WOYWW, 2 cards and happy mail!

My dear friends!

How are all of you doing? Having a nice summer??? Well ....we aren't! We have rain almost every day and the temperatures are more autumn-ish then summer-ish! Does that inspire me to sit at my crafty desk??? NO! I do odd cards but I must admit I am not doing much! It is just that once you come back from a full day of work and then cook dinner you are not very inspired! I don't know maybe you ladies are!? Anyway not to be moaning all the time lets get up to show time....
First up my messy desk....

The photo on top shows a very handy thing called Quickstik - soooo handy for sticking sequins and other embellishments on cards! I really recommend that one! Here in Slovenia I bought it from Mavelu!
The second photo shows the mess on my right. There is just stuff piling up - some things I don't even use but somewhere in the back there there are 2 boxes of dabbers - really practical for using with distress inks and I think a box of about 20 was just 2 Euros!
And the third photo shows the mess on my left! Lots of pens, pencils markers, gel pens, and other rubbish! Huh!
Ok next up are my 2 cards...one was made with some designer paper which I don't use but recently I saw it and I made a card with it....I also die cut a strip with little dots and a word ( Hvala - means thank you) and added pearls and ribbon.....Dies are both from Najlepši par!

Here is the next one I made for a friend at work for her birthday!
On this one I did a lot of stamping, multi-inking then die cut the flowers, stacked them added pearls and sequins..I also die cut  the corner.....quite like the result! The dies for the corner and sentiment are from Najlepši par, the flowers are from Wplus9!

I made a really nice collage card for my daughters boyfriend but I haven't given it to him yet so I can't show it - you will see that next week!
Now long overdue are a few things that came in the mail - ATCs from the WOYWW crop that came to my DBFs place (sent by Julia - thank you!) and because he was with me here in Slovenia I didn't get them till last week! Thank you ladies they are lovely and will be put into my ATC album!

Also not to be forgotten! A while ago I got a big surprise letter with a wonderful card and ATC from Australia from Eliza!! Thank you so much Eliza!

And last but not least - recently I got another surprise letter from England from Neet, who sent me a lovely card and ATC! Thank you Neet I was so happy to recieve it!

So there that is all from me folks today!
Have a lovely week - hook up to the Stamping ground with our queen Julia and enjoy life and crafting!
Lots of hugs to all,
CARDARIAN

A floral card!

Hello friends!

I am back with a card! I didn't do WOYWW because I simply don't have much time these days - still working and waiting for better times!
Now I have been doing  online card classes - Jennifer McGuire, Kristina Werner and Debby Hughs are the teachers but also others - it is about streching your stamps! 
I am not as active as other ladies are, making cards after every day of class but I did make a card that suits the bill of 2 days of classes called Floral and floral builder stamps! I ordered the stamp set they used in the class but it hasn't arrived so I had to use what I had! And I had a lovely stamp set called Wild Roses from our Slovene Stamp and Die Website called Najlepši Par...
I used 2 techniques for this card- one is building a floral image with a stamp set and multi inking, the other is sketched outlines....the photos will hopefully reveal what I am talking about!
I will link this both to the card class gallery and the August Najlepši par gallery!
I hope you like my card!

Here you can see the multi inking on the leaves and the black sketchy outlines! It was a bit scary doing those outlines on my already stamped images but I braved it and love the result! In the end it just gives the whole card a bit more of your own personal touch!

 

I think taking these classes is definitely a good idea as you learn a lot of new techniques - I couldn't afford doing all of them but every now and then it is fun and gives you a new way of looking at your "art"
Have a lovely week and enjoy doing whatever you do!
Lots of hugs to all of you,
CARDARIAN

WOYWW, cards and stuff!

My dear friends!

I am not sure if I will be able to link up to WOYWW because it is actually Thursday when I am writing this! I had a busy day yesterday and it was late when I realised I won't be able to make it it till midnight but anyway here I am with a few things to show you.....
My forever messy desk.....

I know it will never ever be tidy.....
Then I have a few cards....I am just loving that there are so many possibilities these days to make something nice....here is a card I made with a big Hello die cut from Avery Elle and Marianne Design die cut! Also used a lot of Glossy accents on the Hello....the small sentiment is from Winnie and Walter...

Then I have made 2 cards - one for my daughters name day and one for her birthday - I am really proud of these cards - I think sometimes they just really come together...
This is the name day one....

