Stickles is a girl's best friend (cards)!

I was good and sat down last weekend to write the last Chistmas greetings, but I ran out of cards! Bummer, I thought I had made plenty.

So a girl got to do what a girl got to do: whip up some last minute Christmas cards.
In early december I needed to stock up some papers with pink in, as I had ran completely out, and I bough a super cute collection from Panduro/Tilda, called Christmas Play. My original intention was to use it for non seasonal stuff, but as it had some lovely themed cut outs, I thought I could use it for seasonal cards as well.

These cards are far out from my traditional style, but I enjoyed making them, and they were rater quick to make.

So where do the Stickles come in?
When I had put these cards together, I thought they missed the little extra. So I pulled out the good old Stickles and some Glossy and added on my cards to make them a little more festive and to add smore dimension.

Volia! Not so dull cards anymore.
It might be difficult to see the stickles and the glossy on these lousy images, but believe me, it's there :-)


What do you use to make your cards pop?

CSI Coordinates Cards

As I promised in my last post, I'll show some cards made with CSI Coordinates.

CSI Coordinates are printables which comes with every CSI challenge. There are both background papers, word art and (journaling) spots/tags etc. So convenient if you don't have what you need among your own stash!
 

Background paper, tag, frames: CSI. Ribbon/twin: Scrapbook Fantasies.
Cardstock: Bazill. Buttons: Unknown

I don't always use the Coordinates, as I do have planty of stash on my desk, but some times I do. Usually I don't use all of it, and it's a shame to just toss the remaining pp and embellies. So I got this idea - why not use them for cards? I bet somebody has done it before me, but I haven't actually seen it, so nobody can blaim me on beeing a copy cat *lol*
 

Patterned paper/frame/owl: CSI.  Ribbons: Scrapbook Fantasies.
Brads: Harmonie. Cardstock: Bazill

I printed one of the background papers from CSI Coordinates #46 on grey cardstock, grabbed the spots that I had printed and were left from designing my layout for the challenge, and came up with these cards.

Patterned papers, ticket & frame with deer: CSI.  Ribbon: Scrapbook Fantasies.
Twine: The twinery Cardstock: Bazill. Buttons: Unknown

I have some remaning patterned papers from CSI Coordinates #47 on my desk, and the matching spots are just lovely, so I think I will do it this week too.

Do you ever use printables for cards?

Cardabilities Sketch #63 is released!

Welcome to another fun sketch from Cardabilities!

Here is my take on it:




Chick Wire stamp: Teresa Collins Stamp Maker
Patterned papers: WRMK. Wood veeners: Studio Calico
Rubons: basic Grey. Star pins: Inkido

 Did you notice the chicken wire on the card? It's a stamp I have made by using the Photocentric Teresa Collins Stamp Maker. You see, fellow Cardabilities DT member Petra Ofrell is also in the DT at Photocentric, who has teamed up with Teresa Collins to develop the Stamp Maker. I had the chance to try it out at Petra's house a while back, and I'm telling you - this stamp maker is on my wish list! If you want to see how it works, click here.


Please head over to the Cardabilities blog to see the rest of the DTs lovely exampels, and to play along!

Masculine Cards!

With four men in the house (two kids, hubby and FIL), masculine cards are the most demanded here. I never seem to have enough and now it's time to restock again.

Sketches always seem to get me started, and I found some fun ones this week I wanted to give out a try.



Card #1:



Patterned Papers: 7Gypsies.
Digistamp: Unknown. Alpha: Adornit

 Sketch and source:

Source: CAS(E) this Sketch Challenge #5

Card #2:



Patterned papers: 7Gypsies. Twine:WRMK
Wood veener: Studio Calico. Alpha: BG


Sketch and source:

Source: RetroSketches Challenge #37

Please come back on Thursday to see another masculine card when my example for the Cardabilities Challenge #63 is released :-)

Thank you for stopping by - I hope you got some ideas for how to make masculine cards!

Cardabilities Sketch #62 is up!

Hello fellow card makers!

