STAMPlorations Things With Wings Spring Blog Hop & Linky Party

I'm so glad you stopped by my blog as I'm thrilled to be part of the STAMPlorations Things With Wings Blog Hop & Linky Party which starts today. We are celebrating spring! Isn't it wonderful when the flowers come out and the sun is warm enough so you can enjoy being outside. I love spring. It's my favourite season, I love it more than summer. I love watching the garden come to life, the beautiful spring greens and the daffodils which are then slowly making room for other colours in the flower beds. I love watching the buds turn to blooms on the fruit trees and the seeds starting to germinate in the greenhouse. The simple pleasures in life!

As usual Shery is generously giving out lots of prizes to all of you who want to play along with us to celebrate spring. You can play along by commenting on the main blog post and on the designer's posts. You can also link up your wing-themed art projects to our gallery, you don't have to use STAMPlorations products but we would love to see you use them if you have any. Both commenting and linking will be open until April 30th. You can see all the wonderful prizes on the main blog post. You can find all the gorgeous new spring themed STAMPlorations products under the New Release category in the STAMPshop. And you can get a 20% discount by using the discount code STAMPGIRLKAROLA at checkout!

For my wing-themed card I used the new Dragonfly Layering Dies. This is a set of dies I was looking at and thinking I don't really know how to use this, and maybe I don't really like it. How wrong was I!! After playing around for a bit I just totally fell in love with this die. The dragonflies are so gorgeous and you can play around with so many different looks. White borders on colourful dragonflies, vellum dragonflies with colourful borders, white against black, any combination really! I chose to go with rainbow colours, because as you know, rainbow is my favourite colour. I used a piece of watercolour card I had created previously using Brushos to die cut the dragonflies an a piece of sparkly white card for the top border to accentuate the colours. I created a rainbow coloured background using the ARTplorations Bubble Dance stencil by blending Tim Holtz Distress inks using foam applicators. Finally, I die cut the sentiment using the new Be Kind Phrase Die. All the bright colours on this card make me smile, I hope it will inspire you to also create something spring and wing themed for the linky party. Don't forget to hop around to see what my incredibly talented DT colleagues have created for the hop as well.

I'm linking up with the following challenges: 

AAA cards - Shiny Spring

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Make a Rainbow

Time Out - Be inspired by the phrase "When it rains look for rainbows, when it's dark look for stars"

Card: 250 gsm white card, 160 gsm watercolour paper, white and grey glitter card

Ink and colouring: Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Brushos

Stencils: ARTplorations Bubble Dance 

Dies: CUTplorations Dragonfly Layering Dies, Be Kind Phrase Die

Colourful Circles

It's rather grey and dreary out there so I thought we really need a card with bright colours today. I was inspired by the new challenge over at AAA Cards which is circles. I was also inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch and the CAS Mixup challenge where I have already played along twice this month but could not resist a third go as I think this month's challenge of Stamping+Masking+Your choice (die cutting in my case) is just so much fun I couldn't resist a third go. I'm also linking up with Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes With a Die Cut challenge.

I started by inking through the ARTplorations Bubble Dance stencil using Distress inks Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean and Picked Raspberry. I just love how the colours blend and you get so many more colours than you start with. Then I used the CUTplorations Happy Word die and die cut words for the sentiment from Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid paper and black card. To complete the sentiment I stamped the word Birthday from STAMPlorations Balloons And Banners. Last, I added a lot of Ice Stickles for some bling. 

Card: 250 gsm white card, scarp of black card
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean and Picked Raspberry
Stamps: STAMPlorations Balloons And Banners
Stencils: ARTplorations Bubble Dance 
Dies: CUTplorations Happy Word die
Other: Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid paper, Ranger Ice Stickles