I used a stencil in the background and also on the tag and I used a sparkly paste which is not my forte -getting too messy is not exactly my thing but I went out of my comfort zone and I really like the result! I am very happy to say there is a lot of Slovene crafty ladies who design their own dies and it is really lovely to be able to put a sentiment in Slovene on a card that goes to someone in my country!
Here is a close up....

This next card is my absolute favourite - I don't remember having so much fun with a card .....

Here is a close up.... this was a lot of stamping. first I stamped the background with 3 different colors and used an MFT large stamp...then I stamped the little girl - it is a Unity stamp - love how she is stretching her hands and is right at the forground of the card, I also stamped on the bunting, I die cut the sentiment  (Najlepši par)and the cityscape (Clearly besotted stamps) - lots of work but if it is for your daughter time doesn't matter....

And as last I will show you another lovely rainbow....it was a double one actually ....

So there that is all from Cardarian's happy place!

Have a lovely week!
Hugs to all of you,
Cardarian

WOYWW, Rainbows, a messy desk, more watercoloring and a card!

Hello my dear friends! 

I will not say the Arnold Schwarzenegger famous words today ha, ha....but I am happy to be with you again! We are having a very mixed summer - rain and sun all the time! And lots of lovely rainbows....I have photographed them but to be honest the photos never show the beauty of them in nature....

My desk is in a right mess - I am making a card - I will show it when I finish it - and the mess I have managed to build up is just unbelievable - I realized how bad it was when I looked at the photos... huh...

Here are 2 more of my attemps to do water coloring....roses are popular with me at the moment as I see them everywhere.....

And here is a card I made......

So there you see I am trying to do things although my concentration is not on crafting at the moment - I am waiting for other things to get sorted in my life and it is a very loooooong wait! 
Have a lovely week and keep up the lovely crafting!
Lots of hugs to all
CARDARIAN

WOYWW 266, I am back !

Hello my dear bloggy friends!

It seems a lot of my posts have " I am back" in the title lately! I know I am a very bad blogger - I just can't help but so many things are going on I just can't get up to blogging! I am going to work, at weekends going to my mom, in between cooking jam and making pies and trying really hard to get my pension sorted but unfortunately the mills of bureaucracy work very slow and it takes ages to get things sorted - so that is getting my spirits down a bit. On top of everything we had a heatwave last week and when you come home from work dripping in sweat you don't feel like doing much! I apologise my dear friends, bare with me,  things will get better eventually!
 Here are a few photos of my late activities - first the crafty stuff.... I have been into watercoloring lately, I took an online course called " Watercolors for cardmaking" and really liked the various techniques but initially only had the courage to do backgrounds but lately I have uped my game and started doing my own little watercolor paintings.....No they are not of very high standard but I am trying and I am getting some advice from an old friend who is an amazing water color artist! 
Here are some of my humble begginings....flowers....

a blue tit....

more abstract flowers....

 a dragon fly which I actually saw on my Sunday outing and then I drew it and colored it with Twinkling H2Os

and a little beach scene which is far from good but I will learn eventually.....

 

 and here is my latest atemp at another flower spray....

and here are some Clearly Besotted Stamps I colored with watercolors....

 

 I also made a card......The colors are Derwent Inktense and the butterflies were stamped and die cut with Clearly besotted stamps and dies!

So that is the crafty stuff....and here is other stuff I have been doing....

pitting cherries.....huh what a job....

making pies,,,,

and cooking jam....

Thats all folks for today, I hope I will get up to more blogging in the future I do have more stuff to show...

I better rush up to say hello to our lovely host Julia who has this week celebrated a special birthday! Best wishes to you my dear friend!

Lots of hugs to all of you,one very special big hug for Julia

CARDARIAN

WOYWW, More confirmation cards, another lovely ATC and some new stuff!

Hello lovely friends!

Back for another WOYWW and this time it is WITH our Queen Julia! Boy was that a shock when there was no where to link to and the news that our lovely leader is stuck in a foreign hospital! Ah we were lost!
But she is back now hopefully improving and yes already talking about a Christmas card marathon???? Really!!??? So, so happy to have our lovely queen Julia back you were really missed!!!!!! Lots of hugs to you and get well wishes!
My back is still the same no improvement, but I am struggling and trying to live a fairly normal life - yesterday I actually went on a trip with our faculty to Austria....but I will talk about that in a minute - first I should show you what I have been making and my desk!
I have been making confirmation cards! I made a really nice one which I didn't take a picture of - dahhh!!!
And here are the other 2.....again using my watercolor background techniques....

