Nelly is comin' to town

A card inspired from the circus train paper and the matching epoxy sticker from DCWV. I did three cards with almost the same papers.

A Star Within You

I cannot really see what I did wrong here. This seems to be two cards in one... And I'm not sure how to correct it... I might get too many ideas at the same time? Too many things I want to use?? This card is for the S2G Paper Crafting Challenge and they gave me a picture as inspiration;


I noticed the pears on the carrier of the bicycle. So I wanted to do something with pears. So I got to think about a story that someone told me. That is the text in the yellow frame on top of the card. It is translated:

"one night a lonely pear tree looked up to the sky and saw the stars
he said to the brightest shining star: oh, I wish I was like you – a beautiful star
the star replied: why do you wish for that, when you have a star within you
- just cut a pear in half on its length and you'll see what the star meant"

That is really a beautiful thought. Anyway. I wanted to use the yellow colour. So I made frames for the text and I drew pears and coloured them. And I wanted to make a circle around the pears, but I couldn't find a template that was small enough. So I ended up using the Fiskars Mixed Shapes and Mixed Borders template to make a star. Very clever. Then I wanted to use my little tag with a blossom that really matched the blossoms that I'd drawn. So I used it. And then I used my pink ribbon that matched the flower.

I chose the background paper really carefully and tried almost every paper I had. But when I put everything together, the star was too big, so the top ended up beside the story. And then I had an empty space at the bottom left. Not that good. I tried to chomp the corners to make it look better, but that didn't help that much. So I thought that I should write something in french. So I wrote "I give you pears and love". And then I drew the stylish flowers from the sign in the photo. And when I was done I saw that all my great ideas didn't really match that nicely as I had thought... But anyway. I made a card. And I think that some of the elements are really pretty and nice looking.

Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper

Here we have it! My favourite tool ever! My Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper. It actually took a while before I got a hang of the flaps on both sides, I didn't push them enough apart so it didn't chomp anything. Anyway. Now I know how it works! As you can see on the paper, it cuts corner in both 1/2" and 1/4".

Miss You

A card I made for Crafty Creations Challenges. This week the challenge was to use 1 designer paper, 1 image and 1 embellishment. I've used the Forest Friends paper by Panduro, the Forest Friends clear stamps from Panduro and a simple green string. I used Fiskars Edge Puncher for the apricot paper. The text is translated "Miss You".

You Make Me Sparkle

I really love weekends. They make me really productive. And this last week has been crazy with after work activities almost every day and my dad in hospital and my birthday! So, my dad is okey (even though the hospital made him go home even worse than he was when he got there) and I'm nowadays a happy 29-year-old!
This card is for the ABC Challenge that this week is all about sparkle! So I made the most sparkly card I ever could think of. I don't have to mention that I made a mistake over the sparkle-text and that I had to rescue the card with a piece of paper? Anyway, I think the finishing result is pretty enough. It is definitely sparkly enough!
The letters are from Pictura, bought at the supermarket. ;) The glitter glue and the flower template are from Clas Ohlson and the fairy stamp is from a stamp set that followed the PaperCraft inspirations magazine.
So, have a sparkly evening!

My work area

Here we have my work space. It is really really small and it is competing with my computer screen. On a bookshelf to the left I have three plastic boxes which contains 12"x12" papers and A4 that I haven't used, big scraps and leftovers and then one smaller box with small paper scraps. My sketchbook and my cutting mat is on the table in front of the small table drawers. (Not sure what to call them...)