Today is the day when Cardablities Sketch #62 is up:

And here is my take on it:

Monster stamp & Happy Birthday background stamp: SK Digis
Patterned papers: MME. Twine: the Twinery. Square sprout: Jillibean Soup
Alpha: AC, monster eyes: unknown

Did you notice all the cute monsters? They are made with digital stamps from the Cardabilities October Sponsor: SK Digis, as well as the "Happy Birthday" background.


SK Digis have a lovely range of digital stamps, all of them available in both .jpg and .png format.
Please visit the shop to see all the stamps :-)

Now please head over to the Cardabilities blog to see what the rest of the DT have to inspire you, and to learn how to win some goodies from SK Digis :-)

Cardabilities Sketch #61 is up!

Good morning, fellow card makers!


Cardabilities Sketch #61 is up today:

And here is my take on it:

Monster stamps: SKI Digis. Patterned papers: MME. Flags: Søstrene Grene.
Twine: Pink Paisley. Buttons & monster eyes: unknown

Did you notice all the cute monsters? They are made with digital stamps from the Cardabilities October Sponsor: SK Digis, as well as the "Happy Birthday" background.


SK Digis have a lovely range of digital stamps, all of them available in both .jpg and .png format.
Please visit the shop to see all the stamps :-)

Now please head over to the Cardabilities blog to see what the rest of the DT have to inspire you, and to learn how to win some goodies from SK Digis :-)

Simple Christmas cards!

I was bored the other day, so I decided to start making Christmas cards. I have plenty of old stuff to use, but made it even easier for myself by buying a couple of new, small papers stacks - they are so handy.

So I started on Friday night by making cards in classy Christmas cards in tradional colors. But I wanted to see if I could get some ideas for new design and color combos, and I found a lot on the web to help me out.

I'm going to show the classic cards here next week - today I'll give you the other ones.BTW, for those of you who don't speak Norwegian: God Jul means Merry Christmas.


I found this fun color combo on the Dynamic Duos challenge blog:

And here is my take on it. I admit it, my card has a more turqouis color, but what the heck - I'm still happy with it and the challenge made me think out of the box.



Patterned paper: Simple story. Tag: ChicTags. Snow flake brad & tulle: unknown.
Alpha: Jillibean Soup




CAS-ual Friday has this fun challenge this week:

I had some old glitter hearts, and I have lots of eyelets I hoarded years ago, so I pulled out my paper crimper, white cardstock and came up with this card.

Cardstock: Bazill. The rest: unknown

Artful Delight's October card sketch looks like this:

What a fabolous sketch! perfect for Christmas cards and all other cards!

Patterend papers: Simple Stories. The rest: unknown


Have you started on your Christmas cards yet?

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Please come back later this week, as I have a lot of places to show where you can get inspiration for both cards, layouts and altered items:

• Oct. 15th: A new card sketch is up at Cardabilities
• Oct. 17th: Once Upon A Sketch releases DT Team B's creations on the 15th - my example 
• Oct. 19th: I have a guest blog post revealed somewhere in cyber space! It involves stamping, getting messy, example on how to use stamps, cards, layouts and a cnvas. Come back to see where and what.
• Oct 21th: Classy Christmas cards.

And if I have time to scrap this week, I'll put up a layout in between the stated posts.
See you around!

Cardabilities Sketch #60 is up!

Hi fellow card makers!


On the 15th and 30rd every month Cardabilities launches a new card sketch. If you want to play along, don't forget to link up on the Cardabilities blog, both so the DT (and other card makers) can leave you some love, and to be eligible for the Sponsor Giveaway.


The September sponsor is Flying Unicorn

Website : http://www.flyingunicornstore.com/

Blog : http://www.flyingunicornblog.com

Forums : http://www.flyingunicornforums.com

FB : http://www.facebook.com/pages/Flying-Unicorn/120928447946596

Please visit the Cardabilities blog to see this period's prize and to see all the lovely cards from the DT.

