Sunset Sympathy

I made this sympathy card as I wanted to play along with the "Special Thoughts" challenge over at Daring Cardmakers. I was also inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch and the Bling It On challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

I created the background by blending Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade, Candied Apple, Seedless Preserves and Black Soot Distress Oxides and splattered with water. I inked the flowers using the Bloom Silhouettes stencil in Black Soot. I added the beautiful sentiment from Lotus Love onto purple card and matted onto red card. It says "When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure". Last, I added a few sequins for a bit of bling.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Lotus Love
Stencil: ARTplorations Bloom Silhouettes
Ink: Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade, Candied Apple, Seedless Preserves and Black Soot Distress Oxides, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black

Card kit using Clear Stickers

Today I'm over on the STAMPlorations blog, showing a card kit I made. This kit consists of four cards made using ARTplorations stencils and Distress Inks, with matching envelopes. However, I didn't add any sentiments to the cards, instead, I included card strips which the card kit recipient can use to add a custom sentiment. This is super easy using the new STAMPlorations Clear Stickers. For my kit, I used the Just Everyday Greetings, but you could use another set of stickers if you prefer. I like this set as it has a great all-round selection of sentiments. And during August you will get 30% off the Clear Stickers (see the end of the post for details).

I used the Abstract Oats stencil and Distress Inks in Mustard Seed, Wild Honey and Vintage Photo. I added some ink splatters onto the card for added texture.

Next, I inked the card using Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Worn Lipstick, Wilted Violet, Blueprint Sketch and Chipped Sapphire to ink the card and splattered it with water. Then I inked Black Soot through the Bloom Silhouettes stencil. 

I inked Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, Worn Lipstick and Wilted Violet ink through the Lupinus stencil. 

For my last card, I inked Cracked Pistachio, Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers, Mermaid Lagoon and Blueprint Sketch through the Peacock Feathers stencil.

All of the cards have a strip of card which I haven't attached to the card. It has a strip of double-sided tape on the back. Any of the sentiment stickers can be added to the strips, the excess trimmed with scissors and then the strip can be adhered to the card. As the images on the cards would work with any of the sentiments, this will allow the recipient of the card kit to use the most appropriate sentiments based on their needs.

I also created a storage box for the cards and envelopes. I used some ombre orange card and stencilled the Abstract Oats on the top of the box.

I hope this inspired you to create something fun using the STAMPlorations Clear Stickers!

Stencils: ARTplorations Abstract Oats, Bloom Silhouettes, Lupinus, Peacock Feathers

Stickers: STAMPlorations Just Everyday Greetings Clear Stickers

Ink: Tim Holz Distress Ink

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.

Put at least $25 worth of products in your cart then use code SHIPFREE25 on checkout.

*Free shipping offer to US addresses only. Code will take $5 off shipping to Canada and other countries. Code can be combined with current promotion codes. Free shipping code limited to 3 uses per customer/shipping address. Ends Saturday, August 31, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time.

Rainbow Flower Silhouette

I had a mighty play in the craft room yesterday - the arrival of Distress Oxides truly got my dormant mojo up and running again. And it reminded me of the fact that it's long overdue for a clean out in the craft room - there are so many crafty products I no longer use and want to find new homes for. Time for some serious eBaying... hoping that my long forgotten Stampin' Up punches and stamp sets will find new homes where they will be used more than they have in my stamp room. 

Anyhow, yesterday I played a bit with watercolouring and Distress Oxides, you can see the result here. Another thing about the Oxides is that they blend much easier than the regular distress inks, so if you have found it hard to produce blends you might have more success with the Oxides. I used almost every colour I have of the oxides to create a rainbow background, inspired again by the colourful tulips over at Inspired By All The Little Things (hey, if there is a rainbow colour scheme anywhere to be found I will find it and play with it over and over and over again...). I'm also linking up (yet again) with this month's CAS Mixup (hope it's ok, as the rules say you can enter as many times as you like...) - I'm just a huge fan of splattering so can't resist playing along yet again! The "my choice" is die cutting, ink blending, heat embossing, stencilling... I'm also linking up with the AAA Cards Embossing challenge.

Card: 250 gsm white card, 300 gsm Daler&Rowney watercolour paper

Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Distress Ink Black Soot, Distress Oxides Fossilized Amber, Worn Lipstick Wilted Violet, Cracked Pistachio, Broken China, Faded Jeans

Stamps: STAMPlorations Fond Expressions 2

Stencil: ARTplorations Bloom Silhouettes

Dies: CUTplorations Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies

Other: Papermania Seafoam White 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. If you have any questions or problems, just let me know!