx Black

Card Stock: Canson Bristol 190mgs Smooth Card Stock, Bazzil Textured Card Stock, Neenah Desert Storm 80b Card stock

Copic Markers: Brown and the shadows in the snow: E40 - E42 - E43 - E44, Green: YG91 - YG95, Yellow: YR31, Mountains: 0 - C0 - C1 - C3 - W1, Sky: C1 - YR31 - N0 - N1 - W1, Shadows in the church: W1 - W3

Faber Castell Coloured Pencils: Venetian Red (190), Dark Red (225) Earth Green Yellowish (168), Pine Green (267), Green Opaque (174), Black (199), Dark Naples Ochre (184), Warm Grey II (271), Warm Grey V (274), Van-Dyck-Brown (176), Raw Umber (180), Walnut Brown (177)

I noticed that the theme at the SSS Wednesday challenge is "Let it snow!". I'll link this to their challenge as well.

Thank you for stopping by today! 

I'll be back very soon with another stamp from Penny Black that I thought I didn't quite do justice in July... a little hint.. it is a flower! :) Until then, enjoy your day! 

Hugs,

Marika

Warm Winter Wishes with Purple Onion Designs

Hello Friends,

I'm sharing a few cards that I've been holding on since October. I coloured these in during the Kathy's 30 day colouring challenge. I really enjoyed colouring these and I liked how they turned out. I was kinda hoping to make these into a video but it looks that I'm not going to be getting the setup running before Christmas so I'd like to share these before holidays. I used copic markers combined with coloured pencils in these cards. 

Inspiration to these cards came from the sentiment - I wanted to colour these in warm shades but still having the snowman in a wintery scene. I've done many cards during this past year - this Snowman card is one of my favourites. 

Stamps used: Warm Hearted, 2 forests, Handwritten Holiday.

Stamps used: Cora and Thomas, Pond,  Handwritten Holiday.

I did wrote down the exact colours after colouring these in October. Back then I only did the panel and left it unadhered to a card base. Apparently, while gluing the panel to the card base, I managed to glue the post-it note between the panel and the card base. Oops. So, I don't list the colours this time because I really can't remember them and I don't want to give false information. All images are coloured firstly with copic markers and then added details with Faber-Castell Polychromo Pencils. The sky was inked with Distress Inks: Antique Linen and Tattered Rose. 

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! 

Thanks for stopping by today. I'm working with some Penny Black Christmas goodies at the moment, I'll be sharing them later this week. :) 

Have an amazing day!

Hugs,

Marika