Simon Says: Gift It

We all hit a dry spell every now and then, right? Well, trying to get my feet wet again with card making (and blogging), so here it goes for Simon Says: Gift It -challenge!

This is a specially made shaker card for twins with their initials on the card. 

I used Simon Says Stamps "Tiny Ray of Sunshine" -stampset and corresponding "Baby Clothes & Crib" die-set from a couple of years back for the card.

It seems my old linking tool had disabled thumbnail images for free subscribers, so I guess I'll skip it for now.

Simon Says: Happy Birthday!

The Simon Says Wednesday challenge blog calls for a Happy birthday -card. I went for the masculine-type from kraft-cardstock, and the funny Clearly Besotted Stamps "Super Dad" -dies.

The cardstock is embossed with the Diamond Plate - Sizzix embossing folder. The strip on the side is made through the Harlequin Layering Stencil and Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain and Black Soot -inks with the new mini ink blending tools. I really love those! Much easier to do smaller areas.

I diecut the shirt from black cardstock and the tie from white, and raised them up with 3d-foam squares.

The congratulations-text is stamped with and old stamp set from Lawn Fawn: Harold's ABCs and lifted up with some 3d-foam squares.

*PREORDER Ranger 12"" x 12"" KRAFT CARDSTOCK Inkssentials Surfaces ISM35251 *PREORDER S5-174 Spellbinders A2 DISTRESSED EDGES Nestabilities Card Creator Dies NEW 2013 *Clearly Besotted SUPER DAD DIE COLLECTION Thin Metal Dies *VersaFine ONYX BLACK Ink Pad Pigment *Tim Holtz Distress Ink PAD VINTAGE PHOTO Brown Ranger *Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD WALNUT STAIN Brown Ranger *Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD BLACK SOOT Ranger *Tim Holtz Layering Stencil HARLEQUIN THS016 *Tim Holtz Sizzix DIAMOND PLATE & RIVETED METAL Texture Fades Embossing Folders 657848

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Kraft cards

I made a couple of clean and simple kraft-cards with Simon Says Stamp's hexagon die. I paperpieced the hexagons with Prima's Engraver and Craftsman -papers and stamped "gratulerer" with Lawn Fawn's Harold's ABCs -alphabet set.

Muutama clean and simple -tyylin kraft-kortti, joissa käytin Simon Says Stampin kuusikulmio-stanssia. Stanssasin palat myös Priman Engraver ja Craftsman -paperilehtiöistä ja "gratulerer" teksti on Lawn Fawnin Harold's ABC -aakkossetillä leimattu.

*Simon Says Stamp HEXAGONS Dies S186 PRIMA: ENGRAVER PAPER PAD 845643 - 6X6 Prima - Craftsman Collection - 845063 - Craftsman 6x6 Inkssentials - Kraft Cardstock 12x12" KaiserCraft - Clear Stamps CS839 - Sears & Son Cosmic Shimmer True White Detail Emboss Powder VersaMark Watermark Stamp Pad Archival Inks: SEPIA Papirdesign - Perler - Brun Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Walnut Stain Tim Holtz Alterations - Movers & Shapers - Mini Mustache & Pointed Finger We R MemoryKeepers: Crop-a-dile - Corner Chomper

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Ventures into art journaling

I've been gathering courage to start with art journaling, and here's my first spread in the smaller Dylusions journal. I definitely needed help starting out, so I got some books on Kindle. This is based on Sue Bleiweiss' The Sketchbook Challenge.

I'll also enter with this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday-challenge for "Make your own background".

First I die cut some circle-shapes and glued them down with matte medium. The basecoat is teal acrylic paint, which I then coated with quinacridone nickel azo gold wash (yes yes, a total Donna Downey ripoff). I added some stenciling with light modeling paste, and then realized it should've been under all the paint, so I had to paint it again with teal (live and learn). After that I used Simon Says Stamp Lots of dots - stamp set to stamp both the open circles with Archival in Watering can (great grey!) and the filled in circles with Distress Paint in Seedless Preserves.

I used Unity's Layers of Life november 2013 kit in a couple of places too, in Archival sienna. The shading around the diecut circles was made with different Big Brush pens, and the doodling with various black and white pens. When you compare this photo to the full spread, you don't see any of the big shiny (white) splotches on the diecuts. That is because of it being pearlescent acrylic I spead on the circles and it only catches light in certain angles.

