Steampunk or Punk a$$

Well I can safely say today's card is way out of my comfort zone. But hey, it's fun to mix it up a bit form time to time, right? The challenge over at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers is "G is for gears" with a theme of steampunk. I'm never sure what steampunk really is. All I know is it's all about gears and men in top hats. Ok, so gears and top hats it is then! I started by inking up my Tim Holtz Steampunk embossing folder with Vintage Photo and Ground Espresso Distress Inks, and ran a piece of cardstock through my Big Shot. Then I inked the embossed gears using Hickory Smoke ink, adding a bit of shadow around the edges using Black Soot. Then I used a brush to add some Perfect Pearls on the gears as well. Next, I stamped one of Tim's Crazy Birds and some paraphernalia from the Crazy Things, coloured it all with Copics and die cut using matching dies. Last, I created the sentiments using Lawn Fawn Violet's ABCs and STAMPlorations Sketchy Alphabet and distressed the edges of the sentiments and the embossed panel. I also added some Vintage Photo and Ground Espresso ink to the edges of the sentiments. I matted the whole shebang onto black card.

I'm also linking up with Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme is Make Your Own Background, Little Red Wagon where the theme is "Mainly Manly", Left of Center where the theme is "Big Eyes", Craft Rocket Challenges where the theme is "Feathers or Fur" and  Craft Your Passion where Anything Goes

Card: 300 gsm black card, 300 gsm white textured card, scraps of Tim Holtz Core'dinations card and a scrap of a homemade coloured card made with Distress Paints
Ink and colouring: Tim Holtz Distress Ink Vintage Photo, Early Espresso and Black Soot, Tsukineko Versamark and Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics
Stamps: Tim Holtz Bird Crazy and Crazy Things and matching dies, STAMPlorations Sketchy Alphabet, Lawn Fawn Violet's ABCs
Other: Perfect Pearls, Steampunk embossing folder, black glittery embossing powder, Tim Holtz Distress tool

Chikoo Goes Bananas

Today we are having a special blog hop to celebrate the release of Deepti's new super cute stamp set called Chikoo Goes Bananas for her STAMPlorations line Dee's Artsy Impressions. I couldn't stop at one or even two cards as I was having so much fun with the adorable little monkeys and their bananas.

You can hop over to the release post on the STAMPlorations blog to see what our other designers have created using this set. And the best part is, Shery is also giving away the stamp set to one lucky winner who has commented on one of the blogs in the hop. You don't have to comment on all the blogs along the hop, but the more comments you leave the more chances you have in the draw. The commenting will be open until 11:55 p.m. Pacific on April 11th (that's 7:55 am on April 12th GMT), and the winner will be announced on the 13th.

You can find the Chikoo Goes Bananas set in the STAMPlorations store here, and for one week (until March 16th) it will be 10% off! 

Keep calm and buy shoes

Yesterday I have finally conquered the mess of the craft room! I feel like I should give myself a gold star. I can see my desk again. And even craft without just pushing stuff further to the side, as I have been doing for weeks if not months. And it wasn't just putting stuff in their places, it was the whole nine yards with dusting and even moving the sofa and vacuuming behind there. So what better way to celebrate the clean craft room than doing a bit of stamping? And of course put all the stuff back in their place after finishing. I feel very smug!

Today's card is inspired by the sketch over at Retro Sketches and the colours over at ColourQ. I decided to keep things really simple, just the super fun STAMPlorations A Girl and Her Shoes stamp set and a stencil from Stampin' Up. I'm also linking up with Unicorn Challenge where the theme is CAS and this is also my third entry in Darnell's NBUS challenge (NBUS stencil which has been in my drawer for ages and ages...). 

Card: 300 gsm textured card, Neenah Solar white card
Stamps: STAMPlorations A Girl and Her Shoes
Ink: Stampin' Up Slate Grey, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Peacock Feathers, Blueprint Sketch and Mermaid Lagoon
Other: Stampin' Up stencil of unknown name

Spring has sprung

I guess we are well into spring already as the daffodils are out. But it's also really cold and we just had a touch of hail so maybe it's not quite spring yet... Anyhow, it's spring in the craft room with some daffodils and narcissi on the windowsill and bright colours in the watercolour palette. 

Today's card was inspired by a couple of challenges with a spring theme. First of all, it was inspired by the elemental inspiration image over at Daring Cardmakers. I was inspired by the spring flowers (I don't have a tulip stamp so Narcissi it was this time), the colour scheme of yellow, green and wood, and the woodgrain on the table as well as the large letters. I was also inspired by the Easter/spring theme over at Time Out. There is also an optional twist of masking, and I chose to include the twist by masking the stamped image when I inked through the woodgrain stencil. Time Out is also celebrating 2 years of challenges, happy birthday to Time Out and here's to many more! I'm also very excited to link up with the brand new CAS Mix Up challenge. The theme for the first CAS Mix Up challenge is stamping + watercolouring + your choice. I choose masking and stencilling as my choices. I'm also linking up with Just Us Girls where the theme is flowers and Darnell's fabulous NBUS challenge which is already on round 6. Lots of NBUS on this card; STAMPlorations Narcissus stamp, the Weathered Wood stencil and the Sketchy Alphabet stamps are all out and about for the first time, but most certainly not the last. 

