ATCAS #9 - Spring

We are already in the 9th challenge of Addicted to CAS!!!

This time Harriet chose the word - Spring... Yes, Spring is "supposed" to have officially arrived in the northern hemisphere, but I very much doubt that - more on that later on.

So my card:

The trees are stamped with one of my favourite stamps I hadn't used for some time now from Waltzing Mouse Stamps. The grass is die cut - I think My Favorite Things. And the birds are wood veneers which I coloured with ProMarkers.

And now to the reason why the word "Spring" sounds a bit funny to me these last couple of days. As I said, in theory, two days ago spring came officially - to the northern hemisphere that is ;)

And I was in Warsaw on business trip.

For the first time ever I completely forgot to check the weather before preparing my suitcase. When I was leaving I thought "We are already reaching the end of March, how cold can it be, with my anorak I will be fine just in case I need it"...

...And that's how this crazy Greek lady ended up walking on snow with her ballerinas...

The following day I woke up and the first thing was to go to the window to see what was going on... There is this Greek expression "my blood got frozen", kind of expressing either shock or fear... that's what I felt when I saw that the "a little bit of snow" of the previous day had become "quite a lot of snow" during the night:

Luckily I was flying in the morning and I just got a taxi from the hotel to the airport, because I don't think I could get anywhere with my "perfect for +15C" clothes and my ballerinas when everything was covered with snow and at -4C!!! I mean, come on, it's the 22nd of March already!!!

So... yes, welcome spring!!! lol!

But... let's go back to the reason of this post... I hope you like the card!

Come over at Addicted to CAS to see a variety of amazing card from the design team and to play with us. Our sponsor for this challenge is  Clearly Besotted Stamps!

Hugs,

Anastasia

I am a woman...

...just in case you didn't know, hahaha

Well, this is the title of my latest layout:

The inspiration for the theme has been the new challenge of Born to Crop Not to Mop. This month they challenge us to make something with the theme "woman... The wife, the mother, the friend, the working woman... The woman in general! Choose one of your many roles that inspires you and create!"

So I've chosen to scrap about the main roles that define me: aunt, catmother, sister, daughter, friend..." [Updated to add: "Godmother, Crafter, Working girl"]

The layout is a scraplift of Anna Maria Wolniak's first layout for the Scrap it free online workshop at entreartistes.fr.

Last week I received my first order from Sodalicious and just couldn't wait to use one of the pattern papers (the grey one with the black dots) as well as they "x" stencil... love it!!!

And a couple of close-up photos:

Favourite wood veneers - hearts, butterfly, woman, feathers - which I coloured with Studio Calico mists, embellishments from my stash, kits etc.

And here's my first attempt to use watercolour on my layouts. I need more practice (what a great, great excuse!) and for sure I'm going to practice more. But I love the whole messy result, together with the free/childish doodling - who would have thought when I started scrapping? Finally, a stamp I wanted to use for some time now "Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You. - Dr Seuss".

So come over at Born to Crop Not to Mop... there are two new design team member as well since this month, both of which I am a huge fan, Roula and Vivika!!! Super!!!

Hope you like it!!!

Hugs,
Anastasia

Get Creative March 15th

Good morning!!!

So it's already March 15th (how I love it when the day get bigger....) which means of course a new layout sketch challenge over at Get Creative!

The layout that I made:

Based on the following sketch by Elina:

The title was inspired by the fact that when Andreas has this look on his face he looks exactly like his mother when she was a child... the eyes, the look, the mouth... it brings me back to time and I see my cousin again at this age. OK, the big difference is that she had dark skin and black hair ;)

I so love doodling and lately I'm becoming braver with it. With this layout I used a number of different doodles: the stars below the photo are rubons (I love rubons!), the circles above the photo are stamps, on the upper right corner I doodled over a stamp. I added doodling around the banners and the letters of the title and finally I did some "free" doodling on the background inspired by my very favourite Anna Maria Wolniak.

For the title I used the new die cut alphabet by Paper Smooches, I used the negative of the die cuts and added different red pattern papers below.

I hope you like it!

So come over at Get Creative to see how amazingly the design team has interpreted the sketch and to play with us... The winner of this challenge will come back as guest designer in May!

Hugs,
Anastasia

Addicted to CAS #8 - Wings

Good morning!!!

One more Saturday, one more time that while this post is being published I will be enjoying the company of almost 50 scrap-friends at the second Scrapbookers in Greece crop!

So today we have a new challenge over at Addicted to CAS. The card that I made:

The code word for this challenge is set by Florence and is the word wings:

As I travel so often, the first thing that came to my mind was the wings of the airplane (and how I don't like sitting next to the wings, as I cannot see anything outside...)

