A card full of flowers and pearls

Hello!!!

Today I have a card different from those that I usually make; full of flowers, pearls... and not one single stamp used!

Lately I feel a bit "stuck", but when I received the amazing Howdy Doody paper pad from My Mind's Eye by Lena at Enjoy Scrapping in Greece, I just wanted to make this kind of card! And while making it, I kept thinking our dear friend Katerina who is always lifting our spirits with her amazing smile and her good mood... and she is also such a great hostess!

The sketch is from My Mind's Eye challenge #33. As you may have gathered, My Mind's Eye paper pads and kits are by far my favourite ones... but I had never participated in a challenge before. This time I thought "why not?". The sketch is the following:

As you can see on the card, there's quite a lot of pearls - I have even misted the flowers with pearlised water that I have prepared with Perfect Pearls - unfortunately this could not be captured in the photo.

I have made the flowers myself, from Howdy Doody papers and a flower die cut folder. At the beginning I had some troubles, as the papers would tear while I was trying to make them more dimensional. But then I thought of getting them a bit wet, and it worked wonders.

Also, there's quite a lot of distressing with my favourite Vintage Photo Distress Ink... and since I discovered my mini sewing machine, of course there's some stitching as well!

I hope you like it... the truth is that I really enjoyed making the card!

Hugs,
Anastasia

Supplies:

Party time!

Hello!

Today I have a card that I made for Cherry Nest. Since spring is coming (ok, I know, it's still cold - at least in Athens, but the sun is starting to show!), I thought I should make a card in happy colours:

So time to party to celebrate spring!

I used the following Cherry Nest papers:






These are of my very favourite papers, I have used them a few times to make other cards. The papers themselves are so happy and lively that I didn't want to add many things, I wanted to let them do the job. So I just inked a bit their edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and I used white gel pen to highlight the frame.

I hope you like it!

Supplies:

Your Charm

First of all, may I start by saying something I've been meaning to for some time now: I thank you all so, so, so very much for your encouraging comments! You cannot imagine how much I appreciate them and how much the lift my spirits and keep me going even when I'm disappointed. Thank you so very much!!!

So... the other thing I wanted to tell is is how excited I am for two reasons that you can see in the following layout:

1. I have finally found how to add light to the photos! Sounds stupid, right? But I am really a beginner with everything that has to do with photos. For some reason all my nephew's photos that I was printing were too dark, no matter what I tried. And I was finding so difficult to make a layout with dark baby photos... a disaster!

Finally today I accidentally found a magic button in Picasa, the "full light"... I told you, I really am a beginner!


2. See this close up photo:

Oh yes! I finally used a sewing machine!!! Lately I was saying how jealous I was of layouts and cards using sewing machine... Finally I decided not to buy one, but to retry using a mini sewing machine that I had and I thought it wasn't working properly. And after some fighting, I finally managed to make it work! Soooo excited! Ok, the things I can do with the mini sewing machine are limited, but it's better than nothing!

So, after two failed layouts that I didn't like at all, I finally managed to do the following one and I'm quite satisfied. Some close ups:

I really like vellum, especially when I use it with white hot embossing or the white pen gel.

And lately I'm really into twine...

Main inspirations for which I prepared the layout::

- #27 Scrapbookers in Greece:

- The Studio Challenges - March 4th - Chevrons

- Bird is the Word: Charm

I hope you like it!

Hugs,
Anastasia

Amigurumi time...

It was time to make an amigurumi doll. Actually, I tried lately to make two mushrooms, but I really destroyed them when I put the pieces together :S

A few days ago Alex send me a site with a Kokeshi doll pattern, a great present idea for our friend Puccarina who likes Kokeshi dolls (thank you Alex for the idea!). I decided to try it out, a bit afraid about how I could put the pieces together without destroying that too!

Since Puccarina has already received it, I can share with you the photos I took (in a rush!):

It has its flaws... especially with the pieces that I put together first. But I am quite satisfied with the final outcome. And I practiced so much with all the stitching to put the details together, that I will shortly do more amigurumi!

You can find the pattern here: Amigurumi Patterns

I hope you like it!

Hugs,
Anastasia

A card for Alison

Good morning!

Today I have a "special" card. Special because of the reason I made it for. Most of us know Laurie and her amazing cards, and she has asked us to make a card for her daughter, who at the end of the month will celebrate her 16th birthday and is facing some challenges with her health lately. Hopefully, the tons of cards she will receive will make her feel better and give her the strength she needs. You can read the story here. And here is the card that I made:

I was between two minds whether I should participate in challenges or not. There was a specific reason I was making this card. However, I decided I should participate - the reason being that more cardmakers might read this post and might decide to make a card for Alison themselves. So the challenges are the following:

- Lawnscaping #29 with the following sketch:

- Embellish Magazine (yes, they're back!) with a spring theme and the following colour combination:

I hope you like it (and that you decide to send a card too)!

Hugs,
Anastasia

Supplies:

Get Creative March 1st Layout Challenge

Hello!

It's sunny but cold today... but that's better than cloudy and hot! ;o)

Yesterday I made a layout for the Get Creative March 1st layout challenge:

March is the month that January winners get in charge as Guest designers (clap-clap-clap!). I may not be eligible to fully participate in the challenge as I am part of the Creative Team, but I won't miss the opportunity to create something based on the challenges anyway! And the inspiration from the Guest Designers is simply amazing.

Oh! Yes! What is the challenge about you may ask? (duh!) It is a colour combo challenge, with the following colours:

As for the layout, my Baloo doesn't like photos at all. Every time I try to get some photos of her, she just goes away. Makes me feel like a paparazzi! I couldn't think of any title, and my fried Eleni who is AMAZING with layouts titles gave me the idea of Pawpawrazzi... Isn't it hilarious? hahahaha Thanks for the idea Eleni!!

So, why don't you come by Get Creative for some great inspiration from the team...

I hope you like it!

Hugs,

Anastasia

PS: Most of the supplies I have used are from my stash, including the papers and the buttons, so I will not provide a list of the supplies used. If you have any questions, let me know and I will reply to you!

Cherry Nest - Classy lady

Hello!

I'm just back from a (relatively) sunny London to cold Athens... isn't it ironic? My colleagues in London were so happy to hear that it was snowing in Athens while they were enjoying the sun and they asked me to tell everyone that the weather there was better for once. So I'm letting you know now ;o)

Today I wanted to share with you a set of three cards that I had made for Cherry Nest. This wonderful pie de poule papers always make me think of the fashion world. So I thought of making a few dresses. I kept the cards very CAS to highlight the dresses and the sentiment:

At the beginning I wanted to make one card with all three dresses, playing with the red, black and their combination with a sentiment along the lines of "mix it up". But the result was a bit "too much" and then I thought of the 3-cards-set and I was satisfied with the result. And here are each of the cards:

For this last dress I kind of "weaved" together strips from the two papers. At the beginning the result seemed a bit too blurry, but when I cut it out as a dress I liked it.

I hope you like it too!

The Cherry Nest pied de poule papers I used, as well as the other supplies are the following: