7/27/2011

Make it Mondays - Coloring with white ink

Happy Wednesday! Today I am sharing a card I made using this week's technique from the Make it Mondays video. The PTI white snow ink is my favorite white ink, it just works so well on Kraft! Here is my card:



I have been enjoying bunches of sweet peas from our garden over the last days and just had to ink up my sweet peas stamp set. This technique makes the flowers look delicate, just like they should look like. The edges of the Kraft panel is inked with Walnut Stain distress ink and after stamping and coloring my image, I decided to stamp some text from the textstyle set around the sweet peas.


Another fun technique to try. I am really looking forward to every Monday because of the new videos then! To see the video of this week, just go here.

I hope you are all well! Looks like we will get some sunshine today! Yay! Thanks for visiting and have a beautiful day!

Hugs and Love,
Vanessa

Supplies:
Everything Papertrey Ink, except for:
Black, Brown Ink: Tsukineko, Ranger Industries
Marker: Copic
Pearls: Prima Marketing

7/26/2011

Stamp-a-faire Challenge #10

Happy Tuesday! I am really not sorry that Nichole's auto post for the Stamp-a-faire challenge #10 didn't go live in time :) This way I have one last chance to win the Ionic stamp set! So, last night I made this card:


I stamped a background with the Background Basics: Textstyle set, blended and inked the edges. Then I stamped those poppies using distress ink.



I wanted them to look watercolored and to have a little shine, so I cleaned the stamp and spritzed it with some pearl-colored Maya Road mist and stamped over the poppies again. Because the distress inks react to water, they blended nicely and now have a subtle shine:



I made another card last night to enter the Make it Mondays challenge, but I will post it tomorrow. I could go on stamping and stamping! Sigh.

Thanks for visiting! And have a beautiful day!

Hugs and Love,
Vanessa

Supplies:
Everything Papertrey Ink, except for:
Ink: Ranger Industries, Tsukineko
Mist: Maya Road
Other: Twine

7/25/2011

Papertrey Ink July Blog Hop Challenge

Happy Monday! I am back with a card for



Now, this is an inspiration I love! That photo is gorgeous! A new favorite color combo:



Here is my take:



Obviously, I used the colors. Then I did like the flowers on the pillow. The flower is colored with copics. Onto the leaves I stamped some text using Versamark ink. The ribbon is hand-dyed using Tattered Angels glimmer mist. Here is a close-up of the flower:



Hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by!

Have a beautiful day!

Hugs and Love,
Vanessa

Supplies:
Everything Papertrey Ink, except for:
Ink: Tsukineko
Doily Resist Paper: Pink Paislee
Glimmer Spray: Tattered Angels
Other: ribbon, twine, pearls

7/23/2011

Stamp-a-faire Challenge #5

Phew, card #3. For Challenge #5. Love this one, I think this will be a new favorite color combo! Here we go:


I used the lemon slice image from the Tea For Two Additions set to create a border, like I did for a card in the Paper Crafts Card Creations Vol. 8 issue, only this time I made them oranges.

Ok, off to fall asleep. Need to clean up my crafting space tomorrow. Speed card-making is very visible there...

Good Night!

Hugs,
Vanessa

Supplies:
Everything PTI, except for:
Orange, Yellow, Green Ink: Ranger Industries

Stamp-a-faire Challenge #3

Edited to add daylight photos and details

My second card for a Stamp-a-faire challenge. My entry for challenge #3:


I was playing around with the Turning a New Leaf set for the first challenge and ended up with this piece of stamped Kraft. Time was limited, so I used it for this card! The edges are inked with Walnut Stain distress ink. To make the focal point more interesting, I framed it with the little scalloped die-cut.




This was the light-tent photo:


I have to experiment with that light tent more often, here are too many shadows! Here is a close-up of the focal point:


Again, I'll add details tomorrow! Trying to get another card done before I fall asleep...

Hugs,
Vanessa

Supplies:
Everything Papertrey Ink, except for
Ink: Tsukineko, Ranger Industries
Pearls, Heart Buttons: Hero Arts

Stamp-a-faire Challenge #1

Happy Saturday! It's almost 10.30 pm here, so this is a quick post sharing a card for the Stamp-a-faire challenge! Here is my entry for challenge #1:

I'll add details tomorrow...

