Steampunk?

Good afternoon everyone! Hope you're feeling fine and have a good week ahead of you. We are celebrating Midsummer Eve here in Sweden on Friday and hopefully it will be a nice day. But to be honest it almost always rain. LoL I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hope for the best. I do look forward to seeing some of my family during this day. It's the best part.

The weekend was really wet and I kind of struggled with my Bronto phobia. And for you who don't know what that is; it's unnatural fear of thunder. And no it doesn't even have to be going on at the moment. For me it's actually worse before it starts. I was a bit more successful this time with breaking given pattern in my mind but it's so much energy that goes to waste. Still I managed fairly well this time, kind of proud of myself. :)

(The browns are the same all over the card but it wouldn't show...)

Now, facing another fear of mine, steam punk cards! That is really not my style at all. But I showed you a card made very simple a few weeks back with a really cool dog from Kenny K and that's why I decided to take part in this weeks challenge over at Crafty Card Makers. At least I got to colour the dog up again. I don't have much stuff that can relate to steam punk in my stash so I kind of made my own version of it. Brass is something that I only had just a little of and reading about the steam punk and what's connected to it. Brass is a big thing, well I settle for gold, some cogwheel, metal charms, embossing and lots of brown and grey to that. I am not sure what to think about the result, but I am proud to have taken part. I hope you will go ahead and join us in this challenge as it really is a challenge, well at least for me. The doggy is coloured with my Letraset family by the way.

And this is what our challenge post of this periods challenge says in a shorter version.

"Welcome to our latest challenge, hosted by Julie who has chosen the theme 'Steampunk'

If you need an idea of what Steampunk is we have a definition here 

We are sponsored by
DI'S DIGISTAMPS

 with a

$10 GIFT VOUCHER

and
 THE STAMPMAN

 We are kindly sponsored for this challenge by The Stampman (and Lady of course!) who are ofering the winner a £10 voucher for their store, you can spend this online, or if you're lucky enough to see them at a show!  They have a ton of items in store, enough to tickle any crafty taste bud."

Have fun and come and join us for this challenge. Quite a challenge but that's what life is all about, getting challenged from time to time. And it actually is a good thing, what else could make you learn something new about yourself or life itself?

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for this card
Make it Monday - Always anything goes
Cards for Men - Boys will be boys
Creative Creations Challenges - For dad / masculine
Eureka Challenges - Anything goes
Dream Valley Challenges - Fathers day / Male theme
Joanna Sheen Challenges - Fathers day / male theme

Such a long time

Hello dear friends. I am finally back again. Seems like I'm always trying to catch up with everything. It has been two very long weeks in my life. First got the big bad flu, and to top it off I got a really bad ear infection that made on of my ears bleed for more than a week. And it kept doing it even if I took my antibiotics like a good gal. :) Tomorrow I have to call the doctor again as it's still painful. Even if the ear hurts like crazy even after almost two weeks, I feel better. How great isn't that?

I have the big challenge week ahead of me now but I thought I would pop in a card that I made last night, and I mean night, as I couldn't sleep before 05,30 this morning. I found some left over paper (from Panduro) laying around and I was not really sure what to do with them, but realized that I need to try to make different shaped cards as I have made very few of those. The thing is I don't have any big dies for this, so this card is a mini version, but hey, it works.

I played around with some round dies from Sizzx this time and used up those scrap pieces. I added some lace to a black piece of dp and got that across the card, that way I got a little more space to add some embellishments. The image is from Sugar Nellie and I love how she turned out. She is coloured with my Letraset family and some tiny strokes of Prisma pencils to add a little shadowing.

I had such blast making up the flowers for this card. There is plenty of them and I played with some pearl strings as well, and these gave some hight to it all. Some lace, a tiny feather and other flower embellishments is added to the mix. The butterfly charm is from my dear friend Annelie. Thanks! It's perfect here. :) Anyway, thanks for looking, see you back tomorrow.

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for this card
Passion for Promarkers - Round cards
Joanna Sheen Challenges - Layer it up
Kenny K Challenges - Lace and pearls (I didn't use a KK image for this card but I thought I could play along anyway)
The Sugar bowl - Anything goes
I love Promarkers - Lace or pearls (Using both here on my little creation)

Christmas Challenges with sketches

Hi there! Have you done all your Christmas shopping yet? Was out today and nearly finished. Yeay! Managed to get a card done as well and this is made after a sketch from Christmas Challenges with sketches.The back ground of the image looks a bit shady in the photo but is really light blue IRL.  Probably have to retake this photo later on but it was more important to get the card in, and up in time.

I have used an image from the Paper shelter called Carol Singers, the most lovely image from the Shelters winter and Christmas images this year. Adore it. Have paired it up with some designer papers from Papermania called "Home for Christmas" if I am correct. This card will be put on a little box with some chocolates for my youngers' kids teacher later on tonight when the kids are asleep and I can be left alone, and then there is just one more to put together. But as I know that I am running out of time here I will use a card made earlier for this last project.

