Frog Birthday Card

Here is a birthday card that I made for a friend who had his 30th birthday.  It was difficult to come up with something that was right for a guy - he seemed to really like it.

Here is the front.  I used some square dies and the Stampin Up "Unfrogettable" stamp set.  Colored everything in with my Polychromos.

 

And of course the inside.  Found the quote on the web.

 

Mother's Day Cards

Here are the cards I made for my two wonderful mothers. I used a card from Prairie Paper & Ink as a sketch and went from there (she makes truly beautiful cards so check her out). The images were free images I got off the web from clip art services (unfortunately it was some time ago so I don't remember the specific site). I have blurred out the insides as they are personal messages.  All the coloring was done using my Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils.

This is the card I made for my mother - so it has the girl giving flowers.

 

This is the card made for my husband's mother - so it has the boy.

I have submitted these cards to:
Oozak Earthtones Challenge
Craft-Dee Bowz Handmade Bow Challenge
Make My Monday Green and Yellow Challenge
365 Cards Back to Nature Challenge

Twilight Book

This book was created for my sister.  She loves the Twilight books/movies.  I used a tutorial found on http://minialbumscraps.ning.com/video/video/search?q=coin  - this is a very simple book to make, the real time comes from doing each page.  The specific one I used is titled "tutorial for a Coin envie mini page assembly with lots of space".  Even though this book took me forever to finish, I really enjoyed the process and learned so much along the way

Friend Plaque

This is a plaque that I made for a great friend in the US.  She asked me to make something for her and I wanted to make something that was unique and special so I decided to do all the "art" myself.  I first made the letters on the paper then filled them in with Zen tangles.  It was a lot of fun making this and I hope that she enjoys it.

Here is a picture of the front and then close-ups of the letters:

Confirmation Card

Here is the card that I made for my wonderful niece for her confirmation.  I found an image of a beautiful stained glass window and wanted to figure out a way to use it in the card and do the image justice.  Finally decided to print it on transparency - this allowed the colors and images to truly glow.  I had planned on using dimensional to raise up the image so that it looked more like a window but it just wasn't working.  Of course, placing it directly on the white paper actually made the colors even more striking so it turned out to be a good thing.

This is the front of the card - it is a little blurry:

This is a close up of the image.

Steampunk tag

Here is a tag that I made using another wonderful image from the blog Crafty Moments, this one is labeled simply as "Steampunk Lady".  I had grabbed this image and the Steampunk Mary when working on the thank you easel card but decided to go with the Mary image.  However, I loved this one so much that I had to do a project just to show it off.  Again the image came colored and non-colored and I took the non-colored then used the colored as an example to color with my Polychromos pencils.  The clock inside was a free clip from the internet to which I added some colors to bring it out and the gears are from the Tim Holtz die "Gadget Gears".  I don't know where the bling came from as it was an extra in an ebay buy and had no label.  The yarn is from my stash (which no longer has a label and I am afraid I don't remember - do know I got it from Michaels though).

Here is the front of the tag.

Here is a closeup of the lady and the gear.

An even closer closeup.

And here is the back.  I don't like leaving backs blank.  I read this quote from Edgar Allan Poe and absolutely loved it - seemed to me to go so well with the image.  It reads:

"She has halls and she has castles and the resonant Steam-Eagles follow far on the directing of her floating dove-like hand" - Edgar Allan Poe

No idea what Steam-Eagles is supposed to mean but I just love it!

Steampunk thank you easel card

Our friends recently let us stay with them when visiting the Bodensee area.  I managed to leave my glasses there, and as I am blind as a bat, they were kind enough to send them express.  They are steampunk lovers so I wanted to make them a thank you card that was special.  The image was taken from the blog Crafty Moments.  The image is the steampunk Mary.  He has a number of free digi stamps that are free - all his own art and they are really great.  As a new blogger I hope I am referencing him the right way?  The digi stamp came colored and non-colored.  I used the non-colored but then used his colored one as a reference for coloring using my Polychromos colored pencils.  I used a free clip art image of a circuit board as the background then used Ranger Liquid Pearls Hydrangea and Key Lime to add some highlights on the nodes.  Those are actual chips (don't know what they are though) that my husband gave to me - makes an interesting and unique embellishment.  This is an easel card and since the message inside was personal I'm not including that picture.