Hugs and Love,
Vanessa

7/22/2011

Echo Park Love and a Tutorial

Happy Friday! I hope your week has been great! This one will be a long, picture-heavy post! You'll get to see a cute box, a bright card and a mini album including a tutorial. Phew! Why? Because I have a new love! Echo Park Paper. I recently purchased some paper from the Country Drive Collection and love every little inch of it! Let's get started! I should have taken out the light tent because of our gloomy weather, but now it is too late. Tried my best to improve them with Ps. Project no. 1 - cute box:




I have a thing for little boxes and bags! Here I covered a plain white box with patterned paper. To make it look more interesting, I drew lines around the edges using a black marker. To add more dimension to the die-cut flowers, I curled their petals with a simple pencil:


Project no. 2 - bright card:


I love the bee hive pattern on this! And the bee theme reminded me of the Be Happy set from Hero Arts, so I used it here.

Now to project no. 3 - mini album. I've been planning to create lots of mini albums with all the adorable photos of my girl! Finally I made one. More to follow! Here it is:



I took photos of her while we played hide and seek in our garden and she showed the cutest facial expressions. I wanted to create a little album about that:




For the album, I mixed the patterned paper I had and some digital elements that are available here. The inside pages look like this (click to enlarge):





She is such a funny girl :) Now to the tutorial! That mini is made from a single, large, brown paper bag. I thought of ways to use all those paper bags I hoard and came up with this. Here is what it started with:



Beautiful. Ha!




So, first I cut 2 strips of about 4 1/4 " from the bag and ended up with these paper loops. Then I turned them inside out to hide the print. Next I folded them into half and trimmed them the size I wanted (6 " when fold into half). Then I sewed around the edges. Afterwards they looked like this:



Now I layered them:




And sewed through their middle:

Voilà, a recycled, inexpensive mini album base:



Easy, isn't it? I hope you liked my projects! I will have some more to share soon, because my head is spinning with ideas! And with all those amazing new collections being released now, I have to make room and use up some more paper! For now, thanks for visiting and have a beautiful day!

Hugs and Love,
Vanessa

Supplies:
Patterned Paper, Digital Elements: Echo Park Paper (Country Drive Collection)
Stamps: Hero Arts
Ink: Tsukineko, Ranger Industries
Buttons: Papertrey Ink
Dies: Sizzix, Spellbinders
Other: floss, pom-pom trim, black marker, white box, paper bag

7/20/2011

Make it Mondays and Moxie Fab World

Happy Wednesday! So, the birthday celebrations and weddings are over for now. Thanks for your sweet comments on the birthday post for my little girl! We had her friends here for a party on Monday, so it was quite busy here! And thanks to all of you who voted for me at the Gallery Idol! I am sorry that the contest was over for me so soon. It was a lot of fun! But now I can sit back and relax watching what the other girls come up with! They are amazing! Last night I made a card using this week's Make it Mondays' technique and I thought I'd combine it with the Moxie Fab World challenge Fanatical About Botanical. Oh, I love the botanical theme! Here is the card:


First I die-cut the seed packet from Kraft. Then I used a dry brush to apply the white acrylic paint. The text is stamped with Fresh Snow ink. The larkspur is colored with copics.



I have to use acrylic paint more often. I own some! So, to find the video and the Make it Mondays contest, just go here and to join the Moxie Fab World challenge, go here.

I am wishing you a happy and dry day (it has been raining here for about 20 hours now)! Thanks for visiting!

Hugs and Love,
Vanessa

Supplies:
Everything Papertrey Ink, except for:
Black Ink: Tsukineko
Acrylic Paint: Lascaux
Other: Ribbon, Twine

7/15/2011

Happy Birthday Alyssa!

Today my sweet little girl is turning 3. Already!?! When we went into her bedroom to sing Happy Birthday this morning, I had to hide my tears from her. I am so sentimental because she is no baby any more, because she is 3 already. Stupid, isn't it? There, I am crying again! Ok, so this is a photo-only-post. Sharing some pictures I made today:




I got the idea for this one from Pinterest. There was a baby lying next to his name written with chalk. I made that 3 last night when she was lying in bed to surprise her. She loved it. Here she is telling me how old she is now:



And here is one from the evening when we enjoyed some time snuggling:


Now some things for me to remember:

Some days you drive me crazy (and you are good at that!) but most of the time you are sweet and fun and clever! I am so proud of you! When you are talking to me you use long sentences already, like recently: "Mama, Dad told me that the builder went away to get something to eat, but we made the cinnamon rolls, they should eat these!" You always amaze me when you come up with sentences like this! You love singing. And you do remember the words very well. Although you sometimes prefer to sing imaginary words. You are able to give a whole concert without using a single existing word. You are my little artist. Painting and drawing is your favorite occupation at the moment. And cutting with scissors. You love noodle soup. And noodles. And ice-cream. And galia melon. And the raspberries in our garden. I am thankful that you are reasonable with sweets. You know that you can have a piece of chocolate and then it is enough. And you are ok with that. You can show sympathy very well. Like everytime I bump myself. Which happens very often. You like strawberries on your clothes. They are always your first choice there. You can be very stubborn. Very loud. And very silent and shy. But also very outgoing. You like going to our pediatrician. Breathing deeply like a pro when it comes to listening to your chest. You love visit. But when you have enough you have no problems telling them to go home.

I love you my sweetest girl! You mean everything to me!

Happy Happy Birthday!

Mama

7/14/2011

Make it Mondays - It's a girl

Happy Thursday! Before I get to today's project, just a friendly reminder that today is the last day to vote for my card to help me make the next round of Gallery Idol 2011! PLEASE vote if you haven't already. If you have, thank you so very much! To vote, just click onto the card shown in the top left corner. THANKS
Now the project. Last night I made a card for this week's Make it Mondays challenge. I had some fun playing with new stamps. Here it is:



That stamp set is so cute! Here is a closer look:



I am glad I got the picket fence die. It just works so well with this set! If you are interested in the video/challenge about making the little pockets, you will find it here.

Thank you for visiting and have a beautiful day!

Hugs,
Vanessa

Supplies:
Everything Papertrey Ink, except for:
Ink: Tsukineko, Ranger Industries
Polka Dot Paper: Basic Grey
Other: Twine

7/13/2011

Her Invitations

Happy Wednesday! My daughter will be turning 3 on Friday ( I will spare you the whining about how fast they grow until then!). We will be having a party for the kids on Monday, and these are the invitations I made:


Alyssa loves pinwheels and I think they are fun, so I used them here. And that Curly Alphabet stamp set from Hero Arts is just perfect for kid's stuff! I thought you might like to see how I made the pinwheels. Here is not a step-by-step tutorial, but an all-in-one-photo tutorial (click to enlarge):



Great that these invitations fit this month's Hero Arts challenge, too! Ha. And I might have mentioned it before and I might be getting on your nerves, but I would really really love to make the next round of Gallery Idol 2011! Please vote for me - just click onto the photo of my card in the top left corner. I know that registration thing is a bit annoying, but it would be soo nice of you!

Ok, ok, I will leave you for today. Thank you so much for stopping by! And for everything. And have a beautiful day!

Hugs,
Vanessa

Supplies:
Cardstock, Polka Dot Paper, Die: PTI
Stamps: Hero Arts
Grid Paper: Basic Grey
Ink: Tsukineko
Other: Baker's Twine, Brads, Straws

7/12/2011

Hero Arts Digital Die-Cuts

Happy Tuesday! I am still trying to calm down after all the excitement, but it is difficult. I am a bit confused at the moment and my mind is not very organized. Too many things swirling around in my head! I am glad that I don't have to go to work this week, I would be useless there! So, today I have a cute shirt and a card to share. I love that Hero Arts is offering digital die-cuts for some of their stamps now. And although I don't own the adorable Three Silhouettes stamps, I am glad I bought the digi die-cuts! They look great on their own and because I can resize them just the way I want, I can do some more things. Look how I used one of them here:


I ironed a fabric backing to some cute striped fabric and die-cut a larger version of this silhouette to apply to my girl's shirt. She loves it! Here are larger views:




Really cute, isn't it? And to not waste anything, I just used the negative space as a mask and created this card:



Onto the background I stamped the Classic Fabric Design with Antique Linen Distress Ink, then I layed on the mask and applied the Walnut Stain Distress Ink to create the silhouette. That paper flower is another one made from Japanese Tissue Paper like shown in the tutorial from the previous post. The seam binding is hand-died with some black tea. Really easy and I love the softness!

I hope you like it! I will enter both projects to this month's Hero Arts challenge. You'll find all the details about it here. And if you happen to like me, I would love for you to vote for my card for the Gallery Idol 2011! Just click onto the card shown in the top left corner and you'll be taken to the gallery. You can register with facebook or quickly register without. Thank you

Have a beautiful day and thanks for visiting!

