STAMPlorations Inspiration

Happy Tuesday! Can you believe that we are less than six weeks from the big C? I have booked off a good two weeks from work around Christmas and I can't wait! Today is, of course, also the day for the STAMPlorations Inspiration post. 

For today's card, I created one more Christmas card for the stash. I started by inking various blue Distress Inks through the Snowflakes Stencil. Then I stamped the snowman from Winter Chill, fussy cut him and coloured his nose in the correct hue of carrot orange. Last, I heat embossed the Typografia Christmas Build a Snowman in gunmetal grey on vellum. I die cut the sentiment using Basic A2 Panels Nesting Dies and inked the edges of the panel with blue before adding it to the card. 

Stamps: STAMPlorations Winter Chill, Build a Snowman

Stencil: ARTplorations Snowflakes Stencil

Dies: CUTplorations Basic A2 Panels 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 code cannot be combined with other discount codes. And if you use my code you also get to pick a freebie to the value of $7 (for details see the badge below).

Note that as a STAMPlorations affiliate, I get a small commission on any orders you place in the STAMPlorations store using the links in my blog post or my coupon code STAMPGIRLKAROLA. This is at no added cost to you. Thank you for your support to keep my craft addiction going :) 

This month there are oodles of discounts, for which you can find codes here, including 30% off word/phrase dies, 25% off square stencils and 40% off clear stickers. There is also a Christmas Special Sale and Coffee Lovers Sale.

STAMPlorations Belated Birthday Party Day 5

Happy Friday! I'm so happy it's almost the weekend, although at the same time a bit sad that the amazing STAMPlorations Belated 7th Birthday Celebration is coming to an end. To see all the designer's projects for day 5 of the Birthday Celebrations hop over to the STAMPlorations blog. It's been amazing to share my projects with you this week while getting to play with some of the new STAMPlorations products. I hope you have enjoyed the inspiration from the design team as much as I have! But the celebrations aren't over for you yet, as you have until the end of the month to enter the big Show off your Stash giveaway and until November 8th to join the Birthday Link-up and comment on the Birthday blog posts on the STAMPlorations blog and the designer's blogs. 

Today I created a winter/Christmas card using Sanna's new Snowflakes Stencil. I inked various blue Distress Inks through the stencil to create the background for my card. Then I stamped the cute little penguins and the igloo from Winter Chill, coloured with Copics and fussy cut them. The sentiment is from the same stamp set, heat embossed in white onto a scrap piece of black card.

Thanks for following along this week, and don't forget to play along in whatever way is most appealing to you - by sharing your stash, linking up your projects or commenting on posts for your chance to win great prizes!

Note that all products (including the new release products) in the STAMPlorations store are 10% off instantly throughout October. BUT you can get 20% off by using my discount code STAMPGIRLKAROLA at checkout. If you use my discount code you will also receive the Just Plaid square stencil FOR FREE (see image below)!

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.

Note that as a STAMPlorations affiliate, I get a small commission on any orders you place in the STAMPlorations store using the links in my blog post or my coupon code STAMPGIRLKAROLA. This is at no added cost to you. Thank you for your support to keep my craft addiction going :) 

Products used
Stamps: STAMPlorations Winter Chill
Stencil: ARTplorations Snowflakes Stencil

Ink and colouring: Distress Inks, Tsukineko Versamark, Memento Onyx Black, Copics

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 Christmas in July

I'm very excited to be here today for the kick-off of our Christmas in July sale and giveaway over at STAMPlorations. And, to be honest, it's the kick-off for Christmas crafting for me this year. I really love to see all the Christmas inspiration all over blogland this time of year as it finally got me inspired to start with my Christmas crafting. The inspiration and talent in the crafting community never cease to amaze me. If I ever feel like I'm in a creative slump, all I need to do is go on Pinterest or Instagram and I'm showered with the most amazing art, so thank you all for that!

For my first card, I used the Sketchy Yule Trees, stamping directly onto white card and colouring the trees with Distress Markers. Next, I stamped the Merry Little Christmas typografia stamp in Versamark onto vellum, and heat embossed in gold (currently this stamp is out of stock, but there are plenty of other Christmas typografia stamps in stock in the STAMPlorations store). I added a few drops of glue on the vellum under the sentiment to attach it to the card panel. If you want more inspiration for these stamp sets, check out here, here, and here.

