Happy Birthday...

I made this card for a friend of mine that just had a birthday last Friday. Unfortunately she lives in another city and I couldn't give it to her. But it is waiting at home for the next time she comes back to town :). I saw the fold again at beccysplace.blogspot.com and it was really easy but very effective.

I'm including it in the following challenge:

TBC# 13 - Birthday Cake / Торта за Рожден ден

Combining Two of My Favorite Things...

This card combines two of my favorite things - hand-made cards and books. I accidentally came across this wonderful blog - beccysplace.blogspot.com and found out a bunch of card folding techniques. But the book box card really caught my attention. Here is attempt #2 which I made using my own dimensions:

I made the window using the plastic wrapper from the designer paper you see. The little flowers I made with the first Sizzix dies I bought. I'm so happy about them because the flowers turned out just perfect. 

When you open the card, you can see how the branch and the sign are on different levels inside.

And here is how it looks like from the side. It's not as perfect as the one shown on the blog, but it's very good :)

I made it for a colleague of mine (I'm getting paid for this one :)). I'm going to include it in the following challenge:

Картичкофурийско предизвикателство 222 - "Картичка с ацетат"

Hand made everything....

This week the Cards Addicted challenge involved making your own designer paper. So I thought to myself "This should be easy - a bit of stamping, some distressing and voila - my very own designer paper". Then I looked at Vilini's lesson and I thought "Oh my, this will be a challenge". Of course I didn't use any fancy techniques because I'm not there yet on my creative journey :). So here is my attempt:

Hand Made Designer Paper

I used clear distress ink to stamp the twirls (if you can call them that) and then used perfect pearls (Apple green). After that I stamped the pink flowers and used Old Photo distress ink to color the edges. The rose is also hand made and I am very proud of it since it's my first attempt at making one. You can see I also cut the leaves myself - pretty rugged.

It turned out making my own designer paper was the easy part. Figuring out what I wanted to have on it and how to embellish it was the hard part - it took me 3 whole days to think of something!!! But I think the final result is quite satisfactory :). 

I'm entering it in the following challenge:

Картичкофурийско предизвикателство 219 - Картичка с ръчно направена дизайнерска хартия

Graduations...

It's graduation time around here and with the Cards addicted challenge to create a card for a high school graduation, I got inspired :).

It's not the conventional girl card with a pretty dress on it. My idea was to inspire whoever gets the card, to remind them of three simple things that help make sense of the jungle called "Life".

Here is the card:

The green square is a small book. Inside I've stamped "Learn" because we should never stop learning and discovering new things about life; "Dream" because our imagination and dreams are what cause life to change for the better; and "Live", because we can very easily get caught up with jobs and day-to-day small stuff and actually miss out on living.

I hope you like it. Here is  link to the challenge:

Картичкофурийско предизвикателство 218 - Картичка за абитуриент

Last Minute ...

I haven't posted in a while and it's not because I haven't been busy. In fact I've completed several projects, some of which were especially done for challenges. But somehow because of all the non-working holidays I lost track of the deadlines and forgot to post them. 

Now I'm catching the last train for this very inspiring challenge at the Cards Addicted blog - The book - a window to the world. I'm so happy about this topic especially because reading and books are two of my most favorite things in the world. You could catch me spending more money on books in a single day than I've spent on clothes in a month :). So here is my entry:

Картичкофурийско предизвикателство 217 - "Книгата-прозорец към света!"

Waterfall cards...

While I was browsing for ideas of moving elements (again with the moving elements :)) I came across this great idea for a waterfall card. Of course I don't have any cutting dyes but I still managed to come up with this very simple card - just pull the red tag to read the message:

I hope you liked this simple quick card. I'm including it in the following challenge:

Картичкофурийско предизвикателство 215 - Картичка с движещ се елемент

Next time I make something similar I hope I can do the hidden message type because I'm getting a dye cutting machine for my birthday (YAY!!!) and it will be very easy with it.

Moving elements (Attempt 2)...

It turned out is was really easy to make the first card so I decided to create another one.

Attempt 2

The idea here is that the butterfly flies from one daisy to the other. Unfortunately it sometimes gets stuck in the petals and you have to help it a little to travel to the flower :).

I'm including it in the following challenges:

Картичкофурийско предизвикателство 215 - Картичка с движещ се елемент

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Keep it clean and simple

A Circle flip up book

This idea I found again while I was looking for inspiration for a card with moving elements. You can find the link here and it's a really easy project to make. In the video they use a special circle cutting tool, but I cut my circles using a tea cup plate and scissors. All that is left is to embelish it.

And now I'm off to choose my birthday present :)

Moving elements (Attempt 1)...

Today's topic: Moving elements. I was inspired by a challenge and decided to test if I can make a card with moving elements. I ended up doing 3 of them and it turns out it is really fun to have an interactive element on your card. You should have seen how my boyfriend plays with the large spinning flower :).

Attempt 1

I've left the pink strip blank for writing or stamping and since my birthday is coming up in just a week I plan to treat myself to a few stamps with text :)

I'm including it in the following challenges:

Картичкофурийско предизвикателство 215 - Картичка с движещ се елемент

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Keep it clean and simple

No moving element

While I was looking through videos on how to make moving elements I found several interesting tutorials and I tried them out. So here is my first attempt at an interesting fold for a card.

 I will add a square piece of paper inside with a text later to complete the card.

You can see the tutorial here.

A week's break (Part 4)...

Here is the last project for today

Lilac spring

I love how this one turned out. I used the scheme of a card I did last month and I really liked how it turned out. I wasn't sure if the satin ribbon will look good because I did the previous project with organza ribbon, but it turned out great. I inked the edge of the circle center piece with lilac ink and added two butterflies (stamped with black ink).

