29.10.2010

An awesome RAK from Kathy aka Canadianscrappergirl

I got a parcel today and I wanted to share it with you. Kathys YT channel can be found here. She's a fabulous scrapper as well as a kind person.




Thank you Kathy!

26.10.2010

Sketch Saturday #126

I was ordered two Christmas cards for small boys aged 1 and 7. Because I was especially told they were for boys I automaticly began to make them blue. I'm boring that way.



The first card was made with Sketch Saturday sketch #126. Of course I had to use all the new things I bought yesterday from Paprus and Sinooperi. Papers are from KARS X-mas Collection and DCWV Winter Matstack. Board strip was done with Cuttlebug Christmas border embossing folder.

This was my first try on coloring with Distress Inks. I'm a bit afraid of brushes ( that's why I've ended up using ProMarkers rather than Copic markers) and I never thought I could succeed this well even this was an easy stamp to color.


This little fellow just got a colorful scarf colored with ProMarkers and some slight shading. I put the three layers together with 3D-stickers. Papers are from the same DCWV stack than the ones in the first cards. I stamped some snowflakes on the backround with Versamark and embossed them with Ranger Embossing Tingle. I coated the cut snowflake the same way.

23.10.2010

...And I Brought Some Corn for Popping...

I was feeling all christmasy yesterday and ended up singing some carols and making a few cards.

Before I say anything else about this card I must tell, that I'm totally in love with my Tea green ProMarker. I don't know why but it seems to be always the first marker I take from my box.

Anyways... this simple card was made by using Inkadinkado stamps stamped with Versamark and embossed with silver embossing tinsel by Ranger. I added just a tad of color with that Tea green just mentioned to the bubbles and edges. The paper beneath is by my favourite brand, Cosmo Cricket.

I made a bead charm and attached it to braided silver floss. Even I do like those star beads I made a mental note to find some snowflake charms. If you've seen some, winks are welcome!

This simple card was maid mainly to test that stamp. I found it from Tiimari, a local craft chain which isn't too known for quality. I was quite amazed to find such a nice image from there.

I added some color with ProMarkers and some glitter with Sakura gel pens, stamped a few Inkadinkado snowflakes on the sides and added red cardstock ground for all three bits. Then became the hard part: finding a suitable strip of paper underneath. I'm still haven't done any actual Christmas material shopping and I didn't seem to have any suitable patterned paper. I ended up using a K&Company floral paper and hoping the pattern is too small for anyone to pay special attention to.


The last card from yesterday is featuring Door Sniffer, 11th of 13 Icelandic Yule Lads. Here he's smelling Christmas fragrances, mainly spruce. For a start I embossed green and cream cardstock with Sizzix embossing plates. Then I cut the frame with Nellie's multiframe die and distressed all green edges with Peeled paint adn cream edges with Vintage photo Distress Inks.

Then comes the non-human part. I made the cones with small punched flowers and Glossy Accent. They came out nice but took so much time that I will think twice before making them ever again. Especially when after I was almost done I found small pine cones for 10 cents a bag. I was too stubborn to buy them at that point :D

I cut some twigs with Joy!Craft -die and put the whole branch together with Glossy accent.

21.10.2010

P*skarteluhaaste #62

This weeks challenge in P*skarteluhaaste was bingo. I chose a line distressing - gold - button and put them in a vintage-spirited Christmas card. Picture I used was uploaded from The Graphics Fairy.


I used Tim Holz Rusted Enamel -technique for blue backround paper with Stormy Sky and Vintage Photo Distress Inks. Gold patterned paper got distressed edges as well as the white glimmery backround. What I did in the backround was that first I stamped and embossed the greeting. Then I stamped the mistletoes with Stormy Sky, added some shading with Tea green ProMarker and put some glossy accent on the berries. Then I added some homemade gold and pearl sparkling glimmer mist on the whole paper and distressed the edges. For card base I used brown cardstock run over with Vintage Photo inkpad.

I also made another bingo challenge card for vintage-challenge in Koukussa Kortteihin. The row I used for it was heart - 3 flowers - brown. Again I used The Graphics Fairy for picture, only this time I uploaded two files and combined them.


19.10.2010

Coffee Filter Rose Tutorial / Suodatinpussiruusututoriaali

I accidentally came up with the roses in my last post. I promised to write a tutorial on them so here it is. Picture quality is quite poor but I hope you manage to see what's going on in them. If not, don't be afraid to ask!

Lupasin kirjoittaa ohjeen vahingossa syntyneille ruusuilleni. Tässäpä se. Kännykameran kuvanlaatu on melko huono mutta toivottavasti hahmotatte mitä kuvissa tapahtuu. Jollette, kysykää ihmeessä!


At first we need to dye two white coffee filters. I chose Distress Inks in Antique Linen and Dusty Corduroy for this flower. You will also need water in mister. I also added some Glimmer mist in the mix.

Ensimmäiseksi värjätään kaksi valkoista suodatinpussia. Valitsin väreiksi Distress Inkien Antique linen ja Dusty corduroy. Lisäksi tarvitaan vettä sumutinpullossa. Minä lisäsin veden kaveriksi muutaman suihkauksen Glimmer Mistiä.


Rub ink on your craft sheet and add some water on it. You can also add Glimmer Mist, Perfect Pearls or whatever your favourite glimmer happens to be. Note that coffee filters absorb quite a lot of water.

Hiero mustetyynyjä suoraan alustalle. Lisää vettä ja halutessasi Glimmer Mistiä, Perfect Pearlsia tai muuta vastaavaa. Huomaa, että suodatinpussit imevät paljon vettä.


Set your coffee filter on the mess and move or press them until they're completely dyed and wet on both sides.

Aseta suodatinpussit sotkun päälle ja liikuttele tai painele niitä kunnes molemmat puolet ovat värjääntyneet ja vettyneet.


Dry the filters. If they aren't completely dry, glue won't stick to them.

After they're dry, cut 14 similar flowers. I used Tattered Florals -die from Sizzix but you can use any die or floral punch you want. Or scissors of course.

Kuivaa pussit aivan kuiviksi. Voit avittaa kuumailmapuhaltimella tai hiustenkuivaajalla. Jos paperi ei ole täysin kuivaa, liima ei pidä.

Leikkaa sitten papereista tavalla tai toisella 14 samankokoista kukkaa. Itse käytän Tattered Florals -stanssia. Kahdesta suodatinpussista saa ainekset pieneen ja toiseksipienimpään kukkaan kun asettelee oikein tarkasti. Voit kuitenkin käyttää mitä tahansa kukkastanssia, leikkuria tai ihan vain saksia.


Fold 13 flowers in half. If you have even number of petals, don't make them meet.

Taita 13 kukkaa puoliksi. Jos kukassasi on parillinen määrä terälehtiä, taita mieluummin siten, että terälehdet eivät kohtaa.


Now you have 13 folded flowers and an unfolded one. At this point you can put them in color order as you wish. The unfolded one is going to be the bottom of the flower.

Nyt sinulla on 13 taitettua kukkaa ja yksi kokonainen. Tässä vaiheessa voit järjestää ne värin mukaan kuten haluat. Kokonainen kukka liimataan viimeiseksi ja se jää kukan pohjalle.


Take one folded flower and add some glue on it according to the red line. I use Ranger Glossy Accent.

Ota ensimmäinen taitettu kukka ja levitä siihen ohut vana liimaa punaisen viivan osoittamaan muotoon. Itse käytän Rangerin Glossy Accentia joka kuivuu pieninä määrinä nopeasti.


Glue the second folded flower as shown in the picture. Add some glue on the second one in similar manner than the first and add third folded flower as the red arrow points. Continue as long as you have folded flowers. They should be forming a kind of a spiral.

Be careful not to smear glue all over or you'll get one big lump of flowers.

Liimaa toinen puolikas kuvan osoittamalla tavalla kiinni ensimmäiseen. Levitä liimaa ensimmäisen vaiheen tapaan toiseen kukkaan ja liimaa kolmas kukka kiinni. Jatka tätä kunnes kaikki taitetut kukat on kiinnitetty. Taitetut kukat muodostavat keskenään spiraalimaisen kuvion. Varo, ettei liima leviä tarkoitetun alueen yli tai tuloksena on spiraalin sijaan kökkö yhteenliimattuja kukkakerroksia.


When all folded flowers are glued together, apply glue as shown and add the unfolded flower on it.

Kun kaikki taitetut kukat on liimattu yhteen, levitä liimaa punaisten viivojen osoittamalla tavalla ja liimaa taittamaton kukka pohjaksi.


At this point, most of the work is done. Turn the whole thing over so that you see your starting edge.

Nyt suurin työ on ohi. Käännä koko kyhäelmä ympäri niin, että näet aloitusreunasi.
Take hold on the starting edge with you tweezers and start rolling them. In pictures case the right direction is counterclockwise.

Ota pinseteillä kiinni aloitusreunasta ja ala pyörittää pinsettejä spiraalin suuntaisesti.

A rose begins to form.

Ruusu alkaa muodostua.


You can stop as soon as you think there's enough twist and flower shape is formed.

Kun kierrettä on mielestäsi riittävästi ja kukka on kauniin muotoinen, voit lopettaa kiertämisen.


Add a few drops of glue in the middle of the flower to 2-3 spots. It's better to start from the bottom layers and continue towards top.

Lisää tippa liimaa kukan keskustaan muutamaan kohtaan (2-3). Kannattaa aloittaa alempien kerroksien välistä ja edetä ylöspäin.



The top drop is more important as it's likely to show more easily between the layers.

Ylimmän liimatipan sijainti on alempaa tärkeämpi, sillä se näkyy herkemmin kerrosten välistä.


While glue is still wet you can tighten the twist and otherwise re-check flowers form. Hold the center with tweezers as long as glue is so dry that the twist doesn't loosen when you let it free.

Kun liima on vielä märkää, voit kiristää liimatessa löystynyttä kierrettä ja muuten tarkistaa kukan muodon. Pidä keskustaa pinseteillä kunnes liima on niin kuivaa, ettei kierre enää lähde löystymään kun päästät irti.


