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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Masculine Love Card - Metallic On Black

Hei hei!

I was so lucky to win a spot in the Stretch Your Stamps 2 Online Card Class, and I have really been enjoying it!

Jennifer McGuire made a card on Day 2 where she used perfect pearls on black cardstock. I needed a card for my boyfriend for our 5 year anniversary, so I thought this technique would be perfect for this card.

I used a combination of mint and white perfect pearls for the heart background.

Jennifer used dies to cut out a sentiment and a window on her card. I don't have a die cut machine, so I used a circle punch instead and heat embossed my sentiment on a vellum strip so that my sentiment also could float over the circle window.

I'm so happy with how this card turned out! And my boyfriend also thought the card was really nice. One of my best, he though. Always nice to hear! :-)

As I'm stretching my stamps these days, I also made a feminine card using the same background stamp. I will share this card with you tomorrow.

Have a great day!

Love,
Tone

Challenges: Simon Wednesday Challenge: Make It Sparkle, Addicted to Stamps: Make Your Mark, Crazy for CAS #50, A Blog Named Hero: Die A Little, Fusion Card Challenge: The Beach House 


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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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Workspace Wednesday - Mint & Turquoise

Hi there,

Inspired by my new nail polish, I pulled some mint and turquoise craft supplies from my shop. I'm totally addicted to these colors at the moment! :-)

What is your favorite color right now?

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Love,
Tone


Supplies

Color Blocking... Twice

Hi and happy Tuesday!

I hope you're having a wonderful day! :-)

Today's cards are made with some leftover card stock strips and only one stamp.

I took two strips of each color and made a color blocking background with them. I was so happy to find that the four strips lined up and covered the front of a card perfectly, no extra trimming was needed! :-)

For my first card, I went with yellow and purple for the background and the flower image stamped in black and clear embossed for extra detail.

The second card has a softer feel with light yellow and light pool card stock strips. I stamped the flower image in grey ink instead of black to match the softer background. My placement is a bit off on this card, but I still like it. ;-)

I really like how both cards turned out! Which one do you like the best?  :-)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Hugs,
Tone

Challenge: CASE Study Challenge #154

Supplies

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

Newspaper Birthday Owl

Hi!

I'm currently having a little giveaway on my blog, please go and check it out here! :-)

For this card I used some adorable newspaper stamps I received recently.

The color combo comes from the Hero Arts contest this month, using Tide Pool, Soft Granite and Wet Cement.

Most of the background is stamped in Soft Granite, while the ground part of the background, as well as the speech bubble, are in Wet Cement. The owl, the package and the sentiment are all stamped in Tide Pool, cut out and added to the card with pop dots.

I added some shading with Iced Spruce and Pumice Stone Distress Inks to define the edges and the ground more.

Hope you're having a lovely day! :-)

Hugs,
Tone


Supplies:

Teal Bookmark Card

Hello!

The theme of this month's Hero Arts contest was right up my alley: Clean and Simple Stamping! 

One of the sketches in the challenge inspired me to make this card with a bookmark.

On the front of the bookmark, I stamped the Flower Dot Pattern in Hero Arts Splash Chalk Ink. I made the border by masking it off and applying Peacock Feathers Distress Ink with my ink blending tool. The two colors match really nicely!

To add the bookmark to the card, I cut a slit at the top of the card. The bookmark is held in place with some matching twine. 

A similar stamped panel is adhered directly onto the card so it still looks nice after the recipient removes the bookmark.

The sketch that inspired me to make this card, is the bottom right one below.

The color of this card was inspired by all the lovely minty inspiration from The Minty Fresh Challenge in the Moxy Fab World, and I'm entering it into the challenge. Why don't you head on over there to get inspired as well? There is still some time to enter!

What do you think of my bookmark card? Have you ever added a gift for the recipient on your cards?

Hugs,

Tone

Supplies:

Hero Arts Scramble

Today's 90 minute Hero Arts scramble was to make a card for yourself, using your favorites and having fun! I had some new stamps that I was dying to ink up, so this challenge was just perfect! :-)

Here is the card I made:

I used some of my favorites right now: new stamps, butterflies, script, kraft, teal and small square cards.

This little CAS card with it's huge butterfly simply makes me happy!

Hope you like it as well! :-)


Supplies: