Christmas in April

Today was like Christmas for 2 reasons. Firstly, IT SNOWED!! It went from 18deg and hope of Spring 2 days ago, to -1 and snowing today.

Luckily the day brought me presents too…loads and loads of it! Living in a small town in Germany, there’s not a single craft store that carries dies and stamps, within a 120km radius. So I either order from the internet and its more expensive or it takes 5 weeks to arrive, or I ask one of my craft “drug mules” to bring it back for me if they happen to be travelling to the States or the UK. Lucky for me, there is no shortage of that, as my friends’ husbands and mine, travel very frequently around the world for business. So today, by coincidence, I received a huge box brought back from the UK by my hubby (thanks dear!) and another from the States, (Thanks Chuck!) AND 2 orders from the internet!

Woohoo! I was soooo happy to receive them and I wanted to use them straight away of course, especially the stitched dies and the flower stamps as I didn’t have either of them in my stock.

I had been carrying around an idea of a flower card for ages and when I saw The Card Concept’s photo challenge, it was exactly what I had in mind and I could finally accomplish it today! (I actually missed the challenge cause I was busy writing this blog! 😦 ) I also wanted to mix it with the Match the Sketch‘s very layered challenge and that was really new for me as I normally don’t layer my cards much. I am so glad I tried though because I really like the result and I can honestly say I would never have done this card like this if it wasn’t for the challenge!

I spent a lot of time stamping the flowers from “The Ton” onto a white panel with Momento and Distress inks, as I had to mask them every time I wanted to add another flower or leaf beside one. You can’t really see it but the flowers without the colour in them are embossed too and they sparkle on the card.

I pasted the flower panel on a card stock cut with SSS blueprint 20 stitched rectangle and added a crochet adhesive tape I bought from Tchibo. I cut by hand the kraft flag as I don’t have any (something else to buy…) and pasted the circle I had painted with metal effect paint and cut with the same blueprint 20 die set. The sentiment comes from Lawn Fawn. I would have stopped there, but the MTS challenge had a butterfly on it so I added one that was cut from Toga’s Jardin Japonais design paper.

I’m so pleased with this card, especially that i managed to put so many layers but not make it too fussy. What do you think? I hope you like it too!

I also entered this card in:

Just add Ink M challenge cause I did a lot of Masking to get the flowers stamped!

Pinterest Inspiration Inspired challenge

I made another card for all the girly challenges out there! I have this beautiful die cut from Tattered Lace called Bella. It is by far my most expensive die and I would like to use it more often but it doesn’t cut very well :(.  After 3 failed attempts, I managed to cut it by putting it through my Big Shot several times and all over the plate! I added the border die cut to give the impression she grew from the flowers as I wanted to use this sentiment with it. I then smudged it with pink and green Distress inks.

I have to learn how to take better pictures of my cards as the pink card has come out looking so dirty!

Products I used:

I entered this card in:

Simon Says Wednesday Make it girly challenge

Stampin Sensations One for the girls challenge

Sweet Stampin Pink & Girly challenge