Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas To You All! May you all have your holidays filled with the spirit of love and peace!
I just wanted to post some more of my Christmas cards - hope you like them!


This little guy (Inkadinkado) is just stamped and embossed onto some snowflake design paper. One of the quickest and easiest cards I made.


The peeking snowmen are created with a stamp (Peddler's Pack) I found in a stamp store in Marietta, GA, when I recently had the chance to visit the U.S. and wonderful SCS Sharon (sharonw05) took me for a shopping trip! I love these cute little guys, they make great cards with just a little color and stickles!


This is a no-stamp card creeated with my cuttlebug folder, then sanding on some color-core black cardstock. And I used my tag curler to tie the little sign onto the ribbon.


I don't want to make political statements here, and I'm not a really "green" person, but when I look at those large amounts of foil and glittery paper we use to wrap our Christmas presents - just dedicated to be torn up in a few seconds, I'm not sure if this is the right thing to do. Not to think about all the things we do without thinking throughout the year... When I recently flew over Greenland on my way to the U.S., I saw only very few ice - compared with my travel to the U.S. some years ago, it was MUCH less! Maybe the pilot took a different flight route, but maybe it is REALLY less ice... So I'm dreaming of a green Christmas these days - we haven't had a white one for years, anyway. The stamp I used is by Inkdinkado, the pine branch I used for the background is by Stampendous.


This fun card is created just with a single stamp (Inky Antics), colored with Tombow Markers and finally drawn a border with a blue InkEssentials pen. This was my main Christmas card this year - quick, easy and making me smile!

Stampboard Angels...

It's months ago that I had the chance to take part in Sankari's and Brooke's Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge. I love this challenge, but during the last weeks, either I didn't know the movies or I didn't manage to get along with my cards in time. When I took a glance on this week's challenge, I was a little bit disappointed at first - again a movie I had not seen yet... But then I found out that it was broadcasted on TV at Holy Night, at midnight!!! Okay, a little late, but I recorded it, watched it this morning and was BLOWN AWAY!!!! Such a touching movie!!! I'm sure I'll watch it over and over again! But before watching it again, I had to stamp my creation for the challenge.
I chose the angel topic, too, as most challenge entries did. And I found a sentiment which I thought would be just perfect to catch the spirit of the movie.
I first sponged four stampboard tiles with different shades of blue Fluid Chalks (Colorbox), heatset the ink, then overstamped the angel images (Stampers Anonymous) with Palette Noir ink. Then I scratched white highlights into the images with a carving tool. I sealed the tiles with some spray varnish.
The sentiment and the scrolled lines are by Tim Holtz and stamped with Adirondack Snwocap White pigment ink. I dry-embossed the lines onto the card with my ScorePal.

What do you think about the result?

A Snowman's Right for a Rest!

This snowman seems to need a little rest and enjoys his life lying in the snow...
I stamped the image (Kaleidoskop) with Palette Noir and added some color to his nose with a Tombow marker, finally I added some stickles for the snow.
The design paper is by Frances Meyer.

Some different Christmas Card

After all those cute snowmen and Santas... I was in need of some different Christmas card. Don't get me wrong, I love snowmen and Santas, but well, they are only half the truth about Christmas...

I have an incredible love for old books, and I just had to buy this stamp when I saw it.

I send a Christmas card to our retired priest each year, and this year this will be the card. I stamped the image with Palette Noir onto cream cardstock, then colored it with Twinkling H2Os (several layers to get this extreme shimmery appearance the images in old books have). Then I just mounted the image onto gold cardstock, then onto blue cardstock. Ready. A totally different Christmas card, yet I love it.

What do you think?

Today's Splitcoast challenge was to create mainly blue holiday cards... with almost no embellishments... I had a lot of fun with this challenge!
Isn't this guy just lovely? I just stamped him (Inkadinkado) with Versamark ink and embossed him with dark purple powder, then sponged blue chalk over the image. He really makes me smile!
Perhaps I would have added some rhinestones or sparkles - but well, it's the Limited Supplies Challenge, isn't it?!?
The sentiment says "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!"

