STAMPlorations Inspiration

Just a quick post today to show you what I have created for this week's STAMPlorations Inspiration Post. A warm mug full of Christmas wishes! I started by inking Distress Ink through the ARTplorations Christmas Tree 1 stencil. I used the Zen Coffee Cup Layering Dies to die cut and paper piece the mug. I think it looks a bit like a poinsettia. To create the sentiment, I heat embossed words from Joyful in copper and die cut the Christmas in red card using Christmas Sentiments.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Joyful
Stencil: ARTplorations Christmas Tree 1
Dies: CUTplorations  Christmas Sentiments, Zen Coffee Cup Layering Dies
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Shabby Shutters


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More Coffee Lovers Fall/Winter 2019 Blog hop

I'm having so much fun creating with my STAMPlorations for the Zen Coffee Cups Layering Dies for the Coffee Lovers Fall/Winter Blog Hop that I couldn't stop at the one project I made the other day. I chose another die and paper pieced it using Tim Holtz Distress card. I find it so incredibly meditative to pick up those tiny little pieces of card and put them together into beautiful projects. A good cup of coffee, a few biscuits, a nice podcast and me and my tweezers. Saturday morning bliss is what it is! This time I added a sentiment from Coffee Happy and used the Dots n' Beans stencil to create the background for my card.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Coffee Happy

Dies: CUTplorations Zen Coffee Cups Layering Dies

Stencil: ARTplorations Dots n' Beans

Ink and colouring: Tim Holtz Distress Ink Vintage Photo, Ground Espresso, Tsukineko Versamark

STAMPlorations Inspiration

Happy Tuesday! Tuesday has become my favourite day of the week as I get to share a new crafting project and see what the other ladies of the Inspiration team have created over on the STAMPlorations blog for our weekly Inspiration post. 

Today I wanted to share a card I made using the fun Zen Coffee Cup Layering dies. I started by Die cutting the mug from dark brown card, and then a second time from watercolour card. I coloured the watercolour version with Gansai Tambi watercolours and paper pieced them into the brown frame. I heat embossed the fun sentiment from Coffeeology in copper onto vellum and splattered some brown ink for added interest. 

Don't forget to comment on the  STAMPlorations Inspiration post for a chance to win a $10 gift certificate to the STAMPlorations store.

I'm linking up my card with the following challenges:

Cardz 4 Galz - Vellum 

Allsorts Challenge - Autumn

Dream Valley Challenges - Autumn colours

Creativ Fusion - Autumn

Stamps: STAMPlorations Coffeeology 

Dies: CUTplorations Zen Coffee Cup Layering dies

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versamark, Gansai Tambi Watercolours

Also, don't forget to check out all the current STAMPlorations promotion here, including the End Of Summer Super Sale and so much more.

More Bloomtangled Cards

A while ago I did a lot of die cutting using the STAMPlorations Bloomtangled #1 Cover Plate die to create a card for STAMPloration's 5th birthday. That left me with loads and loads of leftover die cuts. What a great excuse to do some more paper piecing!! Using the bits and bobs I put together three cards in the spirit of recycling and making use of those left over die cut pieces.

I was inspired by the floral image over at Just Us Girls, and I'm also linking up with the J is for Junk challenge over at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers (although no snark this time, sorry!). I'm also linking up over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where Anything Goes this week.

After the relaxing paper piecing, I die cut sentiments using STAMPlorations dies in gold mirri card, and added some sequins from my stash to the first card for the extra bling factor. 

Card: various coloured card from my stash, 200 gsm white card, gold mirri card

Dies: STAMPlorations Bloomtangled #1 Cover Plate die, Thanks word die, Celebrate word die, Feel Better Soon Phrase die

Other: gold sequins from my stash

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.

New STAMPlorations Bloomtangled dies

I'm very excited to show you today's projects. They are part of the latest release over at STAMPlorations which consists of some absolutely fabulous dies. You may have seen Shery's Bloomtangled colouring book last year. I had so much fun colouring the gorgeous flowers and created several layouts in last year's Bullet Journal using the images. Today, I'm so happy to show you three projects created with plate dies Shery created using her gorgeous flowery doodles - and there are so many ways of using these dies. You can see more inspiration from the other ladies of the DT over on the STAMPlorations blog.  In addition to to the gorgeous plate dies Shery is also releasing new sentiment dies so you can die cut to your heart's content!!

For my first card, I cut white card using the Bloomtangled plate die and removed all the pieces. Then I used foam applicators to ink the die cut in various colours, blending as I went along. Then I sprinkled water onto the inked die cut to oxidise the inks. Then I adhered the die cut to some black card, added Ice Stickles to some of the flower petals. I die cut the sentiment from gold glitter card and added a few super cute heart shaped sequins as a finishing touch. 

