Shake It In Teals – Birthday Card For Sweet 17

Image ~ 14 March 201722 February 2018 ~ Anna Krol ~ 2 Comments

Hello and welcome! Today I want to share with you a card I’ve made for our daughter’s 17th birthday. I don’t know where the time has gone but I could swear she was just 7 not that long ago.

She’s not a girly-girl ( happy mamma here lol). She’s studying fine art in Sixth Form and she loves mixed media. So I had to come up with something little more ‘sophisticated’ than flowers and butterflies if you know what I mean 😉

This year I decided to make a shaker card in beautiful teal shades. [You can see her last year’s birthday card here]

Shake It In Teals Card dimensions:

Thick Whisper White cardstock: 11-6/8″ x 4-1/8″ scored in half at 5-7/8″ (29.7 x 10.5 cm scored in half at 14.8 cm)
Watercolour Paper: 5-6/8″ x 3-7/8″ (14.5 cm x 9.7 cm)
Basic Black cardstock: 1/2″ x 5-6/8″ (14.5 cm x 1.2 cm)
for die-cutting word happy pieces of Basic Black, Island Indigo and Emerald Envy

It’s very simple, a straightforward card so I won’t include a whole step by step instructions, just some hints, and tips.

Frame: To create a teal-like shade for the watercolour panel I’ve mixed Island Indigo ink with Emerald Envy ink in a watercolour wash. When the panel was dry I die cut a rectangle from the middle of the panel, creating a frame.

Numbers: I didn’t want the number to look flat and boring, so I took that watercoloured rectangle, stamped two paisley images in Versamark in the middle, heat embossed them in white and die cut numbers 1 and 7 from that piece.

‘Happy’: I die cut it three times: one from Basic Black cardstock, 2nd from Island Indigo and 3rd from Emerald Envy and adhered them together. To add shine to it I cover my word in Versamark and heat embossed in clear. I did the same with the Basic Black strip.

Before I put my shaker card together I adhered few sequins to the base of my card so not all sequins fall down when the card is standing on the shelf. For the final touch, I added some random gold dots to the frame with my gold Sharpie.

There’re few things that didn’t come out as I hoped for, but with my numb hands, I think that overall the card looks nice. The most important is the fact that our girl loved it, so YAY!

If you wish to purchase any of products I have used, simply click the images below to go directly to my online store and don’t forget to enter the hostess code for the month of March G3JKVASG to receive a gift from me.

Thank you for stopping by and have a blessed day

New Adventure Card For GDP076 Case The Designer Challenge

Image ~ 4 March 201722 February 2018 ~ Anna Krol ~ 4 Comments

Anna’ Stampin’ Cave – New Adventure Card For GDP076 Case The Designer Challenge

Hello and welcome everyone! Today I’m back with my entry for Global Design Project. This week’s challenge is to CASE lovely and talented Kylie Bertucci. And oh, boy! What a brilliant card it is!

Phew, I did it! To be honest I really thought I won’t make it this week. Lately, I’m so exhausted it’s unbelievable. Living with MS alone isn’t easy, but working night shifts on top of that truly wreak a havoc in my body. And even though I only work two shifts per week, sometimes I am so drained I need to recover for a couple of days before I get back on track. Then I have to pick up on things at home that have to be done, spend some quality time with hubby and daughter…and by the time I’m ready to sit down and create, another week roll on…crazy vicious cycle isn’t it haha

But today I woke up with ‘this idea’ that I just had to turn it into a card. So I jumped out of bed, brew myself a cup of chicory coffee, done my Bible reading and sneaked straight into my ‘cave’. I’ve used a really fun technique called ‘layered embossing resist’.

New Adventure Card dimensions:

Daffodil Delight cardstock: 11-6/8″ x 4-1/8″ scored in half at 5-7/8″ (29.7 x 10.5 cm scored in half at 14.8 cm)
Whisper White cardstock: 5-7/8″ x 2-1/2″ (14.8 cm x 6.4 cm)
Pumpkin Pie cardstock: 2 strips 5-7/8″ long and 1/2″ wide approx (14.8 cm x 1.3 cm)
Soft Sky cardstock: 3-1/2″ x 1″ (9 cm x 2.6 cm)
Whisper White Baker’s Twine: 6″

The bright colour combination I’ve used is inspired by this month’s Colour Your World Challenge.

To create this fun background (and a focal point of my card) I decided to use the clusters of leaves from Perpetual Birthday Calendar Stamp Set.

For the first layer, I randomly stamped few clusters of leaves using Versamark ink on Whisper White panel and heat embossed them in clear. Once it’s done, I inked the panel using Soft Sky Ink Pad.

