The most wonderful time of the year ...

... has arrived. It's the time when I discover that magic do exist. Christmas is my favorite time of the year because it reminds me of family, of love and kindness. And it makes me so happy that i get to create magic for others in the form of cards. And I have finally started to create my bundle for this year. 

The following card is a recreation of a card i did the previous year, when i was just starting with paper crafting. Then i had colored my snow-man with pencils and this year with watercolors. I finally got myself to buy the Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors, which i absolutely adore and can't wait to get to experiment with them better! Additionally i also bought a set of clear stamps with the sentiment God Jul (danish for Merry Christmas) in different fonts, which you will get to see across these 2 months.

This next card started as an experiment. I have recently acquired a Versamark stamp pad and embossing powders from WOW and 2 stamp sets from Create a Smile (Smiling Snowflakes and Perfect Tune). Then i got to play a little with the distress inks on top of the embossing to see how it would look like. And i loved it so much that i just couldn't scrap it. It might not be that Christmasy but in my world, Christmas is all about colors and bringing happiness and joy. And making this certainly brought me joy. :) 

This last card is a recreation of Kristina Werner's Day 2 Christmas Card from her Christmas Series. I have to say that i love this card and i plan to do many similar cards to this one in the future. It is a bit time consuming but i have a steep learning curve and i hope it will take less and less. Anyway, the elegance and coziness of this plaid motif really reminds me of home and family. 

I hope you have all enjoyed my start into the Holiday Season. If you have any questions about the cards or the materials please leave a comment, i promise i will answer! :)

Have a great weekend everybody

Teo

Creative Little Holiday

We finally had our (little) holiday, after the exam and i felt really creative, where i should have started reading for school. But nevertheless in the last 2 days i have created a bunch of new cards, some inspired or recreated, and some completely new (that i know of!).

This beauty underneath is a take on a card made by Kristina Werner and of course i didn't have the stamp-set, but i made do with a ruler and several flower stamps! :D It can also be a spring sunset as well. ahaha

For this card i decided to do some repetitive stamping, after which i covered the background with a watercolor wash and then used my markers to color in the boxes and added glittery accents.

This card is also based on a card Kristina Werner made but i decided to take it a step further and make a shaker card out of it. And this is a very small card as well, maybe 7 by 7 cm.

For this card, i wanted to use my stencils, cause there has been a long time and i didn't want to feel guilty for purchasing them without a purpose. Also, i really wanted to use the girl stamp again, because i wanted to give them a longer life, for the same reason. After i had finished the card seemed a little dull, and the girl wasn't standing out, therefore i just colored in an oval with my black permanent marker and i think it worked. :) 

I made this card with an awesome friend/close relative in mind. As i said previously, i wanted to use the stencils i had, so i did the same thing, this time on normal card-stock, and alternated the 4 distress colors i have, using peacock feathers and picked raspberry together and then mustard seed and spiced marmalade to create somewhat of a dynamic background. I have to say that i really love this background and the feel of it is almost like a patterned paper. In the end i decided to add a bit of interest to a couple of the squares with glittery accents.

This card was also made with a special friend/family in mind, for this person's birthday. Here i used my home-made stencils and a couple of stamps from my girl stamps. It made sense for me to write instead of Happy Birthday, Enjoy your trip - Share your journey! It feels more involved. The 22 is hand written, but boy, do i need to buy some letter and number stamps.

This last piece is a bookmark that i made when i decided to test my Memento Tuxedo Black ink from Tsukineko. I repeated stamping 3 different flowers and then colored them with my Staedtler Triplus colors. Nothing fancy, can't even blend with them, but for a flat colored look, they do their job. I didn't want to waste that piece of paper where i had tested the ink, so i decided to do a bookmark instead :D It looks so pretty in my VBA programming book! :D

This was it for this week, and thank you all for getting here. Boy, was that a long post or what?! In the meantime i am waiting for 2 stamp-sets from Create a Smile, and then i need to buy some danish Christmas sentiments to get started on my Christmas production. :D Yuhuuuu!!!

