Persian Happy Birthday

Hey stampers, Anni here!

I tend to use the same colour scheme on every card! I have my go to colours that I feel comfortable with and that I reach to often. But from time to time I want to try something new and then Pinterest is my friend. I search fro colour combos and for this card actually flower colour combos and you get thousands and thousands of beautiful results. That is how I came up with this colour scheme: a dark red, an orangy red and a pink, combined with grey leafes.

I started my card by stamping Altenew's Persian Motifs - the very first Altenew set that I bought! And I still love it. Again I wanted to do some no line colouring. So I stamped with a pale ink. Then I coloured the flowers using watercolours.

For the sentiment I used Concord and 9th's Birthday Die. The birthday part I die cut several times from grey cardstock and stacked the letters up to achieve some dimension. For the word happy I chose some dark red cardstock matching the flowers. I love the combination of printed letters and script in this die set.
I added a layer of vellum under the die cuts to make it stand out more.

All there was left to do was to glue down the panel to the cardbase.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend!
Anni

   

Big Bithday Wishes

Hey stampers, Anni here!

I have the feeling that this summer the companies came up with extra cute summer sets and I want to use all of them that I bought before summer is over! Although I think nothing is wrong with a summer card in winter when we need it the most, isn't it?
And I can't think about Christmas cards yet although I love to make them and all these super cute new Christmas sets are keep popping up. But it's still very warm in Germany and as long as the weather is good I keep making summer cards.
So today I have this card for you featuring Mama Elephant's Summer Splash.

I started by stamping all the images I wanted to use and coloured them with coloured pencils. To cut them out you can get coordinating dies.

To create the background I teared a piece of masking paper to get a rough edge. I used both parts of the torn piece, one to mask off the sky, the other for the beach. I added ink blending in beige/yellow for the beach and a mix of pinks and lilacs for the sky. At first I went with shades of turquoise for the sky but the elephant got lost on it wearing a turquoise swimsuit. So I decided to start a new background in different colours.

I die cut the background using the big frame from Mama Elephant's Framed Tags Madison Avenue. I thought I would use the frame as well but decided that it took too much attention from the scene. So I used only the inner part.

Again to tone down the background I added a layer of vellum. I die cut a circle using My Favorite Things' Jumbo Peek-a-Boo Circle Window as it had just the right size.

For the sentiment I chose one of Mama Elephant's Birthday Messages. I stamped it with Versamark on a stripe of matching cardstock and heat embossed it in white. And that finished up my card.

Are you still in summer card mode or are you preparing for Christmas or Halloween cards? Let me know.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend.
Anni

         

Summer Goodie Bags

Hey stampers, Anni here!

You may have already noticed that Anna and I swapped post days. She covered last Saturday for me. But after today we will be back to our regular schedule.

From time to time I meet with some crafty friends and often we exchange little gifts. Of course (as crafters) the gift box is usually more intresting than the gift itself (most of the time some sweets or chocolate).

For our last get together I made these boxes using Lawn Fawn's Goodie Bag die.

I die cut all the pieces I needed for four goodie bags at once from white cardstock. As I wanted to create a beach scene I added some ink blending in turquoise for the sky and some beige for the beach. I added a lot of splatters of water and white and dark brown ink.

To decorate the gift boxes I stamped a lot of Mama Elephant's Beach Chickies in a very light ink. I coloured the chicks with coloured pencils in the no line technique. There are coordinating dies available.

When I put the images on the goodie bags the background was way to dominant. To tone it down I wanted to add a circle of vellum. My Favorite Things' Jumbo Peek-a-Boo Circle Window had just the rightsize.

And finally for the sentiment I went with one of my go to sentiment sets: Mama Elephant's Mini Messages.

         

Birthday Hugs and Kisses

Hey stampers, Anni here!

I am back with a card featuring Mama Elephant's super cute Hogs and Kisses set. These pigs are just so darn cute and it might sound strange but I like to colour pigs.
There are critters I like to colour more than other. I prefer grey animals over brown and I find it difficult to colour foxes (also I love them so much). I never seem to find the right combination of shads of orange. But pigs are easy to colour in my opinion: This brownish pink goes well with a lot of colours and you can easily shade with brown (or violett) to get darker areas.

When I finished the colouring I cut out the images. There are coordinating dies available.
For the background I used the same colours as for the pig and the balloons and created a watercolour background. I die cut it using Lil'Inker Designs' Stitched Mats: Rounded Rectangles.

For the sentiment I chose one of Mama Elephant's Birthday Messages - love that set! So many great birthday sentiments in a really cute font. I stamped the sentiment on a narrow stripe of black cardstock with Versamark and heat embossed it in white.

Do you like to colour some creatures more than others? I'm curious, let me know!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!
Anni

      

Hello Friend

Hey stampers, Anni here!

It seems I can't stop using the no line coloring technique at the moment! I hope you don't mind. I love it so much, especially with Ranger Ink reinker!

