Blogcandy Winner and Flowers

Happy Monday! And it's winnerday! Thank you for all your sweet comments and Congratulations on my first blogiversary. I asked Mr. Random.org to help me find a winner (although he isn't very cooperative when it comes to pasting the result into this post). Here is whom he chose:

Lin said...

Congratulations, Vanessa! I can't believe that flower is real - the color is out of this world!

I would love to win this giveaway, as I don't have any papertrey products, but love so much of what I see there!

Hope your time in Italy is wonderful - relax and enjoy!

Btw, I found the "real" older Hero stamp that is part of the flutterbies set, and guess what it's called? Vanessa's butterfly!

5/17/2010 3:21 PM

CONGRATULATIONS, Lin! Can't wait to see what you'll do with the stamps! Please drop me an email and you'll have your gift certificate in some hours. Btw, that Vanessa butterfly thing is the reason I chose my blogname. It's a genus of butterflies. But on to a card! Here is my take on the PC Go-To-Sketches Challenge # 3:

A fun way to use some yummy Prima Flowers I've been hoarding for so long. Everything else on the card is PTI.

I hope your day is sunny, we could do with some sun here - my planted vegetables need it! Rain rain go away...

Thanks for visiting!

Hugs,

Vanessa

Baby Card - more to follow!

Happy Weekend! Just a quick post - I need some Baby cards and Wedding cards for friends and this week's CPS sketch inspired me to create this little Babygirl card:

I turned around the sketch, I did like it better that way. That little bear stamp, the button, cardstock and patterned paper are Papertrey Ink. The word Baby is spelled with the Hero Arts Cute Uppercase Sparkle Clear set.

Have a great Saturday everybody and thanks for visiting!

Hugs,

Vanessa

Embellish Butterflies Color Challenge

Happy Friday! Today I made a card for the Embellish Butterflies Color Challenge during naptime. I wanted to play with my new Hero Arts Metal Flourish Cling stamp and this is the result:

I used high quality watercolor paper for that background, spritzed some distress ink with water and layed my paper into it, turning it around and around. I then dried it with my heat gun and stamped the Old Letter Writing Background. Finally I stamped that Metal flourish. I didn't use much Kraft, but I hope my twine counts:

The butterfly punch is Martha Stewart and the pearls are Prima Marketing.

Ok, off to eat our selfmade Pizza! Have a great day and thanks for visiting!

Hugs,

Vanessa

Get well soon

Happy Thursday! I just found out about a challenge blog called "The Shabby Tea Room" and the current challenge is so tempting that I had to make a card for it! And that prize is something that I am longing for! The October Afternoon Thrift Shop collection has been on my wishlist since I first saw it, but I put my bank account onto that won't-buy-any-more-supplies-diet, so I am not allowed to get it. I am keeping my fingers crossed for this yummy challenge! I combined the Polka Dot theme and the Tea theme to create this card:

I love my PTI "Tea for Two" set!! That cute plaid patterned paper is from Vinnie Pearce's digi kit "Sakura Sancutary Papers" and the polka dot paper is October Afternoon. Ribbon, button, cardstock and background text are PTI and the pearls are Prima Marketing.

Before I started cardmaking I never imagined that I would love pink one day. Before that I wasn`t a pink loving girly girl, but now I love it! So I decided to enter this card to the "A Passion for Papertrey" Your Favourite Colour Challenge, too. I love many colors and would not be able to decide on one.

I hope your day is fabulous and thanks for visiting!

Hugs,

Vanessa

How do you distress?...

Hi everybody! Sir Tim Holtz asked us to share our favorite distressing techniques and I had some fun playing with my beloved distress inks and my new Hero Arts stamps:

I used many techniques on my card. First, I stamped the background with Antique Linen and Spun Sugar, then I distressed the edges, inked them up with Walnut Stain and blended them softly with Old Paper. Then I dyed some seam binding with Spun Sugar:

And for the image, I stamped the gorgeous Hero Arts cling with Versamark, embossed it with cream Embossing powder and used Antique Linen, Old Paper, Spun Sugar and Walnut Stain ink to color it with small bits of foam.

The gems are Prima Marketing again:

I wish I had all the beautiful colors available! How do you distress? It's still time to play! I will enter this to the Hero Arts May Challenge, too. And because it fits so well (because of Tim Holtz), here are some photos I took in Bardolino on the antiquities market:

Have a fabulous day and thanks for visiting!

Hugs,

Vanessa

I am back!

Happy Tuesday! I am back home from Italy. And I am glad about that. I love Italy but that vacation wasn't very much fun. It was the first time we travelled with our little girl and she had problems with sleeping. I wasn't able to go anywhere when she was supposed to sleep. She wanted me to stay with her all the time and now we are back home she still isn't back to her normal sleeping routine. But I hope that'll change soon!