On my desk I have all my other stuff. I have marked all my boxes now so I know what's in them. I really love my Stabilo Point 88 pens. And my ZIG Memory Systems Calligraphy pens. Even though I haven't learned real calligraphy. The plastic box with the blue handle is filled with different inks. The box above that plastic box (which is seen in the photo above) is filled with bigger punches, my Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper and my Fiskars Ultra ShapeXpress. And I have my texting pens and my colouring pens in separate glass jars and my glitter glues in one. And my dear RX glue of course.
So, this is where I work. I love to keep it tidy. I always clean everything up before I start a new project. And before going to bed at night. That's more than I could say about the dirty dishes in the kitchen. ;)

Cutest

Another card, another challenge. Or in this case, two challenges! I decided to do a turtle for the Cutie Challenge at Paper Take Weekly. But then I wanted to make the turtle eat the flowers to make her even more cute... And I got inspired by the Daring Cardmakers Challenge where you had to create a card with a flap. :)
So, here we have it! The little paper above the frame with a bow is movable. You just pull it and two more pictures appears in the frame! Look below for details:






I've used flowered paper from my DCWV Citrus Matstack.

What if only the prettiest bird was allowed to sing?

The same inspiration as the last card, but I tried to fold the paper in another way. And I've used paper layers instead of stamping.
I've used papers from two different Panduro Design Paper Stacks.

My Heart Sings for You

I saw a cool folding that I wanted to use somehow. The top triangle represents the sky, the middle part the lush forest and the lower part the ground with lots of life and mysteries. We have a fairy, a bird that sings (embossed notes next to the fairy) and a squirrel in love... What a mix. The bottom part is a pocket where you could put money, a lottery ticket or something.
Just liked the fold. :)
I've used vanilla paper and some stamps from Hero Art and the fairy stamp is from PaperCraft Magazine.

The Challenge!

I'm a teacher and I've shown this blog to my pupils. I teach English in the fourth and fifth grade. I've given the fifth graders a special challenge. If they find any grammar or spelling mistakes in my blog and tell me what and why, I'll give them a special treat before summer, cookies, candy or something nice. :) So please do not write any mistakes in these comments to help them!
Posting a card I've made a while ago. This is called "Diamond Fold" according to the lady who had done something similar. Curious George is called Nicke Nyfiken in Sweden. One of my favourites when I was younger. The fold was really easy to make, I used my bone folder to just make the lines for the crease and with some pushing and folding the card just popped up! It's basically two crosses on each side of the square.

Thinking of you!

Time for another card! This week it's the Die Cut Dreams Challenge Blog that has a vintage theme. Time to google again. :) Browsing through the YouTube clips and the different webpages I found a YouTube clip of how to make a Paper Flower! It was from a "Stampin' Up!"-demonstrator. Get inspired you too, here!
So I started to make flowers and I think this one turned out pretty good. I've been really been working with the papers to make them look really old and used. The text is translated "thinking of you". I'm happy with it. I think it looks really classy and beautiful, despite the thorn edges.
I've used the DCVW Linen Closet papers, three different that really match together beautifully. See ya around! Looking forward to the next card already.

Whoo loves you?

Another card for another challenge. This time it's for the Sweet Stampin' Challenge. The challenge this week was a real challenge for me. A set of colours (Krat, Not Quite Navy, Bashful Blue and Pretty in Pink) was presented and the challenge was to create a card with at least three of these colours.



I chose Krat, Not Quite Navy (which was "Not Navy At All") and Pretty in Pink (or just Pink...). I guess I would have been better of choosing Bashful Blue instead of trying to find Not Quite Navy among my papers... But it is all done now. I went for a simple card with no extras on. Much needed after that Christmas Card Challenge...
I've used stamps from Hero Arts. They are called CL 309- Whoo Loves You? I've used the Fiskars Edge Puncher Threading Water and for the heart I've used the Fiskars Ultra ShapeXpress with the template called Mixed Shapes and Mixed Borders. Really took a while before I got a hang of the ShapeXpress, but now I'm growing to love it.
Have a nice evening now! Over and out!

A blue silver dream...