To create the second layer I stamped and heat embossed my leaves in clear again and sponged my panel in Tempting Turquoise. For the last layer, I stamped my leaves in Dapper Denim. Next, I used iron and regular copy paper to remove embossing from the panel.

I added strips of Pumpkin Pie cardstock under my panel and adhered it all to the card base.

The sentiment is from Wild About Flowers Stamp Set. I stamped it in Dapper Denim on a piece of Soft Sky cardstock and cut one of the ends diagonally creating and wrapped white baker’s twine around the other end. I adhered it to the card base with dimensionals.

So this is it from me for today. Very simple card and so different from my usual style, but I quite like it. And I hope you like it too.

As always, I really want to encourage you to visit the Global Design Project challenge blog to see other beautiful projects from all around the world. Just click on their logo below to visit the website

Thank you for stopping by and have a blessed day,

Simply Sketched Saturday Challenge Blog Hop #8 – Easter Lamb At Wildflower Fields

26 March 201621 February 2018 ~ Anna Krol ~ 20 Comments

Simply Sketched Saturday Challenge Blog Hop #8 – Easter Lamb At Wildflower Fields

Thank you for joining us for another Simply Sketched Saturday Challenge! We’re so excited to be sharing this hop with you. The products used are all available in the current Annual, or seasonal, Stampin’ Up!® Catalogues*. Simply use the buttons at the bottom of the post to keep hopping!

I really like today’s sketch designed by lovely Justyna from Perfect Crafts.

Don’t you just love it?! I had so many ideas for this sketch, I couldn’t decide which way to go. But I really wanted to use super cute Easter Lamb stamp as my focal point. So here’s my take on the sketch:

My very first idea for this sketch was to make a shaker card. So I created a frame for my card first. I’ve used foam adhesive at the back of my frame – you could use Stampin’ Dimensionals too. But because I only have the metallics sequins at this moment, and I really didn’t want to go into silver/gold colour theme, I gave up this idea. But then I thought: hey, you can still use the “frame” to create a dimensional layout.

I had some leftover pieces of Wildflower Fields DSP, so I cut three strips and adhered them to the card base, beneath my frame. I stamped Easter Lamb in Stampin’ Up! Black Archival ink on a piece of Whisper White, and die-cut it using the middle circle from Circles Collection Framelits. I’ve used Stampin’ Write Markers to add some colour to my little cutie: Pink Pirouette for ears, nose and cheeks, Sahara Sand for wool and Pear Pizzazz for grass. I also stamped some grassland using swoosh stamp from Sheltering Tree.

To make it even cuter I punched few tiny flowers in Blushing Bride, Daffodil Delight and Pool Party using Tree Builder Punch. I’ve made a little cut between each petal to add some extra dimension to my flowers. I also punched few raindrops using the same punch and Pear Pizzazz cardstock and turned them into tiny leaves for my flowers. To finish off my card I added smallest of the Pearl Basic Jewels to the centre of each flower. For the inside, I stamped beautiful sentiment from Suite Sayings.

I would love to hear from you. Do you like my take on the sketch?

Now, be sure to hop along and see more inspiring projects. Your next stop is Karen’s blog – go and see what she has made for you.

Thank you for stopping by and have a blessed day!

Embossing Resist Technique With Corner Garden Background Stamp By Stampin’ Up!

25 March 201621 February 2018 ~ Anna Krol ~ 2 Comments

Embossing Resist Technique With Corner Garden Background Stamp By Stampin’ Up!

While Easter is just around the corner, today I’ve got for you beautiful Easter card using embossing resist technique. I love this technique as it has a real WOW factor to it! I love how the colours just POP on the card when sponged or water coloured over the heat embossing.

But first thing first – I wanted to apologise for being absent on the blog for a long time. I didn’t mean to neglect anyone of you but I’ve been struggling with a very nasty bacterial chest infection, which knocked me down, literally. I wasn’t able to do anything around the house, or even myself (not to mention crafting). So blessed to have a wonderful husband who took care of the house and our family, cooking, cleaning, etc and most of all – me.

The project I share today was made for our team swap at the end of February. But since the infection kicked in I wasn’t able to share it with you at all.

To create my card I stamped a beautiful image from Corner Garden background stamp in Versamark on the piece of regular Whisper White. Remember to always use an antistatic tool on your card before stamping your image if you want to heat emboss it, as it will take all the static from your card, and embossing powder will stick only to your stamped image. The sentiment is stamped in Versamak too. Both: flowers and sentiment are heat embossed in white.

