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.

Germany Meets Asia - Happy World Cardmaking Day!

This is for the Verve Stamps World Cardmaking Day challenge - pick a flag and use the color scheme of the flag. For some personal reasons, LOL, I chose the German flag though I have to admit that I personally do not that much like the black, red and gold combo of the flag. I first thought of a Christmas card with these colors, but couldn't get along with the black, so I chose an Asian image (by Inkadinkado) which worked much better for these colors. Hey girls, THIS is WORLD Cardmaking Day - Germany meets Asia!!!!



I used red and black cardstock, a Sizzix embossing folder inked up with Brilliance Galaxy Gold ink, Versamark ink and black embossing powder for the main image and mitsuhiki cords for the knot (which is the only complicated thing on this card...) and a gold gelly pen and Krylon pen for the highlights on the image and the edging.

Who's Keeping Me Busy? ...a New Puppy and an Asian Birthday Card

No time to stamp!!!!
And if it were not for such a cute little reason I would be VERY angry about that fact, LOL! But... we've got a new little puppy for a week now... His name is Vivaldi, he's an Australian Shepherd and such a sweet little rascal!!! So he's to blame when I had no time for stamping this week... okay, a few minutes today, and this is what I made out of those. A simple Asian-inspired birthday card. The button is from my stash, I stamped a bamboo pattern on it (you can't see this very well on the photo).
Stamps by Hampton Art Stamps (Asian collage), Magenta (sentiment), Inkadinkadoo (bamboo pattern on the button. Ink: Palette noir. And I used a red Tombow marker, a red button, some black fibers and a black skeleton leaf.

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!

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!

Asian Simplicity

I love Asian stamps, and after making so many sponged and brayered cards in the last weeks, I wanted to experiment a little bit with strong, non-shaded colors and clear designs. I stamped the water scene with VersaMark onto terracotta cardstock and embossed it with black powder. Then I went with a white gelly pen along the embossed lines to highlight them. I attached the scene onto white and black cardstock.
The background paper is made from black cardstock which I run through a cuttlebug embossing folder which I had inked up with Brilliance Copper ink. Though I used this "cuttlebug negative effect" before, I was really overwhelmed how "coppery" this turned out! I added a copper twine and a punched-out Asian symbol which I attached to a terracotta circle punch, again highlighted with a white gelly pen.
Though this is a VERY simple card and took only ten minutes, I really love how it turned out!
What do you think about it?