Now your rose is ready.

Ruususi on valmis.



This blue rose is done by cutting circles with scallop edge Fiskars scissors. I distressed the edges with Faded denim Distress Ink. It isn't as rosy as the one on top but it's still a nice flower if you don't happen to have any dies or flower punches.

Sininen ruusu on tehty Fiskarsin piparireunaisilla kuviosaksilla leikatuista ympyröistä, joiden reunat on käsitelty kuivana musteella. Tulos ei ole aivan yhtä ruusuinen mutta ihan katseenkestävä vaihtoehto jollet omista stansseja tai kukkaleikkureita.

A Quick Update


I just wanted to show few more of those coffee filter roses. I made a few smaller ones too and put them in the middle of some twisted petal flowers. Turned out the coffee filter twists fine when it's totally dry and flower petals are snipped a tad deeper than they originally are.

More Blog Candy


It seems that there's some kind of blog candy rush going on. Susanna is giving out a wonderful package to celebrate her 500th post. I especially adore that dragon-stamp. Click the photo to take part!

18.10.2010

Accidental Roses

Today I decided to try out some Camelot-flowers after I saw Jades Youtube-video. I started by cutting flowers with Tattered Florals -die out of thin cardstock and dragging them on a craft mat with some water, glimmer mist and Wild honey Distress Ink (I'm in love with that colour, can you notice?). While still wet, I twisted the petal ends with tweezers. After that I let the pieces dry and made the same dying for small x-cut punched flowers. I added some Barn door Distress Ink on them as well and glued them together to form a small rose.



I glued all layers together with Glossy Accent and on top you can see the result. Nice flowers but not as good as I wished. (I apologize picture quality, my cam is on loan so I took them with my cellphone.)

After finishing these I decided to try coffee filters. I imagined they would twist better. I was wrong. They didn't stay twisted even as much as cardstock did. Not wet nor dry. I started playing with the pieces I had cut and dyed.... it resulted these roses:


I don't know about you but I think they're quite gorgeous. There's more layers used in the pink one, maybe a few too much. I have to come up with a perfect number and I'll make a tutorial on these.


Blog Candy


Carola is celebrating her upcoming 50 000 visitors by offering delicious blog candy. Be sure to check out her fabulous cards! Click the photo to participate.

13.10.2010

Mystery stamps

I've been fun cutting and examining my new stamps for the past day or so. I ordered 1 pound misc. stamps and people photo stamp bag from Bimbidesigns on Etsy. Some of the stamps were mounted, some I mounted myself but now I'm out of E-Z mount so I can't finish the job just yet.

There's so much pretty swirl corners and useful texts and all those vintagy photos and aaaaaaah! I'm in red rubber heaven.

12.10.2010

Hooked On A Feeling



What can I say, I love these. All flowers are made of Canson Mi Teintes -cardstock. I used very light yellow cardstock for the orange ones and distressed the edges with Wild Honey and Barn door Distress inks. I used quite a lot of the yellow for all the flowers and added Barn door more and more towards the center. Small flowers have a bead of Candy Cane Stickles in the center.

In pink ones I used light pink cardstock and just a slight touch of Victorian velvet Distress ink on the edges. I wanted to keep them light and romantic. I added some clear gems in the center of small flowers.

8.10.2010

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen...

Christmas is coming, you can see it in craft shops and card challenges if not yet elsewhere. Last Christmas I think I had two stamp sets, maybe three, and none of them were actually Christmas themed. I was just starting to get interested in cardmaking and unlike most, my first love was dry embossing. I feel like the only one who bought Big Shot primarily because of embossing, dreaming about it before I even know it could use for cutting.

That's why I only bought my first Christmas stamp sets now. And here's the first card made with them:


First I stamped reindeers, text and big snowflake with Versamark ink and embossed them. The brown I used was solid but the white is Rangers Embossing Tinsel in Snowflake which has some glitter in it. After the first embossing round I covered the reindeers and stamped and embossed a few snowflakes under them. All the stamps are by Inkadinkado.

Hiding the Munchies

I had boring the other night so I decided to make color labels to all my distress inks. After that I did the same for my ProMarkers. While doing that I had emptied a box of Dominos (our Oreos) and that empty box was disturbing me on livingroom table. I had to hide evidence of munchies:



1.10.2010

Tea Light Cards

There's been a huge fuss over different kinds of tea light cards lately. I didn't get too exited over the first model I saw but the second one took my breath away. First I decided I'd do some for christmas but I just HAD to try some already and I didn't have any fun christmas materials. Thus my godmothers get a bit different Thank you -cards than rest of our wedding guests.




I used Sizzix Bigz -die Flowers, Daisies to create the white flower and distressed them a bit with Antique Linen Distress Ink like the rest of the card. Then I made some swirls with Sizzix Sizzlits -dies. Patterned papers are from Me & My Big Ideas A Beautiful Life -stack and that beautiful ribbon was sent by Stephanie. Thank you again for it!


Pictures were taken while the boxes were still empty. I added some green tea light candles in them later.