Sweetpea stampoff is officially on!

If you would like a chance to win some free rubbah, don't forget to enter our contest starting today. Deadline is march 12:th. Click the link for more info.

Here's our first challenge - a sketch:

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 tug at my heartstrings

Here is another card from me using one of the adorable bears from sweetpea stamps drawn by Elaine Cox. I think these bears are so sweet and love how different they are from anything out there. Today I've been thinking a little bit outside the box - not doing things I usually do. To start with I inked the stamp with a brown inkpad that has 6 hues in one, going from light to dark. Then I used a different colouringtechnique using pastel colours and some sort of rubbing alcohol. Finally I used the same patterned paper for two panels of the card.

Challenges for this card:

Magical monday - lace
Papertake weekly - sketch
Simon says stamp - coffee and cream
Stamp challenges - something with flowers
Stampin for the weekend - monochromatic

March blogcandy

Another month full of candy. March is when I celebrate my birthday and I have put together something very SWEET for you:
My candy - march 13:th (my birthday)

Renee - 4:th

Marjo - 15:th

Rebekah - 19:th

Maja - 21:st

Brenda - 23:rd

Astrid - 30:th

Winner of my candy and new candy coming soon...

I have used random.org to help me choose a winner and it chose number 20 - 


CONNIE


Thank you everyone who entered and for your sweet comments. It was very nice to meet you. I'm so glad I used mr linky so I have your blogs and can go visit again. It has made me so happy getting your positive feedback and I even got a few more followers - what a treat. And since fabruary 1:st I've gotten over 10,000 hits on my blog! That is just amazing, so THANK YOU and big hugs to you all.

I will host a new candy, hopefully tomorrow or even later tonight so stay tuned.

One world one heart linkparty and giveaway

This post will stay on top until february 17:th. Please scroll down for newer posts.

For the fifth and last year, welcome to the one world one heart link party. The event is hosted by Lisa and the whole point of it is to "travel" all over the world and meet new artists. I've been wanting to do this for at least two years and I'm really happy I got to be a part of it this last year.

Every person participating has a doorprize - a giveaway to thank you for stopping by. You will find the whole list of blogs HERE and the list will be updated from time to time. So hop on after seeing me and make some new friends.

Ok, so here goes:

My name is Katarina, I'm 30 years old and I live in Sweden. I was a late bloomer in crafting, didn't start until my 20:ties and have tried everything from soapmaking to mosaics and everything in between. My main passion is stamping and papercrafts and that's mainly what this blog is about. But I also like sewing, jewelrymaking and hoping to get started on some scrapbooking soon (I've been saying that for at least one year now, lol). I've been having this blog for over two years and even if I had been stamping before I concider the start of my blog as the real startingpoint of my stamping. I'm on the designteam for an american stamping company called sweetpea stamps - something I'm very proud of. I was also recently selected as the winner of 2010 in the altered/mixed media category in Britain's main stamping magazine: Craft stamper.

I love participating in challenges and whenever I have some extra time away from that I sew and make jewelry. I have made a couple of tutorials both in papercrafts and sewing which you can find in the labels section in the sidebar under "tutorials". When it comes to my private life; I live with my highschool sweetheart since 12 years and we love to travel the world. Two years ago we took our divingcertificates and went on a divingtrip to Malta where the water is amazing. Our latest trip was in january for a romantic weekend to Rome (seen above is a pic of a tired me inside the Colosseum).

As my doorprize I have chosen something that I hope you will find useful: It's an album that I've cut and handsewn. I love the different patterned papers and there are extra, smaller pages in between. It's about 11x15cm (4 1/4x6") A total of 42 pages you can fill with your favourite photos, poems or maybe recipies? The papers are acidfree which means they will stand the test of time and won't ruin your photos.

If you would like a chance to win this album, please add your name and blog to Mr linky below. If you don't want to win the album, but want to say hi, just leave some love in the comments section. The winner will be chosen randomly from the mr linky list. If you don't have a blog, just link to any page on the web, but make sure to leave your e-mail address in the comments section so I can contact you if you win. I moderate my posts, so don't be alarmed if they don't show right away. The event ends february 17:th. Good luck and thanks for stopping by.

