A Can-Can happy birthday easel card

Welcome back to my blog. Hope you had a great weekend.

Let me show you a joyful birthdaycard today. 

It is so simple to make and makes such a statement. Looks quite advanced, don't you think?

The way you make it is that you take a piece of "normal" card with the folding on top and fold the top part once more in half. This is your cardbase.

Then you do your imagepanel and attach it by using adhesive on the bottom half as seen on picture. Am I making any sense?  

If not, search for "easelcard".

You can see another easel card I made HERE.
 

  

You will however need something that stands up a bit on the bottom part, that will hinder the card from sliding and help it stand up. Here I used a strip of patterned paper I glued on a piece of heavier card and attached it with 3D-tape (dimensional tape). This works as a "stopper".

On the pink panel where the card is signed I made a "shadoweffect". I did this by cutting out the same shape, but in black cardstock and adhering it a bit to the side. This gives the panel this shadow-effect.

Detail of the hairdecoration. I've used dimensional glaze for the heart and the lipstick (drawn out with a toothpick) and liquid pearls applied with a toothpick for the "pearls" around the heart. The feather gets some glitter from a glittery gel roller.

When I make a card I usually start with the image. Then I think about the person I'm making the card for or what feel I want to convey. To this image and for the recipient I wanted to make a kind of explosive card with bright colors and some pizzazz.

After choosing the image I needed some papers to match. I do it either by taking a whole paperline or matching myself by looking through my scrappile. For this I went through my scrappile. Would you be interested to see how I sort my scrappieces?

When I've chosen the image and papers I look through my promarkers and choose the colors to match the papers. I have most of the colors and keep a chart where I draw a line with the marker and next to it write up the name of the color. I keep them colorsorted and have them drawn near an edge so I can keep the edge against the papers and compare which color works best. Right now the colors have faded so I need a new one. Let me know if you'd be interested in seeing it here.

I was a bit hesitant on just using a simple layout with the round image on a square panel, but with the papers being so busy and the image so explosive I decided it didn't need that much more. The last thing I did was the feathers that I arranged so it looked like fireworks and a panel to the right with a handwritten "GRATTIS" (which means "congrats" in swedish).

I found it a bit boring applying such a fun panel to a plain folded piece of cardstock and remembered the idea of the easel card. This makes the card more interesting, adds a fabulous inside and if you don't want to write more than just who it's from - it is perfect for you. 

Supplies:

Stamp: Kraftin' Kimmie "Suzette"

Papers: Main background paper: Glitz design, sei - lovebirds - "love note" (the shimmery stripe on the inside)

Dies: Spellbinders circle, tags and feathers

Coloring: promarkers and watercolor pencils (aquarells)

Others: dimensional glaze, 3D-tape, liquid pearls, pearls on a string, glitterpen 

Challenges: 

All sorts (celebrating 7 years of challenges. Yey!) - happy birthday

Crafty catz - Anything goes

Crazy challenge  - your favorite color (fushia/pinks)

Everybody art  - For girls

Fussy and fancy - Dies and/or punches

I love promarkers - Anything goes

Simon says stamp monday  - make a wish

Try it on tuesday  - I can hear music

 

Sending you a note

Another tuesday and another card. Today I have made a sweet "girly" card using stamps from Kraftin' Kimmie. It's been years I feel like since I used these stamps and I have quite a few that haven't seen ink yet, poor things.

So today I used some of them.

I used "Marie Antoinette" with the matching sentiment and a rosestamp from "The swan princess". 

Around the image I stamped the rose using a clear inkpad and clear embossing powder. I then went over the area using a distress crayon in the color "peeled paint". I rubbed it on and used a waterbrush to smear it out.
 

The image itself is colored using promarker pens. The sentiment is stamped using a distress pad in the color "peeled paint" aswell. 

I added glitterglue to the butterfly and to the girl's roses in her hair. I also used liquid pearls and a toothpick to add tiny pearls to the decoration in her hair to make it resemble beads.