My two other cards are mirror images of each other. First a word of warning, you should only undertake paper piecing using intricate die cuts if you find fiddly things relaxing. I absolutely loved putting these cards together but it took many hours and lots of dexterity with my beautiful pink craft tweezers (you absolutely need them to handle the tiny little pieces). If chasing tiny, lost pieces of card is not your idea of a relaxing craft sesh, you may want to look into other ways of using these dies. I started by die cutting the "frame" for the image once in white and once in black. I adhered the white frame to black card, and the black frame to white card. Then I die cut the plate twice, once using a purple and pink ombre card and another time in a blue/green ombre card. I really carefully slid both the coloured die cuts only scrap pieces of paper, trying to keep as many of the die cut pieces in their place as possible. Then it was just a case of starting to adhere the die cut pieces to the frames I had created, varying the colours. You need to be quite careful not to have an open window, a fan, sneeze or even breathe heavily close to the die cut pieces as I don't think you really would be able to find the right places for the pieces if they got severely scrambled. I absolutely love the look of these cards and they gave me several hours of great craft therapy time! I decided to leave the cards really plain to let the fun piecing be the star of the show and I only added the shimmery sentiments with no other embellishments.

You can win a gift card to the STAMPlorations shop by commenting on the main blog post and the designer's posts. And if you want another chance at winning, link up any project you have with a spring or faith theme to the March Challenge - All about Spring and Faith.

Card: white shimmer card, black card, various rainbow coloured card for paper piecing, purple, turquoise and gold glitter card from my stash
Ink and colouring: Distress Oxides
Dies: STAMPlorations Bloomtangled plate dies, Feel Better Soon phrase die, Thinking of You phrase die, Celebrate word die
Other: Ranger Ice Stickles, Heart sequins 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.

Paper Pieced Flowers

With summer in full swing I am inspired by all the lovely flowers everywhere. This card was also inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch and the colours over at Color Throwdown. How amazing aren't those colours, I just knew I had to play along this time. I was also inspired by the paper piecing challenge over at Just Add Ink and The Thank You theme over at Clean And Simple On Sunday. Although just a little tip - if you are planning on doing paper piecing, be sure to pick a stamp that DOESN'T have a gazillion pieces which are all the size of a grain of sand or somewhere thereabouts... this required a lot of patience and there may have been some swearing and a lot of glue sticking to my hands. 

It should be quite obvious what happened here - I started by die cutting the frame and then stamping the triangular flower arrangement inspired by the sketch. I then proceeded to fussy cut all the required pieces. I'm a bit gutted that I didn't have any patterned paper with a slightly lighter purple to better match the challenge colours but all you can do is make use of what you have at hand. Last I die cut the sentiment and then went on to the puzzle of adhering every little piece. It would have been impossible to know which leaf fit where except I cleverly arranged everything in place as I was cutting, so it was just a case of picking each piece up with tweezers and adding glue. I keep questioning myself about the sentiment, maybe I should have gone for a banner instead to be closer to the sketch, but I think this works quite well too.

Card: 300 gsm linen textured white card

Stamps: Stampin' Up So Very Grateful

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka Mon Amie, Let's Polka in the Meadow, Let's Polka in the Dark

Dies: Lawn Fawn Scripty Thanks die and Stitched Rectangle Frame die

Posted with Blogsy

Holly Jolly - Frame It

It's time for a new challenge over at Holly Jolly. For the next two weeks we are challenging you to "Frame It". If you aren't sure how to get started, the DT has plenty of inspiration for you. We are already in June, and there is less than half a year left until Christmas. Now is a perfect time to slowly start going with the Christmas crafting if you haven't started yet. And if you already started, well done, and keep going. Don't forget to link up with us to show you how you have "Framed It". 

Our generous sponsors this time are A Day for Daisies and Lacy Sunshine. Our sponsors have provided digis for the DT to play with and you can see our interpretations over at Holly Jolly.

For my card, I got to play with the cute Scotty Mistletoe A digi from A Day for Daisies. I decided to print the digi onto watercolour paper and paper piece his little coat from the same DSP I used for the die cut frames. I watercoloured Scotty and the mistletoe using distress inks and a waterbrush. I chose a sentiment from the Stampin' Up Endless Wishes set and stamped it in one of the colours from the DSP. I also chose the card to match one of the colours from the DSP. 