I used the same layout for my next card, this time using the super cute snowman from Winter Chill for the background and the  Build A Snowman Typografia Christmas. I stamped the sentiment in black onto vellum and heat embossed in holographic embossing powder which gives it a great shimmer. For other ideas using these stamps, see here and here.

I created one more card using a Christmas typografia stamp, this time I combined the Jingle All the Way typografia stamp with the cute bells from Jingle Bells. I started by stamping the bells in Versamark, then I sprinkled gold and copper embossing powder to create a two-tone effect which you can see in the close-up image. I inked up the sentiment using Distress Markers, spritzed very lightly with water and stamped onto vellum. As I often manage to smudge ink when stamping on vellum, I quickly heat embossed the sentiment in clear powder, before cutting the vellum with the smallest die from Crazy Double Running Stitch Nested dies. 

For my last two cards, I was inspired by the beautifully geometric Yuletide Deer stamp set. I restricted my colour palette to bright red, black and grey against crisp white card. I started by stamping the deers in Tim Holtz Festive Berries. Then I used a black watercolour marker to colour only the word Christmas from Merry Little Christmas (although you may want to make your life a bit easier and just use a stamp which you can ink up the normal way). I then used the "merry" stamp from Joyful to complete the sentiment, inking it up once with black ink and stamping three times without inking it up in between. I then used a stamp from Mixed Media Elements to create some interest around the edge. I completed the grungy look by splattering some diluted black ink on the card front before matting it onto red or grey card and attaching to a white card base.

A few links to some other cards made using the same stamp set here and here.

I hope you have been inspired to create some Christmas cards of your own. If you want to add to your Christmas crafty stash, you can find Christmas stamps reduced over in the STAMPlorations store and there is even a giveaway!

I'm linking up my first deer card over at Crafty Card Challenge, Tales from the Craft Room, Shopping Our Stash (Happy 400th challenge!!) and Crafty Gals Corner. All of the challenges have a Christmas in July theme.  

Stamps: STAMPlorations Sketchy Yule Trees, Merry Little Christmas Typografia Christmas, Build A Snowman Typografia Christmas, Winter Chill, Jingle All the Way Typografia Christmas, Jingle Bells, Yuletide Deer, Mixed Media Elements 
Dies: Crazy Double Running Stitch Nested dies
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Tim Holtz Distress Inks and markers

25 Days of Christmas Tags - STAMPlorations

I'm super excited to be part of the 8th 25 Days of Christmas Tags event. This event is organised annually by the wonderful Tracey McNeely of In My Creative Opinion. 

This event has become one of the eagerly awaited pre-Christmas crafting events as you can see from the quality and quantity of sponsors. Designers from each sponsor team share Christmas tags from November 1st to 26th and hopefully you will be inspired by one (or some, or many!) of these to create and link up your own tags. 

As you can probably guess, today is when the STAMPlorations team get to showcase our tags. You can find the tags of my fellow team members, along with the previous posts of this event and the linky on Tracy's blog.

For my tag I used one of my favourite winter themed stamp sets, STAMPlorations Winter Chill. I can't resist those cute penguins. I die cut a tag using CUTplorations Stitched Tags Nesting Dies from watercolour card and inked the aurora in the sky using Distress Oxides. After letting the ink dry, and thoroughly dabbing with my embossing buddy, I heat embossed the grungy snowflakes in glitter emossing powder in the sky.  I used CUTplorations Stitched Snow Hills on a shimmery white card to create the undulating snowy hills. I stamped the penguins, igloo and snowman and coloured them with Copics before fussy cutting and arranging into the wintery scene. Last, I heat embossed the sentiment in white powder onto black card and added some ribbon from my stash.

Card: 300 gsm watercolour paper, Neenah Solar white card, scrap of black card

Stamps: STAMPlorations Winter Chill

Dies: CUTplorations Stitched Tags Nesting Dies, Stitched Snow Hills

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versamark, Versafine, Distress Oxides, Copics, Signo white gel pen

Other: White and glitter heat 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.