Have a wonderful week all,

Teo

Last couple of weeks

During the last couple of weeks things have been a bit hectic so i didn't have time to be creative as much as i felt i could have been. Nevertheless i made a couple of cards that i am very proud of. This post will not be very long, but just wanted to let you know that i finally started "playing" with stamps and water-coloring.

Here goes, enjoy! :)

These last 2 cards bellow i made for 2 very special friends of mine!

I know i still have a long way to go in terms of watercoloring, nevertheless i love it and can't wait to start creating backgrounds and all. Got myself some masking gum paste so i hope to be playing with that too, soon, after my impending exam on Wednesday.

Have a wonderful week dear people,
Signing out,
Teo :)

Uncertain comeback

Hello beautiful people,

It's been long since i had my last post due to having moved recently and starting a new education. Nevertheless, my wonderful boyfriend got me this goodie bag with a lot of stuff from Panduro (100 kr ... it was a steal with everything it had inside -> i wish i could have done a haul video with discovering what it had inside, because they are sold in brown paper bags, clipped at the top, so its completely random what you will get ), our local craft store, and it got me inspired and longing to create some more cards. I missed being creative every day, and the way the time passes when you do something you love.

Additionally, yesterday we were passing though our big shopping center and of course, it couldn't have been without me going in Panduro and getting something. This time i bought a label maker because it was on sale with 4 neon colors included. It was my first time trying something like this but i can say i absolutely love it. Planning to get all other label colors Panduro has on stock because its genius. It feel like child's play when doing labels but maybe a more professional one such as Dymo would work even better, Not sure how much will the letter press last ... but until then, i will enjoy it as much as i possibly can.

Therefore, last night ... i created 2 similar cards with some of the ribbons and brads from the goodie bag and a Christmas card, using kind of vellum plasticized paper from a paper pack i got from Lidl a while back.

I will not say more about the cards, because their making is quite straight forward! :) I started light because i was out of practice! :D

I hope you enjoyed my uncertain comeback, and i say uncertain, because i have a lot to study for my new education. Might go about every Friday after class doing some more cards. I need to create my stack for Christmas and renew my Birthday and Thank you cards.

Source of inspiration: Here and Here. Pinterest FTW. :D

Have a wonderful week,
Teo ;)

Sending Love

So it's Tuesday ... and i actually thought it was Wednesday and that the deadline over at CAS Colours & Sketches was tonight so because of that i had a sparkle of inspiration. A couple of weeks ago i drew and water coloured with distress inks this image from a picture i saw on Pinterest (can't find the link right now, sorry). 

Because it was a large illustration, i decided to stick it on the inside of a card after trimming it down a LITTLE. :P Given that the inspiration came from the challenge, i had to incorporate the 3 square in my card composition and thus these 3 windows were born.  Compared with the original sketch, i horizontally flipped the squares to fit a little better my illustration. 

The card base was really thin so i stuck on the backside another piece of watercolor paper which has the same texture as the illustration on the other side. It also gave me the necessary hiding spots for sticking the vellum which serve as windows.

After i came up with the sentiment and drew it on with a permanent fine-line marker both on the cover and on the inside i felt the card lacked something, and therefore i drew these corner doodles you see in the pictures. At the point of each doodle corner i added sticky pearls. It feels so elegant this way. 

In order to tie the inside with the outside together, i draw and painted with the same colors 3 different sized hearts, which i cut and then mounted on foam squares. 

Sorry for the long post and many pictures but i felt this card deserved a little bit more love in order to be able to show you all the features. I absolutely adore this card and can't wait to send it to someone special. 

As stated above, i am entering this card in the CAS Colours and Sketches Challenge 124: Sketch. 

Thank you for visiting my blog,

Have a wonderful evening,

Teodora

Friends are Sunshine

While browsing around the challenges that came out this week, one really inspired me. I am talking about the Less Is More Week 224 Challenge "Hello Sunshine". 