Supplies:

Stamps: "Marie Antoinette" and "The swan princess" from Kraftin' Kimmies

Color: promarkers and distress crayon (peeled paint)

Papers: "Gossamer" from memorybox 

Dies: circle and scalloped circle: nestabilities, fleur de lis punch: ek success, pink scallop: shaped scissors, butterfly: martha stewart punch

Challenges:
Fab n funky - winged things

I love promarkers: pastel colors

Kraftin' Kimmie - seeing double + sketch

Simon says wednesday - make it girly

 

Happy birthday mr President...

Have you missed me? I've been busy with crochet and sewing for the last month and had the flu that totally wiped me out for almost 3 weeks. I have a few things to show you, hopefully when my computer works better. We're trying to install a new program and it just doesn't want to play along. The card is scalloped at the top, making it look like a tag. I cut the patterned paper doublefolded directly with the die. I added 3D foam tape to make the image stand out and distressed all edges.

I made this card for a 30:th birthday boy. I just had a few hours since I had been procrestinating for days. I'm quite happy with how it turned out after that short time. I have used a stamp from Kraftin' Kimmies that I colored with my promarkers. The little swirls around the image are stamped with a distress ink. Text is handwritten and the shape of the card is cut out using one of the big nestabilities.

Challenges:
Bunny Zoes - birthdays
Crafty catz - favourite things (my promarkers and KK stamp)
Cute card thursday - flower power
Paper sundaes - birthday
Promakers - distressing
Simon says stamp - tag it

Kraftin' Kimmie's GDT challenge

One of my absolute dream designteams - Kraftin' Kimmie - are looking for a guest designer for december! I got so excited I got a total creativeblock for a few days, lol. I've been waiting for this chance forever since the last time I didn't make it. Didn't think I would be able to produce anything, you know when you want something so bad you mess it up? But I prevailed and I'm so pleased with the result. The challenge was to use your fav Kraftin' Kimmie stamp and make any card you like. Well, I'm a huuuge fan of the moonlight whispers stamps. I don't have a favourite I must admit as I love them all and get so impressed every time a new collection comes out. I haven't had the chance to play with many of my new KK stamps and here is one of them. I hadn't actually noticed her before, but when shopping last I browsed through the catalogue and fell inlove her straight away. She's called Talullahbelle. Isn't she the cutest?

I love using different stamps for different occasions. This one is a fairy, but I used her as a Christmasstamp. I originally planned to have a text saying: "have a magical Christmas", but I just couldn't fit it in.
She is colored with promarkers and a clear sakura gelly roll for her wings (the glitter). The papers I have used are all from the same collection from my minds eye. I also used two different Martha Stewart punches. Oh, and I coiled a piece of wire to make the little coil for the "Christmas bulb" in the right upper corner. Thought it was a clever idea. I love this zesty and slightly different Christmascard.

Now just keep your fingers crossed that I'll get the GDT spot. In worst case I'll have at least one very pretty Christmascard this year. 


Challenges:
Kraftin' Kimmie - use your fav stamp
Magical monday - circles and stripes
Papertake weekly - sketch
Simon says stamp - anything goes
Stamptacular sunday - borders and frames

Shake your tailfeathers

Phew, my last card for the Kraftin' Kimmies GDT call just at the nick of time. The challenge was to use scallops. This time I have used the sassy Monique as my image. She is coloured with promarkers to match the papers and I'm very proud of this colouring. Blue isn't really my forté so I was happy with how she turned out. The sentiment is handwritten and the layout pretty simple. It's quite funny because I made the card first and then realized it fits spot on with this week's sketch at stamp with fun.

I like that it looks like she is stepping out of the frame:

You can see the rest of my GDT cards here:

You'd better be mine
Oopsy daisy
Time flies

Time flies

Here is my third card for the GDT spot for Kraftin' Kimmies. Only one card to go, whohoo.

