Cupcake Inspirations #500

Today I'm happy to be celebrating the 500th Cupcake Inspirations Challenge. Congrats and big thanks to the whole Cupcake Inspirations team for all their hard work to keep this super fun challenge running for all that time, and to many, many more great challenges to come!

For my project, I used the cupcake stamp from STAMPlorations Sweet Kindness which stamped and heat embossed in gold four times. I used Faber Castell watercolour pencils to colour the images and blended the colouring with a watercolour brush. I created the Dots All Over stencil and Distress inks to create the fun dotty background and finished the card with a bold black die cut sentiment from Everyday Sentiments. 

Stamps: STAMPlorations Sweet Kindness
Stencil: ARTplorations Dots All Over
Dies: CUTplorations Everyday Sentiments
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Faber Castell Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils

STAMPlorations Inspiration

As you are reading this, I'm enjoying a week of skiing in the Austrian Alps. So I was inspired to create a card with lots of snow for this week's STAMPlorations Inspiration Post. I inked various blue Distress inks through the Dots All Over stencil and added the happy little snowman from  Winter Chill and a sentiment from the same set. I thought it was a fun technique to use different colours of ink and move the stencil around a bit for a repeat pattern. 

Stamps: STAMPlorations Winter Chill

Stencil: ARTplorations Dots All Over

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Ink 

 

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.

STAMPlorations January CAS Challenge - Reminder

Happy mid-January! I'm sure by now you know what that entails - our mid-month additional inspiration post for our January CAS Challenge.

Anyhow, I'm here to share this happy snowman and his glimmery shimmery snowy background. A quick and easy card, first I inked Versamark through the Dots All Over stencil and heat embossed with a mix of gold and silver metallic embossing powder. I then stamped and heat embossed the snowman and stamped the sentiment in black. Quick and easy!

I hope you feel inspired to come and play with us over at STAMPlorations!

Stamps: STAMPlorations Winter Chill

Stencil: ARTplorations Dots All Over

Ink and colouring: Versamark, Versafine Onyx Black

STAMPlorations 5th Birthday

I am so happy to be able to celebrate the success of STAMPlorations with you today with a post on the STAMPlorations main blog. As you may already have seen on the STAMPlorations blog, for the duration of June, the STAMPlorations DT are showcasing our favourite cards in honour of STAMPloration's 5th Birthday. I want to take this opportunity to wish Shery and David happy STAMPiversary and wishes of many more. 

The chance to be part of Shery's STAMPfamily is an honour and a privilege. She is the most creative lady out there, and in addition, she is the most generous and hardworking as well. I feel so happy to have been able to be a part of the STAMPlorations team for a few years now, and every time I am blown away by the gorgeous new products. I keep using the stamps, dies and stencils over and over again, still going back to the old ones as well as loving to explore the new releases, many of which I'm sure will become classics in their own right.

So today I have the honour of showcasing my favourite three cards I have created while designing for STAMPlorations. It's probably not a surprise that they are all rainbow coloured... It was not easy to narrow it down to three, it's like picking your favourite child. I have also created a new card to wish STAMPlorations Happy Birthday using  Bloomtangled #1 Cover Plate Die, which you can see at the beginning of the post. I love, love, love paper piecing these dies. Nothing says bliss like an early morning big cup of coffee, a pair of tweezers, some glue and a gazillion die cut pieces!

CAS sweetness using Sugar Rush and Copics

Birthday party using Balloons and Banners and no-line
watercolouring with Distress Inks

A thing with wings using the gorgeous Flutter Zen 2 Layering dies,
Dots All Over Stencil, a sentiment from Noteworthy 2
and Ink blending with Distress Inks.

I also made another card inspired by my first one. The Bloomtangled Cover Plate dies are designs from the Bloomtangled Colouring Book so I thought I would take the same design from the colouring book. I covered the page in clear Gesso and then coloured it with Gansai Tambi watercolours. I die cut the page and used the large piece to create a panel for a card. I was also able to get two smaller die cuts from the leftover pieces of the page. I used one to make a tag with a sentiment from Noteworthy 2  heat embossed in white. I used the other tag for a hand lettered quote, which I ended up using in my Bullet Journal.

