Riding by to say hi

Hello crafty friends, it's Kerstin here!

The snow is slowly melting around here and I'm ready for spring. That's why I had to work with the best bugs stamp set.

 

 

 

I love to combine stamp sets that weren't made to mix with each other. And I find it super cute when a bug rides a bike.

  

 

• choose stamp sets that don't fit at first sight, for example a seagull and a sofa or - like here - a bug and a bike
• stamp the bug first and mask the lower part of its bud with some masking paper
• then stamp the bike and some flowers separately
• color and fussy cut the image
• add some soft clouds to the background with a stencil
• adhere the image with foam adhesive to the panel
• for the sentiment I used some leftover paper in the same color as the bugs back

   

Best Bugs

Dicke Freunde

Klingelling

Ting-a-ling

Kleine Sprüche

Small Sentiments

Clouds Stencil

 

 

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Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting,
Kerstin

Birthday Flowers

 Hey stampers, Anni here!

Between all the Christmas cards we are seeing on the internet right now I am sharing a birthday card.

I wanted to make a birthday card for a good crafty friend and I was in the mood for watercolouring. My favourite images for watercoöours are föowers. So I went for the Doodle Flowers set.

• I love no line colouring. With this technique you get a totally new look from your stamps.
• Stamp with a very light ink. This way you can not see the lines later.
• Contrast is the key word for no line coloring: Make the shadows really dark and keep some areas really light. Don't be shy - the contrats brings your colouring to life.
• I strt with watercolours but later I love to use coloured pencils for the shadows. With pencils I have way more control than a brush.

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Cool Buddies

Hey stampers, Anni here!

Christmas is only a few weeks away! Of course I have a Christmas card for you today!

I've been loving might sky backgrounds lately! And penguins coloured in dark blue instead of black! So I decided to combine both in one card.

• I started by stamping, colouring and fussy cutting the snowmen and the penguin. For the colouring I combined Distress Ink reinkers and coloured pencils.
• To create the backgrpund I ink blended Distress Oxide onto a piece of white cardstock. I started with Tumbled Glass in the middle, than added Peacock Feather, Dusty Concord and Black Soot.
• For the snowflakes I added silver embossing paste through a stencil.
• To bring some colour to the card I die cut a speech bubble from orange cardstock and stamped the sentiment on it. The sentiment says Merry Christmas in German.
• Then I assembled the card.

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Bee Happy!

Hey stampers, Anni here!
I am back again from my break and so happy about it!
The card I am showing you today is my first try on the super cute set Dicke Freunde/Best Bugs!

When I go on vacation I always take something to colour with me! This year I couldn't stop colouring with Distress Ink reinker! Especially using the no line technique! So I had these iamges already coloured and then it was easy to create the card around it!

• No line colouring might seem difficult at first but it's so much fun and worth the effort.
• With no lines you need contrast to define the shapes - don't be shy to add darker areas.
• Don't try to draw small details with a brush - I always use a pen with a fine tip. The antennae and the mouth of the bee for example I drew with a brown pen.
• I love the narrow frames from Create a Smile! I like to stack them up to achieve dimension. It is so much easier then working with dimensional adhesive.

Show us your art work: Use #createasmilestamps when you're posting on Instagram!

            

Birthday Surprise

Hello everyone! Chris here with you today and I hope you had a great start to 2019 - Today, I have a Birthdaycard to share with you, with the brand new Bird-Stamps.

I wanted to create a group/scene card for a while. The sweet little birds are great for that - it takes a litte time but I think it´s worth to give it a try.

• for a card like this I prefer to create a "Dummy"  before I stamp it for my card 
• (look at "Tipps & Tricks)
• Things that are in the foreground are first stamped then masked - step by step - for masking you can use Post-it notes or masking paper.
• This card I colored  the images with Distress Inks and for details used some Colorpencils and a white Pen.
• cut out 2/3 of the "group" 
• Background: Distress oxides (seedless preserves, spiced marmalade and fossilized amber).  
• used the brand new Word-Dies "birthday", one in black/grey (to create a litte shadow) and one in white
• glued down the "group" and arranged the sentiment and a little black label - that´s it :) 

A small "Dummy" on cheap paper is often helpful, like this one 

The super cute Birds "From my nest"  - "Aus meinem Nest" are stamps from the new Januar release  and available on friday 11th.

Thank you so much for stopping by and happy crafty time.

Chris