STAMPlorations Inspiration

How are you today? Thank you for taking the time to stop by. Are you starting to accommodate to this new normal of isolation and social distancing? I have not left the house for anything else than my daily walk/jog for a few weeks now. I'm ever so grateful we have a big garden and our house borders on fields with footpaths so I can go out for relatively isolated walks, although I have to say I have never met as many people on my walks/jogs as I have in the last few weeks. It seems like the whole world has suddenly taken up walking. Luckily I get to see my colleagues every day on video conferencing too, and we have online boardgames nights, Friday drinks and daily coffee breaks. And of course, there is always the craft room.  

And talking of crafting, it's time for another STAMPlorations Inspiration post. I was inspired by the daffodils in the garden to create this springtime card. I started by stamping the Narcissus - Large twice, masking for the second round of stamping. I then coloured the flowers with watercolour pencils and added a green sentiment using Everyday Sentiments dies. 

Stamps: STAMPlorations Narcissus - Large
Dies: CUTploratoins Everyday Sentiments
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versafine Onyx Black, Faber Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolour pencils

STAMPlorations Inspiration

How are you today? What a strange new world we live in. As of yesterday, the UK is more or less in lockdown. I have now been working from home for a week and a half, and I have to admit I'm rather liking it. I haven't done as much exercise as I did last week for years, and I have set up a little yoga studio in our conservatory. But we are very lucky as we have a big house in the countryside and lots of paths to walk or run on without running into too many people. But as you all, I'm so worried for what will happen, both in the short and long term. My closest family are all medical doctors and I worry for them so much. But I'm trying to tell myself that won't change the situation so I need to spend my time more productively than worrying. I find it hard to create at the moment as there are so many other things going on. But it's a great distraction, and I created this floral card for this week's  STAMPlorations Inspiration Post. For today's card, I was inspired by some of the new STAMPlorations stamps and stencils. I'm totally in love with the big bold new florals Shery created for the latest release, and I just keep using them over and over again. 

For my card, I started by inking Distress Ink through Helen's new Rubber Bands stencil in yellow and green. Then I splattered small droplets of ink onto the panel and left it to dry. I stamped the gorgeous large floral from Sweetly, watercoloured it with Distress inks and fussy cut it. Last, I added a black sentiment using Everyday Sentiments. I absolutely love this die set, as I find it's the perfect size for a card front if you want to keep the main focus on your image.

Stamps: STAMPloration Sweetly
Stencil: ARTplorations Rubber Bands
Dies: CUTplorations Everyday Sentiments
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versafine Onyx Black, Tim Holtz Distress Inks

If you feel like doing a bit of shopping, you may want to check out the STAMPlorations Springtime Sale in the STAMPlorations store!

Products in the SPRINGTIME section are

20% off instantly until March 31

No code needed! Simply add qualifying products to your cart and the discount is automatically applied.

STAMPlorations Inspiration

Happy Tuesday and Happy STAMPlorations Inspiration Post day! For today's card, I was inspired by Helen's new Petals1 stencil. I thought it looked a lot like some of those lovely succulents so I inked through the stencil using Distress Inks in Peacock Feathers, Cracked Pistachio and Seedless Preserves. I then used the Basic A2 Panels Nesting Dies to cut the stencilled panel and used a slightly bigger die from the same set to cut the purple mat. Next, I stamped a few of the cute succulents from Succulently, coloured them with Copics and fussy cut them. Last I used the same purple card, as well as leftovers of the stencilled panel to die cut the sentiment using Skinny Sentiments. 

Don't forget to leave comments on the Inspiration Post and the designers blogs as we'll randomly draw a winner from all the comments for a $10 gift certificate. And I hope you have a very crafty day today!

Stamps: STAMPlorations Succulently

Stencil: ARTploration Petals1
Dies: CUTplorations Skinny Sentiments, Basic A2 Panels Nesting Dies
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Peacock Feathers, Cracked Pistachio and Seedless Preserves

If you feel like doing a bit of shopping, you may want to check out the STAMPlorations Springtime Sale in the STAMPlorations store!

