Creative Blog Hop

Hi everyone!

Today I am participating in the Creative Blog Hop. I was very honored when Leni of Between Paper and Nature asked me to continue the hop after her.

When reading Leni's post, I was so surprised to learn that we discovered stamps in exactly the same place! Just like Leni, I was hooked after visiting the Posthumus stamp shop. It's a lovely little shop, and if you ever visit Amsterdam, you should go by!
The shop is just a 5 minute walk down the street from where I used to work, so I have spent many of my lunch breaks browsing through stamps there. ;-)

My stamping and card making journey started in 2010. For my boyfriend's birthday that year I gave him a trip. As I didn't have a physical gift for him, I thought a very large card would be fun. Although I didn't use any stamps for that card, I did buy my first Hero Arts stamps at the Posthumus shop shortly afterwards. These were love themed, and you can see the first card I ever stamped here. Even though it's pink, it was for my boyfriend, and it's still hanging on our fridge today. :-)

Now, let's get on to the questions.

1. What am I working on now?
I've been working on an order for a wedding card where the request was lots of gold. I had so much fun making this card featuring five different gold elements.

In the picture above you can see some gold glitter enamel hearts. I'm working on a tutorial on how you can make these yourself and will be sharing this with you soon as well.

2. How does my work differ from others?
I always use stamps. If possible, I want to stamp every element on my card. :-) Therefore I rarely use patterned paper.

Also, my style is quite clean. Often clean and simple. I can also have multiple layers or distress inking on my cards, yet I think they always have a clean look.

I just made this card* and showed it to my mom. Her response was: "This is SO you! I love it!" Hehe, so I guess this card shows my style quite well.

3. Why do I create what I do?
I just love stamping and making cards! Love it! :-) It really is my passion. And stamping is a way for me to relax and to express myself creatively.

My cards are my art. When I talk about my hobby, people often tell me that I light up. I love to create something beautiful, and I hope to spread the joy I felt while creating the card when I give it to someone else.

4. How does my creative process work?
When I have a specific person in mind for a card, I think of what that person likes and see if I have stamps and ink colors that fit. Very often I get ideas from the stamps themselves. And of course I get inspiration from Pinterest and other card makers. There's so much talent in the card making community, and I love seeing what you all make!

I love the creative process of designing the card, stamping, trying out new techniques etc, so my cards usually take quite a while to make. Typically, a card takes between one hour to a whole day to make. I put a lot of my heart and soul into each card.

Another reason why my cards take so long, is that I am quite meticulous. If something is one millimeter off, it bothers me.. ;-) But I have learned to (sometimes) say to myself that nobody else will ever notice and that I need to move on. It's good enough. It's not perfect (in my eyes), but good enough. Can you relate?

I also come up with card designs when I cannot sleep at night. It relaxes me.

Who's next?
I'm very happy and honored that Sarah of My Impressions will be following me up next week! She is a very talented lady, and you should definitely check out her blog.

I would also like to invite all of you to participate in the Creative Blog Hop. And if you do, please leave me a link to your post in the comments. I'd love to get to know you better!

Thank you so much for visiting today!

Love,
Tone

*I'm entering this card into the following challenges: Simon Says Monday Challenge: Finishing Tough, Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes and Addicted to Stamps Challenge #114: CAS
Stamps: Hero Arts Looped Flower Pattern and Hero Arts Say It All
Card stock: Simon Says Stamp Audrey Blue

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Graphic Ombre Birthday Cards

Hi there!

On Day 8 of Stretch Your Stamps 2, Kelly Rasmussen made some beautiful cards using graphic stamps to create a border. Her cards inspired me to pull out this great border set from Simon Says Stamp. I made three variations of the same card.

This version is my favorite. I think the sentiment first perfectly to the design, and I like the ombre stamping on this card the best. This was actually the last one I made, so it took me some tries before I got it the way I wanted it. :-) The sentiment is from this fabulous set from WPlus9. 

I was planning for this card to be portrait instead of landscape, but after stamping the border, I couldn't find a sentiment that I thought fit. So then I made it a landscape card instead. :-) The sentiment is from an oldie but goodie Hero Arts set.

For all three cards I've used the same inks: Hero Arts Mint Julep, Tide Pool and Soft Granite, as well as Simon Says Stamp Audrey Blue.