I would like to share my card with the following challenges:

Come and Get It Challenges - Paper Piecing 

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Use Some Blue

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes

Sparkles Christmas Challenges - Christmas Animals

ABC Christmas Challenge - K is for Keep It Simple

Sweet Stampin' Christmas - Cute Christmas

ABC Challenges - K is for Kritters

Card: Stampin' Up Soft Sky, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper

Paper: Stampin' Up Nordic Noel DSP

Stamps: A Day for Daisies Scotty Mistletoe A, Stampin' Up Endless Wishes

Inks: Distress Inks Black Soot, Fired Brick, Peeled Paint, Stampin' Up Calypso Coral

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Dies

Newsprint balloon

I'm popping in for a very quick post this evening, as we have enjoyed our traditional Valentine's day Venison dinner with the Culinary Consultant today. We didn't get to enjoy our traditional dinner yesterday on V-day as we were off to a wedding. 

I loved this week's ColourQ challenge, and wanted to create a card for it. I was not only inspired by the colours but also by the balloon theme in the inspiration picture, so I chose to use my lovely Tim Holtz balloon stamp. I stamped onto real newspaper and paper pieced the balloon part of the image. I wanted to keep the card really minimal so the beautiful stamp would be the main focus, and I think it turned out quite nice, although I only had a short time to spend in the craft room today. I would also like to link up at Fashionable Stamping where the theme is Black and White with a hint of red, Open Minded Crafting Fun Challenges where the theme is Up In The Air, Sweet Stampin' where the theme is inspired by a song (Frank Sinatra - Come Fly With Me) and last but not least Lil Patch of Crafty Friends where Anything Goes. 

Card: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card black and ruby red, 300 gsm white card
Paper: newspaper
Stamps: Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Remnants CMS130
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black
Colouring: Copic R240
Other: Stampin' Up Hello You thinlits die

Holly Jolly Challenge - Lots of Sparkle

Have you started your Christmas cards yet? Why are you giving me that look, like I'm crazy? Let me tell you, nothing like starting now and making a card or two a week. And while you make them, why not share them with us over at Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge. If you joined our first challenge, we do love looking at your fabulous creations. If you didn't, hop on the bandwagon for our second challenge of the year, which is all about Lots of Sparkle. You can find lots of inspiration from the awesome DT. And as usual, there are also a great prizes from our fabulous sponsors. This time our sponsors are The Stamping Boutique, Sami Stamps  and Oddball Art who are all giving three digis to one winner each. In addition, the DT will pick three favourite creations who will receive a badge to proudly display on your blog.

For my card I chose the super cute Holly Owl digi from Sami Stamps. I decided to do something slightly different this time and paper pieced the owl instead of colouring him. 

I started by printing the image onto white paper and creating the background. First I stamped the snowflakes using Versamark and heat embossed using clear embossing powder. Then I coloured the background using Tim Holtz distress inks Broken China, Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans and Dusty Concord. 

I tried my best to try and show the holographic embossing around the
edges of the card, although it was quite hard to photograph.

Next, I printed the owl onto brown and green DSP and fussy cut the pieces and assembled the owl, holly and branch from the pieces. I cut the eyes out from white paper and coloured the eyes using Copics. I stamped the sentiment using Versamark and heat embossed in white. 

Then for the "Lots of Sparkle" bit. I inked the edges of the card using Versamark and embossed using Holographic embossing powder. I also added red rhinestones to the holly. Last, I used the Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflake dies to cut out snowflakes from white cardstock, and added stickles for even more sparkle. I matted the card onto brown cardstock and adhered to a blue card. I printed a sentiment for the inside and embossed some snowflakes and inked around the edges. 

I'm entering the card in the following challenges:

House of Cards - Glitter and/or colours and/or inspiration photo

Christmas Cards All Year Round - Anything Goes

Completely Christmas - Anything Goes with twist: Make it Cute

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Winter Stamping

Sparkles Christmas Challenges - A Christmas Critter with a Splash of Glitter

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes

Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes

Crafting From The Heart - Anything Goes

Sparkle N Sprinkle - Use loose glitter, embossing powder and/or flocking

Sami Stamps Challenge - Add a touch of glitter

Inspiration photo over at House of Cards

Cardstock: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card Navy and Chocolate, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Stamp: Holly Owl digi from Sami Stamps, Lawn Fawn Critters from the Arctic, Dovecraft Clear Stamps S'Noel

Inks: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz distress inks Broken China, Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans and Dusty Concord, Copics B00, B04

Papers: Dovecraft Merry Magic 8x8 Designer Paper Pack

Other: Ranger ultra fine clear embossing powder, Papermania Holographica and Seafoam White embossing powders, Papermania adhesive rhinestones, Lawn Fawn Stitched Snowflake dies, Ranger Ice Stickles Blueberry ice