A stamping friend had to undergo some surgery recently. This is a card I created for her. Owl stamp and sentiment by Joanny Sheen, wavy lines by Judi Kins. I used a little bit of Judi Kins' Diamond Glaze to make the owl's eyes more impressive (hard to see on the photo). The owl is colored with watercolors, dp by CreaMotions, cut and embossed with Spellbinders Nestabilities.

I couldn't stop giggling when I saw this stamp by American Art Stamps for the first time... We have two dogs, and their name is quite often "No no bad dog"... well, more frequently they're called Baxter and Vivaldi... Nevertheless, I had fun with this card which I created for this week's Splitcoaststampers' Sketch Challenge. I bought my first Copic markers recently, and I colored the image with them. Guess I need to practice a little more with the Copics, but I already fell in love with them! Dp by DCWV. Ohhhhh... what are the dogs doing while I'm uploading this????? No no, bad dog!!! ;-)

Beautiful Geisha

My wonderful stamping friend Anne Ryan just sent me a parcel full of incredible stamping goodies - key charms, a white gelly pen, white Shimmer spray AND... drum roll... the Asian dreams SU set!!!!! Can you believe it???? I still can't!!!! So I had to create a card using my new stamps right away - this is what it came out.

The background for my stamped images is watercolor paper colored by pressing some green and brown Ranger Adirondack ink pads onto a craft sheet, then misting the craft sheet with water and putting the watercolor paper onto the craft sheet, then I dried the paper with my heat tool. When the paper was completely dry, I sprayed some Glimmer Mist onto it and again dried it with my heat tool.

I stamped my images with Versamark onto the colored watercolor paper and embossed the images with red-gold embossing powder. The Geisha was punched out with a Marvy Uchida oval scallop punch and edged with purple Colorbox Fluid Chalks. Everything was mounted onto cuttlebug-embossed cream cardstock (Plum Blossom folder), then onto burgundy cardstock.

Stamping Again...

It's been such a long time without stamping...
Yes, I said without stamping - not just without posting!!!
And I do hope so much I will be able to stamp more regularly again now that I changed some organisation things in my office - new employees, new office hours...

Well, here's two cards I created two weeks ago at a stamping retreat.



I love watercoloring, and this image (by Crafty Individuals) was just stampend and then watercolored on some canvas-textured watercolor paper. Sentiment by Stempelmeer saying "Congratulations".



Something more funny... I'm known for loving coffee, and well, though it's not my style of clothing, this might just be what I'm dreaming of sometimes - sitting with a friend having a cup of coffee, ready for a shopping adventure...
Stamp by designs by Leerè, colored with Tombow markers.

Age Happens...

I was asked to create some funny birthday cards. I LOVE those American Art Stamps images with all those more or less young ladies struggling with age, diet, husbands and other minor problems... So I had a lot of fun creating these quick cards!



Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Colorbox Fluid Chalks to sponge the edges.
Images colored with Tombow markers. Dp by 3 Bugs in a Rug (Flower design) and Basic Grey (stripes design).

Black and Purple

You all know the Black Magic technique? To stamp an image with white ink onto some dark cardstock and then color it with pencils? I really like this technique, so I was happy when I fund out that today's Splitcoaststampers Technique Lovers Challenge was to use the Black Magic technique.
Stamps: Stampington (main image), Innovative Stamp Creations (background flourish), Stempelmeer (sentiment saying "congrats"). Ink: Adirondack Snowcap White, Memento Sweet Plum. I used Karisma pencils to color the image and a purple gelly pen to add some definition and highlights. Border punch by Martha Stewart.

Amy Atlas Inspired Retro Card

When I browsed the Amy Atlas Events gallery for today's Splitcoaststampers Inspiration Challenge, I was fascinated by the colors Amy Atlas used for her dessert table on photo No. 108.


