J is for Jack Russel Terrier...s, lots of them!

People who are owned by Jack Russel Terries never live a dull life, I'm told. Well, maybe we all should enjoy life to the fullest in the here and now - live like somebody left the gate open, so to speak :-)
Anyway, a few examples of Jack Russel themed cards coming up.

 This is the latest (not even delivered yet!) - a regular 12" cardstock (pink!) folded in half, with a matching striped paper back and front. I found some really cute pictures that just woofed to be toppers, layered them on black and there you are..
Recently bought some really pretty paper orchids that were just perfect for this, with a pink bow to match.

Another birthday, photos of the fourlegged family members. Regular easel card, spring colors, flowers, photos and matting (white and black) cut into ovals.

This is a decoupage for a special friend, using one of the gorgeous images of the Joanna Sheen Giordano Kittens and Puppies CDrom. Blue cardstock, layered decoupage image, a ribbon, a little bling and a sentiment.

 Below two cards I made at the same time (a "thanks for your help"-commission), also from the Giordano CDrom. One twisted easel card with a heart-shaped doily, and the other a regular 12" fold. Ribbons, bow, flowers and liquid pearls for finishing touches.

Steampunk Hat Trick

One of the biggest steampunk accessories apart from goggles seems, when googling, to be hats. 

So, when asked to do a steampunk-themed birthday card I thought a hat would fit the bill best. 

Quite pleased with the result too.

This is the finished hat from one side (feathers, dies, metal flower and cute scissors plus a bit of organza, glitter and pearl bling). The actual hat is dark brown, then lined on the outside with dotted purple/brownish cardstock.

This is the other side, with the congrats embossed in copper on a nicely steampunky hot air balloon cardstock (plus various cogs), cut out after the cloud shapes on the cardstock.

 I had seen plenty of steampunk corsets and corset linings, even on hats, so decided to have that as well, hence this back.

Having scoured the 'net for suitable bling I finally contented myself with decorating using copper pearl and glitter wands from Joanna Sheen (gorgeous sheen and easy to apply!), a few heart-shaped steampunk dies plus metal flowers and cogs ,,

 and of course feathers! Mainly pearl hen feathers, both natural and colored.
Now actually getting the feathers to stick nicely to a hat took quite a lot of glue gel and patience as both feathers and fingers quickly got sticky and uncooperative but we got there in the end.

The actual hat shape came from a die, Sue Wilson's Austrian Collection - Salzburg, that made up the top and bottom ovals. "In between" is a 4-5" wide strip of regular cardstock, 12" long, which turned out to be a perfect length to go around the top oval.
The bottom oval was too small as a brim (or rather I should have made the crown bigger near the top and smaller near the brim) and since I was lining the outside anyway I made a bigger brim to match.

Craft Dies from Joanna Sheen, of course :)

Hot chick, steampunk style

A friend requested Steampunk cards for her 40th birthday. Even though I like the genre I hadn't exactly tried making stuff myself before but hey, there's a time for everything, right?

Steampunk might be the new steamy hot .. diverse and brilliantly victorian with a twist. Try googling it, or check out my pinterest page for some of my favorites. 

First of all an easy start using one of the excellent artwork from craftsuprint.com - they have lots and lots of designs and mini-kits from a huge number of talented people. Now this was originally veeeeeeery pink and my friend isn't exactly pinkish-fond so I had to turn it slightly more purple before printing.

Lilac card base, regular 12" cardstock folded in half, matted the design on black background paper and taped it in place. The actual design came with a verse, a choice of banners and various decoupage options which made it a cute easily-assembled card. 

Next up the actual birthday "card" - a steampunk hat..

Dressing it up

Found this really sweet dress pattern somewhere on the 'net and thought it would fit perfectly with a butterfly background paper from the Jane Shasky CDrom.

The card itself is a regular easel fold, lilac cardstock lined with butterfly paper and a bit of green.

Took some trial-and-error to get the folds on the dress right but in the end it worked. And a nice bow at the waist hides any imperfections :-)

The extra butterflies I decoupaged to give a bit of height, Add a ribbon, some liquid perl and some embossed greetings - card finished.

 This is the pattern (not sure if the size is good to use but with a paint program (or a plain copier) it can be resized fairly easily). Dotted lines are scored and folded as seen above.

The bottom text of the card reads (translated)
"A friend is someone who knows everything about you and still likes you"

Feelin' Hot Hot Hot

Not that I'm especially hot this time of year but it's the title of this adorable House Mouse decoupage, from the House Mouse Decoupage CDrom (quickly becoming one of my favorites). Some of the other decoupage is available on the other House Mouse CDroms as well, but this one seems to be in one spot only.

