Gym Update...

Our Blog Hop is over, but it's still Snarktoberfest. so here's one more snarky card!

I stamped this good old Penny Black image with Versafine ink and colored it with Zig Clean Color Real Brushes.
Hope this makes you giggle!

Please share your own snarky cards on social media using the hashtag #snarktoberfest2017

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!!! ;-)

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).

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.

Two Snowmen

This evening my friend Dagmar visited me to stamp Xmas cards. Well... finally we talked more than we stamped, LOL, but nevertheless, I finished this one and started a few more which I hopefully will be able to finish during the weekend.
I love these funny snowmen by Whipper Snapper Design - seems as if the little one is just asking: "Daddy, is there a Santa Claus?".
Sentiment (saying "Merry Christmas") by Stempelmeer, background snowflakes by HeroArts (stamped with Adirondack white pigment ink). Everything is colored with watercolors.

Sailboat Sympathy

One week ago, there was a horrible gas explosion in my home town. Yesterday one of the injured men, a 43-year-old father of little twins, finally died by his burnings. He was a passionate sailor and a sailing buddy to one of my neighbours. So my neighbour asked me to create a sympathy card with a sailing theme.
I used this wonderful old Stamps Happen stamp, but cut away the sentiment. I watercolored it with shades of grey and black, added the sentiment ("With heartfelt sympathy", by Stempelkeller) and a ribbon.

Cards To Say Goodbye

I was asked to create several farewell cards for a colleague who is going to leave our town. I wanted to mirror the different personalities of the people who ordered the cards, so I created very different cards - from cute to monochromatic.


This would have been the card I would have chosen for myself. I sponged the background with several shades of Adirondack inks, then stamped the plane (is it by B Line Designs? I'm not sure.) with Espresso Adirondack ink. The swirls (by Rhonna Farrer) are stamped with two shades of Adirondack inks. I added highlights with a white gelly pen.



For this one I used a very classical Penny Black stamp, colored the rubber with Tombow Markers, sprinkled it with water and stamped onto watercolor paper. Simple, yet I like the technique. I added some glitz into the center of the flowers, but you can hardly see this on the photo.

For this image I used a VERY old HeroArts stamp and watercolored the image. The background is stamped with Adirondack Sandal ink and a Rhonna Farrer swirl stamp.



Who doesn't love good old Riley by Hanna Stamps? I stamped and watercolored him, the sentiment on the banner ("farewell") is handwritten. I added some Diamond Glaze onto the plane to give it dimension, but this is unfortunately invisible on the photo.


Now tell me - which one is your favorite?

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today's my Dad's 66th birthday. I was asked last minute to create a card for him by my MIL, so this was what I came up with quickly.
The chipboard numbers are painted with Ranger Distress Crackle paint, then overstamped with brown StazOn (number stamp by Hampton Art Stamps). The design paper is by Cosmo Cricket, I overstamped a swirl by Prima Marketing with Ranger Distress ink Tea Dye. The ribbon is by Elsie, and the Fastenater and staple I used are by EK Success. Embossing powder by Judi Kins, sentiment stamp (saying "Happy Birthday") by Stempelbar.




And this is my own card for my Dad. He's GREAT at solving problems, so I thought this image would be perfect for him - this guy has a BIG problem, doesn't he?!? The image (manufacturer???) is stamped with Palette noir onto watercolor paper, then watercolored. The little stamp I used for the brad means "Good Luck" and is by Kaleidoskop. I stamped it with Blue StazOn onto the brad, then added a silk flower and tiny metallic brads (by Rayher). The card was cuttlebug embossed with the Swiss Dots folder.

The Red Bridge

This is for this week's Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
I didn't know this movie before, so I ordered it and received it on Wednesday - just in time to create a card for the challenge. I was very impressed of the whole movie. It was totally different from what I expected. Almost no blood and cruelty, but beauty everywhere: the dresses, the swords, the architecture, the landscape.
For my card, I used an Asian landscape which I stamped with Palette Noir ink onto watercolor paper. I watercolored the image with Twinkling H2Os and other watercolors, then mounted it onto some green Asian dp (by Far and Away Scrapbooks), added an Asian brad (by Where Memories Are Created) and a die-cut Chinese symbol. My "splash of red" which was demanded in the challenge is the bridge which I colored red - I call the whole card "The Red Bridge".
I hope you like it - anyway, it was fun to get to know a new movie and to create this card!

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!

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?

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!!!

Doggy Congratulations

A neighbour asked me to create a card for a 60th birthday for a lady breeding chihuahuas. As I don't have any chihuahua stamp (you see, I'm more with the bigger dogs, I've got an Australian Shephard), I used these little guys and told them to line up... a hard thing to do for those bubbly doggies! They squabbled a little bit about who had the prettiest flower, but finally, I hope, they'll make some fine congrats!

The dogs are stamped with black Memories ink onto watercolor paper, then watercolored in the layering technique. This means that you start with very much water and only a very little bit of colour, then dry this layer and add some more color but only on parts of the light-colored area. Then dry again, add some more color on a little part and so on. You can achieve wonderful color shades with this technique, it only needs some patience. You can speed up the drying process with your heat tool.
Noses and belly buttons were colored with a black marker (again, some patience is needed, I was a little bit too early with the last dog's belly button, so it flew a little bit). I added some mini Prima flowers with mini brads onto the stamped flowers and attached the panel to brown cardstock, pawprint designer paper and finally added a sentiment (congratulations) and two mini paw-print stickers with the numbers 60.

Okay, doggies, and now please the barking choir: Hap-bark woof-day woof you...