For the First Time...

...I'm posting a card before the challenge begins!

Last week my Fall Tree card was chosen among the Top Three in Raise the Bar Challenge and I got an assignement - my very first one - for this week!

The theme is "We Shell" and the card should have a beach theme.

Here's my card:

This lovely shell is a digi stamp from Whimsie Doodles which I colored with my watercolor pencils (and glitter all around the shell...!).

Following the idea of the beach, I wanted to use these colors which remind me of the sand. I bought this card a few days ago and I thought it was perfect for this project. Papers are all from DCWV.

Once I decided the colors I had to decide how to assemble the card and I used this week's sketch from Sweet Sketch Wednesday. It was simple and clean and I could use all the papers I wanted to be part of this card.

Thus, I will enter this card in Sweet Sketch Wednesday Challenge # 99.

I'm so excited for my assignment! Fingers crossed that my card is good enough!

This Challenge starts tomorrow, have a look at all the other wonderful creations!



Another Post for my Daughter.

Last month my daughter entered a card in a Kids' Challenge and she made the Top Three.

Here we are with another card:

She chose this little Ballerina digi stamp from Bugaboo Stamps and she added a lot of bling, as the Challenge asks for.

She had already made a little picture with this digi and gave it to me as a gift: I was so delighted with the little bird on her shoes that she decided to add one here too and she asked for 3D dots "for a pop-up effect" as she says...

I even let her use my precious Stickles glitters!

She is a Ballerina and the "Congratulations" sentiment is perfect to give this card to a friend who also attends dance classes.

Well, I'm ready to enter her card into the Kona Kids' Challenge # 20!

... Again?

I can't believe it!

My last post was about Hambo Hoedown Challenge, exactly one week ago...

Time REALLY flies!

It's been a busy week, with schools closed, Easter to celebrate and little time to craft.

Yesterday I managed to prepare my weekly card for the above mentioned challenge: Hambo is so nice to give us freebies to play with that I always tries to take part in their challenges.

Here's my card:

The theme this week was to use this King digi and make an announcement: I thought about a newborn little girl, who is of course a princess for the whole family!

I used my watercolor pencils and some glitter for the digi stamp, rhinestones to embellished the crown and the sentiment (which was stamped), a paper from DCWV and a lovely pink ribbon.

The card will be entered in Hambo Hoedown Challenge # 12, wish me good luck!



"What color is an ogre?"

The friend I was waiting for is a bit late so I have time for my 2nd post!

As I do every week, I've made a card for Hambo Hoedown Challenge # 11:

They gave us this sweet ogre and asked to use it together with the sentiment and something distressed.

I asked my daughter: "What color is an ogre?" and she replied: "Green, of course".

Thus, I couldn't do something different, I had to color it green.

And green is all over the card!

I found this distressed green card in my stash and added some paper stripes, hearts and of course this little ogre colored with watercolor pencils.

With this challenge I've learnt somethng new: the word "ogre". I didn't know how to translate the Italian word, but now I know it!

Wednesday again?

Two of my favorite challenges are on Wednesday and it seems to me that I'm always here writing posts about the new cards for those challenges...

Let's start with the first one:

This card is made following this sketch:

When I saw the sketch and had a look at the Challenge sponsor of the week I immediately decided that the tree was perfect for this sketch.

I have lots of digis but no, I couldn't change my mind: I had to have that tree and make a fall card with yellows, oranges and dark greens.

But let's start from the beginning.

The digi is from Clear Dollar Stamps and the papers I used are from DCWV (orange) and an old Sizzix stack (checks).

The tree was printed on white paper and that's probably the reason why I'm not completely satisfied with the finished card, it's not exactly the card I had in mind. I distressed the border and the papers with distress ink but the digi was already colored and I was afraid to ruin it completely and did not dare to touch it.

Everything is colored with watercolor pencils and some of the leaves are glued with 3D dots.

The challenges I'm entering this card are the following ones:

Sweet Sketch Wednesday Challenge # 97 where the sketch comes from

and

Raise the Bar Challenge # 62 where the theme is "Tree-mendous"

In these last years I've understood that I'm a fall person: it's my favorite season of the year. Of course, I do love spring and summer: I love hot weather, the long days, holidays, the summer fruit and everything but my soul is in fall that is at her best. I wish I could write a better English to explain my feelings in a clearer way!

I'll surely be back later for another post!

Masculine colors.

I'm busy with a custom order, preparing decorations for a little girl's birthday and surrounded by pinks, pastel colors, glitter and by everything girly.

But...

...this week I WANTED to enter a card in Dustin Pike Challenge so I put girly things aside (I'm waiting for a new punch I've just ordered to make my decorations) and finish my new card:

I chose masculine colors: I started painting the digi and then looked through my stash of papers and found this set which I thought it was perfect for the look I had in mind.

This month Dustin Pike celebrates his blogiversary so the theme is birthday. I added a gift in the bear's hands with a little bow which maybe is not too visible in the picture. The look in the frog's eyes is just perfect: as a child in front of his presents!

I love Dustin Pike's images and I'm so sorry I've probably lost some retired images... I love his frogs and monkeys!

Well, fingers crossed new images will be posted so I can play with them!

This card will be entered in the following challenges:

Dustin Pike Challenge - It's a Party!

Karens Doodles Challenge - Happy Birthday

A Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge # 147 - All Creatures Great and Small

Happy Birthday Dustin Pike!

Another Challenging Challenge...

This time the Challenge was really challenging: I had to make an "Easel Card".

I hardly knew the meaning of easel and I thought I could never do one but, thanks to the instructions I found together with the Challenge, it was very very easy to make one and I'll surely do more in the future.

This is the card:

and, of course, it is for the Hambo Hoedown Challenge # 10: they gave us this lovely "Penguin-Bunny" digi with the instructions to make an easel card.

It is my very first card of this type so it may not be a great card but I love this little penguin disguised as a rabbit!

It's Sweet Sketch Wednesday Again!

Happy Monday!

Another sunny day in sunny Italy! What a great April we are having. I'm here with my window open listening to birds singing (and cars passing by...) as if it were June!

I've just finished a card I'm quite proud of. I had a color scheme in mind: soft, elegant blues for a very elegant image.

Here's my card:

This lovely digi is from a Company I've just discovered, Karber Digital Images: they have a series of Japanese girls I immediately fell in love with. And in addition, their sales will help Japan.

I used some printed paper from Pink Petticoat "Blueberry" is the color I chose to make the card following this sketch:

I colored my geisha with watercolor pencils and... no, this time no glitter (although I thought about adding it somewhere) and the lovely ribbon is from The Ribbon Girl.

This card is being entered in the following challenges:

Sweet Sketch Wednesday Challenge # 96

and, of course,

Karber Challenge # 29 where the theme is "Anything Goes".

Have a wonderful week!

It Makes Me Laugh...

Sometimes I fall in love with an image: I like it so much I think about framing it so I can have a look at it every time I want.

The image I've used for my latest card was one of these.

I bought an entire set of images (it was not a great effort, they were all cute!) just because of it!

Here's the card:

Isn't this frog cute? I love it!

The digi is from Doodle Dragon Studios and I colored it with watercolor pencils and embellished both the frog and the princess with some glitter. I added rhinestones to the crown: she is a princess after all!

The paper... well, as usual it is from one of the bargains I find on the internet and I don't know the company name but as soon as I saw it in my stash I knew it was perfect for this card.

It'll be entered in the following challenges:

Cupcake Craft Challenge # 136: it says "Comedy Rocks" and they ask for humorous creations. I think this image is really funny and I think about some marriages...

Cute Card Thursday Challenge # 159 where they want tropical colors.

Well, this incredible hot April means I need to change not only dresses but bedlinens and duvets, pajamas and everything else and it's such a boring thing to do...

As I Told You Yesterday...

I was making a Christmas Card!

When I discovered Christmas Challenges all year long, I decided I had to participate in most of them so that I could have lots of Christmas cards ready for autumn.

Actually, I don't manage to make as many Christmas cards as I wished to, but every now and then I fit one in my schedule.

Here's the last one I've made:

I had some problems while taking the picture: the card looks blue but it is purple! I finally decided to go under the sun (and today there's LOT OF sun) and it's now a bit more purple but it's always quite far from the original color...

The lovely digi is Chloe and Christmas Tree from DigiStamp Boutique, which I colored with watercolor pencils in shades of pink and purple. I added glitter on Chloe's coat and on the sleight and tree.

The papers are from a stash I bought on the internet without knowing the brand while the lovely purple rose is fromWild Orchid Crafts.

I will enter the following Challenges:

ABC Christmas Challenge - G is for Girly: they wanted a girly card with pink, silver and purple (hence my need that the card appears exactly as it is - purple!)

and

DigiStamp Boutique April Challenge

Well, today the temperature is around 30 °C (85 °F)... it's incredibly hot for this period of the year and Christmas seems so far away...

An Easter Card.

It's almost Easter and I have an Easter card to show you:

I made this card using Polka Dot Easter Bunny from Bugaboo Stamps and some bright colors.

The bunny is colored with watercolor pencils and embellished with glitter (the egg and... the tail!) while the bunny's bow is embellished with a rhinestone.

I used a turquoise cardstock to make the card and I found the floral paper among my forgotten Sizzix pads: it matches perfectly!

Three punched butterflies with pearls and a matching turquoise ribbon give that special touch!

I made this card to enter the following challenges:

Bugaboo Catch the Bug Challenge: "Anything Goes"

Cupcake Inspiration Challenge # 105

Digital Tuesday Challenge # 105: "Easter"

Bee Crafty Challenge # 49: "Easter"

But yesterday I made a Christmas card...

Another Challenging Challenge.

You know, I'm happy when a challenge challenges me in new ways.

This time I had to create a patterned paper with stamps, which sounds interesting since papers are difficult to find here (unless you order them from somewhere) and not so cheap (plus shipping costs...).

I had an idea in my mind of colors and theme and I had a go.

Here's the card:

I had just received a new set of Lawn Fawn stamps and I was looking forward to using them. I made my patterned paper using a dusty pink ink and the flower stamp of the Sew Lovely set on a grey paper.

I had already stamped the dress form on white paper and the dress only on a patterned paper (another "new" thing for me) and I wanted to keep this grey-pink color scheme.

I was lucky enough to find the perfect pink tone for the ribbon in my stash and a metal charm which is perfect for the theme.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Lawnscaping Challenge # 7 which says "make your own patterned paper with stamps",

Papertake Weekly Challenge which says "Anything Goes"

and

Sir Stampalot April Challenge which says "Ladies and Fashion"

I have another challenging challenge waiting for me and this time it'll be even more difficult...

A Lovely Stamp

The fact that neglected stash are a common theme in Challenges helps me feeling not too guilty when I discover some neglected - and forgotten - treasures in my stash...

When I discovered that Tina Wenke had released some clear stamps through Stampavie I felt so excited! I've always loved her cute characters since I bought some clip-art kits at pcCrafter years and years ago. I've used them mainly in the colored version to make cards and tags but a few weeks ago I realized that there was a black and white version too.

And I had my own Tina Wenke stamps!

Unfortunately, not all the kits have black and white images so my possibilities are reduced but at least I could try my hands on coloring them and maybe I'll buy some clear stamps in the next future.

I colored two images and yesterday I finally had some time to make a card with one of them . Then I had a look around to see if it could fit any challenge and - lucky me - I can enter it in 4 of them.

But let's start with the card:

I wanted to make a very pretty feminine card with a friend in mind and I added the most feminine embellishments: a lovely (and neglected) floral paper from Me and My Big Ideas I bought years ago, my new paper flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts, two hearts punched from glittered paper and again this lovely ribbon bought at my local haberdashery. And, of course, glitter and pearls...

I'm entering this card in the following Challenges:

Cute Card Thursday Challenge # 158: they ask for couples

Paper Sundaes Challenge # 63: they want to see Spring Blossoms

Pollycraft Monday Challenge # 87: the challenge is to use an old or neglected stamp/image

Karen Doodles Challenge: where the theme is Fancy and Feminine

I think I'll keep it under my eyes for a while before storing it safely in my card box!

P.S.: most of the cards I feature in my blog will be available in my Etsy shop but it may take a while before I list them. If you are interested in a card, send me a convo through my Etsy shop (see button on the right) or through the blog and I'll list it for you.

It's Time for Another Hambo Hoedown Challenge!

Time really flies.

It's Tuesday again... it seems like yesterday when I posted my card for the Hambo Hoedown Challenge and a week has passed.

I know, I know... I'm a bit lazy these last few weeks, I don't blog so often as I used to do in the past few months but I promise I'll be back on track soon!

For today, I have my card for the Hambo Hoedown Challenge ready to be posted:

Isn't it a lovely image??

They gave it for free to all participants in last week challenge to be used this week with a green and hot pink color theme.

These bright colors suggested me a girly card, with rhinestones, ribbon and floral papers.

I love this little Caterpillar!!



Tomorrow we will be given another image and I always look forward to their email and new image!

My daughter...

... made the Top Three at 

I think she'll be delighted that her first card for a challenge has been chosen among the Top Three. I'm looking forward she's back from school to tell her!