Postcard Tag

It's all about postcards over at Tag Tuesday - use postcard(s), use the word postcard, .....
The background for this tag is a postcard image from the Graphics Fairy. I cut it into tag shape, distressed the edge with Tea dye distress ink, stamped text from Sugar and Spice on to the postcard in chocolate brown, a stamp and a postmark (stamp from Eline Pellinkhof) completed the postcard. The recipient of the postcard is a little boy sitting on a mushroom surrounded by some leafy environment (leaf stamp from Lavinia).
The mushroom stamp is a silicone stamp from La Blanche ... the first time ever I used a silicone stamp and I am very happy with it. It stamps very well and is easy to clean.
To finish it I used some dark brown string. Have a good week, Petra.

Two of Four

I got in a bit of a panic this evening ... I thought the Gingersnap Heartcoaster Exchange would close next week ... but it doesn't ... phew! There is even still time to sign up (lol). I love the idea for this exchange: create 4 coasters/beer mats with hearts somewhere on the piece. Here are two of the four. The base for the coasters are beer mats.

Wishful Thinking
The beer mat is covered with white slightly textured card. I stamped the background with Rogue Readhead Design stamps. The little frog prince is from Stretch 'n Bubbles, printed on white card, cut out and coloured with Koh-i-noors and OMS. The finishing touch are glittery toenails and a golden glitter crown. The hearts are free stamps, I cut them out , coloured them with copics and covered them with glossy accents. The sentiment is printed.

Hugs & Kisses
As for the first one I covered the base with white card and used Rogue Redhead Design and Hero Arts stamps as background. The edge around the base is slightly distressed with chalk. The little love bird and heart are Hero Art stamps which are cut out and coloured with copics and lightly glittered. The heart is covered with glossy accents.

Now I am looking forward to making the last two coasters and they might be slightly different (lol). If you are interested to participate in the exchange, the details are on the Gingersnap blog. Have a wonderful Friday, Petra.

Sketchy Blue/Green

A little card for a special birthday boy
Lots of dots and buttons based on a sketch from s'Sketches
and a colour scheme from Der/Die/Das Blog von Bawion: Blue/Green
The papers are from Digital Design House, the sentiment stamp from Impression Obsessions and the bird stamps were a magazine freebie which I coloured with colour pencils. Have a lovely day, Petra.

Jewels and Gold

Jewels and Gold - does this sound good to you? It definitely does to me ... (lol) ... the new Colour Challenge at Gingersnap Creations gives you the chance to indulge yourself
The image (from Jacque) shows Queen Victoria in her stately gown and Crown Jewels. It is layered on digital paper from Miss CutiePie. The golden twirls have been stamped with Artemio stamps and embossed with Personal Impressions embossing powder. Lace, buttons and gems are from my stash.
More gorgeous jewels and stunning gold is available at the Gingersnap blog, enjoy and indulge yourself! Petra.

OWOH - Winners 2011

Oh, it was so wonderful and enjoyable to travel around blogland to see the work of all these amazing artists. I have to admit I really tried but didn't quite manage to get around to visit all blogs ... there was just so much to see and read and to make so many new friends. I found a lot of blogs I will re-visit.
And one of the biggest surprises was the number of people leaving so kind and lovely comments on my blog. I am so amazed, thank you to all of you and I hope you enjoyed your stay with me!
And now, the door-prizes. Well, I know I announced two but so many of you visited my blog (262 in total ... wow!), so I decided to send two more (to be decided what) ... so there will be a total of four winners. And here are the random numbers ... and then the counting:

door-prize 1
no 121 - Jules Woolford from Adventures in Thread

door-prize 2

no 244 - Lemondrop Marie


door-prize 3
no 143 - Robin from A Robin's Nest


door-prize 4
no 15 - Heidi from Heidi's Happenings


Big congratulations to all the winners. I will post everything as soon as I have all the addresses.

And guess what, it was such great fun that I already signed up for the new event organized by Lisa. Have a look, sign up and have a wonderful evening, Petra.