Anyway, a friends birthday again and I knew he's into hot chili peppers, the hotter the better even.. So what could be more fitting than a hot birthday card.
Regular 6" card, cream cardstock base, lined with some House Mouse coffee patterned background paper. A bit of decoupage on the topper (not everything available, just a touch), a greeting and a ribbon.

The actual present was of course in theme, a chili pepper recipe book, some dried chili peppers and some chili pepper seeds (tabasco among them) for the curious gardener.

Tip-toe through the tulips

Tulips. Is there a better way to signal that spring is finally around the corner?
Not so fast in Sweden of course, but at least they are a colorful addition to dark and dreary (or snowy and cold) January when the first batches arrive from Holland (where else than from the Land of Tulips)

I've got a dear friend who adores tulips and also has her birthday in January, So of course she gets masses of tulips in all shapes.

To the left is the 2015 version of my tulip card for her. Nothing exceptional, a regular easel card based on cream cardstock, lined with soft spring green cardstock and a pretty victorian tulip paper with a boquet so nicely placed for the main focal point.

Dies from Joanna Sheen (those leafy dies are so pretty!), border made with a Martha Stewart punch.

Doily, a wooden heart-shaped button and some bling to complete the card.

The gift placed inside the fold was of course a gift card at a scrapbooking web shop :-)

To the right is last year's card. Also a regular easel card. Neat and easy.

I was temporarily out of tulip paper (!) so went to craftsuprint.com, an excellent resource for all kinds of cards and craft projects You download and pay for the designs you want to use (prices from 0,20 and up), and once donwloaded they can be used as many times as you like.



As one of my favorite authors would say..

"But I have always thought that these tulips must have had names. They were red, and orange and red, and red and orange and yellow, like the ember in a nursery fire of a winter's evening. I remember them" - Neil Gaiman in Coraline

Christmas Catch-Up, part 2

Well, what to do with this nice new Bigshot, all the papers, CDROMs, embossing folders, dies... Make cards, of course! Lots of cards! Just in time for Christmas!

A few samples of this year's Christmas cards:

CDROMs used were PollyAnna Pickering's Christmas Moments and Magical Christmas Moments from Creative Crafting World. They have other lovely CDROMs and DVDs too - check them out! Especially their series Paws For Thoughts are favorites of mine. Only wish there was a larger selection of breeds available.

Embossingfolders and dies from Joanna Sheen - don't miss out on the ivy dies, especially the mirrored pairs - gorgeous and so fitting for all occasions - and of course the usual selection of satin ribbons, liquid pearls (gold) and poinsettia Christmas flowers. I used a few metal charms as well, lovely but took some glue to make them stay in place.

 The birds on the following two cards are from a coloured art pad by Lily Of The Valley.

Great value for money!!
Such adorable pictures and often available at special prices. They had some great offers before Christmas so I treated myself to lots and lots of art pads....

Thought I'd try making a white card too, embossing folder and poinsettia die. Not too bad.

Christmas Catch-Up, part 1

Having thought about it for a year or so I finally treated myself to a Sizzix Bigshot a few months ago!

We've had a lot of fun since, even though it makes this hobby even more expensive as there are plenty of Must-Have dies and embossing folders.. 

I've also bought a lot of CDRoms, most of them from Joanna Sheen. The combination made for rather quick Christmas cards (apart from the usual paper-matching-selecting agony), quick but still rather nice if you ask me...

Twisted easel cards, my favorite variety and oh so easy to make - instead of scoring straight at 3" to make a regular easel card, score vertically.

Here's a good tutorial on twisted easel cards from youtube..

Thought I'd share two examples of Christmas cards using Joanna Sheen's House Mouse Christmas CDROM, two of the sweetest pictures with several decoupage layers, decorated with liquid pearls, satin ribbons and poinsettia christmas flowers.

Here is a list of all Joannas CDROMs - they're too lovely to only link to House Mouse.

By now I think I've bought them all. Oooops..

"All you need is LOVE ..and some chocolate..."

I received quite a lot of scrapbooking material for Christmas and among the papers some with a chocolate theme. Very handy for chocolate fanatics (and who isn't...).