Here is the new sketch you can play with:

  And here is my official take on it, as shown on the Cardablities blog:

Ribbons from here and there. Flair: Ormolu.
Rubon, button and twine: Unknown

  The sketch was perfect for all the tiny pieces of ribbons I have laying around :-)     But I like the sketch so much that I wanted to make another card, this time a more masculine one:

Patterned papers & tags : Graphic 45
Ribbon, twine & raindrops: Unknown

  What do you say - do you want to give this card sketch a try?

New Cardabilities Sketch is up!

It's the 15th today, which means a new card sketch is up at Cardabilities.


Here is today's sketch:

And here is my take on it.

Papers: October Afternoon

This is my first week in the new DT at Cardabilities and I was very excited to see what the rest of the DT had done with this sketch. Karan had kept all of the cards to herself, so none in the DT knew what the others had made.


And boy, these girls are so talented. Please head over to the Cardabilities blog for a massive inspiration and to learn how you can win a lovely price from this months sponsor. The Flying Unicorn

Looking for a layout sketch?
Cardabilities has a sister blog, Sketchabilities.And I promise you - this week's sketch is just lovely!
Why don't you go and have a look

Nook Card Challenges

Every Monday and Wednesday we have card challenges at MyScrapbbookNook and the DT do a marvellous job with giving examples for each challenge.

You may have heard the sad news about the Nook closing from the end of September, but the activities will go on through the entire month. I'll be hosting the Monday Card Challenges, so stay tuned to get ideas what you can do with the September kit!


I have played along in August as well and here are the cards I made for the two last challenges:


August 22nd - Pinspo Challenge

Pinspo:


My card:

All materials from the August Kit


August 27th - Sketch Challenge

Sketch

My card

All materials from the August kit except twine

Please head over to our card forum to get even more inspiration from our DT and to see how you can earn a $15.00 paypal prize!

OMG! I have stamped!!!

Not long ago I won a cute stamp set when the challenge blog Scrapping Everyday Miracles celebrated their birthday. There was this "Invite a friend" challenge: Sherri Funk invited me, I told she had done so, and we both won a set of stamps, identical sets. This stamps are from the company Close To My Heart.

When I started making cards, before I started scrapping, it was all about stamping. I hoarded stamps, I had ink in any colors, and pens, paint and other utensils enough to color images for the rest of my life. Then I discovered you could make cards without the stamping, and I just quit. Like that. And I have hardly stamped anything over the previous five years. OK, I admit I use some background stamps on layouts and crads, but that is about it.

The stamps I won are just adorable, and surely far away from my everyday style, but who says no to a good challenge? So I decided to give them a try! I also made an agreement with Sherri  we should do a twin blog post about our creations, and you'll find an intro about her, and a link to her blog, further down.


So I pulled out my ink, my old embossing powder, scared to death I would be completely rusty. I decided to start easy and use the stamps with some papers which was a safe pick: Webster's pages. I chose to stamp borders and sentiment on the background paper, but the medallion an butterfly were stamped on  seperate sheets and cut out. I also figured out that if I used lots of flowers, I could cover my mistakes easily - he-he. Here is card #1:

CTMH stamps used: Large frame, cameo, butterfly, border, sentiment

Close up photo from a different angle to show dimension

What I really loved about this stamps was they gave clean, sharp prints and the prints were easy to emboss because of that, too.


Then I made card #2: this time I stamped all on the background paper, but I still played safe with Webster's Pages papers and lots of flowers:

CTMH stamps used: Small frame, butterfly, sentiment

From a different angle

Pretty cards - easy to make when you have great stamps, pretty flowers and papers :-)
And very not my everyday style..

It was time to take it a bit longer, step out of the comford zone and see if I could use these stamps on more Clean & Simple cards...


CAS card #1:

CTMH stamps used: Small frame, cameo and sentiment. Embossed: frame & cameo

OK, it could be done *lol*


I then got this idea and pulled out the most horrible stamp ever made: a surprised cat by Cherry Arte. OMG, its aweful - and I love it so much. I'm willing to sell any of the stamps in my collection but this cat!


