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

A new card finally

Hello there every one! Hope you are doing fine? I'm keeping my head up and feet down but that's about it at this moment. I am normally stabilized by this time going from winter and spring to summer but not this year for some reason. Every little thing that I do goes into my fingers at the moment and making cards with stiff fingers is something I have yet have to learn. So while this goes on, it's a bit more quite here. After all the crafting should be fun and enjoyable, not causing trouble. I am ever so grateful that all you wonderful followers bare with me and keeping leaving such wonderful comments on my creations when they show up every now and then. Also a big big BIG thank you for picking my two latest cards as either top 5 or winner in different challenges. If feels so warm and I feel so blessed. So from the bottom of my heart thank you!

Ok, now time for a card as well. This one has been laying on my desk for a while and as usual I never managed to get the photo taken in time. So even when I am done in time for my DT commitments I am late. LoL I have to do something about that. Two picture added, not sure which one is the best to use...

The image I have used for my card is from the Paper Shelter and is called A mucha influence - Spring. It's an oldie but a really goodie that is a joy to colour. She is paired up with some lovely pink papers from Panduro hobby, but I'm affraid I covered most of it up. LoL How did that happen? The card really didn't turn out like I had expected or planed from the beginning, but hey that happens every now and then. Flowers are from WOC, the berries from Magnolia and so is the angel attached to the bow on the heart tag (drowning in all lace and ribbons) in the right corner of the card. Some feathers, pearls,  a heart charm and some punches and dies are also used for this creation.

We have a new challenge up for you all over at the Paper Shelter this week and it's called Pink/white or Blue/white. That means we want you to use either of this colour combo on your card or creations. You can use some other colours but they need to be seen very little off. The dominant colours needs to be pink/white or blue/white. Playing with our brand, the Paper Shelter products will give you a chance of winning a gift voucher worth $30. Playing with another brand gives you the chance of winning three digis of your choice. I do hope you will come and join us in the fun.

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for this card
Rhedd and Rosie Challenges - Ribbon and Lace
Deep Ocean Challenges - For a girl
Wild Orchid Challenges - Lots of layers

Time for a challenge

Afternoon everyone, hope you are doing fine and have a good start of the new week. I'm feeling a bit tired but ok. It was a busy weekend with a birthday party for Philip, only two months late, but there has been no time for it before. To be honest if felt strange to have a party so close to the death of little Saga in early March and then did my granny pass away, but it was now or never. 9 little monster getting together to have fun at a indoor playground. It was fine, but I am really glad it's over until November when the next one is having his party.

So after only one week this time we are back with a new challenge for you over at the Crafty Card Makers challenge. This time we have the theme of "Father's day". Here in Sweden we don't celebrate it until November so for a change I way ahead. LoL

I have used one of my favourite images from the Paper Shelter for this card. I fell in love with this birdie the first time I saw him and I still love it. I have to stop myself from using him for all the male cards I need to do. There is plenty of motorbike riders in my family so he is very useable. I who seem to have a totally different kind of genes than the rest of them prefere an ordinary bicycle. LoL If we talk about going out on the sea with a boat my family says racer boat and I say rowing boat. It must have been some kind of mix up at the hospital when I was born. LoL

The card, I lost track of it again... Oh dear... coloured with my Letraset family in sunny colours. Papers from My Mind's Eye, the Fine and Dany Boy pad. A lovely collection of summer papers. As decorations I have used a few buttons with some twine added and a ribbon. Sentiment is made with my granddad's old dynamo writer still working perfect after more than 40 years. Quality stuff! I just love it and I think that grand dad is happy about it getting used.

Our sponsors this week is the Paper Shelter offering a gift voucher worth $20 and Woodware also offering a lovely price for one happy winner. See more details over at the challenge blog.

I hope you come and join us over at the CCM challenges this week. It's always such joy to see what you create. Before you ad your card, make sure that you follow the rules and criterias of this challenge, otherwise your card will not be added to challenge.

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for this card
Passion for Promarkers - Ribbon, lace or twine
Paper take weekly - Sketch
Make it Monday - Anything goes
Created with love - Anything goes
Cards for men - Dad
ABC Challenges - Masculine
Challenges 4 everybody - Anything goes

A new little creation

Hi you all! It's evening here in Kalmar and it has been warm today. Spent a few hours outside working with my flower pots and getting some seeds into the dirt, finally. Now I am freezing like crazy, heat chills I guess. Paying with some back pain but it was so worth it for once. I'm a happy gal! :)

After having this card working little by litte during two weeks or something, it's finally finished. I normally colour my images without any idea of which papers to go to the image, and so I did this time. But for once I was lucky and had just the perfect match for the image. Love it when that happens. It's not the first colour choice I would normally make either but you end up in your comfort zone way too often, at least I do. So this was a nice break from all pink and blues. :)

The image is by Sugar Nellie and is coloured with my normal Letraset family. The back ground is made with Prisma Pencils and an eraser to soften it all down. I am heavy on hand when I colour. LoL The designer papers are from My Minds Eye and the paper pad called Stella and Rose Hattie Papers.

I followed the sketch from CLP challenges as I always love those and try to play along with at least one card each month. A bit in the nick of time this month. :) Anyway, flowers from WOC covered with some gesso, a key charm, a feather, two different kind of lace, a ball ribbon, some diamond dust here and there and some pearls from Magnolia. I think that is about it... Have a lovely evening!

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for this card
Passion for Promarkers - Ribbon, lace or twine
CLP challenges - sketch
Sugar bowl - Anything goes with Sugar Nellie image
I love Promarkers - Use Dies (but no punches)
Simon Says - Anything goes
Creative Moments - Lots of layers

Feeling a bit prickly

Morning everyone! I had promissed myself not complaining about how I feel here on my blog as I might scare you off, but today is one of those days when it hurts everywhere and therefore I feel abit prickly. I made something good out of it actually as I needed to rethink my Paper Shelter card for this week and went with a cactus card instead of a fussy and fancy card. Sometimes something not so good can get turned into at least something creative. LoL

The card is actually a part of one of the lovely TPS images. It's half of the motive from "How you're doing?" image. I took it and enlarged it, and did tons of cutting and colouring. If there was one day I really wanted one of those electrical cutters like Cameo or Siluette or what ever they are call them was when I made this card. LoL

The card is coloured with my Letraset family and I have actually not added one single decoration for this card. Instead I went with cutting and raising parts of the image. It's a light card that will easy on postage when I send it to one of my friends around the world. I took some inspiration from the flower pot cards that is around the blogging world when I made the card. And when I thought I was finished I realized how little space it was to write on, I added a flap that at least doubled the writing space. Considering how my last month has been I am fairly happy with my card, even if it might be a little too simple.

However, I hope that I can inspire you to think outside the box a little bit. I love this whole image and I love the look of this cactus, as it somehow reminds of the old Disney drawings. Don't ask me why, it just does, and it suited my mood very well, feeling totally off. And at least it made me smile making it. :)

As always we have our gift voucher up for grabs this week over at the Paper Shelter. It's worth $30 and it can be yours if you play with any product from the Paper Shelter. Playing with another brand gives you the chance of winning three digis of your choice.

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for this card