Then I made another one with the same color combo, blue, white and silver....

and here is my desk with a lovely ATC I just recieved from Zoe from Craftygasheadzo.....thank you so much for sending that lovely ATC - it was so nice to recieve a surprise letter!!!

and also on my desk is something new....stamps and dies from Clearly Besotted Stamps!

So that is the crafty bit of my post today and here is just an interesting thing from my trip to Austria yesterday - we went to see this thing called Pyramidenkogel - the highest wooden contruction in the world....

Here is what you see from the top...

and this is proof I have been up there....it was a bit scary I admit......



Ok that is it for today....oh no not yet!
A very lovely friend of mine Jo is celebrating her birthday today and I would like to wish her all the best! Have a lovely day and eat cake! :-) Lots of hugs are being sent to you from Slovenia!
And of course hugs to all of you bloggy friends out there from
CARDARIAN

WOYWW, Watercolor madness and a lovely ATC from Debbie!

Hello and Good evening my dear friends!

I am a bit late posting - I was working till late and then rushed off to a craft shop to get some watercolor pans! Why you ask? Because I have gone watercolor mad! I signed up for this online watercolor class and I think I really like these techniques so I needed to gear up for them! I have been deciding which ones to buy - there are so many watercolor mediums you can buy pencils, pans, tubes, distress inks...but somehow I always liked the pans so I went for that - ages ago I bought a set of Van Gogh watercolors but I didn't have all the colors I would want so I went and bought new colors but also went a notch up and but the most professional ones called Rembrandt from Talens - ah the pigments are just amazing - you just have to give the pan the tinyest touch with the brush  and you get this amazing rich color which you can spread out so easily and still have that rich color - really enjoying this! In the next few days I will be playing with my new stuff and will show you what I have been doing but for now just have a look at all my watercolors...Those tiny pans are my new ones - love, love, love the colors!

I also found this new die for a dove - I need one for my confirmation cards - people keep asking for them so I had to get another die so the cards are not all the same - as you know I do not make 2 cards identical!
Next I would like to show you a lovely tag and atc with a lovely note from DEBBIE from Tattered Rocks,
Thank you so much Debbie I was so surprised and happy to recieve this lovely gift.....

So that is all from me at the moment I will come back later in the week and show you what I made but as I am quite late I will make this short and sweet.

I have just found out that Julia has been taken ill in Spain on holidays so there is no WOYWW today! So sorry to hear the bad news and I guess if all the WOYWWers wish her well she will soon be feeling better!
My dear Julia thinking of you and I hope you get well soon!
Lots and lots of hugs to all my dear friends .
Cardarian

WOYWW, Starting another year with a messy desk and a card!

Hello my dear friends!

I am so sorry I haven't been around desks this week - since I came back to Slovenia I have been so busy and also suffering with really bad backache! So fed up with this pain all the time! I guess it is old age but still you just think enough is enough! Ok no more moaning!
First of all I would like to thank everyone who gave an ATC to Julia for me - a big thank you - unfortunatly I haven't recieved them because I left for Slovenia before they arrived to my DBFs! So they are now probably in his house but nobody is there to pick up the mail! I will get them eventually - no worry!
Thank you to Julia who has sent them - the Royal Mail didn't deliver in time! Huh!
I sent off the ATCs, to a few who haven't attended the crop - I should have sent them from England but I ran out of time so I have sent them all from Slovenia - they will arrive soon I hope!
That is all of the WOYWW5 business so now lets move on to the next year! Here is my really messy desk!
I have been dabbling with watercoloring lately - I signed up for an online course for cardmakers which is really helpful but I am not really a very talented watercolorist ( is that even a word???) - hence the water and paint brushes on my desk ......

Here is a card I made for one of my cousins kids for their confirmation!
With this card I am playing along with two Slovene challenges:
Craftalnica - they want you to use Slovene words on your card - either a stamp or other - I used a die by Najlepši par and I will show this in their gallery too..
and MAVELU june challenge they want you to do something out of the box - out of your comfort zone and the watercoloring for me is definitly out of my comfort zone....

The background is watercoloring and so is the die cut flower - it is a Memory box die but I cut it out with watercolor paper and then colored it! The other die cuts are Spellbinders! I die cut a few of those words and then stacked them one on top of the other so it looks thicker.
I hope to be able to get round to you WOYWWers this week - I think I might finally have a few hours of free time so I can hop around! Thank you to all of you girls who commented last week - I will try to get back to you too!
Have a lovely week and enjoy your crafting!
Lots of hugs to all of you,
CARDARIAN