First I made my background with Distress Inks - Tumbled Glass and Broken China. Then I paper pieced my little plane and added Glossy Accent to his windows and "nose":

The banner had a similar edge to both sides. So I masked one side to take out the edge on the side that it would be attached to the plane. I stamped it on white cardstock which I then coloured with Distress Ink Scattered Straw.

The little stars are wood veneers that I painted white and then used glitter gelly pen on them to make them sparkle. Finally, the clouds are chipboard die cuts that I cut to place them in the corners (with the help of the amazing Tim Holtz scissors that cut everything so easily!), then I painted them white with acrylic paint and at the end I added flock.

I hope you like it!

So come over at Addicted to CAS to see the so beautiful and different cards the DT has made and to play with us. The sponsor of this challenge is All that scraps!

Hugs,

Anastasia - Νατάσα

Spring has arrived at Scrapbookers in Greece!

Hello!

This month we have a great theme at Scrapbookers in Greece... my favourite season of the year, spring! Katerina asks us to show that the spring is coming using elements that remind us of spring. The choices are endless, flowers, birds, butterflies, grass... Spring is here (at least in Greece ;) ) and invites us to enjoy it!

I have to admit that I was a bit challenged by this... challenge. Those who know me also know that I'm not usually go for flowers and butterflies in my creations... I do like them, they just don't inspire me as much.

And as soon as I started being grumpy about it, the inspiration hit me and here is what I did - a shadow box:

It was also really hard to get a decent photo, that's why I also took some photos outside the shadow box:

...Again the colours are quite harsher than in real life. Oh well...

I "worked" with each butterfly to give it dimension:

And to make sure that everything would be aligned, letters and butterflies, I used washi tape:

I hope you like it!

Come over at Scrapbookers in Greece to see the creations of the design team... they really rocked it!!!

And of course we're waiting for you to play with us... A lucky winner will get this kit from Simple Stories:

Hugs,

Anastasia

Get Creative - March 1st

Good morning!

Oh yes, today I will share with you my creation for the Get Creative challenge March 1st (with one day delay as I was travelling yesterday), which is a layout challenge, and not for March 5th which is the card challenge... and that's because I have "moved" to the layout team!

It wasn't an easy decision when Irini asked me if I would like to move to the layout team, because I am a supporter of card, especially in the Greek crafty community... But to tell the truth, lately I want more and more to make layouts. And now that it is easier for me to print photos, I feel like I don't want to stop scrapping. Given that I will continue to make cards for the other teams I participate in, I decided to accept. I hope I manage to inspire you a bit...

...Especially this month that the Get Creative challenge is scraplift! Each member of the design team made a layout and all you would have to do is to get inspired by one of the layouts - you can either copy the layout, or the sketch or the colours, whatevere you want. The layout that I made:

Oh yes, that's right... another PINK layout with GLITTER... Tell me doctor, will I get over it? lol!

The layout has to do with my decision to use make up when I get out of the boundaries of my neighbourhood... it's been a month now and I still keep the promise to myself, incredible! The title is a quote by Calvin Klein and I so loved it when I stumbled upon it on the internet. For the second part of the title I used white (glitter!) letters on purpose, to reinforce the title's message. For the pink diamond background I used mask and a mist I made inspired by Wilna's class: I mixed quite a lot of white mist (have to buy another one, this is the third one that is finishing...) with a bit of pink to get the subtle colour. And as if the glitter letters were not enough, I also added perfect pearls to make the diamonds shine, although you cannot see it in the pictures...

My favourite Instax mini helped me once again... I used a photo of myself where I have make up and although that's not obvious, it makes a big difference, and of the mini vanity bag with all the necessary make up tools:

I went wild with all the delicious Dear Lizzy embellishments I had in my stash:

For the journal I used a Dear Lizzy jar (I wrote it after I took the pictures as I wanted to keep it private) and put it behind my photo with the help of a glassine envelope - one of my very favourite materials lately:

Finally... as I was adding the black splashes on the layout I had an accident that freaked me out: the black mist bottle turned around and half of it was emptied on my desk and floor!!! You can imagine the panic of those first moments... Luckily the desk and the floor were not paint by the mist, only the cutting mat has a slightly grey colour at one edge. But the mist fell over my layout as well. At the beginning I was frozen, all this misting, sewing, distressing... all this work... But then I took a few deep breaths and decided to extend the embellishments to cover the black spot. See for yourself:

pffff....

So that's it from me for now... I hope you like it and that it inspires you!

So come over at Get Creative, choose the layout that inspires you and play along with us! The winner will get this prize from our sponsor Paper Stories!

Hugs and have a great weekend!

Anastasia