I would never have thought of combining red, olive, beige and purple. Nevertheless, I wasn't as brave as Amy Atlas was with these colors, so I chose a stamp with only an outline design to get not too much color onto my card, but added a cardstock stripe and flower taking up the colors of the stamped background. The stamp I used is the Fifties Fabric cube by Judi Kins, and for the flowers I used my EK Success punches. I used the Memento inkpads Lady Bug, Sweet Plum, Bamboo Leaves and Desert Sand.
Guess I'll have to add this color combo to my "Definitely YES!" list!

Back again... at home and in my stamping room!

I haven't had any time to stamp during the last weeks, so finally I had to start with something simple again - I'm totally out of practice, LOL!
The flowers are created out of some old book pages. I colored the paper with some Tim Holtz distress ink pads, then punched and embossed the flowers with my Nellie Snellen flower punch, then added the golden lines with a gelly pen.
The main image is by Stamp-Iit Australia. For the blue background cardstock I used a flourish stamp by Innovative Stamp Creations (stamped with Versamark ink and hard to see on the photo). I distressed the edge of the main image with my distressing tool.
The sentiment says "Happy birthday" and is handwritten.

I'm In A Meeting...

Today's Splitcoaststampers Free For All challenge "Take A Virtual Vacataion" made me smile... I'm so much longing for some vacation... AND next Saturday I'm going to travel to Florida BUT NOT for holidays but for a scientific meeting. I'm going to stay in a wonderful hotel at Fort Lauderdale beach... and probably won't have the chance to enjoy beach life!!! How cruel is this???? So I had to grab this American Arts stamp out of my drawer and create this virtual vacation card... perhaps I should try to make ot real, not only virtual, LOL!!!!
Wavy lines stamp by Judi Kins. Colored with watercolors. Stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and Colorbox Fluid Chalks Paris Blue.

Dream of (or on?) Wood

One more card stamped onto veneer leftovers I recently got from a neighbour who works as a carpenter. I'm totally intrigued with this fantastic material which gives so unexpected effects because there are no two pieces alike. I tride to stamp onto the veneer with dye ink, but the dye sinks into the veneer so that the image looks kind of faded. Then I used Colorbox Fluid Chalks - and they work GREAT!!!! I used the colors Dark Peony and Chestnut Roon - wanted to use Red Lipstick instead of Dark Peony at first, but my Red Lipstick ink pad was dry :-(
Nevertheless, the Dark Peony doesn't look that "pinky" on the veneer it looks at the inkpad, and I'm pretty content with the color shades I achieved with it. The film strip stamp is by Stamp-It. The background was created with Gel-A-Tins clear stamps stamped onto some bamboo specialty paper (again stamped with Colorbox Fluid Chalks Dark Peony and Chestnut Roon).

Easter Cards... NOW??????

After Easter is before Easter, isn't it?
A neighbour asked me to create some Easter cards RIGHT NOW - don't ask me why she needs them two weeks after Easter, anyway I tried to be a good girl and created Easter cards NOW...



I love this two-step-stamping tulip by Stampin'Up. I stamped it with Colorbox Fluid Chalks onto white cardstock. The Easter Wishes background stamp is by StempelBar, stamped onto some BasicGrey dp.




Image by American Art Stamps, dp by Basic Grey. Edge and corner punch by Martha Stewart. I colored the image with Tombow markers.




For this card, I used a Sizzix BigZ die to cut the window into the card. I cut it again in a different color and placed it over the actual window. Then I stamped a bunny (Penny Black) onto the inside of the card and colored it with watercolors and Tombow markers. The outside of the card was decorated with some flourish die-cuts (punch by EK Success) and ambossed flower die-cuts (punches by Nellie Snellen). I stamped the cardstock for the flowers with a Hero Arts swirl pattern first, the die-cut and dry-embossed them, and finally placed a little red wax dot in the middle of the flowers.
And this is how it looks inside:





This is a fun one, isn't it? I stamped this bunny stamp (A Muse Artstamps) eight times and colored the images with watercolors. Hard to see on the photo, but one of the bunnies has a cotton ball with stickles on it for his tail. Dp by Basic Grey, edge punch by Martha Stewart.