Therefore i decided to create a Rays of Sun stencil, given that i didn't have any, so that i could use it with distress inks and create this sun. 

I have also created a tutorial which you can find it here in where you can see how i created my stencil with low cost materials that everybody may have lying around.

I have also used a written words stencil that i bought in a pack of 4 from Panduro and daubed with Spiced Marmalade. The sun and the rays are Mustard Seeds. Then i used a piece of orange ribbon to create a delimitation and proceeded to writing my sentiment. 

As it is obvious, i will also enter this card in the Less is More Week 224 Challenge. Another challenge i will enter my card in is ShowCASe Your Style Challenge #15: Friendship.

Thanks for stopping by,

Have a wonderful sunny weekend, 

Teo

Mom's Birthday Card

Heya all,

As i was saying in the previous post, i have decided to create another card for my mom's birthday using the same stencil. This is the result. I used a different set of papers which i can't remember where i downloaded on the internet (sorry for that) and black cardstock on white card base. The sentiment i wrote on a piece of vellum and embellished it at the end with several holographic sticky crystals. 

Today was short, i know ... but all i can say is that i adore this card and how it turned out. 

I will be entering this card in the Virginia's View Challenge. Virginia has created this challenge with a special prize in mind. A Craftsy Card Class Giveaway. She has also included in her post a FREE Class from the Craftsy page. I have already seen a couple of videos from that class and i loved this idea for the gift card pocket in your cards. Looking forward to seeing the rest! :) 

Thank you for visiting my blog,

Have a great weekend,

Teo

Tillykke!

... which means Congratulations! in Danish. 

Today a colleague of mine asked me to make a birthday card for one of her friends. I really loved that someone asked me that and therefore here it is. I just couldn't wait to get home so i could make it. 

In the last couple of weeks i have been looking at this Iris Folding technique which is basically stacking folded (in two) thin pieces of papers in a certain order to create a spiralling effect. On Pinterest i found this wonderful pattern which went great with the person my colleague wants to give this card to. 

I was a bit afraid at first on how was i about to cut the pattern out of my white cardstock but my craft knife did the work just great. After that i printed out a couple of papers i found on PaperCraft Inspiration blog and cut thin strips of each. I proceeded to layering them as the instructions said and voila!!! ... 

Given that i still don't have any stamps ... the "copy from my laptop's screen" technique for the writing went just great. As finishing touches i added Sparkling Stickles to all the dots in my sentiment and a sticky sparkly gem in the middle of my Iris's heart. I have also drawn faux stitches around my heart because i felt that my patterns were just losing themselves in the white of the card base. 

Finally, i cut the extra pieces of strips sticking out from behind my card front and added foam dimensionals to where i didn't had any layers of paper and sticky red tape underneath the pattern. Adhered to my card and it was finally done. 

I am so happy the way it turned out that i am thinking to make another card for my mom as well, given that her birthday is rapidly approaching and i feel that what i did for her 1 month ago just isn't her. 

I would also like to enter my card in the following challenge:

• Crafty Catz - CAS Challenge

Thank you for the visit,

Have a wonderful evening,

Teo

Father's Day card

So here it is, finally! The mystery background i did a week ago. I simply love this background. The color inspiration came from a  Seeds color swatch and it is watercolor on watercolor paper. After it was completely dry, i added Sparkling Stickles to every intersection, therefore it has a discrete sparkle when you look at it. 

Later this week my Martha Stewarts Circle Cutter arrived and i was (and still am) super excited. Therefore i cut this side circle on my watercolor piece and decided that it will have a hanger with some ties as i envisioned it made for my father, on fathers day, which btw, i have no idea when it is. Growing up in Romania we didn't celebrate it. 

The hanger is made using an embossing pen and Black Glittery embossing powder from Ranger. As for the ties, i put done the colors i used on a different watercolor paper and after they were dried, i took a hexagon patterned stencil and added appropriate color Distress Inks with my mini distress ink pads. Then i proceeded to cutting small ties with my craft cutter and arranging them the way i thought suited best to this card.