A Prince and his Crowns

This canvas was created for the Gingersnap Creations Redhead Random Challenge: Crowns ... and it is a little bit 'random' and definitely experimental ... at least for me. For the first time I used Gesso, and I cannot believe that I didn't use it beforehand ... it is brilliant. And for the first time I transferred printed images with Gesso onto canvas ...
I first painted the canvas with Gesso, then overlaid it with acrylic paint. The next step was to transfer the images. I used Gesso for this, there is a brilliant tutorial from Linda Ledbetter on the Gingersnap blog. I have to admit that I didn't listen to Linda when she said it wouldn't work with inkjet prints ... these are inkjet prints and maybe because of this, the image is not quite as sharp as I hoped and a bit pale.
I used more acrylic paint and once the paint had dried completely I started to stamp and to emboss - including the crown at the top of the chair. In some areas I embossed with two different colours of embossing powder and also did double and triple embossing.
The finishing touches are the little stamped heart and the letter stickers.

Hope you like it and if you would like to see more wonderful crowns, do hop over to Gingersnap Creations and enjoy the fabulous artwork of the Design Team. Petra.

Supplies: canvas - Gesso - acrylic paints - embossing powder: Personal Impressions - image: Art-e-ology - stamps: Hero Arts, Elzybells - ink: Brilliance ink - copics

A Little Fish

swimming in a marbled ocean (lol). I LOVE this stamp
To create this marvellous marbled background I followed Shar's background technique using glossy paper, Ranger distress ink Faded Jeans, shaving foam and water. It worked like a dream! There is only a teeny tiny side-effect with the shaving foam, I couldn't find an unscented one ... Petra.

Exciting News

There are some very exciting news I would like to share with you ... some are not so new anymore but some are 'hot-of-the-press'!

Some time ago I submitted one of my tags to The Cheerful Stamp Pad challenge and guess what ... I won! This was so amazing and wonderful because I am normally not this kind of lucky person (lol). Vicky sent my some really lovely Unity stamps .. I will use them for one of my next projects.

The next surprise came from Shar. She caught me after using some of her wonderful stamps from the very first Rogue Redhead Designs stamp plate. Shar asked me if I would mind if she would feature my work on the Rogue Redhead Desing blog, I am very honoured by this and also received a lovely badge from Shar ... thank you so much. The piece was part of a little coffee booklet I created for the Gingersnap Creations DT ... do you know that two new Gingers are needed? It is an amazing and very friendly team, I can only recommend it (lol) ...

This little coffee booklet I mentioned earlier is also the reason for the 'hot-of-the-press news. Cindy who started the online Whimsical Musings Magazine some weeks ago approached me and asked if I would mind to be one of her Guest Artists for Valentine's week in her online magazine. How could I say no? I feel very honoured and proud to be featured in her magazine. Cindy is a very talented artist, so inspiring in her art which she shares so generously with everybody ... thank you, Cindy.

That's it for today, from a very happy bunny (lol) ... have a wonderful Valentine's Day, Petra.

image: Clearly Vintage

Happy Chinese New Year!

I know and I am sorry, it is a wee bit late but it is still the year of the Rabbit
The card is based on the February Cardchain challenge from Deborah. She gave three options for the challenge which you can use partly or all three of them. This month it is
for the colours
for the sketch
and the themes are
St Patrick's Day or Friendship or Chinese New Year

For my card I chose Chinese New Year and if I am generous with myself I think I managed to stick sort of with the sketch and the colour, well, maybe very light seafoam (lol).
The card itself is A6 white cardstock. For the layering I used patterend papers (some leftovers I cannot define anymore which company they came from). The edge is punched with a Stampin' Up edge punch. Both images (rabbit and chinese sign) I downloaded from the web, the rabbit is a free clipart image.
When looking at images of the New Year celebrations, I realized that the rabbit was not only bright red but is also covered white patterns over his body which I tried to simulate by stamping some flowers and a spirale (Penny Black with Elzybells ink) and doing some doodling with white gel pen.
Have a great weekend, Petra.

Linked to: Card Chain Challenge

Something Different

I realized I hadn't shared with you any cakes for ages! Those ones were for a rugby enthusiast - nice little chocolate cakes topped with a very thin layer of apricot jam, soft icing and a little chocolate rugby ball - enjoy, Petra.

