Double embossing technique

Hi, hope you are having a wonderful saturday and that you joined us for sweetpea's bloghop. Check the blog to see if you are the winner of a free sheet of stamps!

Yesterday I played with a new technique called double embossing that I saw on the cuttlebug spot. It gives such a wonderful effect! You get an embossed part around the image and a clean shape in the middle to stamp on. I actually made my own variation that I'm pretty proud of, but I ran out of thicker cardboard. I noticed it worked quite well with two of those cardboards you have on the backside of a notepad. I ran out of notepads though, lol.
I used a big circle and then a flowershape. The circle doesn't show that well, but I think it looks good anyway. I even picked it up a notch and masked the stam so the leaves of the flower wouldn't be outside of the frame. Not sure if it looks better. I made one with the leaves sticking outside and it looks quite good too.
I also used the backside of the card so the flowershape stands out instead of down. This folder from cuttlebug works from both sides, it's just a matter of preferance. I actually made one image with the reversed embossing. The image - a lili of the valley stamp I got from Linda as a b-day gift - is coloured with my beloved promarkers. The embossed part is coloured with shimmery chalks.
If you have a CB you should really give this technique a go. It's perfect for simple yet elegant cards. I think it would be lovely for weddinginvitations.

I'm entering this card (not sure if I should add a yellow border around it or leave as it is) for:
the cuttlebug spot that had this technique as the challenge and abc challenge where you needed to use one paper.

And a little sneak-peak of what I'm working on at the moment. I got some adorable fabrics the other day that are slowly transforming into a bag:

I'm also working on a bag tutorial since I got such a good feedback from my DVD/CD box at instructables.

Sweetpea bloghop

Hi and welcome to the sweetpea bloghop! Are you inpressed yet with the wonderful creations made from the new line?

If you have come from the talented Alex then you're on the right track, if not, please start at the sweet pea blog so you don't miss anything.
Today we are showing you projects made from Plate #36 ching-chou kuik sheet #10 and a new line drawn by Elaine Cox. The stamp I have used is from Plate #34 Elaine Cox's series. It's just as wonderful to colour as the rest and the details are stunning!

They will be released on Monday, but you can already order them today!

Since the sweetpea stamps are all so beautiful I want to keep the cards quite simple. I started out with a very simple design, but thought it didn't look like I had put in any effort, so I worked on it some more.
Here's how it looked first. I really wanted the image to pop:

I decided to work on it a little more, adding some more details:

And finally here's the finished one. I added some dimensional glaze to the butterfly in left corner and it made the paper curl a bit. I didn't add any edge around the card because it took away focus from it. Now isn't this a summery card. The image is coloured with promarkers and I've added some pink shimmerz to her dress and white twinkling h2os to the wings. You can see it best in the image above.

I'm entering this card for a couple of challenges:
lili of the valley - sketch
promarker challenge - baby pink and tulip yellow+stitching
cute daisy may - flowers
stamp with fun - stitch
flutter by wednesdays - open


Tip of the day:
I coloured in a white silk ribbon with the same promarkers I used for the image to make it match perfectly. This way you only need to buy white ribbons and you always have a ribbon to match. If you are talented you can even doodle on it to make it more personal. The colours on my ribbon were a bit strong, so I used the backside. I also made a bow where I added some glitterglue.
Here's how I made the bow:
Take two pieces of ribbon, the desired size of the bow x2 and a smaller piece 3 times as he ribbonwidth.

Add glue to the edges of the longer piece and fold it so the edges meet in the middle:

 Then take the smaller piece and fold it around the middle. Don't glue on the front, only the edges in the back.

Ta daa, you're done. You can use the same ribbon or different widths and colours or even types. Why not an organza ribbon with a silk middle? Here is the fantstic glue I use for everything. It dries clear and is perfect to add metal, plastic or just about anything.

How would you like to win a free sheet of stamps from sweetpea? We will pick one winner for one free sheet of stamps. You must post a comment on each blog posting to be entered in the drawing. We will announce the winner on Saturday, February 27th.
These sheets will begin shipping on March 1st.


Now continue the hop to Jennifer's wonderful creations.

