Sketch challenge at magnolia vs stampavie

I guess it was just a matter of time before I got a challenge I needed to struggle with and a card I wasn't so happy with in the end. I had started thinking that I can't make any cards I'm not satisfied with, but I was wrong, haha. But last time I made a card I wasn't that satisfied with I got the most comments ever on it, so you never know.

I actually experimented a bit with the colors. Usually I use either blue/silver or red/green/gold. So I challenged myself a little extra by trying to combine these colorschemes. It was interesting, but I think they are seperated for a reason :D

Anyway, here's my entry.





If you want to join or look at other people's cards, you can visit Magnolia vs. Stampavie blog here.

Sorry about the bad pic. Unfortunately I can't photograph my card since the daylight disappears around 3pm and I like crafting in the evening/nights. When I've taken a better pic I will put it in my album (the slideshow). You can click on it and look at my other creations.

Two challenges at once

The first card is for a sketchchallenge at sketch saturday. I loved the sketch as soon as I saw it and when I went to that qk happening monday I knew I wanted to get some papers with this challenge in mind. The papers are quite expensive now and I already have so many, but they had a 15% off, so I told myself this is a perfect opportunity to get some extra, lol. I saw these blue/lilac ones and fell for them straight away. I then added some bling and normal cardstock in matching colors. Usually the shops don't have that many matching patterned papers (they take in a few papers from each line instead of going for a couple of full lines). I didn't need that many, so these were perfect! I really love the soft blues and I like that they are matched with lilac. A nice combo. I managed to smear some of the silver in the upper corner of the snowmen. It bugged me a bit so I decided to see if it would look better with a matching sticker I had. I put it on lightly, but I couldn't decide so I tried to take it off and when I did the sticker pulled off some of the paper. Eeeek! I guess it wanted to stay there, lol. Now that I look at the card I actually think it looks better with the sticker. I didn't understand until today what some designers mean when they say that there are no mistakes in crafting :D

Sketch saturday challenge:

As usual the scanner ruins the cards a bit. The purple paper is bling cardstock and the snowmen are nicely shaded with light blue. The "believe" text on the second card has silver stickles applied to the letters (with a toothpick! and it doesn't even show :)



The second card is also for a sketchchallenge, but at sheetload. I loved that sketch too and it suited my style. Sometimes I struggle with the sketches, but this one was right up my alley and I knew exactly how the card would look as soon as I saw the sketch.

More candy coming up

Remember to sign up for bootifulstampz daily blogcandy. Every day you can win by leaving a comment on Sally's blog and spreading the word.

Claudia is having several candies to win on her blog. Visit her blog to see what it is. Make sure to pay a visit and see her awesome cards.

Ria has a candy that you can use for Christmas. It's a cute stamp from funkyfairy's and she added some papers and embellishments. Just in time for those last minute cards!

kadoodlestamps has a very cute girl as their blogcandy. Check it out and see if you can win!

And last, but not least, Alice has some candy to share too. I love the style of the papers she's offering. Make sure to take a look at her adorable bunny!

Bootifulstampz candy

Time for Sally's candy again. Don't forget to sign up at bootifulstampz blog. Every day you have a chance to win by writing about the candy in your blog, writing a comment at bootifulstamz blog and hoping for the best.

Helena's candy

Forgot to tell you that Helena is offering some great candy to celebrate her 41:st birthday. Go to her blog and join. It ends tomorrow (thursday) so hurry.

I've been pretty pooped today (as my friend would say) so no cards for me today. BUT I was in town for a while and found some wonderful walldecorations, you know they are like big stickers that you put up on your wall. FINALLY I might be able to do something with that horrible white wall by my craftspace. To be continued...

Bootiful candy

Don't forget to sign up for today's candy at the bootifulstampz blog. Every day you have a chance to win by writing about the candy in your blog, writing a comment and hoping for the best.

Christmas papers and bootiful candy

I'm having a break today from all the challenges. I've decided to clean up my corner, because it's such a mess! Papers allover the desks (yes, I've invaded my fiancées desk too), cuttlebug dies on the floor (not nice to step at, so foamy side down, better the floor than my feet) and craftitems pretty much everywhere. Time for a clean slate...

So with this new time on my hands I thought I would surf around a bit looking for Christmaspapers. With the enormous selection of papers I'm surprised that I can't find what I want in my local shops. I don't know where you get your papers, but my local scrapshop just had a few papers of Basic Greys "fa la la" collection. No Christmastrees, decorations, gifts, no nothing! And even though I won't be getting any papers for my Christmas cards this year I'm curious about what's out there. There are a lot of papers out there that could work for Christmascards, but I want to look at those specifically made for Christmas/winter.

