Simply made (Christmas) cards

My daughter is in Suriname for her internship. A good reason for me to make her greeting cards. I thought it would be fun for her to receive some international snail mail from her mom. An image of sweetpea stamps coloured with Copic markers. I coloured this image a while ago and I do not remember the colour combination I used. For a 3-D effect I adhered the image with foam dots. Now lets hope this postcard will make a safe trip to Surinam, without being damaged. The greeting is an clear stamp from Hero Arts; the text ' with love' is from Papermania. The swirl is an clear stamp from Inkadinkado (patterned bugs collection).
The small bird and flowers are also stamped and these are clear tamps from Papermania Chatsworth vintage collection. This card is also simply made, since I only added text, swirl, little bird and flowers and the rub on in the corner above.  That´s all!

Too busy these days and I created these easy made Christmas greeting cards. The card stock has so many patterns, so layering would cover the patterns. No need to do that. These are postcards and will be send as such. I finished the back of these postcards as a regular store bought postcard. I did use my Copic markers for the images. The clear stamp images are as the patterned card stock from an unknown brand. To finish the front of the postcard I added a tag, distressed the tags and stamped a greeting on the tag.

With simply made I refer to the card stock, which is beautiful so there is no need to layer with other card stock. Adding an image and a greeting and voila!

Choices ...

There is so much going on and I which I was a star in making choices. Well .... I am a star in making choices! I make too much of them , hehehehe.... I am so looking forward to my trip. Will miss my blog for two weeks. Four projects are waiting to be done: four art journal pages for swap-bot and milliande. They will be done. Yesterday I started the pages already.
Yesterday I also wrote eight postcards for postcrossers and they are ready to travel by snail mail. The traffic of snail mail can be very slow ... I am waiting on some journal pages. I hope they will appear one day☺

There so much to be done and I felt so week. I was really sick, but I had to get up and get things done:-( Projects, schoolwork, homework, get ready to travel, etc. etc. I was getting somewhere, because I started the journal pages and I nearly finished my school projects. Yayyyy ... I am amazed at how calm I took it. A good thing I would say, but then I got the feeling something is wrong, because I didn't not worry that much. Deep in a corner of my brain I knew I will get things done in time, so why worry, huh??? And to worry is not a positive thing .... well ... I worried about a birthday postcard I thought I had to make yet for the birthday postcard group @ milliande. I spent a couple of days worrying and creating. Then I went to my blog and noticed that the postcard was already sent to the receiver (and received) ...... So to worry is not so good for me. Yes, a good thing happened this time, since I created a second birthday postcard. well I'll take it with me and give it to my sister in Surinam. That's one good thing I'm left with and the great feelings I had while making the postcard. Here it is:

So these days were days on which I created a couple of birthday cards. I have to give these birthday cards to family members and I love my family dearly:-))

For Jonathan: a masculine postcard, created with a digital baseball image from Kennykdownloads. The image is coloured with Copic markers and stamped on "Make' it' colour" blending cardstock (love this cardstock!) and the patterned paper is from a My Mind' s Eye. collection.

A second card for my sister Ria. It is a small card to add to a gift. A small birthday card. Tori Famous is another kennykdownloads digital image. I cut the swirls with the help of my CricutExpression (forgot which cartridge).

Handmade postcard for Finland

Already sent to Finland. It seems as if more postcrossers ask for handmade postcards (?). I don't now for sure, but if I have time to create one, I will. This image is a rubber stamp of sweetpeastamps. I coloured this image a while ago and last weekend I finished colouring it. Used mediums: patterned card stock, card board, rubber stamp, acrylic stamp, gems, ribbon, prisma watercolor pencils and copic markers on Gina K. card stock. No difficult techniques used here. Still a beautiful postcard. Have a nice day☺

I finished the back of this postcard with a piece of card board and more or less the same lines you see on a regular postcard, with postcard written on top. I have a couple of  these rubber stamps, but all are different. And I don't know I used this rubber stamp on the postcard above. Just to give you an idea of the back of my postcards, though .... :-))

Last but not least .... handmade postcards

Created for postcrossers:

 Handmade male postcard. Created with my Cricut Expression; sentiment: Hero Arts.

