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!

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

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

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

Christmas scene - Christmas in July with Penny Black - Final Day

Hello my dear friends!

Today is my last day on the Penny Black blog to celebrate Christmas in July. At this point I would love to give my heartfelt thank you for all of you who have been with me along this week long journey and given me such a lovely words and comments. Thank you! Also, thank Penny Black and Jill Foster for asking me to Guest Design for Penny Black. It was a blast! 

For my last day, I was actually inspired by my dear crafting friend, Kelly from You and your big dreams. She is master with copics and she is also very talented in drawing. She has created many amazing cards with background scenes that she has drawn on her own. You can find awesome drawing HERE, and HERE and HERE - just to mention a few. I wanted to experiment if I could follow her footsteps and here is my card for today. Hopefully you like - I had a lot of fun making it. I used a photo of mine as my reference which I have taken in Oxford, UK. Hopefully you find your way to Penny Black blog to see the full card.

Supplies:
Stamps: On the Town and Beauty of the Season by Penny Black
Inks: Versafine Onyx Black
Derwent Inktense Pencils: Poppy Red (0400), Chinise Ink (2030), Payne’s Grey (2110)
Copic Multi-Liner 0.1
Kids Funky Foam White
Watercolour paper
Card Stock: Inspire Me Grey Card Stock, Canson Watercolour Paper 180g/m2

Thanks for stopping by today! See you soon! 

Marika

Tone-on-tone coloured Festive Florals - Christmas in July with Penny Black Day 4

Good Morning Everyone,

Today I'm sharing two of my favourite cards from this Guest Design work for Penny Black. I kind of had this colourless month of June and these tone-on-tone flowers just became my favorite. Here's the sneaks for today's cards. To see the full cards, please visit Penny Black blog.

I also put my camera rolling while making the first card. You can watch it here or in HD in YouTube. Hopefully you find it helpful and try this technique while making your Christmas cards.



Supplies:
Stamps: Festive Florals by Penny Black
Dies: Word of Wishes by Penny Black
Inks: Memento Desert Sand and Brilliance Moonlight White
Derwent Inktense Pencils: Oak (1730)
Derwent Coloursoft Pencils: White (C720)
Card Stock: Neenah Desert Storm 80lb, Neenah Solar White 80lb
White Gelly Roll Pen by Sakura
Perfect Pearl Perfect Pearls by Ranger
Clear Wink of Stella

Thank you for stopping by today. See you tomorrow!

Marika

Silver Sparkler -Christmas in July with Penny Black Day 3

Hello friends,

My week with Penny Black continues and today I featured this stunning poinsettia called Sparkler. This image was calling me to take out my watercolour set. But instead staying in my comfort zone I did something else - no colouring at all in this card. Here's the sneak:

Please, visit Penny Black blog to see the full card. 

Instructions: Cut your card base to measure 21cm x 15cm, score it in the middle and fold it in half. Cut a stripe from silver glitter paper measuring 4mm x 15cm and glue it to the right side of your card leaving a 2mm off from the edge. Stamp the sentiment with black pigment on to the lower right corner, sprinkle silver embossing powder on top and heat set it with your heat tool. Stamp the Sparkler with Versamark onto your vellum and silver glitter paper. Sprinkle white glitter embossing powder on top and heat set them until the embossing powder has melted. Cut the flowers with your scissors. Continue cutting the silver glitter Sparkler in way that you cut out the inner pedals of your poinsettia off. Cut out also the stem and the leaf. Adhere the vellum Sparkler on top of the silver Sparkler with liquid glue and then adhere the Sparkler with liquid glue in the centre onto your card base to the upper left corner of your card. Add a little piece of foam tape under the silver pedals and adhere them to your card. Add liquid glue under the stem and the leaf here and there to adhere it onto your card base. Colour in the little pedals with white gel pen in the middle of the flower and then add three rhinestones with liquid glue. Add three rhinestones and three sequins around your flower. 

Supplies:
Stamps: Sparkler and Beauty of the Season by Penny Black
Inks: Versamark and Versafine Onyx Black
Embossing Powder: White Twinkle Embossing Powder by Wow, Superfine Silver Embossing Powder by Ranger
Silver Glitter Paper 130gms by Primeco, White Vellum (manufacturer unknown), White 300gsm card stock by Papermania as my card base
Clear Sequins from Love and Sparkles Mix by Neat and Tangled
Clear Rhinestones by Anita's
White Gelly Roll Pen by Sakura

I hope like today's card! Thank you for stopping by today!

