STAMPlorations Inspiration

We are past the middle of February. Does this mean I can start dreaming of Spring? At least my craft room seems to be longing for brightly coloured florals and green leaves. That's why, for today's STAMPlorations Inspiration Post I did some fun colouring with stamps. 

I started by stamping Dee's beautiful Blossom Sprays #1. I then used a stamp from Art Marks to colour the flowers with Distress Oxides. I finished by adding a sentiment from Noteworthy 3. Quick and easy one layer card with lots and lots of colour!

Stamps: STAMPlorations Blossom Sprays #1, Art Marks, Noteworthy 3

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versafine Onyx Black, Tim Holtz Distress Oxides

STENCILS and CLEAR STICKERS are

20% off instantly until February 29

No code needed! Simply add stencils and clear stickers to your cart and the discount is automatically applied.

Colouring With Stamps

Happy Monday! Hope this will turn out to be a good week for you. I suffer from an issue that is surely troubling many of you - my day job keeps getting in the way of crafting... Anyhow, I'm blogging over on the STAMPlorations blog today showcasing a few cards I made using the "colouring with stamps" technique which Shery, the creative and talented owner of STAMPlorations has perfected to an art form. I thought I would try my hand at it, and hopefully, you will be inspired to try it too. It works best on images which don't have too many tiny and delicate details, although I love the look when the colour splotches extend a bit beyond the stamped image. If you like stamping, you will love this technique as you get to stamp a lot! If you don't have any suitable "splotchy" stamps, you can use the reverse of some small round-ish stamps, that works well too.

For my first card, I stamped the Radiant Roses in black and used stamps from Art Marks to colour in the roses using Distress Oxides. I also stamped some ink spots in the bottom part of the card, before adding the sentiment from Bold Sentiments: Hashtag Authentic.

For my second card, I stamped the French Marigold Large, and this time I used Distress Inks to colour the flower. I added a sentiment from Noteworthy 3 and splattered some green ink on the card front for added interest.

For my third card, I decided to go with pastel colours. I stamped the Classic Calla Lilies along the long side of the card, before again using the splotch stamps from Art Marks to colour the florals with Distress Inks. The sentiment is from Noteworthy 3.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Radiant Roses, Art Marks, Bold Sentiments: Hashtag Authentic, French Marigold Large, Noteworthy 3, Classic Calla Lilies
Inks: Tim Holtz Distress Oxides and Inks

There are some fantastic offers in the STAMPlorations store in August. Don't forget to check them out if you are looking to extend your crafty stash.
Clear Stickers are 30% off with code CLEAR30 Coloring Books are 25% off with code COLOR25 Clear Stamps* are 25% off with code STAMP25
*Excludes newly released stamps. Codes may be used multiple times per customer throughout promotion period. All 3 codes may be used together in one order. BYOCS/Stamp club subscribers: use your personal coupon code with the codes for 50% to 70% off on qualifying items + your free shipping code on your order of at least $30.

June TAGplorations Challenge - All About Dad

It's time for the June TAGplorations challenge. This time we are all about the Dads out there.  If you are a regular follower of the STAMPlorations blog, you may have seen Shery's recent post about losing her Dad less than a month ago. My deepest sympathy and my thoughts are with Shery and her family in these difficult times. So for this challenge, I hope you will be inspired to create something in honour of a fantastic Dad, Granpa or another amazing man in your life, whether someone who is with you or someone who will always live on in your heart although no longer with you in person.

My tag was inspired by a stencilled background I had created using Tribal Triangles for another project which didn't work out so it got a new life as a tag. I stamped the letters from Sketchy Alphabet and the phone from Hello You on white card, coloured them with Copics and fussy cut. I then randomly stamped the grungy Art Marks stamps in Vintage Photo Distress Ink on the background, added the stamped images and finished the tag off with some leftover bits of wool from a pair of socks I knitted earlier (for my Dad in fact, so very appropriate for the theme!).

I hope you are inspired to create something with a tag for the June TAGplorations challenge.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Hello You, Art Marks, Sketchy Alphabet,  

Stencil: ARTplorations Tribal Triangles

Dies: CUTplorations Manila Tags Nesting Dies

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

STAMPlorations discount code: If you want to save 20% when shopping in 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. 