Products in the SPRINGTIME section are

20% off instantly until March 31

No code needed! Simply add qualifying products to your cart and the discount is automatically applied.

ARTplorations New Release

Today I'm excited to have the chance to show you some projects I have created for the release of Helen's new stencils over on the STAMPlorations blog. Helen has created six new super fun stencils. I'm happy to join the other designers in the STAMPlorations Inspirations team to create projects using the new stencils. We are having a blog hop to celebrate Helen's new stencils and hope you will hop along with us. If you leave comments as you hop along, you will be entered in a draw to win some of Helen's new stencils! You have until April 8th to leave comments. You don't have to comment on all blog posts, but the more comments you leave, the more chances you will have to win.

For my first project, I used the Clouds stencil and inked using the edge of the stencil to create a sky in blues, pinks and purples. I stamped the balloons from Tweet Love, coloured them with matching Copics and fussy cut them. The sentiment is die-cut using Everyday Sentiments. 

For my second card I used the Petals2 stencil for creating a monoprint instead of applying ink through it. I used Distress Ink pads in Mustard Seed, Abandoned Coral and Peacock Feathers directly onto the stencil, misted it with water and pressed against watercolour paper. I die cut the monoprint and another piece of shimmering silver card using Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies. I then added some gorgeous mandala die cuts from Bloomdala Bliss: Felicity using the same grey shimmering card. Last, I heat embossed one of the lovely sentiments from Bloomdala Bliss in white onto black card and added a few clear adhesive gems for that little extra bling.

For my third card, I used the Brick Wall stencil to create my background. I used various shades of red and brown inks to create the brick wall, and splattered water onto the card for extra interest. Then I die cut the panel using Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies. I stamped the beautiful florals from Softly and watercoloured them with Distress Inks. Last, I stamped one of the sentiments from Noteworthy 3 onto vellum. 

I hope you enjoyed the projects and are having fun hopping along with our blog hop!

Stencils: ARTplorations Helen G Designs Clouds, Petals2, Brick Wall

Stamps: STAMPlorations Tweet Love, Bloomdala Bliss, Softly

Dies: CUTplorations Everyday Sentiments,  Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies, Bloomdala Bliss: Felicity

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Copics

If you feel like doing a bit of shopping, you may want to check out the STAMPlorations Springtime Sale in the STAMPlorations store!

Products in the SPRINGTIME section are

20% off instantly until March 31

No code needed! Simply add qualifying products to your cart and the discount is automatically applied.

STAMPlorations March CAS Challenge - Reminder

We are well into spring now, don't you agree? Midway through March already! We are getting well into my favourite part of the year. I love seeing nature spring to life, starting with the daffodils and asparagus in the garden and everything else following. But it also means the gardening work needs to ramp up again to keep everything under control, as our garden is a bit more like a jungle than a garden at the moment.

But from gardening to crafting, which is why we are all here today, right? There is loads of crafty inspiration over on the STAMPlorations blog as we are sharing our mid-month additional inspiration for all three STAMPlorations challenges. I created a CAS card, inspired by the optional colour twist which this month is light blue. I inked dar and light blue Distress Ink through the Two Feathers stencil covering the whole card front. Then I simply heat embossed some a sentiment from Feathery in white on black card and added them to the card. Quick, easy, clean and simple.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Feathery

Stencil: ARTplorations  Two Feathers

Ink: Tsukineko Versafine, Tim Holtz Distress Ink

If you feel like doing a bit of shopping, you may want to check out the STAMPlorations Springtime Sale in the STAMPlorations store!

Products in the SPRINGTIME section are

20% off instantly until March 31

No code needed! Simply add qualifying products to your cart and the discount is automatically applied.

STAMPlorations Inspiration

Hello crafters! How are you? I'm so happy days are finally starting to feel longer, there is a sliver of light in the mornings when I leave home, and even some in the evening as I drive home. As I drive east in the mornings and west in the evenings, I often see the most stunning sunrises and sunsets.