For today's card I inked up Reverse Convetti's Big Bear. This is such an adorable set, the bears are so cute! And I also love all the sweet details that come with this set.

I stamped the images I wanted to use in a very light ink and colored them using the reinkers. It's very important to add the eyes and the nose with a black gel pen. That's what brings the critters to life. For this set there are coordinating dies available.

For the background I blended some ink on white cardstock. It looked a little boring so I decided to use Neat & Tangled's Rice Paddies stencil. I turned it in different directions while ink blending to add even more intrest.

Then I die cut a lawn using the grass die from Lawn Fawn's Mushroom Border from green cardstock and finally the sentiment came from Mama Elephant's Mini Messages.

Do you have a favorite technique that you can't stop to use? Let me know! Maybe I can fix myself on something else.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend.
Anni

         

Happy Belated Birthday

Hey stampers, Anni here!

I am back from vacation in France - it was so great!
When I go on vacations I always take something to colour with me. This year it was all about colouring with Distress reinker. I bet you will see many images that I coloured on vacation in my next posts.

Today I chose the smaller one from the cute sailing ships from Lawn Fawn's Smooth Sailing. I coloured it five times in rainbow order using the no line technique. The trick is to stamp with a light ink and create shadows with your colouring to define the shape. In this case it is quite easy as it is a simple shape. If you new to no line colouring start with those simpler shapes to get into this technique easily.

To create the ocean I took some vellum and die cut it with Mama Elephant's Ocean Waves Trio. Into these two pieces of vellum I die cut waves using Lawn Fawn's Ocean Wave Accents. These dies are perfect if you want to add waves in the inner part of the paper. Now I could slide the ships in the cut to make it look as they were really in the water. I also added "spray" with a white gel pen.

I wanted some colour on my vellum so I took the ink directly to the backside using Altenew's Lagoon ink from the Sea Shore Ink Cubes. You have to be careful as it dries very slowly on vellum. I used my heatgun and wiped the vellum with a paper towel.

To the vellum I also added the sentimet. As I missed some birthdays while I was on vacation I wanted to make a belated birthday card. I found a matching sentiment in Lawn Fawn's Hang in There set and heat embossed it in white.

As it is always difficult to adhere vellum without the glue showing I decided to add a frame to my scene. I die cut the biggest of My Favorite Things' A2 Rectangle Frames from white cardstock and adhered it with dimensional adhesive.

Do you take something to craft on vacation with you? Let me know, I am curious.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend.
Anni

               

Happy Bear-thday!

Hey stampers, Anni here!

I had this bear from My Favorite Things’s Beary Special Birthday already coloured in my stash for a long time. So when I needed to make a fast card it came in handy.

I created a watercolour backgroundwith matching colours to go with the bear. I kept it light and soft so it wouldn’t take the attention from the cute birthday bear. To tone down it even more I die cut a one of My Favorite Things’ Stitched Circle Scallop Frames from aqua cardstock and added a circle of vellum behind it.

For the sentimnt I hose one of the punny one that came with the bear set and stamped it on a stripe of dark brown cardstock and heat embossed it in white. Then I cut the stripe into a fishtail banner.

To give the scene a frame I die cut a frame from My Favorite Things’ A2 Rectangle Frames from the same cardstock I used for the circle frame and assembled the card.

For the finishing touches I added some sequins.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend.

Anni

            

Set of Birthday Cards

Hey stampers, Anni here! 

Birthday cards are the cards I send out the most. So I am always short on them. I decided to make a set of simple birthday cards with My Favorite Things’ Diagonal Design. That is an amazing background stamp that unfortunately will be retired. It is on sale right now so run and grab one as long they are available.

I started by stamping the background on four pieces of watercolour cardstock. On two I stamped with Versamark and heat embossed the background in white and on the other two I stamped with a black pigment ink and heat embossed the pattern with a clear embossing powder.

To colour up the backgrounds I used (very old) ink sprays I found in my stash. But you could also use ink pads or watercolours. I sprayed the backgrounds heavily with the ink and water. I inked up the white one in a warm and the black ones with a cool colour scheme. 

While the background panels dried I worked on the sentiments. I went through my stash and looked for big sentiment dies. The ones I chose were Altenew’s Script Words 3, My Favorite Things’ Celebrate and Neat & Tangled’s Hooray Word Die.

For one of the cards I just chose a Happy Birthday from Lawn Fawn’s Happy Happy Happy and heat embossed it in white on black cardstock. 

To make the word die cut stand out more I added also a layer of vellum to most of the cards. The Hooray word die comes with a shadow, so no need to add a extra rectangle.

I also added a sentiment to go with the die cut. Mama Elephant’s Birthday Messages is just the perfect sampler for this need.

For the finishing touch I added some sequins to the cards in various colours.

So you see: fast and easy and I can add four birthday cards to much stash.
Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend.

Anni