Not much of a LO, but .. regular light beige cardstock with two different chocolate papers (one of them cut with a new die, Lifestyle Crafts Cutting Dies Nesting Eyelet Squares) a doily, a blue ribbon, a tag and some golden decorations made with my pearl maker. The topper chocolate paper has some nice glitter effects hard to make justice in photos.

Getting back into blogging..

Well, well, how time flies! Not that I've laid of scrapbooking (much) but this poor blog has been severely neglected. Time to remedy that.
First of all, how about a look at this gorgeous flower arrangement by my dear friend Marlina:

Looks a bit bridal, you say? And oh so rightly ... Yes we're married! We were married in late October 2013 and a wonderful day it was. An outdoor wedding close to the rapids in the national park at Gysinge, with the sweetest priest and his wife the cantor (very handy, that).
The weather in Sweden isn't exactly cooperative that time of year, but it made an exception for us..

Of course we received some beautiful cards and there were plenty of photos taken. Some day they will make it into a very hefty album.

Merrily crafting away

..still no snow, but plenty of fun challenges out there so here's another Christmas card. This time my favorite angel from Whiff of Joy (isn't she adorable?!), in blue,pink & yellow promarkers, white silk ribbons and some pretty flowers. Based on the sketch from the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #129 (MMSC129) where this is entered.

It's often a help to have a sketch when you're not very good at deciding what to craft. Perhaps the options are a tad too many... have done a bit of shopping lately, both from Joanna Sheen and from House Mouse (eek! incidentally one of the sponsors for the MMSC). SO many lovely things, so little time..
Now a blueberry pie is calling me so off to colour myself in other shades of blue.. and cream.

Let it snow with Whiff Of Joy ......

.. after weeks of very foggy and bone-chillingly humid weather we're actually looking forward to the first snow, to Advent and the coming Christmas (decorations just waiting to be put up everywhere).
While waiting, what better to do than a bit of card making.
This is one of the cute girls from Whiff of Joy, coloured with promarkers as usual (a variety of the blues, yellows and warm greys) with paper "snow much fun" (I didn't name it, honestly), a cute floral decoration, some ribbon and plenty of green stickles & golden pearl maker.

Entering this in the Whiff of Joy Challenge #117 "Let it snow.

Happy Father's Day!

On Sunday November 13th it's Father's Day in Sweden. Happy Father's Day, everyone!
 Best way to celebrate? Why, to send a card of course! Everyone likes to get a card... or they had better like it anyway...
No stamping this time, just two envelope-and-card-in-one cards with gingham background and tools-n-stuff decorations from a neat "male-type" old cardstock (name forgotten) and some colour-coordinated stickles. Oh, and tried out my latest Punch Bunch punch, 'apple'.

Now I'll get back to the Christmas cards. They're slightly on hold while waiting for the latest bargains from Joanna Sheen (bestest shopping place on the web for craft goods, outside the US!) - ultra fine white Flowersoft and a fluffly snow pen ... but soon it's time to Go Wild in White.

Christmas time is HouseMouse time

'Tis the season .. to start making Christmas cards. At least if you're kinda indecisive when it comes to choosing and (the horror!) cutting paper. So, time to get going. And what card making session would be complete without the adorable House Mice (commonly known as Meeces)? Plus it's an excellent opportunity to try out a brand new stamp from House-Mouse.com.
This is a stepper card using Kraft paper, green cardstock, some cute text scraps from Bella BLVD "December details" mainly in green, green stickles and the cutest mistletoe House Mice coloured with promarkers (of course, I love my promarkers) - blush, sandstone, cocoa, brown grey 1-3 with a little poppy red and apple+meadow green for the mistletoe. Now to find someone to send a mistletoe date to ...

Entering this in the Passion for Promarkers challenge #125 , Papertake Weekly's First Christmas and in Craft your passion's Anything Goes+Brown just for the fun of it.

Smått & Gott - Bloggcandy!

Our favourite "real world" store celebrates 1 year in Uppsala! Hurrah for Monica @ Smått&Gott!! May there be many more years, more papers, more bling and more fun courses!!

The Smått&Gott bloggcandy looks delightful .. fingers crossed for me! :-)

Don't despair - almost there

I have two more cards to share before I pop off and do a new bunch of birthday cards (with a handful of birthdays coming up within a month it's going to be a busy time. Let's hope it rains some more.. or maybe not).. these both to the same person(s). Well, to the same occation anyway.. First they move, and while moving someone takes a wrong step and tears a ligament. Not good, but excellent excuse for a card

Accidents do happen far too quickly. Be careful out there...
Anyway, square folded card. The stamp is another well-used favourite, Henry Mouse from Whiff of Joy (somehow it's strange how the stamps I've used the most is a sleeping boy and a mouse with a broken leg. Hmmm). Used various old cardstock and some neat see-through butterflies. See how well it themed in chocolate brown? At least it looked that way to me.. Made me so hungry I stuck on a picture of a chocolate pie, with the recipe on the reverse side of the card with a (perhaps not so very) subtle hint of wanting to tast it.