So, I don't really know what to think of this card. I'm really afraid of making cards "too much" and honestly I like my cards to be really simple. But the cards in the challenges are always really worked through, and the more I work with my cards, the "more" they get...
Anyway, I'm a bit happy with it even though glitter and such isn't really my cup of tea. This is an entry for the Susie & Vikki's Christmas Club challenge for this week. The theme was blue and silver. A really nice combo and the Design Team cards are beautiful.
I wanted to make a weave with paper so I wove different paper strips together and put the paper mat on the backside of the front of which I had cut a hole. I've stamped the front with light blue, dark blue, silver ink and finished it of with embossing the same pattern. I also coloured and embossed the edges. Not sure how good its shown on the photo. I cut snowflakes (by hand!) from silver paper. Not the easiest thing I've done... Put a silver ribbon at the bottom of the front and then went nuts with flowers, stars and rhinestones on the weave... And then went even more nuts with my newly bought glitter glue. (Yes, I know my budget had been overdrawn long time ago this month but... I couldn't help myself...)
What materials have I used then...? Honestly, this is a real budget card. I got a Christmas Scrapbooking Kit from my mother-in-law last Christmas, no idea from where... I used some papers and decorations from that package. And some stuff from the Clas Ohlson Winter kit... I have used some papers from DCVW Linen Closet...
It was really fun to do at least. Stayed up until after 3 am last night. Finished it off this morning. Just need the glue to dry before I put it in my "Finished cards box". Planning to sell some of the cards in a market festival late this summer. In Dalarna of course!

Greetings from Dalarne

For me, this card is real Swedish summer and especially summer in Dalarna (Dalarne - old way of saying it) where I come from. I've followed the Sketch from the Friday Sketchers Challenge this week. The text to the right says "Greetings from Dalarne" and the picture in the middle is a collage with a Kurbits which is a really old way of painting floral-like patterns on paintings, a skiss of a dress from behind and front, an example of a traditional dress from a village called Rättvik and a real sewing pattern for another dress in the same style. The scribblings are about the bodice of the dress and tells us about the colour and the fabric. It also says "entirely hand sewn". The blue colour is not really typical for the dresses, they are more dark but I like that blue colour, it reminds me of the sky a warm summer day.
I've used paper from DCWV Citrus Matstack and apricot card stock.
Enjoy!

My Angel...

This was my first try with the Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper. Love at first sight! The girl is cut out from Panduro's Emma's Garden series. I also tried out my Fiskars Edge Puncher. Not really sure about the "neutral" paper as background for the girl... Might do some things differently next time. Haven't yet figured out how to cut out motives with details with finesse. Love the little flower brads.

These boots are made for walking!

And that's just what they do!
Oh my, I'm so proud of this card! Daring Cardmakers made me make a shoe card. I was allowed to create any kind of card just as long as there were "Boots, shoes, sandals, trainers, ballet shoes, slippers...", just any footwear on the card. I was on my way to write something on the card; "These boots are made for walking", or "I would walk 500 Miles"... But I came to my senses and stopped before destroying anything... ;)
I also found another blog that I haven't seen before. It is called Die cut Dreams Challenge blog and guess what? They also have a shoe theme for this week. So I'm putting this card up as an entry for both challenges.
I've used papers from DCWV Safari Chic Paper Stack, brown paper, my GellyRoll white pen and some other pens and different inks to make the shadows.
Enjoy!

Merry Christmas

This didn't feel odd at all... Making a Christmas Card in April... Anyway. This was for another challenge blog. This one is actually specialized in Christmas Cards and this week's challenge was to make a Christmas Card including a reindeer. Pretty cool. Since I don't have any reindeer stamps or Merry Christmas Stamps or any real Christmas Paper, I had to work with the things I had. Have already spent this months "Cardmaking budget"... And way above it too... *hrm*
So I found a cool reindeer on the web and draw it by hand since I'm way way to lazy to find the cable for the printer. It has been gone for a while now... Gonna buy a new printer later on... First I made the reindeer pointing to the right and I coloured it. But that didn't really look too good, so I ended up flipping it over and colouring it black. I used a sunset image from my DCWV Safari Chic Stack and some golden paper I found. I also had some winter papers laying around from a Winter Scrapbooking kit I bought at a Swedish department store with everything called Clas Ohlson.
I used my GellyRoll Metallic Gold pen for some stitching that doesn't really show that good on the photo.
It was really fun to make a Christmas Card and I'm gonna look at the blog for next week's challenge. The blog is called Susie & Vikki's Christmas Club.
The text is Swedish and translates, obviously, "Merry Christmas"!

