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. 

Thank You card with Birds

How can it be Sunday afternoon? I swear it was only Friday evening a few hours ago. I can't complain though, I had a lovely Saturday in London with a friend despite the icy cold weather. I even came across a dress I wanted to buy a few weeks ago but didn't as it was too expensive. Well it was now very generously on sale and they still had it in my size. That of course means only one thing - I had to buy it. And I found another lovely dress too which resolves the issue of what to wear on Tuesday as I have to give a talk and want to look somewhat respectable. Double yay!

Today I have spent most of the day in the craft room, mostly working on my Bujo, but I also took some time to create a few cards. I was inspred by a few bird themed challenges, one over at Shopping Our Stash and another at Daring Cardmakers.

I started by creating the background by inking blue Distress Inks through the ARTplorations Bubbles stencil, and splattering water and ink on the watercolour card base. The I die cut the panel using Crazy Double Running Stitched Rectangles dies. I stamped the birds from For the Birds and the sentiment from the same set in Versafine black ink. I love that this is a super black ink so it creates great contrast. Then I adhered the panel onto a white card base.

Card: 300 gsm Daler&Rowney watercolour card, 250 gsm white card
Stamps: STAMPlorations For the Birds
Ink: Tsukineko Versafine Onyx Black, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Broken China, Blueprint Sketch
Other: CUTplorations Crazy Double Running Stitched Rectangles dies, ARTplorations Bubbles stencil

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.

Lotus love and my re-discovery of libraries

If you are a regular reader, you can't have missed my rants about repeatedly getting stuck in traffic on the A14. On a good day I spend about an hour and a quarter in my car every day, but on a bad that it can be two or even three hours. And it used to frustrate the living daylights out of me. Now I have tried to be a bit more zen about it, and the thing that has really helped me with my newfound calm are audiobooks. I love reading, but it feels like these days I never have time to read a book. I guess it's more fair to say I value other things, like crafting more than sitting down to read a book. Anyhow, I borrowed a few Stephen Fry audiobooks from a friend and really got into the habit of listening to them in the car. It made is so much less annoying to be stuck, at least there was something fun to focus on. So I thought this is fun, I will just get myself audiobooks. This lasted until I got online and saw what audiobooks cost. Oh dear. I almost abandoned the idea. Until I had an epiphany. The library! So I got myself a library card. Turns out the library even has a small selection of downloadable audiobooks. So you don't even have to go to the actual library. And there are e-books as well. A completely free option for keeping myself entertained. And the best bit, I can listen to my audiobooks while crafting as well. Total win.

I had a summer job in the library for a few summers when I was a teenager. It was, to this day, my favourite job ever. I could go on and on about everything I loved about that job... The best bit was opening shipments of new books. It was so much fun to see all the new books, and register them onto the library system. The first summer I worked at the library was back in the days when they didn't even have an electronic system yet, everything was on index cards and every morning the little cards that went into the pockets at the back of the books with return dates needed to be stamped. If you are not as ancient as me, you will have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about. But if you haven't done so in a long time, have a look at what you can find at your local library these days!

Wow, that was a long rant for something completely unrelated to crafting. So I shall quickly get to the main point, today's card. I loved the Lotus Love stamp set from Dee's Artsy Impressions at STAMPlorations the first time I saw it. It arrived a while ago, but I have been so busy playing with my Crazy Birds and spritzer tool that I haven't had time to play with it until today. I filled a whole scrap paper with different stamp combinations, but this was my favourite design. It's inspired by the sketch over at RetroSketches and the colour combo over at Color Throwdown. I was also inspired by two cards over in the STAMPlorations CASE playground, one from Maria F and one from Deepti. I would also link up with the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is No Designer Paper, at Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge where the theme is Colouring and last but not least over at STAMPlorations Anything Goes challenge. 

I stamped the lovely lotuses in Memento ink using some masking here and there. I coloured them in with just a few yellows and yellow-green Copics. I stamped some splotches using the Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grunge stamp set and Tim Holtz distress ink Squeezed Lemonade. Next, I die cut the "you" from black cardstock and stamped part of one of the Lotus Love sentiments. I die cut the scene using a Lawn Fawn Stitched rectangle die, attached the panel to linen textured card using foam adhesive and finished off with a few teeny tiny adhesive gems. I just adore the look of those gorgeous lotus blossoms. 