I wasn't sure if I would be pleased with these time-crunched cards, but I know I work best under pressure and this was no exception. I just hope I didn't jinx myself now and the last one will be a total trainwreck :)

The challenge for this card was a sketch and I was so pleased that I managed to think outside of the box. These character stamps always come with a smaller stamp, but when I bloghop I seldom see them used. So I wanted to make this one justice especially since it worked so great with the theme and enhanced the gentleman.

I stamped Chester with a brownshaded ink on a piece of white paper and coloured him with promarkers to match the papers. I aligned him so that his cuff was in the middle of a circle and cut out using a nestie. I then stamped the watchstamp several times with the same ink and coloured the same way as the main stamp. I used two shades of distressink to make the background less white and handwrote the numbers. I distressed the edges of the circle and attached it to a bigger circle. I punched a hole in the middle (where his cuff was) and attached a brad with clockhands (a qk die).
I distressed the edges of the patterned papers, punched a decorative corner on the striped piece and attached a brad in every corner. Finally I handwrote the sentiment and attached it and the "clock" with foamtape.

I made this card for my sweetheart. He's going away on a businesstrip to the US for two weeks and I want to sneak it into his bag. Despite how much I'll miss him I know that time does fly (even if it's slow sometimes) and soon he will be with me again. I just hope he's not snooping around here from the workcomputer ;)

Challenges for this card:

Anything goes - distressing
Kraftin' Kimmies - sketch

Oopsy daisy

For the last couple of weeks I've been struggling a bit with my cards but now I have finally been inspired. I just love how this card turned out even if it took me three days to finish it, phew. I made it especially for the Kraftin' Kimmies GDT call. I've been waiting for an opportunity like this for many many months as I absolutely love the moonlight whispers line and would LOVE to be on the team. Chances like this don't come often and I just have to put my name in the hat. I have two cards left to finish by friday evening. Yikes! Don't ask me where february went, I'm blaming it on the fact that there are just 28 days in that month :D

I have used the adorable Eleanor from Kraftin' Kimmies and coloured her with my beloved promarkers. The challenge was to use 3 main colours, 2 patterned papers, 1 ribbon and 1 button. I used fushia, lime and orange as the main colours, the background paper is actually one sheet and the second patterned paper is the orange floral die cut. The ribbon and button are on her cap.

I wasn't sure if I should add the handwritten text, but I like adding funny sentiments to these stamps. The fact that she has a daisy in her hair makes it even more fun. A perfect card for a belated birthday, don't you think?

Challenges for this card:

Bunny Zoe's - spring; flowers everywhere

Colour create - fruits

Cute card thursday - signs of spring

Kraftin' Kimmies - recipe 

Papertake weekly - anything

Passion for promarkers - sugarrush

Simon says stamp - recipe (not sure if diecuts count as an embellishment though)

You'd better BE MINE

My crafting has come to a halt lately due to some kind of cold I can't get rid of. It's nothing bad, I just feel under the weather and have so for the last 2 weeks. Because of this I haven't felt very creative or had the energy to craft. With that said I want to show you a card I made for this week's challenge at Kraftin' Kimmies (among others).

KK are having a GDT call and you need to enter every challenge in february. One of my crafting goals and dreams is to at least be invited as a guest designer for KK, so I couldn't give up this chance no matter how I felt. Unfortunately I don't think this card is my best work, but it's as good as I could make it concidering. I had the idea for this funny sentiment together with the stamp and although the execution might not be as brilliant I think the idea is.

I used one of the older stamps called Drucilla and coloured her with promarkers. I inked the edges with distress ink and stamped swirls with versamark ink which I then drychalked. I went over her hair with a clear sakura gelly roll to add sparkle and notice the little hearts in her eyes ;) Isn't she the cutest stalker you've ever seen, lol?
The two hearts are cut out with nesties and the red one is embossed with a sizzix folder and then rubbed with a white inkpad. The border next to the image is a Martha Stewart punch called doily heart I think. I added little dots in the corners with liquid pearls and handwrote the sentiment.

