Let it snow...

Two post is one day? That hasn't happened in...ever I think ;)

This was one of the first cards I started colouring, but it didn't want to get finished. I had the papers, but couldn't really put it together until today. I really like the colourcombo although it's not something I usually use. Kind of the point - to challenge yourself and I really did here. I think it's a great card for a guy so I will be sending it to one of my male friends that lives in Germany (good timing as cards to Europe needs to be sent sunday at the latest, yey!)

The stamp is one of the older ones from Whiff of joy called Charlie building snowman. I'm superpleased with the colouring on this one. I kept adding and adding until I almost ruined it. The last thing I did was to add that darkbrown shade around Charlie and right side of the snowman. After adding it to the pants I realised I had to add it on the jacket and sleeves, and...good thing I didn't manage to ruin it totally.

The challenges I've used for this card are:

ABC challenge - J is for jewels
Everybody art - sketch
Papertake weekly - red and green can not be seen
Simon says stamp - Christmas, but NO red or green
Whiff of joy - no red or green

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

No peaking!

Today I want to show you a hilarious stamp from stämpelgården. I've been wanting it for years, but since it's a Christmasstamp I was too cheap to buy one. Always got stamps that were more versatile and for the whole year. But this year when the shop had their annual anniversary sale I just had to pick it up. Isn't it the cutest and funniest thing you've seen?! I didn't know what sentiment to add on the tag, but while searching my stash I came across this one from SeeD's - isn't it just PERFECT?

I'm very proud of this card. It took a quite a while to "ripen". I'm so proud of the colouring that is made with promarkers and I love the snowflake decorations that I made using different dies and punches. The colours give the card a modern feel and I think it's perfect as a male card. The little snowflakes around the reindeer are stamped with distress ink and it's one of those things I've only done once or twice.

I also want to show you the backside of the card. We use up a lot of paper which is neither enviromental nor economical. It also costs more to send, so my Christmascards for this year will look like post cards. To make them look better, not just like I have cut off a vital part I decided to decorate the back a little. I had a perfect textstamp which I embossed and stamped some snowflakes and distressed the edges.

I apologize for the poor quality of my photos lately. My camera is still broken (not showing anything in the display) so I have to photograph in the dark only to see how they turned out in the computer. I am wishing for a new camera under the Christmastree though...

The challenges I've used for this card are:


Dutch dare - Christmas
Paper romance - winter theme
Pile it on - it's all in the wrapping (thought it was funny, although not sure it qualifies)
Promarker challenge - old & new (I used a new stamp and old papers)
Simon says stamp - sketch
Totally papercrafts - X-mas punches
Wags n whiskers - snowflakes

Believe - a sympathy card

Recently a blogfriend of mine lost her mother and I made this card for her. There is nothing really that can be said in a time like this. Sometimes a picture says more than a thousand words.

The image I have used is called shining on from sweetpea stamps. It's one of the few stamps that are only sold as a single stamp. I knew I had to have it when I first saw it when sweetpea donated money to Haiti when selling it. I think it's quite appropriate to use for a sympathy card.

I started colouring the image with my promarkers in muted colours: skintone and greys. The image got a bit too boring so I used a hint of pink on the wings and butterflies. I'm quite happy with how I managed to make it look like the light from the candle shines on her face.

I used a white twinkling h2o to add that shimmer to the wings and a black sparkle gelly pen on the leaves in her hair and as an "eyeliner". I found the little chain with freshwater pearls and the key laying around in my to-do jewelry pile. I started making an earring out of it and didn't like it. I added the charm "believe" (which it took a while of persistent searching to find). The charm is attached to two hydrangea flowers with a brad. The papers and piece of ribbon is something I've had in my stash for years, but never used. I love the elegant and muted feeling of this card. It doesn't have to be a sympathy card. You could use it as a little different Christmas card too.