Above postcard and this postcard are created with cardboard, just recycled the cardboard. The image is from   Saturated canary. Such a sweet image! The postcard is stamped with a rubber stamp, embellished with ribbon and a flower gem. Image coloured with Copic markers

My daughter gave me a couple of these postcards. In fact these postcards, as you see, promote a brand. Well, I restyled the card by adding a sentiment to replace the desciption on the postcard. And so another postcard was created.

Original postcard.

Postcard with new sentiment.

Same thing here, but on another postcard.

Not the best pictures, but I like this cute postcard:-)) Most of the time I send these handmade postcards naked, which means without envelope. It is always a surprise if they will be delivered without being damaged... This is another  Saturated canary image coloured with Copic markers. Under the image you see patterned paper, it is not ribbon. The cardstock on which the image is stamped is distressed with a Close to my heart inkpad.

Easy postcard

A last project for today; a handmade postcard to be sent to the UK. The image is a free image from Saturated canary ; coloured with my copic markers. I kept this postcard easy, so no embellishments and no greetings on this card. I like the soft colours of the background and the girl attracks more intention.

Inky handmade postcard

Didn't I wanted a real Summer? Well, we had it today! Really warm weather and I enjoyed it as much as I can, hoping I can still feel it during the Winter, hahaha. Here a postcard for a postcrosser; this postcard will travel to Hong Kong. I played a lot with two colours of inks. The image is from sweetpeastamps and again coloured with my copic sketch markers. the border of this image is also coloured with inks. I really tried to blend the colours, which, I think, went very well. Finished the postcard with paper ribbon; I did a bit of art journaling on the right side using rubber stamps from Docrafts the "Urban stamps" collection and Stampin' Up inkpads. And since the postcrosser had her B-day, I also stamped "Happy Birthday". The image is not on top of the card, but as a matter of fact lies in it.

I'll get a cold bath and will try to have a good rest☺ Thank you for visiting:-)

As promised

As promised a couple of times I finally have a picture of the back of my handmade postcard; I created this postcard today. Love to send my postcard looking like a store bought postcard. The image on the postcard was coloured a while ago. It is a Sarah Kay image and I used my copic markers to colour her. Since I coloured her a while ago, I forgot which copics I used.... I layered the image on decorated card stock and decorated the postcard with two lines of ribbon. I wanted to use the colours of the image on my card, so the ribbon is blue which suits her dress/skirt and the card stock of the sentiments correspondents with her bandana. Lovely? For the sentiment I used my Sizzix big shot and double dies from Hobby voordeel (yeah, a Dutch brand). The sentiment is adhered and altered on foam tape. The back of my handmade postcard is of recycled card stock. Love to work with those boxes to create nice pages or postcards:-) The sentiment is from Whiff of Joy. The "hello" is just a part of the original sentiment saying "Hello shunshine!", but I only needed the first part of this sentiment. Did not want the sunshine ... lol ... This postcard is for another postcrosser and what do we say then??? Happy postcrossing!!

This postcard will be sent to The Netherlands.

Journal page swap and finished painting

Hello dear friends,
Again a quiet Sunday. That gives me hours to play with paint, paper, glue, etc. I started to finish the chunky pages for the Circus is coming swap. I continued with the journal page swap for which monthly journal pages are to be made. The prompts of the month February are: "All you need is love - John Lennon and Cupid. Thought it would be easy, because one thing to use in both prompts are hearts. But that doesn't make a page yet.... I did not want to draw any face or Cupid and that was a challenge. I don't know why but I had the idea to make a page on which the paint is smeared out. Sound a bit strange? Now I just did my thing and of course I had some mistakes, but I totally love this page. Instead of a neat page I have a smeared page with the message under neat. Now I cross my fingers and hope that Deedee, for whom I made the pages, likes my messy page?!?! Let me know what you think☺

I also made a painting for my second daughter. It was finished in January this year. Love it!! She wanted a somewhat gothic painting. She is not gothic herself. The canvas measures 60 x 80 cm (23,6 x 31,4 inches). For me that is quite a large project. Now both of my daughters have a painting I made for them. The oldest didn't want such a large one, so she got a small painting. After seeing her sister's she pleads for a larger one. Should I? Help me on this one:))

For a postcrosser I created a postcard. She preferred handmade and that gives me another reason to play with paper and glue:-)) The image was painted a very long time ago and finally founds its spot.