Twilight shimmer

I've been playing with one of the newest releases from sweetpea stamps. It's a new artist called Rachel Anderson and the stamp is called Twilight shimmer. I wanted the card to have the same feel as the scrolly wings and after looking throught my WHOLE stash of papers I came across this scrap piece. I coloured the image in the same blue and grey tones and added a glitterpen to the details on her dress and wings.

I made an interesting thing with the stone-part of the image to give it texture. After colouring it with a grey promarker I put a piece of textured paper behind the image and rubbed with a grey watercolour pencil on the stone parts. The rough pattern on the paper behind the image will show through. I used a scrap piece of textured cardstock from bazzil, but if you have a thicker paper that your image is stamped on you might want to use a piece of canvas or similar. It's kind of like the same thing you did when you were a kid when you placed a coin under a paper and rubbed with a pencil. At least that's what I did when I was a kid :)

It's a very simple card really. I used the patterned paper's black line as an elongation of the image. The only thing I added was a damask die on the left hand side that I inked a bit with black. Oh and some pearls in the right hand corner. Sometimes less is more...

There is always something happening on the sweetpea blog. Candies, discounts, sales and most of all: inspiration! So don't forget to stop by from time to time.

Big celebration candy

I have some big news to share with you - something that I've been keeping a secret and that needs to be celebrated. Me, little old me,

WON CRAFT STAMPER'S ALTERED/MIXED MEDIA ARTIST OF THE YEAR 2010!!! 

Can you believe it? And I don't even have altering as my main talent (but don't tell anyone ;)

This, together with the fact that I have reached over 200 followers and have had over 10,000 hits since feb 1:st calls for a big celebration candy. I also want to thank my followers and all of you lovely blogfriends out there that take the time to leave me comments. You don't know how much it means to me.

AND I'm launching a new blog called CRAFTER'S GUIDE where I put links to all sorts of crafts: free quiltpatterns, amigurumi, magazine blogs, challenge blogs, candy, tutorials and everything that I can't fit here. I'm hoping to review products and write about webshops. It all depends on the feedback I get and what you're interested in. I'd like to be your guinaepig :)

So to celebrate I have put together the SWEETest candy ever. All stamps are given to me by Lynette - the owner of sweetpea stamps. Thank you Lynette.

There will be several winners:

First prize is the biggest one with a candy/fruit/cupcakes themed paper set from DCWV, 5 SWEETpea stamps (Ryla, white peacock dryad, bad bunny and two textstamps) and a whole lot of embellishments, ribbons and other things (seen in the top image and below).

Second prize is three stamps from sweetpea stamps seen below. A fab mix of different artists from the sweetpea shop. With the first one you will be able to enter our Alice in wonderland/little red riding hood contest and that's one of the reasons I'm giving it away. So whoever wins this I hope you'll join us. Last day to enter the contest is march 30:th.

Coral immersion by ching chou kuik:

Valencia by Nikki Burnette:

Baby sweet dreams by Lisa Victoria:

Third prize is a 3-month pro membership to instructables.com. With the pro membership you can dowload your fav instructables as pdf, have less ads and other things. I have posted a couple of tutorials there and it's a great way to learn step-by-step. I even managed to win a weddingcontest with my silk fabric bouquet. HERE is a link to all my tutorials on instructables.

Ok, so now I would like to show you what I won and where I got published, oh and WHAT got published, lol.
Remeber my sweetpea mask? (Click the link for a tutorial of the mask)

and now seen in the january 2011 issue of craft stamper (the colours are more accurate on my pic above):

And here's what I won together with a 1 year subscription to the mag. So much loot to play with (and alter)

OK, so here's how to win one of my candies:

1. Spread the word about my candy. Add the top image to your candyblogroll if you have one, blogpost or however you do it. I'd love if you could mention my additonal blog craftersguide if you make a post on your blog. If you fancy take a look around here and become a follower if you see what you like (not a requirement)

2. Add your name to mr linky below. Only one per person please. Candy is open worldwide and closes just before I draw the winner on march 13:th (probably my time in the evening).

3. Come by on march 13:th to see if you won and to help me celebrate my birthday. This year I'll be all alone, only the computer to keep me company so I'll probably be surfing around. I'll make sure to stuff some cake on the monitor so you can have a taste ;) Only advantage to this kind of celebration is that I can have the cake aaaall to myself :D

That's it! Hope you'll help me spread the word.