For this card I stamped my Easter Wishes background stamp onto some dp by CreaMotion. The bunny had been part of my crafting stash for at least ten years... Scallop Oval Punch by Marvy Uchida, dots created with Liquid Pearls.

Peeking Bunny

Happy Easter to you all!
Hope you've got some more sunshine than we have...
When I saw this peeking bunny, I had immediately the idea of letting him look through some striped paper... The dp is by All My Memories, the bunny stamp by Inky Antics. Sentiment handwritten.

Easter Bunny

Isn't he a cutie??? I love this smiling bunny with his spring flowers! He makes me smile whenever I see him. So I decided after stamping this card not to tidy up my desk but let this stamp stand on my table - outside it's raining, but I'm sure where this bunny is scampering along, the sun is shining!
The image (Penny Black) was stamped with Black Memento ink, then colored with Tombow Markers and a waterbrush. Flourish punch by EK Success, border punch by Martha Stewart, flowers by Prima, flower brads by Making Memories, dp by Provo Craft.

Big Easter Egg

I'm a bit late with my Easter cards... as always, LOL! I bought this wonderful American Art Stamps image last year just one week after Easter, so I finally had to ink it up now! I colored the image with Twinkling H2Os, th dp is by Basic Grey.

Flowers On Wood

One of my neighbours is a carpenter, and he gave me some veneer rests to use for stamping. This was my first attempt to use them. I stamped the image (by Stampington) with StazOn Jet Black onto the veneer, then tore the image (my cutting machine was not able to cut it exactly, so I preferred to tear it). The flourishes are created with my Spellbinders Nesties, and the dp is by Diane's Daughters.
What do you think about stamping on wood?

Who Can Resist Beautiful Poppies?

I have a problem with negative image stamps: I always fall in love with them suddenly but struggle hard with how to use them afterwards. So it was with this beautiful poppy negative stamp by Hero Arts. I love, love, LOVE poppies, so I couldn't resist this stamp, but then I found it difficult to create an interesting image with it. Here's what I came up with finally, and I am quite content with the result.
I first painted an old book page with a thin layer of gesso, dried it with the heat tool, then stamped the poppy image with Versamark ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder. Then I sponged the whole image with green and red fluid chalks and wiped away the excess ink.
By the way, this card is for this week's Splitcoaststampers' Ways To Use Challenge - "Let's Celebrate", and the German sentiment on the card (by Stempelmeer) says "Congratulations".
Large flower punch by Nellie Snellen, little one and Flourish punch by EK Success. I used champagne Liquid Pearls for the little dot in the middle of the flower.

52 Bears for Cathy

Today's Splitcoaststampers' Featured Stamper is Cathy aka Mutnik - she's such a great and creative stamper, and one of the sweetest SCS ladies ever. Recently, she sent to me a smiling dog card (she drew the smiling dog herself, WOW!) and I still owe her a Thank You card for that. So this was the perfect opportunity to create a Mutnik-CASEd card for her!!
I CASEd this card by Cathy.
While Cathy used several inchie stamps, I used a single stamp by the German manufacturer StempelBar which contains all these bears. The bears on the stamp are drawn by the German "Bear Painter" Chris Schlag. If you have a second, take a glance at his website!
Cathy popped up one of the bears on her card - I did the same, but you can't see this very well on the photo (it's bear No.4 in the 4th row...). He's got a three-dimensional glossy nose, too, thanks to some Diamond Glaze. Some other bears have one single sparkling tooth - take a close look at the picture!
Cathy, if you like this card, it will go on its way to California!

New Punch to Play With...

I wanted to play with my new Nellie Snellen flower punch today. It is a double punch for die-cutting and embossing, and I used it for the blue flowers on this card. The pink ones are punched with an EK Success punch and embossed after punching with a cuttlebug embossing folder.
The border punch is by Fiskars.
The flower stamp is by Autumn Leaves (Rhonna Farrer). The sentiment is by Stempelmeer and says "Congratulations". I used pink Memento ink.
I don't know the manufacturer of the dp, it's a Dutch one, this I know for sure.