Quite a few punches is used here, like a M.S punch for snow flakes to the left, a few dies from Magnolia and Memory box for borders and other details. Flowers from WOC, pearls from Rox Stamps and some liquid pearls from Rangers.

Ok, time to crash. I am so tired and I still have to get the Christmas decorations up, maybe some today and the rest tomorrow?

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for this card
Christmas Challenges with sketches - sketch
Joanna Sheen - With love at Christmas
The Squirrel and the Fox - Christmas
One Stop Craft Challenges - Distressed Christmas (wet with inks on my card)

More of that Christmas spirit

Hi there! Hope you had a good week so far. Myself is preparing to have the window cleaners over tomorrow so everything in the windows has to go. Thank you God for not having me clean the windows as well. LoL Can you believe that we only have about a month before we go in to the Christmas week, again? This year has really passed by so quickly, and this is the best time of the year. Don't you think?

I have a good collection of Christmas cards by now but there is still a few to make and here comes one of them. We have the theme of snowflakes over at the new challenge of the Bearly Mine Challenges. Nice and easy challenge I'm guessing. I have used a image from Wee Stamps by Sylvia Zet, very cute and lovely. Last year I used this image for a scrapbook page that I made about the snow we got in November and stayed to the end of March the year after. It's cute and lovely. She is coloured with my Prisma pencils for a change. Have realized that I do much better coloring with them when I don't have a lot of pain in my arms and are more relaxed.

Ok, for my card's decorations have I used some half pearls, snow flakes made with dies from Whimsy stamps and Martha Stewart punches. A ribbon is also used. My designer papers are of course from Bearly Mine Designs and are from two sets: Pastel Christmas and Winter Swirl. I do hope that you will come on over to the challenge and join us for this weeks challenge. Silver mirri board is also used for the snow flakes and that's why my photo wont really work for me.

Sponsors do we have this week as well and this time we have the lovely people from I am Roses as a sponsor and they are offering a gift voucher worht $35 to spend in their store as a price. Isn't that just wonderful?

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for this card
Make it Monday - Anything goes
Glitter n Sparkle Challenges - Lots of layers
Joanna Sheen Challenges - Cold and Frosty
The Crafty Pad - Christmas

Good afternoon!

Hello and welcome to a new week here with me. Hope you are doing fine and have had a lovely weekend. As I am still having trouble with my shoulders I spend as little time as I can by the PC, but I miss it too much and can't help myself. LoL So still tons of pain and fighting the health insurance office, not taking those two in to count it's a good day. You see, positive thinking! I like it. It's almost as good as gratefulness. Have you been grateful for what you have around you today? If not, it's time to start that thought now.

This card of mine is made with a lovely digi image from Sweet and Sassy. It's called autumn collage and I just love it. I have managed to fool my laser printer this time and got it printed on water coloring paper. Coloured have I done with distress inks in wonderful rich lovely autumn colours. My designer papers are from Bo Bunny. The flowers was white in an earlier life, I recoloured them with my Letraset family. Some golden corners, a piece of film strip and golden pearls are my decorations for this card. I took inpiration for the card design from a sketch provided from CLP challenges, the sketch is an older one.

Milk coffee Digital Stamps
Cute digis for cute creations 

This is also my first card for the Crafty Card Makers. I am so pleased to have joined this wonderful team. A whole bunch of new crafty friends. Thank for having me! I hope you pop on over to the challenge blog and come and join us in our theme of Autumn or Autumn festivals. And since this is a card made to inspire you at our new challenge over at Crafty card Makers, there is also a sponsor and that is Milk Coffee Digital stamps, be sure to pay them a visit.

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for this card
Make it Monday - Always anything goes
Challenges 4 everybody - Anything goes
Joanna Sheen - Autumn Breez
Stempel Sonne - Fall

Life by the sea side

For at least a year or so have I had a whole bunch of stamps from Joanna Sheen just laying around. I love them to bits but I have been in no mood to colour with distress inks or water colours. Well, that was until my kids asked for a whole bunch of cards for their teachers at kinder garten. I was foolish enough to start that tradition at Christmas time a few years back when I didn't like the fact that the kitchen staff and cleaning staff didn't get anything when all the teachers got a little gift from the kids. So now each semester ends with me making at least 10 cards for the kids favourite staff at kindergarten. Lucky for me that includes their teachers too. LoL

So here comes number 2 of the ten cards I made, and seven of the cards was made using the Joanna Sheen range of Faye Whittaker stamps. The 1st was the card shown for the challenge over at the Paper Shelter earlier this week.

This card is made with the FW stamp, coloured with distress inks and markers. Gosh! those markers are really handy when it comes to skin colours. Love them for that. When I have a few more of them I might even like them better. So easy to bring out in the garden to paint with, maybe not the garden... The designer papers are from Maja design Skärgårdsliv. They came out last year and eveyone got nuts about them. Me too, so much that I didn't use them even if I bought double sets of them.

I will enter this card to the following challenges
Card Makin Mamas - Red white and blue
Chocolate, Coffee and cards - Anything goes
Emergency Crafters - Summer Sun
Joanna Sheen Challenges - Summer Daze

Love n hugs
Marie