Teykol Forest

Finally... some time to stamp today.
I URGENTLY need to get ahead with my Christmas cards (...why does it get Christmas always so unexpectedly?!?).
I created a very simple and calm card with just stamping the snowy forest (Just for Fun) onto white Chromolux cardstock with black StazOn, then painting the "snow" with Teykol resist medium and finally wiping blue Adirondack shades over the whole image.
I can never get enough from this simple yet effective Teykol resist technique!
The sentiment says "Merry Christmas" and is stamped with Adirondack Snowcap White pigment ink which is great to use on dark cardstock.
Hope to get ready some more Christmas cards during the weekend! Guess otherwise I won't need them any longer, LOL!

Award Time!

You bloggin' ladies are the greatest!
Even when you don't hear a single word and see a single card from me FOR WEEKS, you still keep an eye on my blog, and the dearest blogging friends of all, Sankari from Sankari's Sunshine Corner, even sent me this award!



I feel totally embarrassed - YOU are MY inspiration, Sankari - how could I be an inspiration to you, looking at your gorgeous cards????!!!! And you all are my inspiration - I LOVE browsing through all your wonderful blogs, even if I don't have the time to create something myself or even to write comments on all of your great work!

So I want to pass this award on to these wonderful stamping friends, just in place of all you other talented ladies out there:

Dani
Sanne
Louise

Make sure to check out their wonderful blogs!

Back and Alive...

Where did the time go???
This is my first FREE WEEKEND after two months without a single free day... Time flew by with the work in my office, holding a lot of lectures and my travel to Atlanta, GA, for the Joint Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the European Society of Ophthalmology. It was such an inspiring meeting! I learned a lot, met the most interesting people and got lots of ideas to work on in the future! Nevertheless, getting along with the jet lag and after that with all the routine work which had been delayed during my time in the U.S., I had a really hard time and had to go through a real STAMPING WITHDRAWAL!!!! UUURRRRRGGGGHHHH! There were so many creative challenges on the web which I would have liked to try my hands on, but no way...
But now things get back to normal, and OF COURSE I had to get ink on my fingers IMMEDIATELY!!!

I have neighbours with very close connections to Israel, and as it is very hard to find Hannukkah cards for sale, they asked me to create some Hannukkah cards. As I only have two Menorah stamps, and one of them obviously buried under tons of other stamps - no chance to find it quickly, LOL - I made my personal challenge: to come up with five different cards, all only with stamping, no Cricut, no computer-printing, and all using exactly the same stamp (by Stampin Up). This is what I came up with:



For this card, I stamped the image with black StazOn onto acetate, then adhered it onto double-sided adhesive tape. After peeling off the backing foil, I brushed thin silver foil onto it. It makes a really lustrous and shiny background which doesn't show well on the photo. I matted the image onto blue and silver cardstock, then on a blue card on which I randomly had stamped a Rhonna Farrer star swirl.



This one was stamped with silver ink onto blue cardstock, then embossed with silver sparkling powder, and finally matted onto silver cardstock. I added a blue sheer ribbon with some rhinestones. The background is a sheet of vellum run through my Cuttlebug.



For this card, I used a K&Company design paper for the background and stamped the image onto green cardstock, embossed it with gold powder and colored with stickles. An easy one, but I love the bright colors, though it's not the traditional Hannukkah color scheme.



Again a piece of K&Company design paper, and this time I stamped the image twice: first with white Adirondack pigment ink, then (just a tiny little bit beside the first print) with Brilliance Galaxy Gold. This gives the image a bit more depth. I added some color with a golden glitter jelly pen and a blue marker. The sentiment is stamped on a blue tag, mounted on a golden tag.



And this is - tatatatahhhh - the last card in this little series: I took some double-sided adhesive tape, stuck it onto white cardstock and embossed the whole piece several times with gold embossing powder to create a thick layer. Then, while the layer was still hot and fluid, I stamped into it with black StazOn. If you try to do this, don't panick when the stamp sticks onto the embossing powder and it seems as if it never ever could be removed from it again... just wait until the embossing powder cooled down, then the stamp can be removed easily. The background paper is created with some blue cardstock which I ran through my Cuttlebug after having inked the embossing folder with Brilliance Galaxy Gold.

Which one is your favorite?

Grease - The Disney Version...