When I came back home there was a box of new Hero Arts stamps waiting for me! They were from my win of the Mother's Day challenge. I love to play with new stamps! Here is a card I made for this month's "Birthdays, Dads and Grads" Challenge, using this week's Cardpatterns Sketch:

This beautiful swirl stamp is stamped with Hero Arts' Soft Pool Shadow ink. This ink is one of my new favorites!

I hope I'll be able to catch up with you all soon! But I have to do a lot of stuff in the garden first. Yesterday I prepared the vegetable patch, dug out 7 large wheel barrows full of dirt to replace it with 7 large wheel barrows full of compost and planted zucchini and butternut. Today I mowed the lawn. It hurt to destroy that beautiful meadow full of wild flowers, but after Alyssa had a tick the very first day we arrived, I had to cut it down! But I took some photos before doing it:

I hope you are all well! There is still time to enter my give-away, I forgot to say how long it will be open, so I'll draw a winner next Monday (May, 31st)! Have a beautiful day and thank you for visiting!

Hugs,

Vanessa

First Blogiversary! And a give-away!

*Thanks for your sweet comments! Give-away is closed now*

Welcome sweet friends! Today is my first Blogiversary! And this is an autopost. I am in Italy at the moment :)

But I couldn't leave my blog without a post on this special day. When I decided to start a blog I never imagined that it would be so much fun and that I'd meet so many amazing people from all over the world! Your support and your comments mean very much to me and I am glad to know you! Sorry I don't have a card to share today, but a photo I took in our garden:

And how about a blogcandy? To say thank you, I am giving away a 25$ gift certificate from Papertrey Ink! To enter, please post about the candy and leave a comment here. Good luck!

Happy Monday and thanks for visiting!

Hugs,

Vanessa

A card for two challenges

Happy Wednesday! Just a quick post before we leave for a few days! I made a card using this week's CPS sketch and will enter it to the "Friends" Challenge on a "Passion for Papertrey".

The patterned paper and the brad are Pink Paislee, the stamps are Papertrey Ink, the pearls Prima Marketing. And I used another hand-dyed seam binding and cut into some of my old sheet music for the flower.

I hope I'll be able to access the Internet and will try to not miss too much! Although I will be mia for some days, I prepared an auto-post for Monday - be sure to stop by, it's a special day!

Have a great time and thanks for visiting!

Hugs,

Vanessa

Invited to Tea

Happy Mother's Day! Last night I went to bed too late, but my mojo was working well and I had so much fun creating this card for the Moxie Fab World challenge "Three Cheers For Chairs"! I wanted to create a little shabby chic card with a comfy looking couch:

The stamps are Papertrey Ink, the gorgeous papers and pearls are Prima Marketing. I hand-dyed this seam binding and love it! You'll see lots of hand-dyed seam binding here in the future :)

The beautiful fabric covered button was made by Nina (Danke Dir nochmal dafür, ich hätt Dich gestern knutschen können weil der so toll gepasst hat!).

You have until Monday to enter the Moxie Fab World Challenge - have some fun with chairs!

I hope you have a great Sunday and thanks for visiting!

Hugs,

Vanessa

Inspired by... Donna Downey

Happy Friday! Wow, so many days without blogging. But somehow life is in my way at the moment. The days go by so fast and I have too little time to get everything done... And Alyssa suddenly had this nettle rash and I am worried all the time, checking in on her every hour in the night if she is ok.

But enough of rambling! I am here to share a project. Inspired by the fabulous Donna Downey, I decided to create this shopping bag for my Mom for Mother's day:

For the flowers I used the Papertrey Ink Beautiful Blooms #1 die. I so love this die! And the butterfly is a Spellbinders die.

I wanted to stamp on the background, but I didn't have stamps large enough to look good and I wasn't sure about the right ink either...

Maybe I should unpack the bag again and iron it one more time - it looks so wrinkled on the photos :) Ok, I am off to bed! Hope you are all fine! Thanks so much for visiting and have a fabulous weekend!

Hugs,

Vanessa

Birthday Monkey

Happy Monday! Just a quick share before we leave for Playing Group. One of Alyssa's friends turned 2 and I needed a cute card. Vinnie's adorable "Cute & Wild" Kit was perfect for my needs and this week's Cardpatterns Sketch, too:

Sorry for the bad photo, it's raining all the time. The patterned paper is from the Cosmo Cricket Earth Love Collection. The sentiment, buttons and ribbon are Papertrey Ink.

Ok, I have to hurry! Have a fabulous day and thanks for visiting my friends!

Hugs,

Vanessa