Challenges for this card:

7 kids challenge fund - I heart you
Bunny Zoe's - love is in the air
Cards for men - Valentine/love
Crafts and me - RED
Crafty catz - Valentine's/love
Creative card crew - for a loved one
Cupcake crafts - seeing red
Kraftin' Kimmies - RED
Papertake weekly - have a heart
Passion for promarkers - let there be love
Stamp and create - love
Stampin for the weekend - St Valentine's day
Stamptacular sunday - hearts gone wild
Stamp with fun - love
Totally gorjuss - love

Have a cool yule

Here is my last Christmas card I made in 2010. I didn't have the time to show you so I'll start of the new year with it. I wanted to use a Kraftin' Kimmie stamp for a sassy card for my single fashionista friend. I made her a pair of pink angel earrings (that I totally forgot to photograph, duh) I didn't have any Christmas Kraftin' Kimmies so I improvised using Christmaspapers. I've had the papers a while, but the stamp is brand new. I'm very happy with the colouring and the way I cut the circle around her. Makes it look like she's sitting on the edge.

Challenges for this card:

7 kids college fund - anything goes
CES challenges - anything goes
Crafty catz - your fav challenge ( I chose #57 spots and stripes)
Creative craft  - anything goes
I love promarkers - anything goes
Promarker challenge - anything goes
Sketch and stash - sketch #27 turned upside down

Supplies:
Stamp: Kraftin Kimmie, can be bought at: stamp and create
Colour: promarkers
Papers: dovecraft
Other: distress ink, silver pen for the edges, nestabilities for the circles and cornerrounder punch.

Merry kissmas

For the last couple of days I've been making (or at least trying to) Christmascards like crazy. I need 20 cards and had about 2,5. Some are supposed to be sent today, some sunday and most of them thursday at the latest. Where did the time go?! As I hate to make the same card twice, or a batch of cards - yuck! - I'm in a bit of a pickle. I'm trying to be smart about it though, colouring several images to match the same line of patterned paper. That way I only have to find the matching promarkers once and colour several images at once. Now I just need time to put them together...Having a secret bloghop on monday and accepting a GDT spot isn't helping, lol.

This card was so much fun to make, using one of my newest Kraftin' Kimmie stamp called Raychel. I don't have any Christmas-themed ones so I had to improvise. With the right sentiment, papers and embellishments you can do anything. If you would like to get your own Raychel (or any other crafting item) stop by stamp and create. It's one of my fav internet shops, especially for stamps. Lacey - the owner always has a product spotlight which means that itemss in that category are 25% off. Sometimes she has a whole line of stamps in the category, sometimes a theme ("food" for instance). The prices are already low and the service is superb!

I have used a patterned paper from keisercraft as the background. With a paper like this I didn't feel like I needed many embellishments. Raychel is coloured with promarkers and I stamped different snowflake stamps around her with distress ink (weathered wood and old paper). The sentiment is printed out from the computer. I think the font is called kings and queens and can be found at dafont.com. And as all my Christmascards this year I'm making them look like postcards both to save the environment and my economy. Here's the backside:

The challenges I've used for this card are:

7 kids challenge blog - winter wonderland
A spon full of sugar - Christmas card
Daring cardmakers - snow much fun
Kraftin' Kimmies - let it snow
Promarker challenge - anything goes
Secret crafter - Christmas
Sketch and stash - sketch

Happy Halloween, doll...

Are you tired of Halloween yet? I'm starting to be as I only have two Halloween patterned papers to play with, lol. I really want to get basic grey's eerie collection, but haven't found any good place to get them yet. To be honest I've been a bit of a cheapskate. Since we don't celebrate Halloween here I've been spending my moolah on other supplies, but after having so much fun with these cards I think I'll invest in some spooky ones. I think this is the most Halloween cards I've ever made during one year and it's been a blast.