Art Journey Dagen

Last weekend I had the chance to take part in the Art Journey Dagen. Louise Kolker from Art Journey and her team made these days a real celebration for their clients. We were spoiled with fantastic workshops, excellent catering, fun, laughter and goodies. Star teacher was Rachel Greig, the owner of Darkroom Door stamps, but not only her workshop was great, Sija, Leonie, Corine, Tineke, Jeanette and Liesbeth taught us lots of new techniques. We created a "book of techniques" which meant that we created in eachg workshop a sample for a special technique, and at the end of the day, these samples were assembled to a little book which we can keep and expand.

The chipboard frame on the cover was decorated with Terra paste, then stamped into the paste, then colored with acrylic color and metallic color. Heating the paste with the heat tool causes tiny bubbles which add texture to it.


Rachel created with us this wonderful photo card with her beautiful cottage image. The background pattern was stamped onto cardstock colored with a black Adirondack paint dabber, and clear embossed, then sponged with some brown color and wiped off the excess.


This page was created in Sija's and Leonie's workshop. They taught us to take masking a step further and to create resist effects with oil pastels. The colors used are Adirondack inks. I love the Ingrid Bergman stamp we used (by Stampendous)!



This is part of a page of glossy cardstock we sponged with Adirondack inks. The resist effects were achieved by stamping with clear embossing ink before sponging. Then the sponged background was overstamped with lots of different stamps with StazOn Jet Black. We created a whole A4 page within only ten minutes, and the pieces can be used in so many different projects. And it was fascinating to see how different our pages looked though we only had five Adirondack colors to choose from!



But this was only part of the fun. Look at these photos:

Louise explaining the time schedule.



Leonie and Sija teaching masking and sponging techniques.

Rachel teaching.


Louise's Mom Willy was responsible for the catering. Great job, thank you so much!!!

Well, sitting and stamping a whole day long??? These two nurses made us do some sports in between the workshops - okay, laughing that much, it was not really sports what we were able to do...


So, let's rock...



Louise, this was such a fantastic event!!! So much inspiration - thank you so much for all the great work you and your team did for us!

A Simple Thank You

Recently my Mom created some address labels for my MIL. Now my MIL asked me to create a thank you card for my Mom. I was inspired by this week's Splitcoaststampers Clean and Simple challenge sketch and the three-colors-mushroom card it was based on, so this turned out as a three-colors-flower card. I hope my Mom will like it.
Flower stamp by Stampendous, sentiment by Heidi Swapp, flourish by Tim Holtz. Design paper and fibers by Basic Grey.

Virtual Stamping Night - Part 4

This is for the Mini VSN Spotlight On Ice challenge.
The challenge was to feature one's favorite olympic game using the spotlight technique. When I read about the challenge, I had immediately in mind this cute Peanuts stamp by Stampabilities...
I know that the original spotlight technique leaves the main image monochromatic and colors only the spotlight piece, but I considered it such a pity to leave Charlie Brown monochromatic... guess he would have got a severe depression if I did that, LOL! So i cheated a little bit and colored everything, nevertheless, there's a spotlight, isn't it?! I used all the olympic colors in my image (yeah, where's the yellow??? Take a close look on Charlie's cap!), and I added some Stickles for the snow - hard to be seen on the photo. And because it is hard to see as well: The tab on top of the card says "Snowball Fight", and the epoxy sticker says "Sleigh Ride".
I hope you have the same fun looking at this card I had when creating it...

Border punch by CreaMotion, epoxy stickers and tab by Around The Block, background cardstock embossed with the Cuttlebug Snowflake embossing folder. The image is colored with Tombow markers.

Virtual Stamping Night - Part 3

One more challenge during the Virtual Stamping Night: to use snow or ice on your card, and the snow had to be created either with Flower Soft and Tacky Glue or with white or clear embossing powder. I used white sparkling powder with this cute image by Penny Black. The sentiment is by Stempelbar.

