A bit of nervousness makes me creative...

There is this huge thing happening at work starting tomorrow and it's going to keep me edged for three days. Especially because I am sort of the one responsible for organizing it and keeping 60 people happy and content. It's very difficult to do so when they all outrank me. So for the past week I've been a wreck especially when I get home because from home I can't do anything (not that when I'm at work I can change that). My hands have been shaking all week and it turned out that making cards is a way to calm myself. It just occupies my mind completely. So here is what came out of my nervous breakdown:

My Best One Yet....

I started this one with a completely different idea in my head than the final result but it turned out just fine. I wanted to do something darker because lately I've been using very sweet, bright colors. Here is what I got:

The day after I made it, I started talking to a colleague of mine about what kept me awake until late the previous night and I showed her my blog. Later that day she called and asked if I could make a card for the birthday of another colleague (I felt so proud of myself - my first order :)) So I added a small pocket for a money gift inside:

The person who received it really loved it :) 

I'm going to enter it in the Crazy Challenge Flower Frenzy:

CCH #167 - Flower Frenzy

Sketchie...

This one is my first following a sketch. I found the Papertake Weekly challenge and I really loved the sketch (#88) they suggested for this challenge. So here is my take on it:

Papertake Weekly Challenge: Sketchie Free For All

Two more...

Here are two more cards I did this afternoon.

I've trying to use this lace with the cute daisies for some time now but with no luck. So today I took it out and arranged my card around it. I am still trying to master heat embossing as you can see from the mistakes on the silver embossed circles but I'm getting there :)

This one I made with this wonderful pack of designer paper I got on sale  - Garden Party by Dovecrafts. I love all of the designs in the pack so expect a few more projects with it :).

That's all for today... :) Fingers crossed for the next three days...

A Day of Crafting... (Part 3)

This next card started out as a great idea and execution but I hit a few bumps and I had to cover them up and in the end things didn't really turn out the way I wanted them. But I learned a few lessons:

1. Always wait for your ink to dry - it doesn't matter how fast drying it is.
     I didn't wait and I ended up smudging my card with brown ink in places I didn't want to.

2. Whenever you want to do hot embossing, ALWAYS do it before assembling your card (because hot air guns melt plastic transparent windows).
    Of course this is a no brainer but in my defense I was trying to cover up the brown smudges with sea foam white embossing powder. That turned out to be too close to the plastic and it melted right away.
  
So here is the end result of all the cover ups :)

By the way I got those flowers from the Euroland store for 0.65 EUR per a bundle of 9 and they are just great.

So I'm including this one in the same challenges I did with my previous Pink and Yellow and a Touch of Gold:

The Crazy Challenge 167: Flower Frenzy

TokBobok TBC 10: Spring Flowers

Papertake Weekly Challenge: For Mum (or a Girlie)

Last project due to come....

A Day of Crafting... (Part 2)

It's the afternoon and I've only completed 4 projects today (and not all that difficult at all). Obviously I have to work on my speed and technique :). 

Anyways, here's the second result of today:

Pink and Yellow and a touch of gold

I just love the color combination in this one - it just shouts "Spring". And the paper flowers are amazing - Papermania Back to Basics III (if I'm not mistaken). I just love how they go together with yellow and green (and turquoise and lilac for that matter ).

The big ribbon on the bottom was a real bargain. I found it in a home supplies store and it cost only 0.75 EUR for 10 meters. Here is a close up of it.

I'm including this one in the following challenges:

The Crazy Challenge 167: Flower Frenzy

TokBobok TBC 10: Spring Flowers

Papertake Weekly Challenge: For Mum (or a Girlie)

But wait, there is more...

A Day of Crafting... (Part 1)

It's Sunday, the weather is amazing, I'm all alone at home if you don't count the dog... And I thought, "What a perfect day to do some crafting!". 

So yesterday I got to the arts and crafts store in town and bought a bunch of paper in all colors of the rainbow. Then I went to the sewing supplies store and got a few ribbons. And finally I hit the Euroland store where I found some amazing stuff I could use in projects. And of course after all this shopping, my hands are itching to do something with them. So here are some of my projects:

The Recycled one

This card has been tucked away in my drawer for a month now. I wanted to give it to a friend of mine but I just couldn't figure out how exactly to salvage the mess that came out the first time I started it.