Marika

A Glorious window card - Christmas in July Day 2

Good Morning!

Hopefully you're day has started well. Today I'm featuring a die called Gloriuos at the Penny Black Blog. When I got this die, I fell in love with it at first sight. For this guest design work, I wanted to use it a bit differently - I used it to make a window for my card. And, I'm very pleased how this card came together. I just love the effect what the shadows create for the image inside of the card. Here is a sneak from today's card, I hope to see you at the Penny Black's blog to see the whole card.

I filmed while created, if you wish to see the how-to- video, you can watch it here or in HD in Youtube.

Supplies: 
Stamps: Snowy Hamlet by Penny Black
Dies: Glorious and Word of Wishes by Penny Black
Inks: Versafine Onyx Black and Versamark
Derwent Inktense Pencils: Sepia Ink (2010), Poppy Red (0400), Chinese Ink (2030), Golden Yellow (0230), Cadmiun Yellow (0210) and Oak (1730).
Faber-Castell Polychromo Pencils:
Derwent Metallic Pencils: Pewter (81) and Silver (80)
Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Pen
Superfine Silver Embossing Powder by Ranger

I hope you liked today's card and enjoyed watching my how-to video. Thank you for stopping by and see you tomorrow with a floral card.

Marika

Christmas in July with Penny Black - Day 1

Hello my crafty friends,

Today, I have some amazing news and I'm so thrilled to tell you that I was asked to do a week long Guest Design work for Penny Black. Those of you who follow Penny Black blog know already that they have this very inspiring Christmas in July- party with a different Guest Designer for each week going on this July. The two other awesome designers for this year have been Yonsoon Hur from RejoicingCrafts and Nina-Marie Trapani from Nina Marie Design. Both of them are awesome carmakers and they made such an amazing cards for this Christmas party that I am so flattered that I was asked to play along as well. 

I know Christmas is a long way to go and in my designs I tried to do a little bit of this and that and make cards that can be made for non-Christmas occasions too. For some cards, I also put my camera rolling and edited a video afterwards. So here are the sneaks for my first two cards and my theme for today is Jolly Critters! 

I hope I'll see you at the Penny Black blog to see the full cards. I hope you like them and enjoy watching my video. Here is my how-to video for the first card with that funny holiday bird in it. You can watch it here or in HD at YouTube.

Supplies:
Stamps: Jolly Critters and Beauty of the Season by Penny Black
Inks: Memento Tuxido Black and Versafine Onyx Black
Copic markers: Purple: RV99 - RV95 - RV93 - RV91, Greens: YG97 - YG95 - YG 91, Greys: 0 - W1 - W3 - W5 - W7 and Orange: YR68
Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Pen
Papermania White Smooth Card Stock
Papermania Textured Green Card Stock

Thank you for stopping by today! See you tomorrow!

Marika

Muse Challenge #105

Good Afternoon!

This is my entry to the Muse Challenge #105.

You all know by now that I adore Dawn's watercolouring and her illustrations. When I saw her wall art made with Pick of the Litter- stamp set few weeks ago I got this little idea if I could make one of my own - I mean use a stamp as my focal point and then watercolour the background. It took me a few weeks to finally take a brush into my hand try. Here is my creation. The stamp is from Penny Black a stamp set called Bundle of Joy. Very cute images all of them, I should use them more often.

I was inspired by this week's Muse card by Marion Vagg. I love her simple design and thought it would be perfect for a little watercolouring at the centre. Since this card is for a baby boy I first thought I would make the card base blue like Marion but then I loved the white-on-white- effect. I started with stamping the baby hedgehog onto a piece of watercolour paper with Versafine Onyx Black. Then I watercoloured the background and the hedgehog with Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour set. I dry embossed the background with my Big Shot, I can't remember the name or the manufacturer of the embossing folder. Sorry. I added a little paper twine bow to get some interest. I felt that this card doesn't need a sentiment since it is my first freehand watercolour "painting" I wanted to leave it as it is. 

Here is Marion's beautiful card:

 

Thank you for visiting. Have a great day!

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