I'm adding one picture without using the camera flash and one with the flash. Again I promise to take a picture of the card in the daylight and update the post. I'm including this one in the following challenges:

Craft Your Passion Challenge 210 - Pretty Pastels
The Crazy Challenge CCH #169 - Spring is here
Addicted to Stamps #91 - Anything goes
Simon Says Animal Antics - because of the two pretty butterflies :)

Off to bed now...
Update:

As I promised I took a picture during the day:

A week's break (Part 3)...

Scraps

So I made this card out of small pieces of designer paper I had left from other projects. I got tired of taking them out of the pack and then back again because I couldn't figure out what to do with so many scraps. And I just couldn't bring myself to throwing them out. So today I finally decided to just glue them together and see what happens. I can't say it's my favorite card but it is interesting :)

I'm including this one in the following challenges:

Картичкофурийско предизвикателство 214 - Цветова комбинация
The Crazy Challenge CCH #169 - Spring is here
Addicted to Stamps #91 - Anything goes

A week's break (Part 2)...

I particularly liked the Cards Addicted challenge about using specific colors set by Irina because I adore the colors she chose. Make sure you check out her blog - she has some amazing stuff over there.

Yellow and Roses

So here is entry 2 for the Cards Addicted challenge and you will have to excuse me for the picture quality - I forgot to take a picture during the day:

I will try and retake the pictures tomorrow and update them, but for now this has to do :).

Картичкофурийско предизвикателство 214 - Цветова комбинация
The Crazy Challenge CCH #169 - Spring is here

A week's break (Part 1)...

After a week's break from crafting, I wanted to share a few more projects. But first I want to boast :)

I've been selected as part of the Cards Addicted Trio of the week for their 212 challenge (March 28 - April 7). Yay!!! Now I'm going to try and add their banner and I hope I don't mess it up because it's the first time I'm doing something like that :)

After that is done, here are some of the projects I did in the past week:

A card and Easter Egg basket

I've done four of those Easter Egg basket but I took pictures of two of them. And I must say I'm becoming quite the master at making them :). This one in particular I did for a good friend of mine together with the card and the small tag inside. There was no particular occasion, she is just a very sunny person and I wanted to make her happy :)

Again I've used my favorite designer paper pack Dovecraft's Garden Party. I'm including this egg basket in the following challenge. I know it's not a card and if Kristen over at Scrap Creations decides it doesn't fit the challenge, please feel free to remove it :)

Going Grey with Scrap - Creations Challenge: Easter

Here is the card that goes with the Easter Egg basket. Again a common theme - the paper pack :). I also added white paper flowers and inked the edges so that they coordinate with the paper. And I added a bright yellow center piece.

I'm including this one in the Cards Addicted Challenge 214:

Картичкофурийско предизвикателство 214 - Цветова комбинация

Part 2 to follow...

Easter Egg Basket

Obviously I am very productive today :). Here is something else I created today - an Easter egg basket. I've again used the Garden Party paper collection and I made the roses myself. It turned out pretty sweet. Next step is to fill it with Easter eggs :).

I'm entering it in the following challenge, which actually inspired me to make it:

Забавлятелство Тридесето: "Зайчето дошло, яйчице ни донесло..."

I hope you like it.

First Tag Attempt

Yesterday while I was uploading my entry to the Cards Addicted challenge, I saw that there is a new one posted. It is about creating a tag in pastel colors decorated with a handmade flower. And as I was cleaning up my work station (the living room coffee table :)), I decided to give it a try. 

It is my first attempt at making a tag all on its own. I used lilac embossed paper. I buy this paper at the local arts and crafts store and they have it in gold, silver and this lilac color. It is just perfect when you want to add a little bit of glitter to your projects. And the best part is it is already embossed (especially since I don't have an embossing machine). I cut out the butterflies using a felt butterfly I bought for Easter decorations. And of course I made the little rose buds myself. So here it is:

I want to thank Vilini for the challenge. And make sure you check out her blog because she has amazing stuff on there.

I am including this in the following challenge:

Картичкофурийско предизвикателство 213 - Пастелен таг с ръчнонаправено цвете

Spring, Flowers and Pink (Part 5)

The Tri-fold Shutter card

I love this fold. It's the second time I've used it but unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the first one. Again I used the Garden Party designer paper.

Here it is unfolded:

It turned out better than I expected although it was a pain cutting all those small pieces of card stock and trying to match the size of the designer paper :). Again as in most of my projects I leave blank space so that I can later add the wishes or special celebration for which I'm going to use the card. I'm entering this one in the following challenges:

Craft Your Passion Challenges #207 - Shaped Cards or anything but Square

 Картичкофурийско предизвикателство 212 - "Пролетен празник"
Going Grey with Scrap-Creations Challenge - Spring

 Simon Says Stamp Blog - Happy Birthday Challenge

And that's the last part I've got for today. More to come next week....

Spring, Flowers and Pink (Part 4)

Spring is Here

This next one I made with my Dovecraft Garden Party. I've actually used it on a number of my cards lately because I just love it (I think I said that in my previous post) and it reminds me so much of spring.

I added the little strings to make sure the card would stand up and glittered the centers of the flowers. I'm entering this one in the following challenges:

Craft Your Passion Challenges #207 - Shaped Cards or anything but Square

 Картичкофурийско предизвикателство 212 - "Пролетен празник"

Crazy Challenge CCH # 168 - Bling it Up

Bearly Mine Designs April Challenge - Spring

 Simon Says Stamp Blog - Happy Birthday Challenge