Stamped some gesso with bubble wrap and dripped some Dylusions in black marble on top.Shaded around the pages with some Big Brush too.

Had I gone for the traditional approach here I would've added some quotes, but I very seldom come across a quote I personally feel like fits me - unless you count Demotivational...

I'm really happy with the right page, not so much with the left one.

Simon Says Wednesday - Anything goes!

Simon Says Wednesday challenge calls for "Anything goes" for this round. I finally got myself some proper silver embossing powder (ZING!) to try out heat embossing diecuts that I've seen around blogs / YouTube. I diecut the Movers & Shapers snowflakes from heavy 300g mixed media paper, covered them in Versamark and in embossing powder, heated them, and repeated the process for a nice thick layer of silver. Loving it!

The background looks a bit "dirty", but that's just Perfect Pearls mist which pooled on couple of spots. In real life it's nice and shiny. The dry embossing on the background is made with Couture Creations Intrinsic -folder.

Simon Says keskiviikkohaasteessa on aihe vapaa. Ostin hopeanväristä kohokuviointijauhetta, jotta pääsin vihdoin kokeilemaan blogeissa / YouTubessa näkemääni stanssikuvioiden "metallisointia". Movers & Shapers lumihiutaleet saivat ensin kerroksen Versamarkia ja sitten ZING!:in hopeajauhetta, sulatus ja sen jälkeen toinen kerros päälle. Aivan mahtavan sileä lopputulos, tykkään!

Kuvassa näyttää siltä kuin tausta olisi likainen, mutta suihkuttelin sen Perfect Pearlsin mistillä ja sitä kerääntyi joihinkin kohtiin niin, että se kameran kautta näyttää omituiselta. Taustan kohokuviointi on tehty Couture Creationsin Intrinsic -kohokuviointikansiolla.

American Crafts Zing! METALLIC SILVER Embossing Powder VersaMark Watermark Stamp Pad Couture Creations Premium Universal Embossing Folder - Intrinsic Sizzix - Tim Holtz Alterations - Movers & Shapers - Mini Snowflake set Perfect Pearls Mists: PERFECT PEARL We R MemoryKeepers: Crop-a-dile - Corner Chomper

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Simon Says Monday / Freshly Made Sketches #101

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog called for "Dotty" and Freshly Made Sketches #101 had a following layout:

You know when sometimes you just don't feel it? I still haven't learned to just LEAVE it... So I did finish this, even though I am not happy with the end result.

I used my new My Favorite Things Washi Tape clear stamps and dies, Visible Images stamp and Hero Arts Shadow Inks. The hearts are diecut with Simon Says Stamp exclusive HOLIDAY SHAPES Hearts Stars Craft Die S131 and covered with magenta Stickles and circled with Signo Uni-Ball white. There's some colorless glitter glue (a local Stickles-copy) on the banners and some half pearls that were the last ones one an old pack.

Simple kraft-card / Allsorts #217 and Simon Says Wednesday

I've been following the amazing Kristina Werner on YouTube for some time now, and she makes the most beautiful cards that are deceptively simple. I love her style and tried for the first time some of the things she's shown in her videos, like die cutting the actual cardstock, rounded corners and doing dashlines.

Allsorts Challenge for week 217 called for "Kraft It" and Simon Says Wednesday Challenge is "anything goes", so here is my combined entry:

I used Ranger Kraft -cardstock and made a 4x5 inch cardbase. The butterfly is die cut with Simon Says exclusive Chrissy butterfly -die (can't add this in the Inlinkz because I have a free account there) and embossed with Couture Creations Intrinsic -embossing folder. One of the little wing ends came off as the embossing folder "ate" it, so I cut both off and you can see the white backing paper I glued on the inside of the card. The embossed pattern is shaded with DI in Victorian Velvet. The paper is from old Basic Grey "Urban Prairie" 6x6 stack and punched with equally old EK border punch. The paper is distressed with Victorian Velvet as well, and the white dashlines are made with my brand spanking new Uni-Ball Signo that everyone raves over. Yeah, it IS a lot better than Sakura Gelly Roller, the ink flows out much smoother. Finally the corners are rounded with the 1/2 inch corner chomper.