Spring Splatters

Watching the rain pour outside has left me with only one way of spending today. In the craft room. I will clean the kitchen tomorrow. Or maybe on Monday, as I will be busy eating my chocolate bunny tomorrow. Hmm...  I sense a touch of procrastination. Who has time for housework anyhow, right?

Today's card is inspired by the images over at The Card Concept and Time Out. I was also inspired by the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and the Use Only 1/3 of the Card theme over at AAA Cards. I continued to play with my new favourite die, the STAMPlorations Bloomtangled #1 Cover Plate Die. I inked up scrap pieces of card using Distress Oxides, splattered them with water and did some therapeutic paper piecing and followed up with some creative watercolour splattering.

 

 

Card: 200 gsm white shimmer card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Dies: CUTplorations Bloomtangled #1 Cover Plate Die, Hello word die

Ink: Distress Oxides

Other: Adhesive pearls from my stash

Pastel Spring Florals

I decided that for once I'll take out some overtime and enjoy an even longer weekend. So far I have not done anything useful yet, I had a cinnamon bun for breakfast, and the rest of the day so far has been spent in the craft room. No useful but extremely relaxing! And I haven't been able to put down the new Bloomtangled Cover Plate dies. There are so many ways of using them, and this time I went for a quick and easy design.

I started with a watercolour panel I had in my UFO box which I initially created for something else, can't even remember what it was. I then die cut the panel with the Bloomtangled #1 Cover Plate Die. I die cut the sentiment using the Hello Sunshine Phrase Die using another leftover piece of watercolour card. Three sequins from my stash finish off this super quick card.

I'm linking up over at Sunday Stamps with their colour challenge and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where Anything Goes. I'm also linking up over at Happy Little Stampers where Anything Goes With Dies.

Card: White shimmer card, watercolour card

Colouring: Gansai Tambi watercolours

Dies: CUTplorations Bloomtangled #1 Cover Plate Die, Hello Sunshine Phrase Die

Other: Sequins from my stash

Pencils on Black

What a gorgeous day it was today, first real day of spring. The spring is making itself known in the garden. Lots of yellow everywhere. 

Today's card is inspired by the "Pencils on dark card" theme over at House of Cards, the Sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and the colours at Sunday Stamps. I stamped and heat embossed the gorgeous Elizabeth background stamp in white fine powder, and then filled in some of the spaces with my lovely scented pencils which I got as a Christmas present from my sister in law. I die cut the sentment from a leftover piece of green card I had inked up at some point as well as some yellow card. 

Card: Black 250 gsm card, scraps of yellow and lilac card

Stamps: Simon Says Stamp Elizabeth background

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versamark, pencils

Other: CUTplorations Hugs Word die, Wow white fine embossing powder

Thank You card with Birds

How can it be Sunday afternoon? I swear it was only Friday evening a few hours ago. I can't complain though, I had a lovely Saturday in London with a friend despite the icy cold weather. I even came across a dress I wanted to buy a few weeks ago but didn't as it was too expensive. Well it was now very generously on sale and they still had it in my size. That of course means only one thing - I had to buy it. And I found another lovely dress too which resolves the issue of what to wear on Tuesday as I have to give a talk and want to look somewhat respectable. Double yay!

Today I have spent most of the day in the craft room, mostly working on my Bujo, but I also took some time to create a few cards. I was inspred by a few bird themed challenges, one over at Shopping Our Stash and another at Daring Cardmakers.

I started by creating the background by inking blue Distress Inks through the ARTplorations Bubbles stencil, and splattering water and ink on the watercolour card base. The I die cut the panel using Crazy Double Running Stitched Rectangles dies. I stamped the birds from For the Birds and the sentiment from the same set in Versafine black ink. I love that this is a super black ink so it creates great contrast. Then I adhered the panel onto a white card base.

Card: 300 gsm Daler&Rowney watercolour card, 250 gsm white card
Stamps: STAMPlorations For the Birds
Ink: Tsukineko Versafine Onyx Black, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Broken China, Blueprint Sketch
Other: CUTplorations Crazy Double Running Stitched Rectangles dies, ARTplorations Bubbles stencil

STAMPlorations discount code: If you want to save 20% when shopping at the STAMPlorations store you can use the code STAMPGIRLKAROLA at checkout. The discount applies to all normal priced and discounted stamps, stencils and dies. The code cannot be combined with other discount codes.

Happy International Women's Day!!

Today's card is dedicated to all the wonderful women in my life. My mum, my sister, my closest colleagues who all happen to be women, my best friend, my wonderful boss and all the amazingly inspirational ladies all over the blogsphere inspiring us all with their beautiful artsy creations. And all the other women, too numerous to mention. One more amazing woman I want to give a special shout-out to is Shery of STAMPlorations, for giving me the opportunity to be part of her design team. And for designing these wonderful plate dies. I was so inspired by the cards Shery created using her new Bloomtangled dies that I wanted to CASE one of them (we did the big reveal of these amazing dies yesterday in case you missed it).