Here is the front of the card.

Closeup of Mary.  Sorry not terribly focused.

Here is a bad closeup of Mary.  I used Glossy Accents on the goggles, the eye glass, lapels, and on the boots.

Yes those are real.

Here is the card standing up.

Some tangles

I also like to do Zen Tangles - the official site.  These are easy, fun, and relaxing to do.  I like how you see this pattern and it looks so complex, then you go through the steps and it is actually really easy and you come out with a beautiful image.

This is my first attempt at doing a tangle.  And no, the size is not the official size but you work with what you have.  My favorite part of the image is the fish net - it doesn't show as well in the picture but it looks very 3D.

This was another tangle just playing with shapes and color - which is technically not something you do with tangles but it just seemed to ask for it.

This last one turned out great.  The first thing my husband said when he saw it was - how did you do that.  Again it doesn't come out as well in the picture but the ovals float above the image.

Sitting man (Old German book) tag

I love doing tags so here is another one.  This is done using a book that I picked up at a flea market in Berlin.  The book is labeled as being from 1878.  The title is pretty illegible - the best I can figure is that it says "Die Gartenlaube" which means "The Garden Arbor".  It is completely falling apart, the binding is gone, the spine cover was actually placed inside the book.  It has a lot of illustrations which are all black and white (well aged yellow) and are very unique.  As you can see from the picture the writing in the book is old German.  I love the look of the script.  The background and the man are from the book and I added a little bug from a Tim Holtz die, however, I don't know which one as I got it in a bag with some other cuts.  Hanging from the top are some beads.  I also added some dots using a stamp I bought as part of a set in Neufarhn.  Again, I don't like leaving the back of the tag empty but I really wanted to showcase the beautiful pages from the book so it is just a page.  I inked all the edges using Distress Ink Black Soot to give it a darker feel and pull in the black of the bug and the beads.

Halloween in Wonderland tag

This is a tag using the wonderful Graphic 45 paper stack "Halloween in Wonderland".  I absolutely love everything from Graphic 45.  It is quite difficult to get them here in Germany.  The stack was a present from the wonderful Iris - thank you!  This tag was just a way to showcase the paper.  At the top is a set of cards on a clip - the picture doesn't show this well, there are actually three cards there.  The cards behind the clock are removable.  I don't like leaving the back of a tag blank so I just added some cards.

This tag received an Honorable Mention in the "Mad as a March Hare" challenge on the Altered Alice site.  Go check it out it is a really neat site.  The winning submission is absolutely inspiring - beautiful!  I am proud to be part of such a group.

Black and multi-colored eggs

Theses are some eggs that I did last Spring.  The first was based on a design found in the book "Ukrainian Easter Egg Design Book 3" by Natalie Perchyshyn.  It is an attempt to do egg number 20 "Stylized Butterfly".  However, I had some difficulty with my kistka and so changed things up.  Not one of my favorites but turned out ok.

These next egg was really taking pieces of designs that I liked than making it my own.  I love using just white and black - it is simple and I think it has a Southwest style.

Greetings

This is my first post on Blogger.  I wanted to start a blog mainly to share my crafting projects with family and friends.  My favorite crafts are paper crafting (scrapbooks, mini books, cards, tags, etc.), Ukrainian egg decorating, cross-stitch, yarn work (using looms), and making jewelry.  I get bored easily so I like to have a lot of things to be able do.  I live in Germany and getting material for my crafting is pretty difficult so I struggle along with what I can get and what I can talk my mother into sending me from the US (Thanks MOM!).  If you have wandered across this blog thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy my creations - comments are always welcome (especially constructive criticism as I am still learning).  It is just important to me that it always be fun!