CAS card #2:

CTMH stamps used: Large frame, heart, sentiment

I think CAS card #2 is my fav.... More...me!?!


So I hadn't forgotten it all, I discovered lots of great stamps in my shelf, and will hopefully pull them out more often.

Are you good at stamping?




Now, head over to Sherri Funk's blog to see what she has done with the same stamp set.
Sherri is a super talented, Canadian scrapper, and one of the sweetest persons I know. She design for plases like Let's Capture These Sketches, Let's Capture Our Memories and Scrapping Everyday Miracles and has a fun, carefree, linear style. Now please go and visit her to se her lovely creations (if her post isn't up yet when you read this, it is due to time zones)! Here is a sneak peak of Sherri's work:

And if you wonder: no, I'm not payed, or have been sposnsored, by anyone or any company to do this blog post *lol*

Card Time!

I know that, as soon school start in four week, the boys will be invited to birthdays. And birthdays means I need to make cards - the boys prefer to give mum's hand made cards - bless them!

Over the last week I have created some cards (DT work mostly) where the designs have been my own. I admit it - some times it feel's great to let somebody else take care of the design itself, so I can focus on papers and embellies - so when it came to making the boy's cards, I was happy to find the card sketch blog Cardabilities. This blog have plenty of great sketches to work with and I picked the last three ones, created, and even all the challenge entries are closed, I want to show you my cards.

Under each card you will find the link to the current sketch: go ahead and have a look at them, they are really great card sketches.

Sketch #56
Papers: Crate Paper Story teller

Sketch #57
Papers: Simple Stories Fresh Summer, Wood veeners: Studio Calicio

Sketch #58
Papers: Pretty Little Studio Monsieur

Do you enjoy card sketches?
What are your favourite places? I'm always looking for some good ones :-)

Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger

On Tuesday I found this Tuesday Trigger called Vintage Vogue over at Moxie Fab World:

And I decided I wanted to play along.
It was something about the golden spots on the skirt  and all the laces that attracted me.

The obvious would probably be to go bananas with soft colors, lots of layers, pearls, laces and ruffles, but I decided to check out if I could do a clean & simple card with the said materials.

So I dug out some rubon spots, pearls, lace, trim and cardstock and a rubon sentiment and came up with this card:

I think the wooden butterfly (Studio Calico) was the perfect accent to give this card the clean look I wanted it to have.

I have had fun making cleaner cards lately - the oposite of my layouts which now have more patterned paper backgrounds and are spread more out than they used to have/be. Interesting.... I wonder where this is taking me....

Thank you for taking time to stop by - it means a lot to me :-)

Crop Alert! Card Challenge Alert!

We at the MyScrapbookNook DT are so happy to announce we have a new crop for you!

Are you ready to party?
I hope so because we've got lots in store for you this weekend!!!

It's National Scrapbook Day this Saturday and we are celebrating by scrapping all weekend long!
Lots of fun challenges and prizes and a chance to meet our new designers!!!

Because we love to party we thought we would kick off our premier show a little early and throw out a challenge everyday starting later today.....than the rest of the stars will come out and dazzle you for over 24 hours straight starting bright and early Saturday morning PST ;)


As usual there will be plenty of fun challenges, prizes to win and a heart warm community doing anything to give love and share inspiration.

You don't need the kits to participate, and you don't need to do all the challenges, either. But I promise, if you need to get your mojo started, or some inspiration, this is the best place to be.

You find all the the details on the crop here.

I would love to see you there!

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While waiting for the first challenge to go live, why not warm up with a fun card challenge?

Shellye has designed the May 2nd Quilting Bee CARDS Challenge

where the challenge is to be inspired from quilts found at Etsy and Pinterest.

Here is my take example for the challenge:

 Patterned Papers (Echo Park This & That)  and butterfly (Maya Road) from MyScrapbooknook May kit.

Please head over to see the complete challenge, more examples from the DT and what the forum members will come up with. And if you want to play along, you are more than welcome :-)