I'd love to know which version you like the best! :-)

Hugs,
Tone

Challenges: Simon Monday Challenge: Anything Goes, Addicted to CAS: # 45 Geometric, A Blog Named Hero Challenge #50: Ombre, Simon Says Stamp: Work It Wednesday July 2014: Blue, Addicted to Stamps & More #109: CAS 

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Retro Birthday Card

Hi!

On Day 8 of  Stretch Your Stamps 2, Nichol Magouirk made a card using graphic stamps that inspired me to finally ink up this great stamp set from Papertrey Ink.

This card was a bit of a challenge for me. I always love the cards that other people make with graphic stamps, but somehow I don't tend to choose these stamps myself when I sit down to make a card.

If I would make this card again, I would probably change out the light yellow color. I still think the card looks cute as it is in real life, but you can barely see the yellow outline shapes in the picture.

I stamped all the shapes in three summery colors of Hero Arts shadow inks (Mint Julep, Passion Flower and Soft Yellow). The Hero Arts inks are by far my favorite inks! I stamped the birthday with Versamark Ink and heat embossed using this amazing embossing powder.

Thank you so much for stopping by today!

Hugs,
Tone

Challenges: Simon Monday Challenge: Anything Goes, Simon Wednesday Challenge: Summer, Addicted to CAS: # 45 Geometric, Cure For The Monday Blues Challenge #27 (colors on the vases), One-Layer Simplicity Challenge #8: Shades of Summer (Shades of Summer #5)

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Instagram Card Shares

Hi lovelies!

How are you? I hope you're doing well!

I have shared some cards over on Instagram that I would like to share with you as well. You can click on each picture to see it on Instagram.

This first one is for you today: I'm sending lots of happy thoughts your way! :-)

The flowers are from a great new stamp set by Hero Arts and BasicGrey, the lovely stencil is by Heidi Swapp, and the sentiment is from an older Hero Arts set. The ink colors are Soft Purple and Soft Vanilla by Hero Arts.

I think it's always hard to make sympathy cards. This was for the mom of a friend of mine, so it was extra sad having to make it. I took inspiration from the funeral card, and I think it turned out really nice. 

The butterflies are from a Papertrey Ink set and are stamped in Hero Arts silver ink and clear embossed. The flowers and sentiment stamps are from Hero Arts.

I've also been working on some more birthday cards. That seems to be the type of card I need, or that people order from me, most often.

To make these cards I'm using an awesome background stamp by Hero Arts & BasicGrey and a really great sentiment set by Mama Elephant. If you don't have these two already, you should get them right away! :-)
And it's so hard for me to not use this ink color on every single card that I make, haha! Definitely my favorite color right now!

Are you on Instagram?

Inky hugs,
Tone

Challenge: Hero Arts One Layer Challenge

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Visit my shop WashiTapesNL.

Are you on Instagram?

Hi!

I've recently started using Instagram, and I would love to connect with you there! Look me up here, or leave me your link in the comments!

Work in progress for an order. Lots of coloring and fussy cutting, but it's worth it cause these cards will be fabulous!

I also have an Instagram for my shop, which you can find here.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to see you on Instagram! :-)

Hugs,
Tone

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Happy Balloon Card

Today's card is made with just one stamp set, the Whole Lotta' Happy set from WPlus9. First time I saw it, I knew I had to have it! :-) I love the balloon and star images, and the set has so many great sentiments.

I love the large "happy" stamps in this set, and I've used the one with a shadow on this card. I stamped it in Memento Luxe Sweet Plum ink and clear embossed it. The shadow is stamped in Hero Arts Silver ink.

For the balloons I used three colors of Memento Luxe inks, covered them with the Wink of Stella clear glitter pen, and added a thick coat of Glossy Accents. I love how they turned out! :-)
I made the background by stamping the stars in Hero Arts Soft Yellow and Silver inks.

Have a great day!

XoXo,
Tone

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Challenges: A Blog Named Hero: #44: You're the (em) Boss, Crazy for CAS: Balloons
 

Gold & Pink CAS Washi Tape Card

I've been on a real gold kick lately, and for my third card I'm using gold with a touch of pink to make this clean and simple birthday card.
[Card #1 Masculine Washi Tape Card and Card #2 Masculine Love Card with Washi Tape Hearts]

The sentiment is heat embossed in gold and the pink strip is vellum colored with a pink Copic marker. The sentiment comes from the Hero Arts Hooray set, which was part of a giveaway that I won on Janet's blog. Thank you so much, Janet! :-) You should really check out her blog, she's so talented, and right now she's been playing with washi tape as well!