Hi everyone!
I'm a fan of Brooke's and Sankari's Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge. This week's movie is Grease. Okay... to be honest, I didn't see the movie when it was new, but of course I know the songs. And it always reminded me of some squeeking mice when I heard "You're the one that I want, oh, oh, oh...". And when I look with 2008's eyes on Olivia Newton-John with her 1978 makeup and dress... doesn't she look like Minnie Mouse??? LOL! I hope I don't offend your feelings towards this movie - of course it is a fun one, and I enjoyed watching it now, but well, sometimes I'm a little bit goofy with those 70's and 80's movies. And I'm a Disney fan... Anyhow - I WAS reminded of Minnie Mouse, and when I saw Sankari's card for the challenge, I knew what I had to do: just change her wonderful cupcake people into Mickey and Minnie Mouse!
I cut Mickey's car with my Cricut and used an All Night Media stamp for Mickey and Minnie. They were colored with markers, then cut out, and I can tell you, I'll never again just THINK of cutting them out - it took hours (at least it felt for me like hours, considering my lack of patience)!!!!! The street was hand-cut and shaded with pencils. I added a hand-written sentiment and some lines.
I HAD FUN! Hope you've fun, too!

One, two, sixty...

I was asked to create two cards for a 60th birthday. This is the first one I came up with. It's a no-stamp card (sorry for that!), but I like it nevertheless. The flowers are cut with the Cricut machine, and I used this wonderful dp from CreaMotion. The sentiment is Word-printed, then punched with a Marvy Scallop Oval punch. I added some light brown rhinestones.


This is the second one I came up with. Today's featured stamper on SCS is Becca - look at her wonderful gallery! I used this wonderful card by Becca as my inspiration piece.
I tried to imitate Becca's wonderful subtle chalk coloring (I guess I need some more practice for that...) on a cuttlebug-embossed background, added a decorative corner (cut with a Sizzlits die) like Becca did and used some little pearls as embellishments (hard to see on the photo) - Becca used rhinestones. I changed the size of the card, the way of displaying the sentiment, the ribbon and the layers, and I added a flower (stamped with SU "Both Way Blossoms" stamp and colored with metallic watercolors (by Yasutomo) and Tombow markers, cut out closely and mounted on foampads).

What do you think about both cards?

Baby Bath

I always love to create baby cards. Friends of us just got a little baby boy, so today I made this card for them. It is just stamped and embossed with black powder, then watercolored with metallic watercolors (by Yasutomo). The stamps are by Woodware (Baby in Bathtube) and Heidi Swapp (Baby Writing). I added some dewdrops and stickles. The design paper is by Déjà Views (Sharon Ann Collection).

Nothing sophisticated, but I like clean and easy cards for babies...
Here's a close-up:

No Pink Leaves!

I finally managed to do a Splitcoast challenge again: Friday's Limited Supplies Challenge suggested to create a card with leaves on it (easy thing, I thought, and already had some green-brown colors in mind) and some pink on it (in honor of the breast cancer awareness month). Pink? Piiiink??????? Did they really mean PIIIIINK??? Okay, I use often pink color combos for my cards, no problem with this color, but how to combine leaves with pink????
I decided to use some pink rhinestones - I hope that counts, LOL!



I stamped the image with Versamark onto cream cardstock, then embossed with Autumnal Impressions sparkling embossing powder. I colored the image with metallic watercolors (by Yasutomo) and sponged some tea dye distress ink onto the cardstock. I didn't cut but tear the image. Do you know how you can easily achieve precise tearing? Use a wet brush to draw the wanted tear line onto the cardstock - it then will tear exactly along these wet lines! I edged the torn cardstock with tea dye distress ink, then added the pink rhinestones and attached the whole thing onto some green cuttlebug-embossed and gold-wiped (Brilliance Galaxy Gold) cardstock and then onto a butterscotch card.

What do you think?

And, hey, don't you forget: Tomorrow there will be another Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge!! Get a sneak peek today!

Silver Wedding in No Time...

Thank you all for the overwhelming echo to my turorial! I'll add some more turoials soon - please contact me if you wish some special topics!


A colleague asked for an elegant card for a silver wedding. As I had little time, no, actually I had NO TIME AT ALL, I decided to use a very simple card design and catch the eye with this wonderful stamp by Butterer which symbolizes life-long love in a perfect way, as I think. I stamped it with Versamark onto ivory cardstock, then embossed with silver sparkling embossing powder. I watercolored the image with Twinkling H2Os, Stargazers and PearlEx. As I wanted to give the image a somewhat understated look, I chose very light color hues and blended them all with some silver color to keep in the color palette I chose. I added some green torn cardstock and a cuttlebugged silver piece of cardstock. Between these layers I put a sheer silver ribbon with palettes which I used as closure for the card. As there fell down some palettes when I tied the bow, I collected them and used them as embellishments for my round tag (which I made with the Making Memories Tag Maker). The numbers are hand-written.