Today, I'm celebrating International Women's Day by listening to The Guilty Feminist Podcast, which is absolutely amazing. If you are looking for a new podcast to add to your list, this one is absolutely hilarious and fantastically interesting at the same time. I didn't use to be a feminist when I was younger as I used to think things were pretty good for women these days. Then I got older and realised that was just a reflection of my privilege. Anyhow, the International Women's Day episode of The Guilty Feminist was even better than usual, I listened to it on my way back from work and for once I didn't mind being stuck in traffic as I was just laughing so hard I was crying. And I also downloaded both The Handmaid's Tale and Alias Grace for my Kindle app (nothing like a bit of patriarchal dystopia to make my day...). I'm home alone this weekend as the Culinary Consultant is off to Slovenia for a long weekend with the boys so I will spend this weekend snuggled on the sofa with a book (ok, well my phone), a cup of coffee and lots of chocolate. I binge-watched Alias Grace on Netflix, it's fabulous, can't recommend it enough. I haven't watched The Handmaid's Tale yet, I want to read the book first and then see if I think I can deal with watching it.

My card was inspired by the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. I was also inspired by the Ombre challenge over at AAA Cards, the Girl Power theme at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and the Bold theme over at Timeout Challenges.

Card: White shimmer card, rainbow card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Bold Sentiments: Hashtag Authentic
Dies: CUTplorations Bloomtangled #1 Cover Plate Die, Fabulous Word die
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black

STAMPlorations discount code: If you want to save 20% when shopping at the STAMPlorations store you can use the code STAMPGIRLKAROLA at checkout. The discount applies to all normal priced and discounted stamps, stencils and dies. The code cannot be combined with other discount codes.

New STAMPlorations Bloomtangled dies

I'm very excited to show you today's projects. They are part of the latest release over at STAMPlorations which consists of some absolutely fabulous dies. You may have seen Shery's Bloomtangled colouring book last year. I had so much fun colouring the gorgeous flowers and created several layouts in last year's Bullet Journal using the images. Today, I'm so happy to show you three projects created with plate dies Shery created using her gorgeous flowery doodles - and there are so many ways of using these dies. You can see more inspiration from the other ladies of the DT over on the STAMPlorations blog.  In addition to to the gorgeous plate dies Shery is also releasing new sentiment dies so you can die cut to your heart's content!!

For my first card, I cut white card using the Bloomtangled plate die and removed all the pieces. Then I used foam applicators to ink the die cut in various colours, blending as I went along. Then I sprinkled water onto the inked die cut to oxidise the inks. Then I adhered the die cut to some black card, added Ice Stickles to some of the flower petals. I die cut the sentiment from gold glitter card and added a few super cute heart shaped sequins as a finishing touch. 

My two other cards are mirror images of each other. First a word of warning, you should only undertake paper piecing using intricate die cuts if you find fiddly things relaxing. I absolutely loved putting these cards together but it took many hours and lots of dexterity with my beautiful pink craft tweezers (you absolutely need them to handle the tiny little pieces). If chasing tiny, lost pieces of card is not your idea of a relaxing craft sesh, you may want to look into other ways of using these dies. I started by die cutting the "frame" for the image once in white and once in black. I adhered the white frame to black card, and the black frame to white card. Then I die cut the plate twice, once using a purple and pink ombre card and another time in a blue/green ombre card. I really carefully slid both the coloured die cuts only scrap pieces of paper, trying to keep as many of the die cut pieces in their place as possible. Then it was just a case of starting to adhere the die cut pieces to the frames I had created, varying the colours. You need to be quite careful not to have an open window, a fan, sneeze or even breathe heavily close to the die cut pieces as I don't think you really would be able to find the right places for the pieces if they got severely scrambled. I absolutely love the look of these cards and they gave me several hours of great craft therapy time! I decided to leave the cards really plain to let the fun piecing be the star of the show and I only added the shimmery sentiments with no other embellishments.

You can win a gift card to the STAMPlorations shop by commenting on the main blog post and the designer's posts. And if you want another chance at winning, link up any project you have with a spring or faith theme to the March Challenge - All about Spring and Faith.

Card: white shimmer card, black card, various rainbow coloured card for paper piecing, purple, turquoise and gold glitter card from my stash
Ink and colouring: Distress Oxides
Dies: STAMPlorations Bloomtangled plate dies, Feel Better Soon phrase die, Thinking of You phrase die, Celebrate word die
Other: Ranger Ice Stickles, Heart sequins from my stash

STAMPlorations discount code: If you want to save 20% when shopping at the STAMPlorations store you can use the code STAMPGIRLKAROLA at checkout. The discount applies to all normal priced and discounted stamps, stencils and dies. The code cannot be combined with other discount codes.

March STAMPlorations Challenge - All About Spring

Welcome back to the March edition of the all-singing-all-dancing STAMPlorations super challenge (you may have noticed that the individual challenges are off on spring break for a while). Keep Calm and Craft On! I hope you enjoyed the Paint It Red February challenge as much as I did, the inspiration in the gallery was amazing. And this month we are challenging you with "All about Spring or Faith". No restrictions, no rules other than to follow the theme. Any style, and medium, any sort of crafty project!

Thinking spring-y thoughts, I couldn't resist a pastel spring rainbow row of gorgeous silver embossed butterflies. I started by stamping the beautiful Flutter Zen Row and heat embossing in silver. I then used my Distress Inks to watercolour the row, splattering some pinks onto the background. Then all I had to do was add a sentiment in black and there we go - rainbow butterflies!

Card: white 250 gsm card

Stamps: STAMPlorations Flutter Zen Row, Blossom Overture

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Inks Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Festive Berries, Wilted Violet, Mermaid Lagoon, Mowed Lawn, Picked Raspberry

Other: Papermania Silver embossing powder 

STAMPlorations discount code: If you want to save 20% when shopping at the STAMPlorations store you can use the code STAMPGIRLKAROLA at checkout. The discount applies to all normal priced and discounted stamps, stencils and dies. The code cannot be combined with other discount codes.