Santa Claus is coming to Town ...

... thanks to Cupcake Craft Challenges :-) : Sing a Christmas Carol

Supplies:
plain square card
paper - Hot of the Press, Flairdesign, plain green card
stamp - Elzybells
ink - Heine
image - The Graphics Fairy
embellishments - from my stash
eyelets - Prym

Some may wonder what is behind the little square parcels on the left hand side - well, it is quite easy - really. It is CHOCOLATE! Enjoy, Petra.

Aplel, Nuss, Pfefferkuchen - Apple, Nuts, Gingerbread

This was a tricky one! The second Advents challenge from Creative Friday required apples and gingerbread - fine but to get hold of nuts ..... especially as I am allergic to nuts .......
*****
Das war wirklich schwierig! Die zweite Advents challenge von Creative Friday verlangt Aepfel und Pfefferkuchen - das ist ok, aber die Nuesse im Design mit einzubeziehen ...... besonders da ich eine Nussallergie habe .......

Supplies:
Kraftcard from Elzybells
paper - plain white, red and green card
stamp - Elzybells, Stretch N' Bubbles
ink - VersaColor

Because the topic was so complex I deliberately kept the design as simple as possible. I downloaded the nut/fruit image from the web. The original one is in colour so I modified it within Picasa to Sepia. The words I printed on normal paper.
*****
Das das Thema nicht einfach war, habe ich das Design bewusst einfach gehalten. Ich fand das Nuss/Fruechte Bild im Internet. Das Original ist in Farbe, ich aenderte es in Picasa zu Sepia. Die Worte druckte ich aus.
Merry Christmas

It's birthday time .....

.... again - twice. A lot of people seem to have birthday quite close to Christmas which is a wonderful time to celebrate but I am not so sure if this might not have an impact on the amount of presents you get .... :-)
Both cards are quite different - depending on the recipient. I like the top one best because of the stamp. It is a real cute little princess. I bought the stamp in Norway - and, no, she is not alone. I also have a prince .......

A Sketchy Colors challenge

Very soon my mum has birthday and I wanted to make a bit of a special card for her. The Sketchy Color challenge for this week provided me with a brilliant sketch to use for this special occasion
It was also an opportunity to use my Magnolia stamp for the very first time ever

Supplies:
paper - Cratepaper
stamp - Magnolia
ink - VersaColor, Artemio
bling - Kanban
flowers - Artemio
Quickutz - circles and scalloped circles
Nestabilities - label 1
punch - little flower
brads - BasicGrey
ribbon - from my stash

I did not use a base card but cut the shape (square with half circles) by hand. I turned the sketch by 90 degrees so that I can open the card by folding it up. The various circles in the sketch are (from the left) a flower, a big flower, the bow, the sentiment and another flower.
It was great fun to put the card together and I am looking forward to the next challenge :-) Petra.

Sepia Thank You

Although I really love Sepia especially when looking at old photographs which have this lovely colour shade and look used and worn it was tricky to go along with the Daring Cardmaker's challenge: Say it in "Sepia". It already started with the papers ......

Supplies:
papers - from my stash, plain burgundy card, K&Company
stamp - Hero Arts
ink - VersaColor
ribbon - from my stash
Stckles 'Cinnamon'
foam pads

Somehow it didn't turn into a card but it sort of fell in place as a little hanging. I also contrasted the Sepia with the Burgundy - a colour combination I like a lot.
Petra.

Snow Lady - Winter Birthday

For last week's Docrafts challenge I made a Winter Birthday card

Supplies:
plain square card
paper - burgundy plain card, Cratepaper, plain blueish paper from my stash
stamps - High Hopes, Elzybells
ink - VersaColor, Artemio
colouring - colouring pencils & OMS, chalks from Craf-t Products (sorry, this is unfortunately not very visible on the photo)
ribbon - from my stash
Stckles 'Gold'
Quickutz - circles

The Snow Lady is such a cutie. When I saw a stamped image of her for the first time, I couldn't resist and I had to get the stamp. During winter time this stamp is so versatile - birthdays, Christmas, winter wishes, Season greetings - whatever you can think of. It also goes very well with the lovely Cratepaper which has a lovely rough texture. Petra.

Crunchy Flowers - How To

Thank you for all the interest in how I created the crunchy flowers on my last matchbox so I thought I just give some tips. It is really very easy:
Cut your card (I prefer slightly thicker card, I think it gives a better result) in any flower shape you like (I stamped a pointsettia from Elzybells onto slightly patterned card and then I had to cut out the flowers.)

Now you need a bowl of water and off you go:

soak the card (the card flowers floating in the water look actually quite nice :-) )

take the card out of the water and crunch it. Don't worry card is much tougher than you might think.

Now open up your little parcels and give the flowers any shape you like. Leave them to dry before using them on your project. When fully dried, the flowers will be quite hard and actually quite tough. And ready for further embellishments.

Have fun, Petra.