To make the background I added strips of my favorite gold washi tape to the card base. I love how it turned out and how easy it was to create!

Which card is your favorite of the three?

If you have any questions about the cards or the supplies, please let me know in the comments.

Thank you so much for stopping by! :-)

Love,
Tone

Challenges: Gallery Idol Competition, A Blog Named Hero: #44: You're the (em) Boss

Supplies from my shop

Masculine Washi Tape Card

Hi there!

Today I have three washi tape cards to share with you. The first one is a masculine card.
[Card #2 Masculine Love Card with Washi Tape Hearts and Card #3 Gold & Pink CAS Washi Tape Card]

For this card I added strips of washi tape to a white panel and adhered the panel to the card base with dimensional adhesive. The sentiment is stamped in Versafine ink and clear embossed.

All the washi tapes are from my shop WashiTapesNL, and you can visit it by clicking here.

Love,
Tone

Challenges: Gallery Idol Competition, A Blog Named Hero: #44: You're the (em) Boss

Supplies from my shop

Masculine Congrats Chalkboard Card

Hi!

I would like to wish you a very happy, healthy and creative 2014! :)

It's really been a long time since I posted anything here on the blog.. Sorry about that!
But that does not mean that I haven't been making cards! Quite the contrary! ;-)

I've been having some fun with the chalkboard technique again. You can see two cards I made previously with this technique here and here.

How to
For this masculine birthday card, I first white embossed the Hero Arts Watch Gears and the sentiment. I did not remove all of the excess embossing powder, so you can see little white speckles on the black pieces. I think that is a nice added detail.
To create the shadow effect, I stamped both again in Hero Arts White Dye Ink, offsetting the stamps a little from the first stamping. I used Colorbox White Frost Ink to distress the black pieces and drew the border with a white colored pencil.
On the card base I stamped the Hero Arts Pinstripe Background, which adds to the masculine feel of the card.

Have you been creative in the new year already? I'd love to see what you have made, so please leave me a link in the comments so I can check it out! :)

Hugs,
Tone

Challenges: Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Ice Inspiration, Simon Says Monday Challenge: Blues

Supplies
Stamps: Hero Arts Watch Gears CG421, Hero Arts Congrats CL488, Hero Arts Pinstripe Background CG503
Ink: Versamark, Hero Arts White Dye Ink, Colorbox White Frost Ink
Other: Hero Arts White Embossing Powder, Dimensional Adhesive
   

Cool Motorcycle Bird on a Washi Tape Road

Hello!

My boyfriend is a motor biker and he is also very fond of birds, so with that in mind, this card came to be! :-)

I stamped the motorcycle in Versafine Onyx Black ink and clear embossed it to make it shiny. The bird is stamped in HA Tide Pool ink and the three circles in HA Soft Pool ink. I added a strip of Black & Grey Chevron Washi Tape as a road for the bird to ride on. I love that you can see the stamping through the washi tape! :-) The motorcycle and the bird are adhered to the card with pop dots for dimension.

Have a wonderful Sunday and enjoy the rest of your weekend! :-)

Love,
Tone

Challenges:
CAS-ual Fridays: CFC105
Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Transport

Supplies

InLinkz.com

Happy 2013!

Happy New Year Everyone!

In my shop WashiTapesNL, I start off celebrating the new year with a discount code for you! Use the code Happy2013 to get 15% off your entire order (valid until Jan. 6th)!

Thank you so much for 2012! Your sweet comments and support mean the world to me! Let's make 2013 even better together! :-)

I made these numbers after seeing them on the BasicGrey blog. They included the templates so we could make our own. BasicGrey had used patterned paper for theirs, but I printed them out on white card stock, stamped the front and back panels and put some lovely washi tape from my shop around the edges.
This was quite a fiddly project to do, but I really like how it turned out! It was so much fun to have them with to the New Year's party we had with friends yesterday! :-)

Have a wonderful first day of 2013!

Love,
Tone

Supplies:

InLinkz.com