Yes. And now when they finished moving, of course they had to get a "Congrats to the new house" card. This time an easel card with decoupage Joanna Sheen-style, from her gorgeous "Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady" CD-set (now withdrawn, unfortunately). Love those little bees and the foliage that decoupages soooo well. Some matching paper, a bit of Fiskars scissor borders, some lace and topping with green bling and liquid pearls in gold.
See, you don't have to use promarkers. You can just collect them .. LOL

Now on to the birthday cards so I can get started on the Christmas cards.. After all, Christmas IS just 10 weeks away .. time to start planning and preparing in earnest!

When it rains, it pours..

Even if it is October and more supposed to snow it can still rain, apparently. And the good thing is one can stay inside and finally update the blog with some more cards.
Now then, where were we..
One more birthday. This time a quickie simple folded card. More use of the darling Lili of the Valley boys, there's a nice selection and all equally cute-but-usable (not too sugary sweet). Since the recipient is a huge fan of all bicycle races both the stamp, the backing paper and the extra decorations were rather unavoidable. This bicycling boy is such fun, you can really see how fast he pedals.

More promarkers of course. I couldn't be without them.. And don't listen to other people, you DO need ALL the colours.. well, almost.. well.. at least it's more fun the more you have.. Don't forget the new nice Flexi Markers, nice complementary colours!

Signed, the squirrel

Long time no see - have I missed mee?

Wow, that summer sure went by fast! Having a garden AND a country cottage might have helped with the time-stealing, you could say. The card making sort of went on standby, to go online only in dire need, like for the birthdays of nephew (a card with monsters, that seems to have run away and hid under the bed) and niece..

 .. who, being of the princessy-variety adores pink, lilac, cute dogs and flowers so this card (Giordano stamp coloured with promarkers, with papers and bling to match and a Martha Stewart punched decor) with matching dress and hairpiece-flower suited her to perfection.

We had three more birthdays almost at the same time, so plenty of decisions, wild ideas and small papers scraps flying around..

 Tried a few different card techniques as well, this folded-pockets one is rather neat. Thanks to Anne-Marie for that one (and when I figure out your blog address I'll put it here, be warned......).
Stamp one of the adorable Lili Of the Valley boys, coloured with promarkers. Text stamps from LOTV as well. Paper a nice freebie paper from 'Skogstokiga Creations' - check out her freebies!

 And one of the lovely House Mouse stamps for the nextcard.. aren't they too sweet! Joanna Sheen is releasing more of these cuties every month, check out the House Mouse Saturdays on CreateAndCraft.tv
(though this particular stamp is wood mounted and bought on Ebay. Hah!)

.. for the last one a re-use of my favourite boy-stamp and more freebie paper from Skogstokiga. Simple folded card, some liquid pearl decorations and edge cut by fiskars scissor. They don't have to be fancy to be appreciated (unless sent to scrapbook fanatics, of course LOL)

Eastertime

Easter is upon us - Happy Easter!!

Haven't had time to really "do" Easter - decorate, make cards etc - as spring arrived at the same time. Just a few cards made it, the rest goes into the "maybe next year" heap.
All stamps by Whiff of Joy, ever so cute and such fun to colour with promarkers in colour cordination with the rest of the card. The top card is - once again - from Joanna Sheen's tutorial section and very easy to make. Had a bit of fun with doilies, glue and very fine glitter.

Birthdays galore - celebrating with Joanna Sheen

The time of year when spring arrives is also the season of many birthdays (probably for reasons very amusing to historians) and of course the perfect time to try out different techniques.
This card shape is very effectful in all its simplicity. See it (and more wonderful card ideas) on Joanna Sheen's excellent site. Highly recommended for a visit, even if it can turn out rather costly.... We want! We want it all!
Anyway, stamps from Joanna Sheen (front) and Lili of the Valley (inside), coloured with promarkers. Couldn't decide which was the cutest.
Edge is a Martha Stewart punch. Outside also decorated with rhinestones and some pearl maker drops. Inside I had a go with FlowerSoft and the effect is quite nice I think.