After i adhered the ties down, i decided i needed to conceal the small edge on the hanger and used some sticky black gems which i think work great. In order to tie the background to my focus piece, i used Sparkling Stickles on the intersections of the hexagonal pattern (which you can't exactly see it) as well. 

For the sentiment, i used my Circle Cutter and cut an outside edge of about 1 in, and wrote with a white gel ball pen, Happy Fathers day. I also used the same black sticky gems in between the sentiment and on the edges so that it would have a connection with the focus piece and serve as concealing points for my dimensional foams.

I would also like to participate in the Challenge #134 from Crafty CardMakers called Make your own background.

So here it is, the card for today,
Thank you visiting my site,

Teo

Weekend update

Hello again,

It is 2:29 Tuesday early morning and i wanted to give you an update on what i did this weekend. I am still waiting on my Martha Stewart Circle Cutter which will arrive tomorrow therefore this weekend i only got to create a bunch of backgrounds for my future cards. 

It wasn't easy for me to start painting and playing with watercolors, but ever since i started i can't stop. I have also incorporated distress inks, and i only have 4 colors so far but i am starting to feel the need to get some more. Maybe some green and/or purple.

In the picture above there is one other background missing that was still drying so couldn't make it to the photo session. But i still think it's the best one yet. I have also experimented with resist embossing and some "free-hand" painting based on an image that i found on Pinterest and really caught my eye. 

And yeah, Pinterest really became my new tool of trade, providing me with tons of inspiration and new techniques to try. I am also trying to follow color combos in order to step out of my Rainbow comfort zone and create more themed cards, with different feels rather than just Joy all the way. 

Nevertheless i leave you now, going to bed.

Have a wonderful night,
See you soon,

Teo

Thank you Card

I have created this card for a friend of mine that has helped me a lot through the years i have spent here in Denmark. 

The background is a watercolour piece done on watercolour paper, finished with splotches of purple, white and pinkish red. At first i wasn't quite sure what i would use it for but then i started playing with a stencil i bought from Panduro in a set of 4. I started drawing the big hearts on a piece of scrap watercolour paper and after that i cut them all and finally arranged them in a singular column pattern as seen in the pictures. I then moved to the background piece and drew the hearts in the order i chose and then used my cutting knife to trace them without damaging the paper or the pieces. 

Finally i sandwiched 4 scrap hearts and their respective match with Hobby MultiMedia glue from the watercolour background and glued them on a thin piece of paper that would serve as a base. For the thank you banner i wrote on a vellum strip and sandwiched it just before the last heart being the only support it has on the card. 

As a finishing touch, i used some clear and red holographic sequence that i glued on each alternating heart. The effect that is created is quite subtle but it has a nice feel to it when you first see it. 

Love You Galaxy Background

I made this card for my boyfriend and i copied the image from a Stampin Up stamps set called "Love you to the Moon" which i drew on vellum paper from Bog & Ide. The background is a watercolour piece with teal, blue and purple colours, (it has a different feel in real life, when it comes to colours) followed with white colour splashes.

The silver stars i cut from a paper with stars which i used as background for the previous card with the balloon. The stars that i placed on the vellum paper served as hiding places for the dimension squares that hold the vellum in place.

I have also entered this card in the CASology Week 144: Flight Challenge and Cards4Guyz Challenge #44 Flight.

Have a wonderful weekend all,

Teo

Happy Birthday to You

One night i had created a watercolour distress background and i was wondering what to do with it. While browsing around i found a set of dies from Simon Says Stamp called Balloons Craft Dies. I do not own a Big Shot machine to use dies so i don't have any. So i used my PC to create a basic outline of the biggest balloon and then trace it on my watercolour background so that i could cut it afterwards.

I did the same with the word "you" which i lined from a stamp i found online and then coloured in with watercolour black. The rest is self explanatory.

shine bright

A friend of mine is going though a rough patch and i have created this card for her to remind her how special she is and that she must stay strong. 