I hope this card is elegant enough...

Have a great evening, everybody!

Breakfast at Tiffany's and Lacy Glitter Tutorial

Hi everybody,

I'm on call for this weekend, and as long as there's no patient calling me, I've got some time to play... There's a brandnew Challenge Site by my wonderful blogging friend Sankari and her friend Brooke who both love movies: Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge. You HAVE to check out this challenge! Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to play along with the challenge "Pride and Prejudice" last weekend, but how could I resist today's challenge "Breakfast at Tiffany's"?!?
So... What is my association with Breakfast at Tiffany's? Diamonds, glitter and bling, of course! So I decided to create a REALLY glittery card...and I added a lacy glitter tutorial to let you know how I created the glittery paper I used.
Okay, let's start with the hint that you should close all your windows before working with this technique...otherwise there'll be glitter everywhere in the room, LOL!
This is what you need: a piece of lace, removable labels, two contrasting colors of glitter, and a brush. And something like JudiKin's Snappy Tray can be REALLY helpful to keep all that glitter away from the floor and your clothes...


First, peel off the protecting foil from the label and attach the lace onto the label. It is important to press it firmly down, otherwise glitter will find its way under the lace and you won't get clear lace designs with your glitter.



The next step is to pour glitter over the whole piece of lace. The glitter will stick to the label in the lace pattern's open spaces.


Gently tap off the loose glitter... and don't laugh, cough or sneeze now! LOL!



Now peel off the lace from the label. This is how your piece should look like by now:


Pour glitter in a contrasting color over the label. It will fill in all free spaces - they are still sticky.


Again, gently tap off the glitter excess - you should have a wonderful glittery lace pattern on your label. I usually press the glitter onto the label firmly with the protecting foil I kept from my label and use a fixative, but you don't need to do this necessarily.



Can you imagine how glittery this piece is in real life?!!!

I attached my glittery label to a black card, then just added two curved stripes of black and silver mirror cardstock and some rhinestones to finish my Breakfast at Tiffany's card. Oh, and I couldn't resist to use this little stamp from River City (of course, using silver sparkling embossing powder)... YES, I KNOW I HAVE GLITTER ON MY FACE!




Okay, maybe this sentiment doesn't really catch the emotional part of the movie, but at least I got the glitz!!!

Thanks to Sankari and Brooke for this inspirational challenge!
Have a nice weekend!

Africa - Expect Miracles!

A very close friend of mine goes to Africa as a pastor for a while. I wanted to give her as a farewell present a little book to use to write down her experiences. I chose an African-themed design paper (Bo Bunny Press) for the cover and punched out a square. Then I stamped an African scene (Art Gone Wild, one of my oldest stampes, I'm pretty sure that it is discontinued) with Palette Noir onto butterscotch cardstock, watercolored it and attached it behind the punchout. I added a copper charm from Pixie Press ("expect miracles" - I think one CAN expect miracles when travelling to Africa!) and some fibers.
I hope my friend will like this little book and use it often!

Large Tree? Small Car?

One more for the Cardmaking Day Challenges! I took the the Splitcoast Stampers Ways to Use Challenge "use a tree on your card!" as the perfect opportunity to make a first attempt on this year's Xmas cards. A Christmas Tree IS a tree, isn't it??!? LOL! And this is even a LARGE one!!!
I think this image is so funny - I know scenes like this IRL just too well... With my husband trying to fix a two and a half meters Xmas tree on our car...
I stamped the image with Palette Noir ink onto white cardstock and colored it with watercolors. Hard to see on the photo, but parts of the car and the red clothes are very sparkly IRL, I used a glitter pen on them. The sentiment and snowflakes were stamped with Snowcap White Adirondack pigment ink, but I added some white gelly pen to make it pop out a little bit more. The brads are from Sweden - I think they were originally intended to be used on baby cards, but I think they make the perfect snowflake brads...
The card did not turn out exactly what I wanted it to. I think I have to work some more on the coloring or add more paper piecing. Nevertheless, it's okay for a first attempt - or what do you think?