Hugs,
Vanessa

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics
Stamps: Hero Arts, PTI
Ink: Tsukineko, Ranger Industries
Digi Die-Cut: Hero Arts
Die-Cuts: PTI, Sizzix
Buttons: PTI
Other: shirt, fabric, seambinding, cutest little girl

7/11/2011

So much excitement!

Happy Monday!!! So, about all the excitement. This is a picture-heavy post. There will be a card, a tutorial, some pleading and an adorable little creature.

The excitement started on Friday when I found out that I made it to the Paper Crafts Gallery Idol 2011 Top 20!!! Squeal! Many of my sweet friends congratulated already and it means so much to me to see that they are happy for me! So, thank you so much for your support and for not begrudging me this! You can't imagine how much I appreciate it!

This weekend I created my card for the next round of this contest. The theme is selfmade embellishments. I love creating diy embellies, so I loved this theme! The only problem was to decide which one to make! I decided to create flowers, because who doesn't love flowers? And I wanted them to look delicate and elegant. Here is the result:


And a close-up of the flowers:


I really hope you like them! I will show you how I made them in a minute, but first the pleading :) Will you pleeeeeaaaase vote for my card??? I need your help to make it to the next round. Only the 15 cards with the most votes will make it. So now it is your turn to decide what you like best! If you like my card, please go here and vote! Or go here and read more about how to vote. Pretty please? THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Ok, now the tutorial! The flowers are made from Japanese Tissue Paper and I used the Sizzix Alterations die-cut from Tim Holtz called Tattered Flowers:



That Japanese Tissue Paper is more expensive than a normal tissue paper, but it's worth it! It is not tearing and just works great here! Trim 5 layers of the paper and die-cut through all of them:


Your flowers will look like this:


Then go ahead, don't be restrained, and do this to them:



Flatten them again:


And then stack them, but not neatly petal onto petal, but a bit shifted (I hope this is the correct word!):


Finally, take a threaded needle and some pearls and assemble your flower sewing the pearls to the center. Just crumple the petals like you want them to be and voilà!


For the white flower I used the two smallest flower dies together and for the cream flower I used the PTI die from the Beautiful Blooms set. Really easy and I love how they turned out! You could use these on an adorable headband or as a brooch as well.


And now to the cute little creature. I can tell you, my little heart almost broke on Saturday! In the morning I was sitting here with my little girl and we had the window open. I thought our neighbor's dog had this annoying, squeaking toy again, because there was a noise that just didn't stop. Then I went to close the window because I wanted to take a shower when I saw a little fawn trapped between the fences of our neighbor's and our garden! It was the little fawn crying for his mother all the time. I rushed downstairs, brought my girl to my MIL and ran outside (still in my PJ's). It had already freed himself but was now inside our neighbor's garden, completly confused and not knowing how to find a way out. Then it started running towards the street!!! I didn't know if our neighbor had closed her gate, so I desperately ran around the house, onto the street and into the neighbor's lot. Luckily she had closed the gate! Now it was standing there, a really tiny fawn, crying for his mother over the fence:



It already panicked when it saw me, so I called the neighbor (a lady of about 83 years) to tell her not to come out. What to do now? The only way out of the lot was this gate which led to the heavily trafficked street. I have no idea how it got in, maybe through a little gap in the fence, but there was no chance of getting it back through there again. I tried to call a forester, but no one answered the phone. So I called the police. Two really friendly officers arrived after a while. They never had such a situation before! But the only way to help the fawn was to catch it and get it back over the fence. It was heartbreaking to see that tiny panicked creature fleeing and throwing itself against the fence! I was scared that it would hurt itself. Here it desperately ran towards the gate after the police officer had first tried to get it:



But then it all worked well! It tried to hide behind the compost heap and the officer was able to capture it and lift it over the fence where the mother was waiting. Whew! It was so nice to see that the officers were touched by this little fawn, too! They were very relieved and happy that everything went well!

Ok. LOOOONG post. But I wanted to share this with you. Thank you for reading! And thank you for visiting. And thank you for voting if you like my card!!!

Hugs,
Vanessa

Supplies:
Paper: Bazzil Basics
Stamp: Hero Arts
Ink: Tsukineko
Dies: Sizzix, PTI
Small Pearls: Prima Marketing
Other: Japanese Tissue Paper, Wax Pearls