Dare * Shine * Inspire * Sparkle

Long time no craft! To be honest, lately the only time I have managed to spend in the craft room has been to give it a deep clean, which it was in desperate need of. You know the real grown-up type of cleaning where you vacuum behind all the furniture, along the ceiling to remove any cobwebs, dust off the windowsill and all the shelves... In fact, our whole house has been in need of a deep clean which is why there has been no crafting. And we managed to get some DYI done as well - I've been meaning to add some wallpaper in our guest room and finally in preparation for a visit from Best Friend next week we managed to get the wallpaper up. Tomorrow we still need to add some beading to cover up the very ugly edges but other than that I feel like tomorrow I should be able to craft a bit, prepare some food for next week and do a few final small cleaning things. 

In the meanwhile, and also just in case I don't manage to craft tomorrow after all I thought I would show you a card I made a while ago when I was playing with a stencil and some distress inks. I inked through the ARTplorations Art Splatters stencil in Mustard Seed, Mermaid Lagoon and Abandoned Coral distress ink. Then I used an embossing buddy over the front of the card to make sure the embossing powder would only stick where I wanted it to. I stamped the sentiment using STAMPlorations Art Marks and heat embossed in gold.

I'm linking up with the following challenges:
Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge - Masking
One Layer Simplicity Challenge - August Art
Less is More - One Layer
My Time to Craft - Embossing 

Card: 300 gsm white card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Art Marks
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress ink in Mustard Seed, Mermaid Lagoon, Abandoned Coral, Tsukineko Versamark
Stencil: ARTplorations Art Splatters
Other: gold embossing powder from my stash

Flying high for my 500th post

It's been a totally insane few days with so much work that I don't know what to do with it all. But I also got to enjoy great food with good friends, and there's plenty more of that to come as I'm enjoying a week of annual leave with the plan to spend quality time with family and friends and hopefully enjoy some sun (responsibly while fully covered up and drenched in sunscreen after my recent mishap which left me with skin peeling off my shoulders).
Also, in all this excitement I almost missed the fact that this is my 500th post! If I had realised a bit sooner I would have planned a bit of a bash or something but as with so many other things in life it just sneaks up on you and you just have to roll with it.

Today's card was inspired by the gorgeous colours over at ColourQ. I was also inspired by the Things With Wings challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge and I'm linking up with The Crafter's Cafe where the theme is CAS and Creative With Stamps where the theme is Ink Splatters.

I started by stamping the gorgeous swallowtail in Versamark and heat embossed in gold. Then I coloured the butterfly with Gansai Tambi watercolours and splattered some colour all over the card after masking the swallowtail. Last I stamped a sentiment fromnSTAMPlorations in Versamark and embossed in gold powder.

Card: 300 gsm watercolour paper
Stamps: STAMPlorations Art Mark s, Stampin' Up Swallowtail
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versamark, Kuretaki Gansai Tambi watercolours
Other: Gold embossing powder

Posted with Blogsy

May STAMPlorations CAS challenge - Anything Goes with Magenta

Hello May, my favourite month of the year. Well, to be honest, I'm biased as my birthday is in May, but I also love how spring turns to summer during May. And schools always closed for summer holiday at the end of May back when I was young, although they do go on until the first week of June these days. And to add to all the great things in May, our STAMPlorations CAS challenge optional colour twist is magenta, a favourite of mine. All the rest of the instructions are exactly the same as they have been since the start of the year - you don't have to use the colour twist, you can use any products you wish (but if you have STAMPlorations products we would love to see you use them) and we ask you to display the below graphic and link to our challenge page. You can link up three different cards, and there is a prize for the winner as well as a badge for the DT's favourites.

I started by inking white card using Disterss Inks, and die cut the background using a stitched rectangle die. I also spritzed water on the background to create a more distressed look. I then used an embossing buddy to make sure the embossing powder would only stick to the stamped images and not to the background. It makes such a big difference when working with embossing projects. I stamped two feathers from the gorgeous VIGNETTE: Trendy Feathers stamp set and a sentiment from Art Marks in Versamark and heat embossed in gold powder. I attached the card to black card as I thought it really makes the bright colours pop. 

I'm linking up with the following challenges:
CAS Mix Up - Stamping and heat embossing + your choice (inking and water splatters)
Freshly Made Sketches 

Card: 300 gsm textured white card, 350 gsm black card

Stamps: STAMPlorations VIGNETTE: Trendy Feathers, Art Marks 

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Inks Seedless Preserves, Wilted Violet, Shaded Lilac, Dusty Concord, Peacock Feathers, Cracked Pistachio, Tsukineko Versamark

Other: Gold embossing powder from my stash, Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Die

Disclaimer: I have received some STAMPlorations products for free in exchange for creating cards for the challenge. All opinions however are completely my own. As you can see by browsing my blog, I have been using STAMPlorations products (which I bought myself) way before my time on the DT and I wouldn't recommend them unless I absolutely loved them myself.