Wet Leaves

Yippeeee! Creating two cards on one day - what a luxury, LOL! I enjoy a long weekend (yesterday it was the National holiday here in Germany) - so there could be no better date for the World Cardmaking Day!
Here's my card for the Cardmaking Day Insipiration Challenge on the SCS site. I chose the title of the Inspiration catalog as my inspirational piece and created a no-stamps-card (sorry!). The card catches up the wheather we have right at the moment: stormy and rainy!
I sponged my cuttlebug embossing folder with copper Brilliance ink and ran it through my machine with some black cardstock. The leaves are punched with my new Woodware punch (WHAT a tool!!!!) which not only punches the leaf but also embosses the strands. I sponged the leaves with copper, pearlescent ivy and gamma green Brilliance inks. I added some green fibers, green and brown leaves ribbon. The rain drops were created with Diamond glaze.
Wishing you all a great cardmaking night!

A parcel from Kim (SCS Luv Flowers)

Look what I got!!!!
My wonderful SCS friend Kim (aka Luv Flowers) sent me this treasure chest of SU goodies along with a gorgeous card. She is such a talented stamper with always clear and clean designs, and she typically combines a variety of different papers and textures in her cards. Check out her gallery!
I love these blue and green colors she chose for me, but the dp she sent me is just too beautiful to cut into pieces for cardmaking!!!
And - can you believe it - my first SU ink pads!!! After ten years of stamping (or even longer?)! Europe is a SU desert...but now I've got my own SU oasis, so to say, LOL!
Kim, thank you so much, my wonderful and dear friend! I can't wait to use all these things (okay, except of the dp, perhaps, this I would rather keep for a while and just admire its beauty!!!!).

World Cardmakers' Day

I had the chance to play along with the World Cardmaking Day Challenges on the Splitcoaststampers forum today. I wanted to use some Teykol resist again - it's one of my absolute favorite techniques.
I stamped the image with Black StazOn onto glossy cardstock, then brushed some Teykol resist medium a little besides the lines of the image. When it was dry (it takes only a few minutes), I sponged different shades of Adirondack inks over the whole image. Finally, I added some highlights on the flowers with a white gelly pen. I matted the image with some black cardstock onto Basic Grey design paper and added some strips of cuttlebug-embossed cardstock. I sponged some cream and white Prima flowers with Adirondack inks and added brads. The sentiment is stamped onto a punch-out circle, the black border is drawn with a black marker.
Hey, I had fun with this card! I hope you like it!

Friendly Flowers in a few stolen minutes

I just stole away a few minutes from my much too busy agenda to stamp a quick card. I received these wonderful flower stamps (Autumn Leaves, Rhonna Farrer collection) recently from my dear blogging friend Sankari and couldn't wait any longer to use them.
Because I only had a very few minutes, I decided for a back-to-basic card and stamped the flowers with brown Memento ink randomly on some pink cardstock. Then I stamped the flower twine with Versamark onto brown cardstock and embossed it with "strawberries & cream" embossing powder, also the sentiment (Wordsworth Stamps). The sentiment was mounted onto a scallop square punchout (Marvy Uchida punch) which I sponged a little bit with Chocolate Brilliance ink (I used Brilliance ink to sponge because the Memento ink pads stamp GREAT, much more detailed than Brilliance, but are just unusable to sponge because they are too stiff for that) and mounted onto the card with dimensionals. I added a few pink rhinestones.
Sankari, I had sooooo much fun with these stamps! I'm sure they'll become some of my favorites! Thank you again so much! For sure, these were the most funny fifteen minutes I had during the whole week!!! Yeah, how do you say - born to stamp, forced to work...

A neighbour asked for a wedding card, and I found this fun stamp just a few weeks ago in a Swedish craft shop - so this was the perfect moment to let it see some ink!
I stamped the image with Black Memories ink and colored it with the Gamsol Magic technique (well, or something like that, we don't have Gamsol or Prismacolor crayons in Germany, so I used my Karisma and Polychromos crayons and some odorless terpentine). I added highlights with some crystal laquer (clear and red) and white stickles. The border is punched with a Fiskars Border Punch, I added the little white dots in the holes with a white gelly pen.
The main image is from Panduro, the sentiment from LaBlanche and the little hearts from Kaleidoskop. I used red Adirondack hues for sponging, red HeroArts pigment ink for the sentiment (I embossed it with clear powder) and red ColorBox Fluid Chalks for the little Hearts.
This is a very easy card - only two layers, no design papers, no ribbons... nevertheless, I like this fun car - what do you think?