Orange autumn

I have made a quick card for the sugarbowl blog. They had a great sketch + you had to use 3 flowers, 2 brads and 1 button. I have a button on the big flower and the two other ones have brads looking like buttons. Thought it was quite clever.
I used a basic grey paperpad and some of my new primas (that I have way too many orange ones of)

The stamp is from a set - autumn kit 2009. I just fell for the wonderful girls and animals. I don't think I've made any cards with the girls yet. This is my first one made from the set. I'm quite happy with it concidering it took me about 10 minutes to put it together (not counting the colouring that I did yesterday)

 

I coloured him with my promarkers and used chalks around. The orange panel is embossed with one of my cuttlebug folders. Ta daa :)

More happy news

I just looked over at the whiff of joy challenge blog and saw that  
I'm the winner!!!

The prize was being a guest designer for march. Getting on the DT or being a guest designer for woj was one of my new year resolutions. Can hardly believe it! I'm so happy I'm jumping up and down. Wooohooooo!
Already mym resolution done. Now I have to come up with a new one, lol.

Now I'm off to be bubbly and happy...YEY!

Happy mail

I got some very nice things in the mail the last couple of days. First I want to show you a card I got from Linda in the UK. She also enclosed one of lily of the valley's stamps which I LOVE. It was so right because those stamps were on my wishlist. I only had Kraftin Kimmie and those left on my list and I just made an order for KK. Naturally I want more of all sorts of stamps, but these were most "urgent". Thank you sooo much Linda. Don't you just love her card? I love purple and I really like what she's done with the card. Her colouring is awesome too. It looks like pastell.

I also want to show you two candies I won. First one is from Jeanette. I won the top three stamps as first prize. The other two were for second prize winner, but since they never got back to her I got them both! I was so happy because Alison Acton is one of my fav illustrators. It evened itself out pretty well because I had won a candy too at another blog, but hadn't gotten back to her on time so she drew another winner. I'm  just so happy it was this candy that I won!

And finally I won the candy at hobbyhärvan. As a part of the candy there was a guest DT spot. So I will be a guest designer there with the items I've gotten. I feel a little bit stressed though because I feel like I've lost my cardmaking mojo and lust. I feel more like sewing at the moment and I don't want them to have to wait forever. I need to make 2 different things and I want them to knock their socks off as Tim Gunn would say :)
So now I have some things to play with...

Remember to come back tomorrow for sweetpea's release bloghop. I'm off to make something with the new image now. See you tomorrow.

Happy b-day Kåre and featured on frontpage

Today I finally finished a card for a couple of challenges. I started out with a general birthday card, but I was really struggling with the text so in the end it turned out better with putting a name on instead. Made it more personal and looks quite good I think. The guy I made it for is an aquaintence that lives in Oslo, Norway. We met almost 6 years ago when I was working as a guide on bustravels to Russia. The tourists on the bus were 50-60+ years old and he was the only one under 40. We ended up exchanging addresses because I asked him to send me a CD of the photos he had taken. Then we started sending eachother Christmascards and added eachother on facebook. This Christmas I think I forgot to send him a card (due to the sickness) so I'm sending him a b-day card instead. I think he will be really surprised.

I used:
a sketch from sketch saturday
Pearls and swirls from whiff of joy
recepie (3 types of embellies, 2 pp and 1 img) from Simon says stamp. I used ribbons, flowers and pearls.

 I used my brand new bear from Alison Acton's party animals line. I got it a while back and hadn't had the chance to use it yet. Can you spot something different with it? I used a new colouring medium - oilbased pens and something similar to rubbing alcohol. It gives a totally different look than my usual promarkers. I think it's perfect for colouring animals since it's hard to colour fur. I really like the look of this.

A little tip when it comes to ribbons: I have a cream/white ribbon that I colour in with the right promarkers to match the card. Here I had a white ribbon that I coloured with "caramel". Very economical and you always have the exact colour to match!

I also got a mail from instructables saying my CD/DVD tutorial is on the frontpage! And I even got a comment. Woohooo! Makes me want to make more tutorials, just don't know what that could be...

Hope you liked my card today. I have many other things to show you that I've been up to. I finished my bag yesterday and forgot to show you a pair of earrings I made. So check back and remember to come back on thursday for the new sweetpea stamps release party! You don't want to miss this. (Check sneak peak of the beauty in top right corner to see what I mean)