Learning To Use The Gelli Plate

I recently bought a Gelli plate inspired by all the beautiful creations I've seen out in blogland. I'm still getting to grips with it, but this card was made with one of the prints I did. The colours were inspired by the image over at House of Cards and the layout by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. Last but not least I'm also linking up over at Time Out Challenges where the theme is Bright. 

I used Distress Oxides on my Gelli plate together with the ARTplorations Ethnic Organic One stencil to create the dramatic background. I die cut the sentiment using CUTplorations Hugs Word die from a scrap piece of green card. The flowers are using a NBUS STAMPlorations set called Big Dreamer which I stamped in Memento, coloured with Copics and fussy cut. I love the many different flowers in this set and they are so much fun to colour!

Card: Purple card from my stash, Hobbycraft 190 gsm white card, scrap of green ombre card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Big Dreamer
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics, Distress Oxides Wilted Violet, Faded Jeans, Picked Raspberry
Stencil: ARTplorations Ethnic Organic One
Dies: CUTplorations Hugs Word die

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.

Succulently Special

Cutting it close to the deadline - I've been planning to make this card ever since I saw the colours on Color Throwdown and somehow it's now a few hours before the deadline. But this time I was determined to make it. I played around with so many versions of the background and it didn't want to work and I changed the colour and the shape of the stencilled part and finally, finally I got there.

I'm also linking up over at AAA Cards where the theme is stencils.

Card: white 200 gsm card, 190 gsm Hobbycraft white card, scrap of aqua card

Stamps: STAMPlorations Succulently, Bloom Sketches

Ink and Colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine, Copics, Tim Holz Distress Ink Wilted Violet, Dusty Concord

Stencil: ARTplorations Tribal Triangles

Other: Wow White Embossing Powder, Glossy Accents

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.

Shine Bright

Today I got the motherload of my favourite crafty goodness from STAMPlorations. I ripped off the wrapping and immediately had to put stamp and die to paper. I have been admiring the amazing creations by fellow crafters using the gorgeous Sparkly stamp set and now I can join in the fun. 

I used watercolours to create the galaxy background, die cut the tag and splattered with white watercolour and enhanced with a white and silver gel pen. I stamped the crystals and diamonds onto watercolour paper in Versamark, heat embossed in gun metal and coloured with watercoloured. I stamped the sentiment from Noteworthy 4 in Versamark and heat embossed in white. After attaching the fussy cut diamonds and crystals I added some Crystal Effects for some extra shine.

I'm linking up my little tag over at Time Out where the theme is Bright and Always Fun Challenges where the theme is Tags. 

Card: 300 gsm watercolour paper

Stamps: STAMPlorations Sparkly, Noteworthy 4

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versamark, Gansai Tambi watercolours

Dies: CUTplorations Stitched Tags Nesting Dies

Other: White and gun metal embossing powder 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.

Geometric Twofer

I've missed out on loads of great challenges lately as I don't currently get to spend as much time in the craft room as I would like to. Life has an annoying way of getting in the way of the fun stuff, but luckily today after donating blood in the morning I needed something very sedentary to do for a few hours and therefore decided to see if I could come up with something for this month's Twofer challenge where the theme is geometric.

Every time I see the challenges come up in my Feedly feed, I swear I will play along and then a mere blink of an eye later I see the top picks posted for the challenges and yet again realise I didn't get around to play along. Does that ever happen to you?? 

Determined not to miss out on one of my favourite challenges out there, the fantastically fun Twofer challenge, I created two cards using the ARTplorations Tribal Triangles stencil as I thought the triangles would fit the theme perfectly. My first card is a baby card where I inked Spun Sugar Distress ink through the stencil to create a very soft background. I then stamped the super cute elephant from STAMPlorations Tweet Love. I coloured her with Copics, fussy cut and attached to the card. I die cut small stars using the Lawn Fawn Stitched Journaling Card die and added a sentiment from Critters Down Under. The colours for this card were inspired by Color Throwdown.

For my second card, I used the Tribal Triangles stencil for stencil monoprinting using Distress Oxides. I attached the panel onto black card, die cut a black circle and the sentiment from STAMPlorations Feel Better Soon Phrase Die in gold mirri card. Last, I stamped a grunge barcode from Mixed Media Grunge at the bottom of the card and added some colourful dots and tiny adhesive gems. 

This card was inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I'm also linking up over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is to Distress It. **Addition** Last night when I published the post I was so tired I wasn't thinking straight but after a good night's sleep it's all coming back to me. I was of course inspired by the wonderful CAS Mixup challenge to use the stencil monoprint technique (thank you as always for the wonderful inspiration!!!) and this is the second card I'm linking up over there. I'm having a great time using my stencils this way and may have one more card up my sleeve as the rules allow you to link up three cards to the challenge!

Card: 300gsm watercolour card, black 200 gsm card, Hobbycraft 190 gsm white card

Stamps: STAMPlorations Tweet Love, Mixed Media Grunge, Lawn Fawn Critters Down Under

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versafine, Distress Oxides, Distress Ink Spun Sugar, Copics

Stencil: ARTplorations Tribal Triangles

Dies: STAMPlorations Feel Better Soon Phrase Die, Lawn Fawn Stitched Circle die, Stitched Journaling Card die

Other: Enamel dots and adhesive gems 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.

Stencil Monoprint

When I run out of mojo, I turn to the wonderful crafting challenges out there on the interwebs as they are a great source of inspiration. The DT projects often give me new ideas, and sometimes I get inspired to use a technique I don't usually use very much. The August CAS Mixup challenge is Stencil Monoprint which is a technique I don't usually use but is such a great way to get more out of your stencils and get really cool artsy backgrounds. So I got to work and created several monoprints. This is one of them which I created with Distress Inks (Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers and Wilted Violet) using the ARTplorations Just Flow Stencil and cut it up into two background panels. 

I stamped the poppies from Bloom Sketches, my first (and one of my absolute favourite) STAMPlorations stamp sets and coloured them with Copics before fussy cutting. I mounted the monoprint onto turquoise cardstock, added the poppies and heat embossed a sentiment (my additional choice of technique for the challenge) onto a strip of white card I inked with Twisted Citron and Peacock Feathers. 

I'm also linking up over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where the theme is to create your own background. 

Card: White 200 gsm card, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm watercolour card, turquoise card from my stash
Stamps: STAMPlorations Bloom Sketches
Ink and Colouring: Distress Inks Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers, Wilted Violet, Copics, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black and Versamark
Stencils: ARTplorations Just Flow
Other: gunmetal embossing powder 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.

Amazing Rainbow

I've finally managed to spend some time in the craft room, but I used most of my day to play Find your mojo. You know the game, you sit in your room and every card you create goes straight into the bin. Then I came across the inspiration images for AAA cards and Just Add Ink and managed to put together a card! Nothing like a bit of rainbow magic to get going. As you can see, it's nothing too complicated. I love the vibrancy of the Distress Oxides, and they blend so well. It's always fun to create a rainbow with them. 

Card: grey shimmer card, Hobbycraft 190 gsm white card
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Oxides, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black
Dies: CUTplorations Amazing word die
Other: Adhesive gems 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.