Card: Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, 300 gsm white linen textured card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Dee's Artsy Impressions Lotus Love, Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grunge
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress ink Squeezed Lemonade
Colouring: Copics Y13 Y15, Y19, YG11, YG13
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Stampin' Up Hello You dies, adhesive gems from my stash

Crafts Galore Encore July challenge

And so we have entered July, and half of the year has flown by. As usual, a new month means a new challenge over at Crafts Galore Encore. This time we are challenging you to Use a stamp or a digi anywhere on your creation. That shouldn't be too hard, so don't forget to link up with us as we love to see your wonderful creations.

Our sponsor this month is Kenny K, who is giving away two prizes. One will be chosen at random and one on merit. We will also highlight a few favourite cards who get to proudly display our winner's badge on their blog. Last but not least, we are offering a guest DT spot so if you would like to join our merry little band as a guest designer, please add GDT after your name.

I got to play with the Total Drama digi. For more inspiration from the wonderful DT, just hop over to Crafts Galore Encore! 

I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Artistic Inspirations Challenge - Anything Goes or a twist of odd
Crafting From the Heart - Anything Goes
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes
Crafty Cardmakers - Sentiment
The Pink Elephant Challenge - Anything Goes
Simply Papercraft Challenges - Anything Goes
Sister Act Card Challenge - Anything Goes

Card: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card ruby red, Hobbycraft 160 gsm Three Shades of Yellow and Three Shades of Blue card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Kenny K Total Drama
Colouring: Copics B04, B29, B45, R24, R46, Y13, Y15, Y17, Y24, YR000, YR00

Reindeer greetings

The October issue of Cardmaking&Papercraft magazine arrived the other day with some very Christmas-y freebies. I used the reindeer stamp and paper to create these quick Christmas cards to add to the growing pile. I am determined to have my Christmas cards finished before December, so that I can spend December creating gift tags instead. I have been thinking whether a better strategy for creating Christmas cards would be to just settle on one design and send the same card out to everyone. Now, as I create mostly different cards, I won't remember who got baubles and who got reindeers and who got snowflakes, and therefore risk sending similar cards again next Christmas. It would be a bit too boring though to make them all the same, I don't think I would enjoy that too much. 

This card was very simple to put together, a bit of Chipped Sapphire distress ink, clear embossing powder and a bit of bling for that finishing touch. I seem to be doing all my sentiments on vellum these days. Well, if it works it works. I also stamped a greeting inside the card. 

I'm entering this in The Weekly Christmas card challenge where anything goes this week as well as the ABC Christmas Challenge where Q is for Quick and Easy.

Cardstock: Coloured kraft 240 gsm Navy, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum
Paper: Christmas DSP set from Cardmaking & Papercraft October issue
Stamps: Christmas stamp set from Cardmaking & Papercraft October issue, Papermania 12 Days of Christmas Word banners
Ink: Tim Holtz distress ink Chipped Sapphire
Other: Ranger super fine detail clear embossing powder, Stampin' Up basic adhesive gems

Purple flower shop thank you

I got into the whole colouring onto kraft when I made this card using the So Very Grateful stamp set a while back. My inspiration for today's card was this card from Mel Sharp that I happened upon when perusing Pinterest as well as this week's Colour Me... challenge which is monochromatic Blackberry Bliss. My wish list for the new Stampin' Up cattie was so long that the new in colours didn't make this round, so I don't have Blackberry Bliss yet (and I'm not sure if I really like some of the new colours, still undecided if I want to jump on the 2014-2016 bandwagon or not), but I do have Rich Razzleberry so I went with that. I'm also entering this in this week's Pink Elephant Challenge, which is anything goes.

All in all, this was a rather simple card. I stamped the flowers onto kraft using  embossing ink and heat embossed using white embossing powder. I then coloured the flowers using a Stampin Write marker in Rich Razzleberry. I also stamped and heat embossed the background for the sentiment using a stamp from Chalk Talk and die cut using the matching dies. The sentiment is also heat embossed in white and fussy cut using scissors. Then it was just about assembling everything.