If you want to join in on the festivities you can CASE any of my designs - or any designs from my fellow DT teamies - and link up over on the main birthday blog post. Any type of project is eligible and there will be loads and loads of inspiration all through June so I'm sure you will find something to inspire you. You can also win prizes by playing along with the wishlist linky party. Between these two posts, you might be the lucky winner of one of the many prizes in honour of STAMPlorations 5th birthday!

If you are not familiar with the term CASE, it stands for "Copy and Share Everything" but in the crafting world you should take it to mean "be inspired by". So you could use any part of the projects above as inspiration for your cards, maybe the flower theme, maybe the colours or maybe something else that you get inspired by. I can't wait to see your inspirational projects in the linky on the main birthday blog post.

The STAMPlorations products I used for my new cards:

Bloomtangled #1 Cover Plate Die

Happy Word die

Bloomtangled Colouring Book

Thanks word die

Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies

Noteworthy 2

Manila Tags Nesting Dies

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.

Happy Bot Day

I love dedicating my Saturday mornings to crafting. I should be out running but sometimes I feel like it's more important to provide a work-out for my creative muscles. No comments about the fact that I still haven't managed to squeeze into most of my trousers after the Christmas binge. But crafting is cheaper than therapy and there is only so much a gal can take after a mad day at work on Friday. Why do all the big problems always creep out on a Friday evening right before you are supposed to go home?

Anyhow, this Saturday I started the day with a big stash of crafty goodness from STAMPlorations, a cup of hot coffee in my trusty Unicorn mug and haven't stopped since.

Now this is #thelife : #saturday #morning, my trusty #unicorn mug, #coffee and the most amazing #craftystash from the awesome @stamplorations . If you visit their store just to daydream of everything you want, you may recognize a lot of the stuff, but there are also a few sneak peaks of new stuff you will see soon. I can’t wait to share!!

A post shared by InvisiblePinkUni (@invisiblepinkuni) on Jan 27, 2018 at 12:28am PST

The first stamps out to play from the new stash are these super adorable Little Robots from the amazing Shery of STAMPlorations. I was inspired by the colours over at Color Throwdown, although I always feel like I'm really pushing the envelope when limiting my colour palette (I had to create a rainbow card after finishing this to recover, I'll show you that one another day...). I was also inspired by the "Use markers or pencils" theme over at CAS on Friday and Masked Magic theme over at Daring Cardmakers. Last but not least I'm linking up over at Shopping Our Stash where the theme is Birthday.

I started by stamping the two robots, masking the first before stamping the one behind it. Then I masked the other robot as well and masked a rectangle in the middle of the card. I inked Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxide through the ARTplorations Dots All Over stencil. I coloured the robots with Faber Castell watercolour pencils. Last, I combined sentiments from a few stamp sets, stamping them in Hickory Smoke Distress Ink (I really have to buy the Hickory Smoke Distress Oxide as it I prefer Oxides to Inks for stamping...), I had to use a grey marker to fill in the sentiment as it didn't stamp as well as I wanted. 

Card: White 250 gsm card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Little Robots, Noteworthy 2, Bloomin' Spring Coffee Basket 
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Oxide Spice Marmalade, Distress Ink Hickory Smoke, Faber Castell Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils
Stencil: ARTplorations Dots All Over

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.

More Summer Coffee

I just received a new batch of STAMPlorations goodies, including the awesome It's a Brew-tiful Day phrase die. So with the Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop still going, I couldn't help myself, I had to take the die for a spin. 

I started by stamping the Framed Coffee to Go in Versamark and heat embossed in copper. Then I used the small dies from the Trendy Spring Blooms Dies set on some scrap pieces of rainbow card I created using Distress Oxides for another project. I cut the flowers to fit the coffee cup. I used the same scrap rainbow pieces to cut out the sentiment. I created a rainbow background by inking with Distress Oxides through the Dots All Over stencil. 

I'm also linking up over at Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is Stencil It and Make My Monday where the theme is Summer Brights. 