My first autumn card for this year... days are pretty cool now, it's getting dark quite early, and we have REALLY cold nights already! The leaves aren't yet red or brown, but I guess it can't take long anymore.
I used today's Splitcoaststampers' featured technique: Glitter surprise. I wanted to catch some autumnal mood in my card, but I didn't have glitter in green or orange colors. So my copper glitter had to work for it...
I stamped the background (Judi Kins) onto brown cardstock with my Glue Pad and added copper glitter, let it dry FOR A WHILE (!!!), then brushed away the excess. The leaf image (Stampendous) was stamped onto green cardstock, embossed with copper powder and colored with some Stargazers' colors. The two large leaves are punched with an embossing punch (Woodware) and sponged with Brilliance copper ink, Colorbox Fluid Chalks brown and green inks, wiped with some rust luster rub-ons and highlighted with copper stickles. I sprayed the right part of my card with some green Shimmering Mist and stamped some dots (Kaleidoskop) with Brilliance copper over that.
Finally, I added a green leaf ribbon.
The card is VERY sparkling IRL, it doesn't really show up on the scan. Hope you like it anyhow!

Back to normal...

I'm trying to come back after long weeks struggling with my dh's kidney transplantation. Now life slowly gets to be more "normal" again, and so I hope there'll be regular stamping times for me again...

I had the chance to take part in a Splitcoaststampers' challenge today. It was the Featured Stamper challenge, and featured was Liz, a really talented stamper with an inspiring gallery. I chose her Vellum Snowflakes card to CASE (which means that you are to Copy And Share with Everybody a card, you should only change at least two things on the original card):
I took up the idea to cuttlebug a vellum stripe and to use dots on the paper, but I changed the theme and colors. I changed her pearls on the tree into rhinestones on my flowers, and I used the black magic technique (okay, more a purple magic, LOL) for the image. That means I stamped the image (stamp by HeroArts) with white pigment ink onto the purple design paper, then colored the white image with crayons and added some accents with a white gel pen.
I hope you like it!

Sweet Sankari...

You ALL are just WONDERFUL friends and kept me up during those difficult weeks with my husband's surgery. I really loved your comments, get-well-wishes and mails. But there's one dear and special blogging friend who is really hard to top: Sankari! First of all, she is such a talented and creative girl who makes the greatest cards out of just nothing, a Photoshop wizard and a color queen. Make sure to check out her blog: Sankari's Sunshine Corner
Besides that, she just sent me the sweetest and most encouraging mails during the last week AND THIS INCREDIBLE PARCEL filled with one of her WONDERFUL cards, a stamp set that makes you smile immediately with its funny and friendly flowers and those little wooden pot scraper (which is excellent to use as a bone folder) and fork!

Sankari, I can't believe I got all these wonderful things, and I can't wait to use these flower stamps! Thank you so much!

Thank you for your support!

This is my first card since my dh's kidney transplantation. I was not in the right mood for stamping up to now since there occured some severe complications during surgery. But now there is some hope that the kidney nevertheless might start to work, and I wanted to give with this card a big hug to all of you who sent me and my dh so many wonderful supportive mails and get-well wishes. You bloggers are just incredible wonderful and caring people!

I stamped the butterfly image (Stamp-It) with white Brilliance ink onto burgundy cardstock. White Brilliance ink works pretty well on dark cardstock, I just added some white crayon on the bolder parts of the picture to later make the other crayon colors pop out a little bit more. Then I added some color with crayons and outlined the butterflies with a white gelly pen, and I accentuated the swirls with a white and a black gelly pen - you know, no card is truly mine without black and white contrast... I worked in a similar way with the sentiment (Wordsworth). The background panel is cuttlebug embossed and then slightly wiped with some white ink. I distressed the edges of all the panels and added a corner die cut (Sizzix Sizzlits Architectural Corners) onto the image panel.

Again - thank you all, and please keep us in your thoughts - we still have a long way to go until we'll be back in normal life.