For this card I used one of the older stamps from Kraftin' Kimmie's called Drucilla. I really love these stamps and I would like to have all of them! Actually, I was fortunate enough to win some during Kraftin' Kimmies bloghop. Can't wait to see which ones I get.

I didn't have any of the Halloween themed ones, but that never stopped me. I like to use what I have and thought this Voodoo one would fit perfectly. It is coloured with promarkers and the edges are inked with distress ink. I cut out two hearts in green and orange with my nesties which I then embossed with a cuttlebug embossing folder. I used front on the orange heart and back on the green of the folder to add interest. This makes the skulls raised on one and pushed down on the other. It's a minor detail, but I think it makes a difference on the overall impression.

I also stamped the heartstamp - that comes with Drucilla - three times and colored in green, orange and purple. The texttag is a nestieshape and I wrote the text by hand. I wanted to write something funny and came up with this "doll" sentiment.

As always I had a couple of challenges in mind while working on it:

7 kids college fund - sketch+Halloween+use 2 stamps
Cupcake craft - scary creatures
Everybody art - Halloween
Kraftin' Kimmies - spooky card
Papertake weekly - 3 of something
Promarker challenge - green, orange, purple and black

Strut your stuff - it's your birthday!

Hello and welcome back to my blog. Thanks for stopping by.

Today's card was so much fun to make although in the end it gave me a hard time with the final details.

I haven't been this excited making a card for a while. I seldom fill out the background of the image with colour or stamp text next to the image. I seldom use an alphabetset to make texts like with the b-day text ( I just noticed though that I forgot to add an apostrophy between the T and S. I thought about it while working with the letters, but forgot it later) I recently bought almost the whole selection of distress inks at a sale and I've been eager to improve my distressing skills. And I'm quite proud to have put together the card from three different papercollections.

I wanted to make a card for a man as I would like to do it on a weekly basis. I really wanted to use another saying, but it didn't fit as well as this one. The one I wanted to use was "shake your tailfeathers". Although men might not want to shake their tailfeathers I think they would rather do that than strut their stuff, lol.

I made this card to help celebrate Kraftin' Kimmies 1:st birthday. I'm a huge fan of these stamps and even if I missed their sale at least I wanted to join the challenge. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can win some rubba.

I used Vivienne that comes with two matching textstamps, one of them "strut your stuff" that I used. The text "it's your birthday" I stamped with distress walnut ink. The alphabetstamps are from a quickutz giftset called sophisticate.
Vivienne is coloured with promarkers. The blue border around her is two shades of blue promarkers. The green and brown edges are distress inks: peeled paint and walnut stain. I gave her some extra eyeliner and some stickles glitterglue to her necklace.

The background paper I have used is from Basic Grey's Mellow collection called automne. The two smaller pieces are both from kaisercraft. The little hinges are cut out in silver mirror cardstock, just like the number 1.

Here are the challenges I'm entering:

All that scraps - manly card
Basic Grey - sparkle (using background paper from the Mellow collection)
Cards for men - autumn
Crafty calendar - autumn/1:st birthdays
Creative inspirations - birthday
Kraftin' Kimmies - celebration card
Papersundaes - something from your stash (all papers are "old")
Papertake weekly - sketch #31 from dec 29:th 2009
Simon says stamp and show - numbers
Spoon full of sugar - sparkle and shine
Stampin for the weekend - autumn colours
Stamp something - something to celebrate
Stamptacular - at least 5 layers

Sneak peak...

It's already 3.05 am here so it's too late for a proper post. It usually takes me a while to get them done :) Instead I'll just show you a sneak peak of the birthday card I finished today with litteraly minutes to spare. Talk about cutting it short! I'll be back later to show you the whole card. Nighty night.

Don't you just love these stamps? I got mine at stamp and create which I can really recommend. Let Lacey know I sent you :)