Cardstock: Kraft card, Coloured kraft card 240 gsm purple grape, Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White card
Stamps: Stampin' Up Flower Shop, Pretty Petites, Chalk Talk
Inks: Tim Holtz distress embossing ink, Stampin' Write Marker in Rich Razzleberry
Other: Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, Stampin' Up Chalk Talk dies

Mythical creatures challenge

When I saw that the theme for the Make My Monday challenge was Mythical Creatures, I could not resist a few cards using the Critters Ever After stamp set. As if I would need an excuse to use it, but still... colouring those happy little critters always makes me happy as well. And what's better than a few happy Critters and four full days of Easter holiday to look forward to!

I stamped the critters using black StazOn and coloured using 80's glam sharpies. I stamped the Yippee-Skippee sentiment from Stampin' up and matted onto coloured card. Trying to be very CAS again, it still goes against my nature but I think the cards turned out really cute.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Stampin' Up card in Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo and Whisper White
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters Ever after, Stampin' Up Yippee-Skippee!
Other: 80s Glam Sharpies

Swallowtail CAS

This week's Crafthoarders Anonymous Challenge is "Pick a stamp, Any Stamp". First I toyed with a few ideas, but they all got binned at various stages. So in the end, I decided to pick The Stamp. The Swallowtail. This is such a great stamp, and colouring it is always so much fun! To be honest, sometimes I just stamp it and colour it several times over, just for fun (I know, I need to get a life). And to show off the detailed stamp in all it's glory, I decided to make a CAS card. Nothing but the amazing stamp and a simple sentiment. I really struggle with CAS, I want to keep adding things. When I see other people's cards I think the white space is very nice, but when I attempt it myself I always end up adding more and more stuff thinking it's too simple and too plain. This time I decided to remember the best rule. KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid!

The layout for the card is from this week's CAS(E) this sketch challenge. And yes, there is a third challenge as well (three times lucky) as the The Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge this week is Winged Things. And what could be more perfect for that than the lovely and colourful swallowtail wings.

 

I stamped the Swallowtail using Hobbycraft black pigment ink and heat embossed using clear embossing powder. I coloured the image using Stampin' Up markers. The tag for the sentiment is cut using the Stampin' Up Chalk Talk framelits and the sentiment is a detail from a stamp set called Life's Messages from Penny Black. I covered the stamp apart from the one line I wanted to stamp using cellotape, inked up the stamp, removed the tape and positioned the sentiment using a Stamp-a-ma-jig. To finish off I added two small adhesive gems and then took the photo really quick before I could add something to the card...

Cardstock: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up So Saffron card
Stamps: Stampin' Up Swallowtail, Penny Black Life's Messages
Inks: Hobbycraft Black Pigment Ink, Stampin' Up markers in Blushing Bride, Pool Party, So Saffron and Wisteria Wonder
Other: Stampin' Up Chalk Talk dies, Ranger Super Fine Detail Embossing Powder, Papermania adhesive gems

Butterfly graduation card

My sister recently finished her finals for Medical School and I'm so excited that she finally has all the hard work over and done with. She has worked so hard for many years now. There is a bit less than two weeks to go until the results are announced, but it's very likely that she and her friends will graduate this summer. I don't want to jinx it for anyone, but I know she and her friends have excelled academically, so I find it very hard to believe any of them would have fallen at this last hurdle. And I'm very excited that my sister asked me to make graduation cards for her friends. So this is the first one for a friend of hers who loves butterflies. 

Usually I turn to the Stampin' Up Swallowtail stamp for butterfly cards, but if I can remember correctly, I have already made a birthday card for my sister's friend with the Swallowtail stamp. So I thought I would do something else, and I ended up using the Hobbycraft butterfly stamp. I also embossed some vellum using a folder I got with the latest issue of Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine. The embossing doesn't show very well in the picture, but you can see a few flowers if you look for them. I added some ribbon and some adhesive gems for that final touch.

When creating this card, I was inspired by this week's Color Throwdown colors as well as the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. In addition, the theme for the Card Concept this week was butterflies. They have different styles for cards, and my chosen style for this card was Classy and Elegant. I am entering the card into these three challenges.

Cardstock: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Dovecraft premium vellum 110 gsm
Inks: Stampin' Up Pistachio Pudding, Soft Sky, So Saffron
Other: Hobbycraft butterfly stamp, Tim Holtz Alterations Inside Out alphabet die, Papermania adhesive gems, blue ribbon from my stash