While bloghopping I found this amazing set from K&co. Not so traditional, but a wonderful set with all the neccessary designs for both Christmas and winter: gloves, bells, trees and modern snowflakes. The even better part is that there are matching stickers and chipboards. I love the colors of this set, fresh and contemporary. It would definately be my top choice of paperstack.

image taken from kandcompany.com

American traditional has some traditional (duh!) colored sets:
Holiday Cheer collection:

Dear Santa collection:


Another company that has quite a lot of different Christmas papers is SEI. I didn't find any paper stacks, but they have the papers sold seperately. I've taken images of stickers etc. to show you the style and color scheme. I think this is my new favorite paperline. I fell inlove with some of the non-Christmas lines!
Glitzmas line:

Holly lane line:

Doodley doo holiday:


For those of you who like the "dirty" look, Basic Grey is the perfect choice. Here's their new Wassail line:

Figgy pudding:


Fancy pants has a similar style to Basic Grey, but a little more colorful and vibrant. It's called Happy holidays:


Daisy D is having a more subtle collection that can be used for other occasions too. Perfect for those of you who want your papers to be used for other type of projects aswell. It's called Snowflakes & holly. I actually have some of these papers that I'm glueing on a chipboardbook. They look amazing. Traditional, but modern at the same time.


GCD studios is a company I haven't heard of and their papers are very different from anything I've seen before. They have a lot of old-style patterns, but made modern. The holliday collection is called Scent of Christmas:

All images except the top one are taken from franticstamper homepage Fran has an amazing website where you can find pretty much anything! If you haven't visited her yet, do it now.


Phew, I think that will have to do. I have found that there is an amazing selection out there. Too bad that my scrapshops haven't gotten any of them and that the shipping for papers is a killer. I'm sure I haven't even mentioned a fraction of what's out there. So out of these papercollections, which is your favourite?

Don't forget to sign up for today's draw in the candy at the bootifulstampz blog. Every day you have a new chance of entering and winning some of the fabulous stamps Sally is offering.

Child's card and rejected DT member :(

I got a mail today saying they thanked for my application, but I didn't make the cut :( So rejected is really the right word. I'll get over it, but feel sad right now since I really wanted this. I'm sure someone somewhere will want me, *sob*.
They did say that they liked my stuff though and asked if they could save my application and get back to me in the future. They might look for more designmembers and will have guestdesigners pretty often. I haven't written back yet, but of course I'm going to agree. I will have to settle for crumbs, but when it's such a delicious cake it's better than nothing ;)

Today I was on a quickutz demo. An american guy named Chris was in the local shop showing the new jolly and holly alphabet. I didn't buy any qk stuff, but I found 2 great patterned winterpapers for a challenge. I also got some normal and some bling cardstock + a small chipboard album (really have to stop bying those) and big cardstock-covered brads . They had 15% off so it was ok pricewise, but normally I wouldn't had bought the patterned paper. I think 10sek per paper is a bit much. If you get 3 matching papers - that's as much as a pack of brads. Sometimes I think patterned papers are overrated and a lazy way out because you can make your own backgrounds using your stamps instead.

When I got back I started making a child's card for a challenge that's due in a couple of hours (I'm so glad about the timedifference since I do everything last minute, lol. Heard it was a crafter's trait ;) I dug out my Tilda stampset that I've never used before and went for it, haha. The bunnies are made using paperpiecing (you stamp on a patterned paper and then cut out.) I stamped the hearts they are holding on a non-patterned cardstock. The bunny and bear are shadowed with alcoholmarkers, the tags are from a cuttlebug die set.
The colors are a bit messed up as usual, but you get the idea. For example: The bear is stamped on a paper with dots/circles.

Bootiful stamps giveaway

Sally at bootiful stamps is having a giveaway candy every day! Yes, EVERY day until the end of the month! What you need to do is make a post about her giveaway every time you want to enter. You then pop over to her blog and leave a comment, linking to your post. You have until the end of the day to enter. Not long left to enter today, monday.

Sketch challenge at papertakeweekly

Here's my card for this week's challenge at papertakeweekly. The stamp is an old one from Penny Black colored with alcohol markers. The patterned paper is from Basic Grey, circle cut out in goldpaper with a cuttlebug die. Corners cut out by hand.

One day candy

While surfing I found this blog that has candy once a day, so don't miss out! You need to go and put your name up before the end of the day. Hurry, hurry!

bootifulstampz

I have taken better photos of the snowman card and some of the other cards (among them the fairy one), but I'm having problems with the net lately, so my patience is out :) I need to reload a page several times before it shows up, otherwise it claims that it doesn't exist. Sometimes I need to reload 3-4 times and sometimes over 10! It's exhausting. I will exchange the photos or put up better ones when I've fixed the problem, whatever it might me. Until then, keep voting for the dachshund rescue (click the doglink on the right for more info) and stamp on! I know I will.