Have a nice Sunday:-)

Another postcard

Another postcard made for a postcrosser, who prefers handmade cards. The image I used is in fact a colouring page. The pink background is cardstock which came with a membership card. The cardstock is sturdy enough and I like the pink stripes on it. It is a nice piece of cardstock, so I decided to use it as a background for this postcard. Cute isn't it?

New idea

A postcrosser mentioned in her profile that she preferred handmade cards. I rather send a handmade card and I choose an image I coloured a while ago. The image is from Sweet pea stamps. It is coloured with Copic markers (sketch and ciao). To alter it on the card did not satisfied me, so I had an idea. Why not cut the cardstock with the same die cut I used for the image. Then I would lay the image in the opening of the card. I hope I make any sense?? So the image is not on top of the card, but lays in it. All went well and very satisfied I will send this card tomorrow to the United Kingdom. I coloured the cardstock with acrylic paints (Van Eyck acrylic paint viridian green, blue lake and FolkArt evergreen). A bit of glimmer mist (Tattered Angels cosmos) was sprayed on top of the card. With the help of a rubber stamp, an acrylic stamp and a stencil I finished the card. I am so satisfied with the finished product☺

Painted postcard

Today is a lovely day! Not much sun, but the wind feels quite warm. I am crafting again and I am currently working on several projects. A canvas painting, a painted postcard and I am painting and paperpiercing in my small Moleskine art journal. So I am switching a lot between these projects. If one has to dry I´ll pick up another one. Here a picture of the postcard I made. I started yesterday and it is finished today. Wondering if I could duplicate the postcard, I tried to make a copy of it. My goal was to get a black and white (not white actually, because the cardstock is kind of grey). What I got is a full copy of my postcard, so it has all the colors of the original postcard. Yes, I forgot to hit the black & white knob. But I was surprised and satisfied. I have to sent two postcards, so I could use the copy. And I don't like to make two of the same, so I add to each postcard its own details. E.g. the quote on each card is different. The quote is from labels of my favourite tea at the moment: Yogi tea.

This is the original painted postcard. Destination: a postcrosser in the USA.

The copy of the original above. This one will be sent to The Netherlands.

Wishing you all a peaceful Sunday. Stay well!

Handmade postcards

I could not leave without showing some of my handmade postcards. It seems that when making postcards I seldom struggle with the layout or sketch. Love to make them!

Sent to Romania

Sent to Poland

Sent to Taiwan

Sent to Australia

(what do you do with your scratch? I punched circles and had fun; stamped some butterflies, voilá)

Sent to China

Sent to the UK

Sent to The Netherlands

Sent to The Netherlands

Sent to Poland

Sent to the Ukraïne (was sent this month)

Sent to The Netherlands

Sent to the USA

Sent to the USA

Sent to a little girl in the USA

handmade postcard

One last treat for today. A handmade postcard. Did I tell you I am also a postcrosser? Well, you know it now. I sent my handmade postcards. Unless of course a postcrosser says in his/her profile handmade cards are not welcome. So, here a handmade postcard I once sent. I got a lot of compliments. That's why I have enough confidence to show it to you, yeahhh ..:))

 On the back I stamped a postcard image. So the back is like an official postcard. The stamp is a rubber stamp from sweetpea (from the USA). She is colored with Prisma watercolor pencils. The image is stamped with Memento black ink. Again I used the Uniball Signo white gelpen. Finally I adhered the image on a light piece of cardstock using a nestability to get the form. Again I turned this piece of cardstock into patterned cardstock by using a Blitzer air art set with markers. It is an art set for children, but you can get the effect of an copic airbrush. Isn't she lovely. I am not a pinky lady, but the colors are beautiful. Oh, and I made the patterned cardstock myself. I took some acrylic stamps; dipped them in a Versamark watermark stamp pad, voilá! Cute, eh?