Anyhow, enough about sunsets as we are here to see some crafting, right? As it's Tuesday, it's time for another STAMPlorations Inspiration post. For today's card, I used the super cute Tweet Love stamp set, stamping the adorable little Ellie Elephant and coloured her in Copics before fussy cutting her. I created a background using the Oh My Stars! Mini stencil and yellow Distress Ink. Last, I added a sweet sentiment from Tweet Love.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Tweet Love

Stencil: ARTplorations Oh My Stars! Mini

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Onyx Black, Copics, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Squeezed Lemonade

If you feel like doing a bit of shopping, you may want to check out the STAMPlorations Springtime Sale in the STAMPlorations store!

Products in the SPRINGTIME section are

20% off instantly until March 31

No code needed! Simply add qualifying products to your cart and the discount is automatically applied.

Happy International Women's Day!!

Hi everyone! Happy International Women's Day!! I want to dedicate today's post to all the amazing women out there who make the online crafting community such a wonderful space. Thank you all of you for being there for each other and for sending wonderful and supportive comments to each other. In all the horribleness that is the Internet and the world in general today, I find it encouraging that we can have this community where we focus on supporting each other and sharing our creativity. I fully welcome all and any men into our community as well, don't get me wrong. I'm so happy we have strong male crafty role models too like the amazing Tim Holtz who clearly has done a lot to also introduce men to the crafting world. But I still think it's amazing that at large, we are a community of women who spend time not on criticizing each other or putting each other down but lifting each other up!

So I admit today's card isn't specifically a Women's Day card, it's, in fact, a wedding card. I used the snowy backdrop stamp from snow cool to create the background for the card, stamping the snow at the bottom and top of the card, heat embossing in gold. I then stamped more of the snow on another card, adding the glasses, bubbles and little heart from Happy Wedding and heat embossed everything in gold again. Then I used the Stitched Rectangle dies to cut the panel, attached it to a doily and finished everything with a die-cut sentiment from STAMPlorations Everyday Sentiments.

I think we should raise a glass in honour of all the wonderful women out in the world, doing their thing whether it be being business leaders, politicians, stay-at-home mums, students, artists or whatever else they feel is their calling in life. I hope you'll join me and send love to as many wonderful women as possible today!

And now I'm off to visit the blogs of wonderful crafty women bloggers out there, and I hope you will do the same!!

I'm playing along with  Lawn Fawnatics - Inspired by a book, movie or a song (Champagne Supernova by Oasis, and how is it that this song is from 1995? how old am I? :) and
Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - B is for Booze (sorry no snark this time...)

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Happy Wedding, Snow Cool

Dies: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Stackables, STAMPlorations Everyday Sentiments

STAMPlorations Inspiration

Happy Tuesday! You know what that means? It means we have a new STAMPlorations Inspiration post over on the STAMPlorations blog. For today's card, I started by creating a background using watercolours. I just drew some parallel lines freehand across the card base. I stamped the beautiful Blossom Sprays #1 in black onto white card, fussy cut the flowers and attached to the rainbow base. Last, I die cut the sentiment using Everyday Sentiments and Skinny Sentiments using black card and some card I coloured with the same watercolours I used for the background.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Blossom Sprays #1, 
Dies: CUTplorations Everyday Sentiments, Skinny Sentiments
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versafine, Gansai Tambi watercolours

If you feel like doing a bit of shopping, you may want to check out the STAMPlorations Springtime Sale in the STAMPlorations store!

Products in the SPRINGTIME section are

20% off instantly until March 31

No code needed! Simply add qualifying products to your cart and the discount is automatically applied.

STAMPlorations March CAS Challenge

The STAMPlorations challenges are back! We took a short break for February but are now back with our crafty mojo supercharged for our spring term. I hope you will enjoy playing along with the challenges as much as we enjoy seeing what you have made! The STAMPlorations March CAS challenge has the optional colour twist of light blue.

For my card, I stamped the pretty butterfly from It's a Girl Thing: Kindness three times and heat embossed in silver. I then used Copics to colour the butterflies and added a sentiment from the same set, heat embossed onto light blue card. It's as simple as that!

Stamps: STAMPlorations It's a Girl Thing: Kindness

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versamark, Copics