I used a sketch from papertake weekly because of its simplicity which I thought was perfect for this type of card. Other challenges I've used:

Flutterby wednesday - your favs.
Moving along with the times - for someone special
Paperplay challenges - monochromatic

December blogcandy/giveaways

'Bente 2:nd

'Michelle 2:nd

Elaine 3:rd

'Wendy 3:rd

'Tone 5:th

Mandy 7:th

Ushii 9:th

Dazie 10:th (UK only)

Jan 10:th

Janne 10:th

Ellinore 11:th

Gemm 11:th

Jude 11:th

Maria 11:th

'Mina 12:th

'Cabio 13:th

'Ida 13:th

'Mandy 13:th

'Melly 13:th

'Natalie 13:th

'Jennifer 14:th

'Kari 14:th

'Lynne 14:th. Please say that kamadesign sent you when you leave a comment on Lynne's candy.

'Paola 14:th

'Wenche 15:th

Ellen 17:th

Maria 19:th

Petra 19:th

Canica 20:th

Diny 21:st

Denise 23:rd

Kylie 23:rd

Prairie fairy 23:rd

Deanne 24:th

Brenda 25:th

Nina 27:th

Sharon 29:th

Betty Anne 30:th

Christine 30:th

Cuddly buddly 30:th

Denise 30:th

Lynne 30:th

Prima 30:th

Stacy 30:th

Claudia 31:st

Jacilynn 31:st

Lin 31:st

Stacy 31:st

Melissa - 500 followers

Christmas in flowers

Here's one of my new favourite images - poinsetta fairy from plate 60 from sweetpea stamps. It's such a wonderful image and a delight to colour. I love how happy she looks, like a kid on Christmas morning :)

I've been a little bit bored with my promarkers lately so I coloured her with oilpencils and then smeared it out with some thinner and a stompf (you know those pen looking things made out of paper that artists use for pastels) I used three different papers from different lines, but I thought they worked beautifully together. The right panel is made out of two of them, strips I cut and glued on. They are both from basic grey - fusion and fruitcake. The paper to the left is from the photo collection from karenmerieklip. I think I've had it for 6-7 years, lol.
I found a prima flower pack that I had won last year, but never got around using. The golden swirls on it matched my image perfectly, something I didn't realize until later. The gold sentiment is from a SeeD's pack and it's embossed with gold embossing powder

I LOVE the red/green/gold colourscheme for Christmascards. It looks so rich and gives them such a decadent feel. Like chocolatecake with chocolatesauce and truffles. YUM!

The challenges I've used are:

ABC Chrstimas challenge - X is for Christmas
Alphabet challenge  - E for embossing
Basic Grey - recipe (4 embellishments, 3 papers, 1 and/or 2 image/sentiment) I used 2 papers from BG
Card patterns - sketch
Daring cardmakers  - spotty and stripey Christmas
Everybody art - shapes
One stop craft  - Christmas cuties
Paper cutz - anything goes
Papersundaes  - adorn those corners
Pile it on - winter
Really resonable ribbon  - Christmas
Sew many challenges - red and green
Stamp and create - 'tis the season

Black friday deal at sweetpea stamps

No card today, just a quick note that friday through sunday you will get 20% off on all stamps at

sweetpea stamps 

plus free shipping to USA residents (overseas only $4.95)
You have to go to the homepage and order through a link there to get the discount. Enjoy your weekend. I'll be back before it ends with a sweetpea project.

Snow queen has it all...

...and then some! I went crazy with the colours for this card. Have you ever seen so much going on? It was a delight to colour though.

For today's card I've been playing with a wonderful winter scene drawn by Linda Biggs called snow queen.(from sweetpea stamps)
I couldn't decide on a colourscheme, but knew I wanted to add some sparkle to the flakes. I started out by using blue, but it got a bit too much so after finding these papers with pinks and reds I went all in :) Maybe a bit too much, lol.

I struggled with it and I'm not sure if I like it or if it's too cluttered. I wanted the image to stand out more, but it almost got lost here. On the other hand it coordinates with the papers and embellishments quite well. Ultimately I think I need to give this image another go.