Card: 300 gsm white card, 350 gsm Daler & Rowney watercolour card

Stamps: STAMPlorations Framed Coffee to Go

Dies: CUTplorations Trendy Spring Blooms Dies, It's a Brew-tiful Day phrase die

Stencil: ARTplorations Dots All Over

Inks: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz Distress Oxides 

Other: Papermania Copper embossing powder

Don't forget the STAMPlorations 4th Birthday Hop and Wishlist Linky Party is in full swing with lots of opportunities to win great prizes. Also, don't forget you can get 20% off when shopping at the STAMPlorations store by using the code STAMPGIRLKAROLA at checkout. The discount applies to all normal priced and discounted stamps, stencils and dies. Together with the 15% birthday discount (which is applied automatically without any code) that adds up to a whopping 35% off your order!

April STAMPlorations CAS Challenge - Anything Goes With Pastel

New month - new CAS challenge! Welcome to April and to our "Any Pastel Colour" STAMPlorations CAS challenge. As usual the colour twist is an option, if you don't want to go with the colour twist you can still link up as long as your card is CAS. 

For my card this time, I started by creating a subtle background by sponging pastel Distress Inks through the ARTplorations Dots All Over stencil. I die cut the butterfly using CUTplorations Flutter Zen 2 Layering Dies from a piece of watercolour card that I created by watercolouring pastel Distress Inks. Then I die cut the intricate top for the butterfly from white card. After adding the butterfly to the card I stamped the sentiment from STAMPlorations Trendy Butterflies 2. Sometimes all you need are a few dots and a really intricate butterfly!

I'm linking up with the following challenges:

Curtain Call - Speckled

Happy Little Stampers CAS - Blend

Card: 250 gsm white card, 300 gsm watercolour paper

Ink and colouring: Tim Holtz Distress inks, Tsukineko Versafine Tuxedo Black

Stamps: STAMPlorations Trendy Butterflies 2

Stencils: ARTplorations Dots All Over

Dies: CUTplorations Flutter Zen 2 Layering Dies

February STAMPlorations CAS Challenge - Mid-Month Inspiration

We are midway through February so it's time for a quick reminder of our current STAMPlorations CAS challenge. Although we have now passed the pink day (did you have a good V-day? or maybe you had an awesome Galentine's instead?) there are still a few weeks left to create a CAS card featuring hot pink for the challenge. It's an optional colour twist so if you had enough of pink for a while (whaaaaat??) you could just as well create a non-pink CAS card if you prefer. Pink or not I can't wait to see what you create!

I created a card to match my tag for day 2 of Love TAGplorations. I used Deepti's super cute Tweet Love stamp set which I watercoloured using Tim Holtz Distress Inks. I also stamped the sentiment using Sketchy Alphabet and coloured the letters in yellow. I added a bit of colour to the background by watercolouring through the Dots All Over stencil. Last, I die cut the Hello from a scrap of yellow card and added loads of Ice Stickles. 

Card: 300 gsm Daler&Rowney watercolour paper, scrap of yellow card

Stamps: STAMPlorations Tweet Love, Sketchy Alphabet

Ink and colouring: Tim Holtz Distress Inks

Stencil: ARTplorations Dots All Over

Dies: Hello Word Die

Other: Ranger Ice Stickles

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!

Soft Colours

Just popping in for a super-quick post today, it's already way past my bed time but I really wanted to share this card. In fact, I had a bit of a problem with sharing this card as I made it on Monday evening, but as it's dark when I leave for work and dark when I get home I had no idea how I would manage to get a photo in daylight. In the end my only solution was to take the card to work and snap a pic using my phone. So apologies for the quality of the pic.

The reason I really wanted to share the card is that I absolutely loved the inspiration image over at Inspired by All the Little Things, and I absolutely loved getting out a few ARTplorations stencils and my soft colour Distress inks to create the card (and by the way, if you go inspired to order these stencils, or anything else from STAMPlorations, you can get 20% off by using my offer code STAMPGIRLKAROLA, more details at the end of the post). The gorgeous Peony Number Two stencil is definitely becoming one of my absolute favourite stencils (and this coming from a crafter who had no idea how to use stencils a year ago!!). I'm also linking up over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where Anything Goes this week and the Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge where the optional twist is stencil. 

Card: 250 gsm white card, scrap of Milled Lavender card
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Inks Antique Linen, Milled Lavender and Spun Sugar
Stencils: ARTplorations Peony Number Two and Dots All Over
Dies: CUTplorations Celebrate word die
Other: Pink adhesive rhinestones 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. If you have any questions or problems, just let me know!