Here is the mess:

So today I played around with some papers and finally decided on having a white center piece and decorate it with a burned ribbon ( I had this piece of ribbon laying around since Christmas, so I cut it in pieces and burned the edges to give it an older look). But it still wasn't quite there (not that now it is :)) so I took my black stamp and just stamped around. So here is the results:

I'm still not crazy about the result but I think it came out pretty OK. I'm going to include it in these challenges:

Картичкофурийско предизвикателство 210: От нищо нещо - because I used an old unfinished card which I was planning to throw out until Sofi's challenge stirred my mind. So thank you Sofi for making me not waste any materials.

Try it on Tuesday: Music - of course you've noticed the music sheet and the little notes I added inside :)

More to come today...

Have a great day 

First entry in a challenge...

Hello again,

Today I am very excited - I'm writing this post to use is as an entry in my first card-making challenge :). 

I'm using one of the projects I already posted here but since I've never done something like this I hope it's OK I'm using a project older than 1 week :)

So let me tell you a bit more about the project. It's not a card per se but something I wanted the person receiving it to use. So as I said in my previous post, I got the idea from YouTube and it's a card with drawers. I thought if I make the drawers and put sticky notes on top, my friend could use the card to take notes and keep paper clips and pins in the drawers and still look at the card and enjoy it.

I wanted to use the little poster ever since I got the pattern paper pack (it was in the middle of a sheet filled with music notes). The Victorian lady and great retro sign ("Birdie Darling") spoke to me from the start. So I cut it out and put a frame around it to make it look like a picture. I made the small roses out of scrap ribbon. And let me tell you the burgundy ones came out really great. I had a piece of wide burgundy ribbon, which I cut in thinner stripes and burned the edges of each stripe. When I started rolling the ribbon into a rose, the burned edges really gave the bud a vintage look.

You can see one of the four drawers and the post-it notes in the next picture.

I didn't want the bright color of the post-its to ruin the whole color pallet of the card so I create this lid over the post-its using one of the other patterns in the pack.

I wrote my message on the first sheet of the post-its but I didn't take a picture of it. 

And that's it. I hope you like it. It's not all that good but I'm getting better. I had a little problem making the drawers and getting them to fit in their boxes and the glue kind of curled the edges of the card. But I'm getting there. I've already discovered the wonder of the double-sided tape and the match boxes.

Now just to add the link to the challenge (doing things for the first time is so frustrating, especially when you don't know how to it). Many thanks to Kali for posting this challenge and I am so happy I can show my work.

Картичкофурийско предизвикателство 209 - „Стара снимка“

A few projects...

Here are some of my first documented projects. I actually did a bunch of cards for my family for Christmas but I didn't think to take pictures of those until after I gave them away. And it really doesn't sound nice to say to everyone on Christmas Day, "Hey, Happy holidays and all that. And by the way, can you please take a picture of the card I sent you and e-mail it to me?" 

So here they are in a chronological order (the ones with pictures at least):

First money envelope (Second project completed in the beginning of December 2013)

I did this for my nephew's birthday. My grandma wanted something special so add to the presents. So after she saw the card I made for him, she asked me for an envelope to put some money in it and that is the result.

Card boxes with drawers and sticky notes (done around New Year's 2014)

The first one I did for a friend of mine. I got the idea off of a YouTube video and I would love to quote the lady that did the tutorial but I can't remember her. Anyway, I owe her many thanks.

The second one I did for my future mother-in-law. It's not as fancy as the first one but I was kind of running low on supplies and time. It still turned out pretty nice.

Latest card I did (Just finished 20 min ago)

Again I stole inspiration from YouTube. I tried to play with my designer paper a bit after watching a tutorial on how to co-ordinate colors and patterns. I also made a complimentary envelope and friend of mine is receiving it tomorrow.

I hope you like those simple but from the heart. Many more to come (hopefully). I will try to find out the names of the ladies I stole the ideas from so that proper credit is given.

That's all for now :)

First Post ever...

And so we begin...

My first post or why I decided to start blogging (as if nobody has ever blogged something similar :)):

Reason number 1 - to be able to participate in card-making challenges.

Why one needs to have their own blog in order to participate in card making challenges is really beyond me. To me it's just a waste of Internet space - a few more people cluttering the search results and bragging about what they have done :). Nevertheless I've decided to become one of them. Who knows - I might use the blog to actually write something of importance one day that would matter. As far as now is concerned, I want to have a shot at winning a prize (how materialistic am I :)).

Reason number 2 - ...

Ok, so there isn't a reason number 2. Like I said it's the card making challenges so far :).

That's all for now, folks.