The background are rays coloured in watercolour. On top i added double vellum paper to tone it down. As a center piece i distressed watercolour paper in a diamond shape and in the middle i wrote with marker the sentiment "shine bright". Around the edges i embellished with diamond black sticky pearls. 

And i have entered this card in the Word-Art Anything Goes Challenge.

You're so Sweet

I have recently bought new distress Tim Holtz inks and i have been playing around with them. I am still not sure to whom i will give this card but i adore it. The colours are just so vibrant and playful. 

Happy Birthday Mom!

Soon my mom will have her birthday. Therefore i have created this shaker card as a flower as an homage to her name which in Romanian means flowers. 

Happy Birthday Grandma!

It was my grandmother's birthday and i made this card to let her know how important she is for me. 

The background is made out of strips of watercolor paper which i cut to 0.5 cm width and then rearranged them on a piece of white cardstock. They all have scalloped edges on all sides. I used vellum in order to dim a bit the brightness of the colours and to write my sentiment on. To make the sentiment stick out more, i outlined it with white gel pen and then used some sticky pearls bought from Bog & Ide.

I am also entering this card in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where "Anything Goes" (YEY!!!).

Hope your week is great,
Teutza

Thinking of You

This card was made with my family in mind. I miss them so and i really hope they got it.

... com muitas saudades

This is a card i made for my boyfriend's family in which he could transmit how much he misses them.

My secret hobby

I am creating this blog in order to share my creations to the world. My secret hobby is card making, all shapes and colors, sparkly and elegant, for all occasions. It is not an entirely new hobby, given that i have started doing similar things in Photoshop, but i have recently gained confidence to pick it up. I have always loved to cut things up, and have created my share of themed notebooks with cuttings from magazines when i was in general school (Harry Potter, Star Wars, 3 Sud-Est and many others) but around high-school i started to discover photography and Photoshop. 
Photography gave me the freedom to immortalize things i loved and gave me a new perspective on the world, and Photoshop, apart from helping me to retouch my photos, showed me that i could create everything i could imagine from almost nothing. Also, while learning Photoshop from the multiple tutorials i found online, i got to know digital scrapbooking, little sister of scrapbooking. I loved this world, cause it had beautiful memories and wonderful colours. I picked it up and soon i was creating my first layouts for my own memories. It later evolved into my own secret gift making machine for my friends whenever they were having birthdays. I loved the feeling of giving them presents that were unique which made them understand how much i appreciate them. 
By the time i got to university i even got to take request from colleagues to do layouts for them to give to their friends and so on. Nevertheless it never became a business. I was doing this from sheer pleasure. But somehow, i lost it. For many years after i even forgot how to use Photoshop. It was so strange to know that some time ago i knew all the keyboard shortcuts and now i was relearning it by trial and error. I finally got it back by the time i was in Denmark doing my master degree, because it was useful to do graphics and images for projects. 

But only last year i started again to do creative projects again, layouts, in order to give them as presents for my boyfriend. Show him how much i love him. But i never felt that he enjoyed them as much as i had expected. So i stopped doing them and began watching card making videos on YouTube. Damn i love to see all those ladies online doing their cards, with so many colours, so many ideas, so many tools. But i was always afraid to start, because i knew i would never have that UNDO button. 
Nevertheless, one month before Christmas i got inspired and started doing them. It went slow and i felt i lacked imagination but by my last card before Christmas i was already "in business". After Christmas and upon my returning in Denmark, i started buying from time to time materials every time i imagined what their use could be. And so i have created myself a good base to start creating. I never thought and i could do something as nice as i saw in the YouTube videos but it felt so good when i felt my latest creations could easily match the ones i saw. So i decided to open this blog in order to post whenever i create a new card. Maybe i need the audience, maybe i want to brag, i don't know for sure. But what i know is that i want to share them with the world. Stay tuned, i have many things prepared.

And sorry for the long post :D. Don't worry, next ones will be shorter, i promise.