Charming

This month theme at Gingersnap Creations is to add sparkle to our art ... what better way is there than to use and/or to create some delightful charms yourself. The Gingersnap DT definitely put the charms to fabulous use in their creations.
My charm is a hand-made creation where for the first time I used my new jewellery pliers and some findings .... I can only say that after this adventure I have even more respect for all those fantastic jewellery makers ....

The main piece of the charm is a bottlecap ... luckily somebody helped me to find for this crafty purpose (lol) .... As it was a used one, I slightly bent the outside rim to make the opening a little wider at the top. I punched two holes into the bottlecap (one at the top, one at the bottom), pushed some wire through the holes and secured it inside the bottlecap with some tacky glue. The image inside is from Marie's Freebies which I printed and cut to shape ... once glued in place I covered it with quite a thick layer of Glossy Accents. Above and beneath the cap I added some beads, pearls and embellishments to finish the charm.
I was quite happy with it and couldn't wait to use it for a little Valentine's hanging
To see all the other inspiring creations, just hop over to the Gingersnap blog and join us for this month's Spicy Supply Challenge! See you there, Petra. x

Linked to: Dezinaworld

Let's Be Optimistic!

Loves me ... Loves me not ... Loves me ... did you know that even little rabbits worry about this?

The second bookmark using Gecko Galz's digital rabbit image ... the daisy image is clipart from How to Draw ... layered onto BasicGrey cardstock and embellished with stamped hearts (Elzybells) which are highlighted with Glossy Accents. Petra.

Linked to: Bella Creations Oh La La Challenge

Carrots Are Good For Your Eyes!

This bookmark came about when I tried to figure out what to do with the Gecko Galz image for the February Bookmark challenge over at Bella Creations and my DH coming home telling me that the optician recommended to eat more dark green vegetables to improve his eyes. Now, I only know about carrots being good for your eyes (lol) .......
Now off to make the bookmark for the bookmark challenge ... the scheme is either Valentine's Day or Chinese New Year (lol), will show you when it is finished. Petra.

Supplies: Gecko Galz rabbit image, background from Antique Images, carrots from the Graphics Fairy

Paperswap - Wrapping and Boxes

My very first paperswap with LaWendula last December .... it was exciting although I didn't quite know what to expect and even less what to send! But there was nothing to worry ... I was teamed up with the very talented and most generous and kind lady: Faerwillow. She took me by the hand and helped me with my first paperswap steps. Thank you so much, my dear friend!
It was December and the theme was: Wrapping and Boxes whereby one of the 'rules' was not to make it too christmasey. I prepared a kraftcard box
(A4 kraft box - covered with newspaper snippets, image from Flickr and international postage)

which I filled with some papers and some other bits and pieces. If you are interested in the contents, Faerwillow posted a wonderful article about the parcel on her blog.
In return I received the most generous, eclectic and unique selection of papers, beads, shells, crafted items, jingles, .....

a wonderful card with one of Faerwillow's magnificient photos
the box covered with music sheet and glitter, beads, wire, a little tree, ....
paper and snippets in wonderfully folded envelopes, a paperdoll with autumn leaves
more little folded boxes and wonderful art

I cannot thank you enough, Faerwillow - take care my friend.
I wish you all a good start into a new week. Petra.

Sketchy Valentine!

My first Valentine card this year ... It is based on a sketch from s'Sketches which I rotated by 90 degress
The card base is red card from Bazill Basics, patterend papers, stamps and some of the ribbons are from Eline Pellinkhof. It is the first time I used her paper and I like the vintage feel of it a lot. The edges of the paper are lightly distressed with Ranger distress ink. I found the sweet little image at Marie's Freebies. Have a great weekend, Petra.

Linked to: s'Sketches
The Cheerful Stamp Pad

It Goes Round and Round ...

... in circles
The task from Louise this week is to create a tag using more than one circle or round stamp, image, etc. As I missed last week's Tag Tuesday (Valentine) I thought I combine the two and make a 'hearty circle tag'. I stamped with Artemio (circles) and Elzybells (little hearts) onto textured watercolour card using various colours of VersaColor ink. The bigger heart on the circle is from Stampington & Company, the words from Elzybells and Eline Pellinkhof. All hearts have been 'glossed' with Glossy Accents. Happy circling, Petra.

Linked to: Tag Tuesday