The paper to the far left is from cloud9design, the other two are from Basic Grey's eskimo kisses line. I used a nestabilitie to cut out the image and coloured it with promarkers. The edges are inked with distress ink. The snowflake is made using different nestabilities dies.

Challenges for this card are:

ABC challenge - H is for holidays
Anything goes - let it snow
Basic Grey challenges - wings
Creative inspirations - winter wood land
Cute card thursday - sketch
Paperplay challenges - let it snow
Simon says stamp - sparkle
Stampin for the weekend - winter
Totally gorjuss - not so traditional

What's going on at sweetpea

23 more followers.....

23 more followers and then we reach 500!!!! Spread the word about the Sweet Pea Stamps Design Team blog, once we hit 500, I will be picking 5 lucky winners to win 15 count grab bags!

Christmas Gift Contest!!!!!

WHAT: Christmas Gift Contest, anything but a card

WHEN: Due Dec. 1st

HOW: Create a project that would be perfect to give away as a Christmas gift. This gift can be anything your heart desires, just not a card (i.e. jewelry, notebook, stationary, ornament, etc.). The project MUST include a Sweet Pea Stamps image (other stamp lines may be added for accents). You can turn in up to 3 photos of different views. The projects will be judged, not a random drawing, so make sure you take good pictures. The design team and myself will be the judges. The scan will be loaded to the Sweet Pea Stamps website (not the blog). The winner(s) will be posted and notified Dec 15th.

1st Place: $25 Gift Card for Sweet Pea Stamps

2nd Place: $10 Gift Card for Sweet Pea stamps

3rd Place: $5 Gift Card for Sweet Pea Stamps

Submit the photo's to Lynette

Holiday Bundles

Order your Holiday Bundle and Save!!!!!

• Bundle #1: 10 unmounted single stamps for $37.50 (reg value $52.50, savings $15) plus get a $5 gift voucher.
• Bundle #2: 10 unmounted full sheets for $135 (reg value $180, savings $45) plus get a $20 gift voucher.
• Bundle #3: 15 unmounted full sheets and 15 unmounted single stamps for $240 (reg value $348.75, savings $108.75) plus get a $25 gift voucher.

For more details and to order yours today:

Bundles

You must order before Nov 22nd to get this offer!

It's all happening at the sweetpea blog

When I'm old I'll wear purple

Today's image is one of the older ones from sweetpea, drawn by ching-chou kuik called come softly from plate 25. I'm very excited about all the new releases, but sometimes the older stamps are forgotten and they are just as beautiful, don't you agree?

This time I used a colourscheme from two challenges. I wanted to use a plain white background, but with embossing or some kind of pattern. The images from sweetpea are PERFECT for these kinds of cards. I love how they pop from the card and aren't overshadowed by papers, colours or embelishments. Just showing them off perfectly. I'll definately do more of these cards (if I can remeber that, lol)

I started out by colouring the moth and the girl's skin. When it came to choosing colour for her hair I wanted to be wild and use something fantasy-like. Then I wanted the swirls to match nicely and before I knew it it turned out to be a purple/red image. I'm not that familiar with the meaning behind my title, but I know I've seen funny images of old ladies wearing red and purple.

Lately I've been feeling like practicing my colouring skills. I really want my images to have that vibrant glow to them, but I feel like I have a long way to go. Usually I colour my images by choosing the exact right promarkers that match the patterned papers I'm using. I don't like colouring ahead because I never use those images because they never match any paper I have.
On the other hand I'm blaming my promarkers a bit because I visited a blog recently where the lady is amazing with her copics. She used promarkers for one of her cards and it was ok - kind of like mine, but not as fantastic as her usual stuff. So I'm definately thinking about upgrading them to copics. I just need to figure out the whole sketch, ciao and whatnot.

Here are the challenges I've used:

In a sweetpea dream - things with wings
One stop craft - embossing
Simon says stamp - all white
Stamptacular sunday - Inspired by Danielle's card (white/purple and wings)