This is for today's SCS Featured Stamper challenge. Kim has such a wonderful gallery! It was a hard choice, but as I love Zindorfian scenes as much as Kim does, I just had to case this Zindorf-style card

I sponged the sunset with various Ranger Adirondack inks, then overstamped some braches and birds with black ink. The whole panel is covered with clear MicroBeads using double-sided clear adhesive foil. I added some "Markie'sMom-Dots" with stickles around the scalloped border, and as I don't have such a wonderful border punch as Kim has got, I just used my decorative blade on my paper trimmer. As I am a complete failure on sewing, I did it without any sewing, stitching or what else has to do with needles and yarn... LOL!
I hope you like the card! Perhaps this one was the last I could create for the next few weeks as my dh is just packing his suitcase to go to the hospital tomorrow to have a kidney transplantation. Although I know this is a big chance and luck for us, I'm very much afraid of all the things that might possibly go wrong. Please think of us. Thank you all!

Unexpected but inspired cards...

I intended to create some totally different card today with my brandnew stamp sets I got for my birthday...
Okay, it was my fault that I checked the SCS Inspiration Challenge first... Out came an Asian stamp (as old as the hills, dating back into times when I didn't catalog my stamps, so I don't know the manufacturer) I already used for about 273 cards before, LOL! My new stamps will have to wait...
The branches were stamped with red pigment ink onto turquoise cardstock and embossed with red sparkling embossing powder. The flowers were colored with white Stargazers, and I added some highlight with a gold jelly pen to the branches. I stamped the Maze background with Versamark onto red cardstock, then brushed with Pearl Pigments. Then I sponged a cuttlebug embossing folder with Brilliance Galaxy Gold and embossed it onto some turquoise cardstock. Borders of the red panel and the card were edged with a Krylon pen, and finally I grabbed into the very deep ends of my craft stash and added a Chinese bookmark (which drowsed in my stash for ages) and some Chinese script peel-offs (I didn't expect to use them at all any longer...).
What can you learn from this card?
First: Don't check any inspiration challenges when you've got a card in mind already - could happen you'll never stamp it but something totally different!
Second: There's no embellishment you could not use some time - maybe it just takes ten years or so...
Third: Sometimes those unexpected cards are the ones you create in a minimum time and with maximum fun - this one took only fifteen minutes, and I like how it turned out!

Elegant Congrats

I usually don't do any color challenges - this was my first one. Actually, I didn't want to do a color challenge today but the SCS "Embrace White Space" DTGD08 challenge. Nevertheless, I needed some color, and I thought something soft to be suitable - so why not take today's SCS color challenge as well and kill two birds with one stone? (uugh, that's kind of a cruel idiom, this one sounds much nicer in German, LOL!)
As I don't have SU inks, I chose Fluid Chalk inks which seemed to me to be very close to Soft Sky, Blue Bayou and Wild Wasabi. A bugged background, some ribbon, some flowers (I love those lacy Prima flowers! Even when they are hard to handle because they tend to tear...), some flat beads - ready.
It's an extremely untypical card for me - not my usual style at all, but I have to admit, I'm just cottoning up to it... What do you think?

Thank You! One More Blog Award!

This Blogging Friends Forever Gold Card was sent to me from my WONDERFUL blogging friend Sankari! Thank you so much! I just cant believe that you like my little blog that much!
The rules with this award are:
1. Only 5 people allowed.
2. 4 have to be dedicated followers of your blog
3. one has to be someone new or recently new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
4. you must link back to whoever gave you the award.

Okay, so here's my 5 favorites:
1) Silke Ledlow - My Life
This was one of the first blogs I read regularly, and I got sooo much inspiration from Silke's clean and bright card designs. Sparkle Girl, I don't comment much on your blog, but I love it!
2) Tosh, Cindy, Cindy, Frances, Charlene, Carolyn, Dawn and Deb - the CCEE Stampers
Okay, maybe I'm cheating, only five persons allowed, BUT: what these ladies create is really worth ANY blog award available, and they all are so charming and kind in their comments, so I have to send this award to them! And it's only eight - that's not much more than five, isn't it?!?
3) see 2)
4) see 2)
5) goes to all you others with those wonderful, inspiring blogs out there - it's always a little bit unfair that I can't pass on those blog awards to all of you! YOU - yes, I mean especially and just YOU - would sooo much deserve it, too!