Thanks...

This is a card that I made, also inspired by Kristina Werner's Merci-card mentioned in my last post. I've punched the hearts with my WEDO Heart Puncher and put dubbleadhesive foam in different heights under.
The card paper is apricot and fits nicely with the Epoxysticker from DCWV, my best guess is that it is from At the Circus package, but I'm not really sure. Anyway. I don't know if the stickers were old or something but I didn't like working with them at all. I've made more cards with these stickers on them, but I've been muttering and getting grumpy each time. They smell really bad, that's just for starters. They don't stick to the paper and they kind of curl up on the sides, which makes it impossible to just try to use the adhesive on the backside. So I've been adding Casco's RX Glue.
A favourite of mine ever since I was about 6. Not kidding with you. The RX glue and the huge tape dispenser that my dear dad stored in his drawers under his big desk was the first thing I grabbed when he went to work. He has been angry with me several times for emptying his RX glue trying to tell me that it's not for kids. Haha! I was a kid and it was my absolut favourite toy. Not to mention the tape... Wonder why he wasn't happy about the gifts I made him? Tape all over the place. Now, that was a bit away from the subject...
So, I tried to glue the Epoxystickers on, but they just crawled all over the paper, so I put a weight on them, and they just moved around even more. It was like Bambi on ice. Patience is not really a huge problem at work, but at the computer or with things that should work, but doesn't... I get so frustrated!
What more can I say about the card... The bottom paper is from DCWV Citrus Matstock. The Swedish text translates just a simple "Thanks". Enjoy!

Merci

I really like my Easter holiday. Makes me really productive. I found another site that asked me to join in on their French theme for this week. The challenge was to put the word Merci somewhere on the card. The challenge is called S2G Challenges.
For all of you who are a fan of Kristina Werner and her KWerner Design Blog you might find my card a bit familiar. Yes. I have taken the inspiration from Kristina's Merci-card. I didn't dare making it with squares, so I went lunatic with my WEDO Butterfly Puncher instead. But I'm really pleased with the result and I'm proud to enter the S2G Challenge.
So, I have used my Butterfly Puncher from WEDO, my GellyRoll White pen, rhinestones and paper from both the DCWV Linen Closet and the DCWV Citrus Cardstock papers. And of course my Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper. <3 Love it!

All Nuts About You

I found another challenge! This is called Crafty Creations Challenges. This week's challenge was to use Paper Piecing in the card. I had never heard about Paper Piecing before so I had to google it and I ended up at watching a girl at youtube.com. I thought the video was quite useful, even though it was way way too long - I got the point after the first minute, you can find it here! I don't have that much stamps yet (notice the yet ;P) so I didn't really have any choice but doing the squirrel. I had big plans for making the head pop out and the nut and... well, this is what I managed to make. But I don't think its to bad for a first try.
So lets see... What did I use? Green and apricot Paper Stock, Bungers Scrapbooking Leaves, Panduro Clearstamps A5 Forest, Panduro Paper Friends in the Forest - Chasing Butterflies and of course my lovely lovely GellyRoll White. <3
The papers from Panduro called Friends in the Forest is really really cute. And they cost 12SEK per 12"x12"-paper. Yeeha! But I love them. Emma's Garden from Panduro is really nice too. I'll show you a card I made from those papers later on.

Wishing You Were Here

My entry for this weeks Paper Take Weekly Challenge. The challenge was to make a card from a sketch on the blog (see below). I've used apricot paper together with a light brown paper, just ordinary Card Stock Paper. The patterned papers are both from DCWV's Citrus Matstack Papers. The fairy is a clear stamp that followed with a Cardmaking magazine called Papercraft Inspirations. The text is Swedish and is translated "Wishing You Were Here".