Now the fun part starts – water colouring! You may think: oh no! You should use a watercolour paper. But to be honest, if you don’t plan to soak your cardstock in water, use your aqua painters gently, and your layer will be mounted on the base – you can add your water colouring on regular cardstock without any problem. Just like I did. Believe me or not, I coloured all my flowers and leaves using aqua painter. As they say, the devil is in the detail. You can’t allow aqua paint brush to carry lots of water, it needs to be slightly wet. You only use it to pick the colour from the lid of your ink pad ( to have some ink on your lid you have to squeeze you ink pad gently when it’s closed). And you pick more colour with every stroke or two. You can’t paint with water only as it will damage your paper if using regular Whisper White.

When all the colouring was done I sponged the background using Pear Pizzazz, Wild Wasabi and Pool Party. Any place of the background that I thought was too dark, I lightened with Whisper White Craft ink pad. I also lightened the look of some flowers, especially the Melon Mambo one, the large at the bottom of my card. I also added some Clear Wink of Stella to my flowers for a shimmer.

To embellish my card I cut a narrow strip of Burlap Ribbon, added Venetian Crochet Trim at the top and add it at the bottom of my layer. Next, I mount it on my Crumb Cake base.

I love that slight rustic feel to my card, even though there’s lots of shimmer on the flowers from Wink of Stella. It may not be your traditional Easter card but I love it! And you can always change a sentiment and make it into the birthday card, get well or congratulations card maybe? Possibilities are endless. If it comes to Easter I personally prefer cards with the strong message like this one I’ve made last year:

Now I would love to hear from you! Do you prefer more traditional Easter cards? Or maybe you’re a fan of fun and cheeky ones (I’ve seen lots of these lately)? Let me know in the comments below.

Have a blessed day,

Wildflower Fields Fridge Mini Calendars

5 March 201621 February 2018 ~ Anna Krol ~ 8 Comments

Wildflower Fields Fridge Mini Calendars

Good evening everyone. A few days ago, on my facebook page, I’ve posted some fridge mini calendars I’ve made as a thank you gifts for my customers. But they were such a hit that I thought I will make a blog post, to show how to make them. Just a warning, it’s gonna be picture heavy 😉

I’ve bought these mini calendars on eBay while ago, but due to chronic fatigue I just couldn’t push myself to sit down and craft – maybe except for the cards once in a while. But I was wondering about customers gifts the other day and had a lightbulb moment – why not make cute magnetic fridge calendars?! Each calendar measures approx 2-7/8″ x 1-7/8″, and on their size, I’ve based my design.

The base for my calendar measures 3″x 4″ – here I’ve used Hello Honey. Designer Series Paper measures 2-7/8″x 2″ and Whisper White piece for stamping measures 1-1/2″x 2″. I rounded all the edges of my base, top edges of DSP and right top corner of Whisper White. I’ve used my Envelope Punch Board to do so, but you could use the corner rounder punch if you have one.

I stamped “a little something cute…” sentiment from Something To Say stamp set on my Whisper White pieces. Next, I stamped floral images from Flowering Fields stamp set. I just love this set! Don’t forget that this beautiful stamp set you can earn free with every £45 purchase during Sale-a-bration.

I’ve used Hello Honey for butterflies, Old Olive for stems and leaves, and Lost Lagoon and Calypso Coral for flowers. I’ve used ink pads as well as Stampin’ Markers to do my stamping. I have to say here, I love that all Stampin’ Up’s Designer Series Papers got all coordinating colours listed at the back of the paper pack. It makes creating so much easier if you don’t have to work out which colours to use. I also sponged stamped panels, so they stand out nicely from the background.

To embellish my Blackberry Bliss calendars I’ve used Silver 1/8″ Ribbon as it looked pretty neat on a dark background. But it didn’t work as good on the light one. So I cut “skinny” strips of cardstock in Lost Lagoon and Hello Honey, smooshed Versamark over them and heat embossed with Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder. I love this gentle shimmer.

I assembled my calendars using Tombow glue. I also added two strips of a magnet at the back of each one.

I really hope you like my little project and that you give them a go. Or maybe you have different ideas to use these little calendars for? I would love to hear from you!

Have a blessed day,

Anna' Stampin' Cave

creative life by anna krol – stampin' up! uk independent demonstrator

March Special Hostess Gift

Shake It In Teals – Birthday Card For Sweet 17

New Adventure Card For GDP076 Case The Designer Challenge

Simply Sketched Saturday Challenge Blog Hop #8 – Easter Lamb At Wildflower Fields

Embossing Resist Technique With Corner Garden Background Stamp By Stampin’ Up!

Wildflower Fields Fridge Mini Calendars