Virtual Stamping Night - Part 2

The next Virtual Stamping Night challenge was about the red mittens worn by the Olympic torchbearers. We were to use the colors red and white and some wool or yarn on our cards. I found these little mittens from my Christmas stuff quite close to the original Olympic ones, so I just HAD to use them on my card! This card is speaking right out of my heart... We've been stuck in the snow for almost four weeks now here in the North of Germany, and it just won't stop snowing...
Snowflake border by HeroArts, brrrr by Stampin'Up. Background created with the Cuttlebug Snowflakes embossing folder.

Virtual Stamping Night

There was a Mini Virtual Stamping Night at Splitcoaststampers yesterday. It was all about the Winter Olympics, and the first challenge was to create a card using the color of one of the participating nations. I think, one of the main things about the Olympic Games is to make friends from foreign countries, so I chose a friendship theme for my card. And though I'm always struggling with these colors, I chose my own nation's flag colors - black, red and gold. The stamp is by Hero Arts, I stamped it with Palette Noir and highlighted it with a gold gelly pen. The added butterfly is die-cut with the Cricut machine.

In Love With Polka Dots

I didn't have the chance to upload my card for last Friday's Limited Supplies Challenge "Love You Much" at Splitcoaststampers earlier. But hey, better late than never, right?
The challenge was to create some "Love" card restricted to the colors red, pink, black and white, and it had to contain polka dots.
I got this heart stamp (Hero Arts) from my Mom on Thursday, so I had to try it... It is stamped with Palette Noir ink and colored with Tombow markers and pink Stickles. Polka dots are in the little hearts, on the ribbons and cuttlebug-embossed on the red cardstock. Oh yes, and on the scallop-punched black oval. The sentiment says "Best Wishes".
Do you like it?

Inspired by an Alarm Clock...

Can an alarm clock be inspiring??? Well, if it's about Splitcoaststampers Inspiration challenge, it can be indeed, LOL!!!
The challenge was to choose a piece of this recycled glass art web site as inspiration for a card.
I chose this Alarm Clock as my inspiration piece:


I had fun with creating this colorful card, and in case you can't see it on the photo, this is an overall sparkling bird with tons of Stickles on it, LOL! The sentiment is handwritten (saying "Congrats"), and I added some "Markie's Mom dots" along one of the frames with a gelly pen. Bird stamp by KaiserScrapbook, swirly flowers by See D's. Frames cut with a Sizzix BigZ Hello Kitty Frame die cut.

Thank you, Dani!

I wanted to show you a gorgeous Christmas card I got. It was sent to me from my stamping friend Dani, together with some special treats for my dogs - and they want to say "Woof-Woof" for that!!!
It's hard to see at the photo, but the card is made on a clear acetate base to which the brown design paper was mounted and accomplished with those gorgeous sparkling stars. Thank you again, Dani, and hey, you all should have a look at Dani's blog which is crammed full of wonderful cards and gift ideas!

My New Flower Stamp

My Splitcoaststampers friend Anne Ryan sent me such a wonderful Christmas present with this gorgeous card and that BEAUTIFUL flower stamp.



Yesterday's Splitcoast Limited Supplies Challenge was the perfect chance to try this stamp for the first time. We were to create a

Happy New Year

card... no, not really, but it had to be created HAPPILY in less than fifteen minutes, using something NEW we got for the holidays, and the card should be dedicated to some yearly occasion like a birthday. So this was the perfect chance for me to use my new flower stamp!

- Happy: the card was created in only twelve minutes
- New: the new flower stamp, thank you so much again, Anne, I'm totally in love with this stamp!
- Year: it's a birthday card, the sentiment says "Congrats"



The stamp was inked with several shades of Colorbox Fluid Chalks, and I added a tiny amount of glitter to the flowers (hard to see on the photo). Sentiment by Stempelmeer, but sorry, I don't know the manufacturer of the flower stamp.