Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas

Hey stampers, Anni here!

I have a quick and easy Christmas card for those of you who might need a last minute card.

Overhere in Germany we celebrate (or should I say we start celebrating) Christmas on the 24th of december. So I started by die cutting a 2 and a 4 using Altenew's Mega Numbers. I love these numbers and I bought the whole bundle and haven't regret it yet.

I added ink blending in red, pink and orange and darker red only to the edges.

Then I stamped three penguins from Mama Elephant's Little Penguin Agenda with an alcohol marker friendly black ink. I coloured the penguins in a cold grey and for the other things like scarf, feet, beak, beely etc. I chose colours that went well with the colour of the 24. To cut out the penguins there are coordinating dies available.

For the panel I die cut a scallop rectangle from Mama Elephant's Framed Tags: Waverly from white cardstock. I adhered the 24 and the penguins with dimensional adhesive. Because it looked a bit boring, I stamped some small snowflakes I found in Avery Elle's Snow Much Fun set.

For the sentiment I chose one from my go to set of this season: Mama Elephant's Holiday Messages. I heat embossed it in white on a stripe of grey cardstock.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend.
Anni

               

Merry Christmas

Hey stampers, Anni here!

Do you have a favourite colour scheme for Christmas? Or for other occassions? I have to say I love untraditional colour combos for Christmas but I really love kraft, brown, creme and red! Is that already a traditional one? Or just red and green! I used these so often for Christmas cards in the last years that for me it goes as a traditional combo. And I used it on today's card featuring cute animals from Lawn Fawn's Critters in the Arctic.

I started by stamping the moose and the snowbunny. I chose these two critters because I already had the colour scheme in mind. For the colouring I went with alcohol markers. This is the medium I colour the quickest. To cut out the images there are coordinating dies available.

For the background it was a bit hard to pick a colour from the combo! I decided to use a creme cardstock. But it looked quite plain. Then I got the idea of a monochrome snowflake background. I die cut Lawn Fawn's Stitched Snowflakes from the same cardstock. I glued the snowflakes down with some liquid adhesive and die cut Lil'Inkers Designs' Stitched Mats: Rounded Rectangles from that piece of paper.
With the same die I die cut some scraps of white paper and cut out some snowy hills by hand. I matted the panel with a piece of red cardstock to bring in a little more red.

For the sentiment I found one that went with my design in Avery Elle Merriest. I love sentiments that I can mix and match especially when they combine cursive and block letters. The Merry I stamped and heat embossed in white on a scrap of red cardstock and the Christmas on a piece of kraft cardstock.

All there was left to do was to assemble the card.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend.
Anni

         

Set of Penguin Cards

Hey stampers, Anni here!

Time is running! It is Christmas in just over three weeks. And I still need some more Christmas cards. So I decided to make a set of three small cards. Small cards are perfect for those people in your life who you don't know much to write to, you know what I mean?

I chose the super cute set Polar Playtime by Avery Elle. It is a small set so you can get it to a really good price point but it also has so many cute critters in it. I couldn't decide which one to use so the idea of a set was born.

I stamped all the critters on watercolour cardstock with a water-resistant ink (Versafine Onyx Black). For the colouring I chose Distress Ink reinker and added shadows with coloured pencils.
For cutting out the images there are coodinating dies available.

For the panel I die cut My Favorite Things' Stitched Mini Scallop Squares, three times from white cradstock and one time from a piece of patterend paper. To two of the white ones I added a ground for the critters to be placed on with alcohol markers. The third one I free handcut to a snowy hill.
Than I chose two more patterend papers form my stash and added them to the cardbases.
The one panel that had already patterend paper on it I adhered to a white cardbase.

The sentiment on two of the cards came from the Polar Playtime set. I stamped it directly on the panel. For the third one I chose a sentiment from Mama Elephant's Holiday Messages. I stamped it on a piece of red cardstock and die cut it using Neat & Tangled's Skinny Strips.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend.
Anni

      

Cool Penguins

Hey stampers, Anni here!

Today’s card features one of my favourite stamp sets from last year’s Christmas season: Mama Elephant’s Cool Penguins. These are so cute, aren't they?

I cut down a piece of watercolour cardstock to a reactangle and stamped the images I wanted to use in a very pale colour. I didn't mask anything. Because of the light ink I used I didn't had to. When I coloured over them the lines got lost.

For my colouring medium I chose watercolours and did some no line coloring. To get more contrast I also added coloured pencils to the area that I wanted to be the darkest. I love the combination of watercolour and coloured pencils. With the watercolours colouring takes not so much time and the coloured pencils are perfect to add details.

The background I also coloured with watercolours! I added a wash of turquoise and sprinkled a little bit of colour on it to add some texture.

The sentiment came from Mama Elephant's Merry Greetings and I stamped it in dark blue. All there was left to do was to adhere the panel to my cardbase with dimensional adhesive. The colouring took some time but the rest of the card came together quickly.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend.