A Special Friend

My second entry for the Daring Cardmakers Challenge. Since I wasn't too happy about the first entry I decided to make another card with rhinestones. This time a little bit more classy card which I'm pretty happy with.
The colour is vanilla, just ordinary Card Stock Paper from Bokcompaniet. The other paper is from DCWV's the Linen Closet Stack - really pretty paper! The stamps are both from Hero Arts CL 309. I've stamped the text with black ink and then again with clear embossing powder - still haven't got an embossing gun, so I'm using my toaster. Works really fine. I stamped the tree two times, the second time directly after the first, without adding more ink which gave the tree a nice shadow effect. The ribbons are tied behind the sign saying "A Special Friend" and the organza ribbon really gave me a hard time.

Love U

My first entry for a card designing challenge... Hopefully my worst too... Anyway, the challenge was set out by Daring Cardmakers. The challenge was to include diamonds in the card. I went to a Scrapbooking store i Stockholm called Scrapparazzi. I can really recommend them. Their supply was nice, even though they had sold out most of the stuff I came for. (I still ended up spending 1000SEK...) I have bought online from them too and I got a personal e-mail from the owner telling me that she had seen my order and was going to pack everything down later that day.
Anyway, I went to Scrapparazzi and I bought rhinestones and a Martha Stewart Edge Punch Floral Lace just so happen to come along together with some nice paper and brads. How did that happen!? So I wanted to use both the rhinestones and the puncher and I thought the flowers were a nice touch. But no... What a mistake. A totally confusing card and the Floral Lace looks so misplaced... More thinking and less crafting next time, please!

Hoo Hoo-pefully we'll meet soon!

Here is another card with the paper from Panduro. I just cut out the big owl and the branch from one of the papers and added them together with some thick dubblesided foam to make them pop out. I even put the feet above the branch and the green canopy infront of the owl. A nice effect. And I got to use my Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper! Yes yes yes! I love it!

For You...

I bought a Paper Stack from Panduro with owls, cars, snails all mixed up. Snails happens to be one of my favourite animals (among with elephants which I'm pretty sure you'll notice soon). How could I refuse to buy it? Panduro must have the most expensive crafting material ever. I'm not complaining about the quality a bit, but the receipt is always like a horror show at the end of the thrilling and joyful experience of feeling, touching, looking, browsing and drooling over all the beautiful stuff there. So, anyway. There was no way I could refuse the snail paper and along with it came the cars. So I made a cool blue card. The text says "For You". The organza ribbon was not the easiest thing to tie into a nice bow, but after a few tries I got it quite nice. Enjoy.

And so the crafting begins...

For my mums card I kind of settled with the papers and materials I had from Christmas. Which didn't leave me with much. I did buy some leaf stamps and a strawberry paper. I know I made my mums card twice because I didn't like the first one. But the layout was the same. I hope you get some inspiration from the layout, because the finished result was not the best. It has too much tiny elements that are spread out in different directions and my handwriting was not peaking at the moment... But we are all beginners in the beginning... Or what ever. Just wanted to show you my starting point. :) It gets better.

From then to now.

Last year in December I followed my friend Tessi to a Swedish crafts shop called Panduro. I didn't really know what to buy, she was all into beads and such. I bought some stuff to make some necklaces to my mum and my aunt but I was really thrilled about the paper crafts section. I decided to make my own Christmas cards! So I did. They didn't really turn out the best, but at least I did it.
When my grandmother had her birthday this January I bought her a card and just when I handed over the money I wondered why I didn't made the card myself. So for Valentines day I decided to make some love-ly (hihi) cards and send to my best friends. This time I searched the net for ideas. And I found lots! So for my mom's birthday in March I made a birthday card and I was kind of happy with it.
And guess what I did for Easter? I made 20 cards! Yeay to me! I'll show you my top five!
Happy Easter!