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!

Job Withdrawal (otherwise known as Holidays) and Siamese Cats

Sometimes, I tend not to be creative but to just re-create my old cards I liked very much. So, this is from my pre-dog period, when I didn't have to stand the offended glimpses of my dog while using a cat stamp, LOL! I liked this card very much and made just some slight changes today when re-stamping it. The cat panel (from Coronado Island) is stamped with Memories Black onto light green and blue striped dp, then cut into pieces and attached to turquoise cardstock. Then I attached the cardstock pieces with Diamond Glaze (Judi Kins) to microscope slides and used some foil tape to cover the upper and lower end of the slides. Be careful with the glue, even the REALLY clear Diamond Glaze shows a little bit through the glass slides if not spread very evenly! The background (Judi Kins) is stamped with Versamark ink onto black cardstock, then embossed with clear powder.
Now, what can you read out of this card? First: I'm on holiday and seem to have some job withdrawal - so I had to use microscope slides today for stamping, LOL! Second - I needed some balance to the last days' colourful cards, I'm still a black and white lover. Third - if I had not already stuck the cat images under the slides, I would have added some white highlights - what was I thinking when forgetting the highlights??? LOL!
Hope you like it nevertheless!

A rough day?

Do you know how it feels when cards develop their own life? Today, Shellapoo is SCS featured stamper, and this was thought to be a case of Shellapoo's (Michelle's) wonderful Riley card (www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/971448?cat=500&ppuser=133522), because I've got this cute dog stamp on his chair, just as Riley, the only thing is that Riley is somewhat more diligent and knitting whereas doggie just enjoys life... I kept Michelle's color scheme and tried to keep on the layout, but the proportions of my stamp didn't work for that, so I had to use a different layout.
The dog is stamped several times with Black StazOn, then watercolored and cut out - one time the whole scene, then the chair with the doggie only, then only the doggie and finally only doggie's feet and the front and arms of the chair. I stacked the pieces together with dimensionals, then onto som scallop circle punchouts. The background paper is created with an inked cuttlebug embossing folder.
Dog stamp by Maryse Carrier, sentiment by Inkadinkadoo.
Michelle, I hope you like this card - at least I do love yours!!!

Inspired Bag of Congrats

This is my after-dinner-inspiration-challenge-entry...
After having friends here for dinner, eating delicious fresh pasta and chicken, and having our dog with our friends' dog together devastating our whole living room, I decided that I rather want to create something than to straighten up the living room...which will have to wait until tomorrow, LOL!
Therefore here's my second inspiration challenge project - can't get enough of those gorgeous bags! I cut out a bag shape from Making Memories paisley paper, stamped a sentiment on it, folded it and finished it with a flower charm, some twill and a Prima Flower with a rhinestone brad.
Here's the cutting sketch - cut along the outlines and fold along the black lines! You can print out this sketch at any size you want!



There's only one thing wrong with this project: It takes too few time, so I'll have to straighten up our living room TODAY, LOL!!!!

A Card for Faith...

I want to dedicate this card to Faith AKA Markie's Mom.
Today's Splitcoast challenge was to create some happy card which makes someone smile - okay, Faith makes me smile each and every day with her awesome happy cards and her stories about Speedy the Cat (though I'm not really sure if I should believe this incredible cat stories, LOL). But there remains the question: what does Speedy the Cat do the rest of the day? What does he dream of?
So, here's my story about Speedy the Cat - I just tried to imagine of what he might dream when he's just NOT about which stamp sets to choose for tomorrow's challenge... perhaps there would be many, many, oh so many colourful (Speedy LOVES bright colors, doesn't he?) fishes around him?!? Okay, when I look at the size dimensions, this could be some night mare as well, but those fishes look that friendly, don't they? I had to use some dots (otherwise I wouldn't dare to dedicate the card to Faith) and some glitter (perhaps a tribute to SparkleGirl?) on the fishes. Yikes, indeed, MUUUUCH glitter, LOL! And one of the fishes for sure is a girl - look at her lip gloss...

Okay, some serious things about the card: I stamped the image with brown Memento ink onto white cardstock, then colored the image with Tombow markers and a water brush, then added stickles. Two fishes and the cat were stamped again and cut out to achieve some dimension. I didn't want to distract too much from the image, so I used only a little paper clip as embellishment.

Faith, if you happen to look at this card, I hope you like it - and I hope Speedy likes it!