Anni

   

We Wish You Merry Christmas

Hey stampers, Anni here!

Do you go with traditional colours when you make Christmas cards? Or do you like to make different things beside green, red, silver and gold. I like both but I often tend to reach to untraditional colour combos making Christmas cards.

With this card I started colouring these super cute bears from Mama Elephant's Fuzzy Hugs and I had no idea in my mind what card I make with it. For the colouring I used coloured pencils, my favourite colouring medium. To cut out the image there are coodinating dies available.

Then I decided to go with a Christmas card with these sweet bears although you could send them to a friend who needs a hug or just sending warm winter wishes.

I created a background using Distress Oxide inks matching the colours I used for the hat and the pullover. I decided to use shades of reds and oranges although this could get creepy - I always can't stop thinking of blood when I have too much red on card. Is it just me?
I toned down the edges with a dark red to give the scene kind of a frame. When the ink blending was finished I added splashes of water and watered down white gesso to the background.

When the background was dry I cut it out using Lawn Fawn's Zig Zag Rectangle Stackables (they are on sale right now). I also cut a scrap of white cardstock with the same die and cut a snowy hill out of it. On that piece I stamped the sentiment that I found in Mama Elephant's Holiday Messages. All there was left to do was to assemble the card.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend.
Anni

   

Little Gifts for Crafty Friends

Hey stampers, Anni here!

Last weekend I went to a crafty retreat with some of my best crafty friends. We meet once a year and everytime it is so much fun, days full of laughter and hugs and crafty talks. And of course we do a LITTLE bit of alibi crafting.
One of the highlights of the weekend is always when we exchange the little gifts we bring along. As this year Halloween was on the same weekend I went with a ghost and night scene.

I started by making envelopes from white cardstock. Before I glued them together I added some ink blending using Distress Oxides in Tumbled Glass, Blueprint Sketch, Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot. Doing this on 30 envelopes gave me quite a work out and my biceps grew, I can tell you.
I masked off a circle to create a moon and a night sky.

Then I stamped all the ghosts from Mama Elephant's Little Boo Agenda a few times to decorate the envelopes. There are two "teams" in our group: Team turqoise and team pink. So I coloured the ghosts accordingly. For the few husbands that came along I went with green. To cut out the images there are coordinating dies available.

The ghosts looked a little lost on the envelopes so I decided to add some border landscape die cuts. I chose Sugar Pea Designs' Homescape Sugar Cuts, Lawn Fawn's Mushroom Border, Meadow Borders and Grassy Hillside and My Favorite Things' Scenic Safari and die cut them from black cardstock.

The right sentiment for the envelopes I found in Lawn Fawn's Monster Mash. I stamped it 30 times on pink, turqoise and green cardstock, cut it into stripes with fishtail banners.

Do you go to crafty retreats? Do you have only online crafty friends or did you meet them in real life?

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend.
Anni

            

Autumn Birthday Card

Hey stampers, Anni here!

Next weekend it's my father's birthday! In my opinion autumn cards are perfect as masculine cards. And I was totally inspired by all the beautiful colours nature is showing us at the moment.

So I started by preparing a piece of watercolour cardstock. I added greens, reds, yellows and browns loosely to the paper. When I liked the results I dried the piece with my heatgun and added spritzer of dark brown and gold. From that watercolour paper I die cut Waffle Flower's Greenery a few times. I left out the leaves that looked more tropical from the set.

I die cut Mama Elephant's Framed Tags - Waverly as my panel. Then I adhered the leaves with dimensional adhesive to the cardstock, filling up all the panel.

For the sentiment I wanted to go with a German sentiment as the card is for my father turning 81. So I build my own sentiment using Altenew's Fine Alphabet. I die cut the letters Iused several times and stacked them up.

To make them stand out more I added a layer of vellum.

The last step was to adhere the panel to the cardbase.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend.
Anni

   

Heart Pals

Hey stampers, Anni here!

It was my sweetheart's birthday this week, so I had to make a special card. Reverse Confetti's Heart Pals are perfect for the special persons in your life.

I started by stamping and colouring  the cute little bear with Distress reinkers using the no line technique.

The die cut word love is part of Mama Elephant's Tri Window Cover. I prepared a piece of cardstock by blending the same colour of ink I used for thr bear's heart on it creating an ombre effect. From that piece I die cut the word Love.

I was very lucky to find a small speech bubble with a matching sentiment in W Plus 9's Friends for all Seasons: Fall set. I embossed it in white on a piece of dark brown Cardstock.

When I adhered the bear, the speech bubble and the I love you sentiment on s stripe of cardstock, I got the feeling it looked a little bit boring. So I took the hearts from the Heart Pals set - there are two kinds - and stamped them in a lighter and in a darker brown.

All there was left to do was to assemble the card.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend.
Anni