I started by stamping the STAMPlorations Narcissus stamp in Antique Linen and watercolouring with my Gansai Tambis. Then I masked the flowers and inked Vintage Photo through the STAMPlorations Weathered Wood stencil. Last, I used the Sketchy Alphabet from STAMPlorations to spell Spring in green ink, and I completed the sentiment using the Stampin' Up Alphabet Rotary stamp, and a stamp from the Mixed Media Elements set.

Card: 300 gsm textured white card

Stamps: STAMPlorations Narcissus Large, Mixed Media Elements and Sketchy Alphabet, Stampin' Up Alphabet Rotary stamp

Ink and colouring: Tim Holtz distress inks Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, Stampin' Up Pear Pizzazz, Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolours

Other: STAMPlorations Weathered Wood stencil

Northern lights and puffy clouds

Saturday morning means cleaning the house time in the craft room. I'm having a quiet morning as the Culinary Consultant had to go for some work. I'm planning a lazy weekend with a bit of domestic stuff and maybe cuddling down with a big cup of coffee and a good book. Maybe a bit of chocolate... Any good book recommendations? I just finished 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' and it was a really great read, could hardly put it down. I seem to have very short attention span with fiction these days, I much prefer biographies. Another really good book I've read lately is 'Travelling to Infinity', which is written by Stephen Hawking's first wife. I read all through the night!

Today I was inspired by a few challenges and ended up with a night sky and northern lights. I seem to be on a night sky inspiration streak after my night sky and feathers card yesterday. My first inspiration was the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. I was also inspired by the colours over at The Friday Mashup, and thought they would be perfect for some Northern lights. I was also inspired by the Silhouette theme over at House of Cards, and the 'No White Paper' theme over at Shopping Our Stash. Last, but certainly not least I'm playing along with the fabulous Darnell's 6th NBUS challenge. My NBUS is the lovely Tree Silhouettes stamp set from STAMPlorations.

I started by inking some Neenah Solar card in Tim Holtz Peacock Feathers, Victorian Velvet, Spun Sugar and Picked Raspberry. Then I added Black Soot ink to create the night sky. I used a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die to cut the background. Next, I stamped the pretty Tree Silhouettes in black to the bottom of the night sky. Last, I die cut some vellum using the Lawn Fawn Puffy Cloud Border dies, stamped a sentiment in Versamark and heat embossed in white embossing powder. As a last touch, I added some start with a white gel pen, and a few rhinestones, and attached everything to black card. 

Card: Black 300 gsm card, Neenah Solar card, Dovecraft premium vellum

Ink: Tim Hotlz Distress Inks Peacock Feathers, Victorian Velvet, Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry, Black Soot and Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black and Versamark

Stamps: STAMPlorations Tree Silhouettes

Dies: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Puffy Cloud Border dies

Other: White gel pen, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, adhesive rhinestones from my stash 

Feathers and a night sky

Finally Friday! I was going to leave work early, and at 3pm I thought I would just quickly update our weekly sheets to have it all done for Monday, and then of course I found an error, and then it was six pm... At least the Friday traffic had eased up a bit by then! So as soon as I came home I headed to the craft room for a bit of snake cuddles followed by crafting. 

Today's card was inspired by the inspiration image over at Pinterest Inspired Challenge and the colours over at Color Throwdown and the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I started by colouring some watercolour paper with my Gansai Tambi's and die cut the sentiment and feathers. I inked up a bit of the Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours Speciality DSP with black distress ink and die cut it with a Lawn Fawn Puffy Cloud Border die. I need to use more black, I love how it sets off the colours. 

Card: 300 gsm textured card, 190 gsm watercolour paper

Ink and colouring: Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolours, Tim Holtz Black Soot distress ink

Paper: Stampin' Up Irresistibly Yours Speciality DSP

Dies: Stampin' Up Four Feathers, Lawn Fawn Thinking About You border die, Fluffy Cloud border die

March STAMPlorations CAS challenge - Anything Goes with Yellow

Have you managed to get your head around the fact that it's March already? I haven't, I hardly accepted that it's 2016 yet, not to mention that we are almost a quarter into the year already. Today is the first Thursday of the month, and that is of course the day when we are happy to reveal a new CAS challenge for you to dig your teeth (or maybe stamps and stencils) into on the STAMPlorations website. Thank you to all of you who shared your gorgeous creations with us last month for our Red challenge, it was so hard to pick our favourites. Shery is preparing the winner's post as we speak so make sure you head to the STAMPlorations website in a few days to see if you are one of them!

This month's challenge is Anything Goes with an optional colour twist of Yellow. Perfect for your Easter/Spring themed cards, right? STAMPlorations products are not required for participation, but we always love to see them in your crafty work if you have any. One randomly picked winner will receive a $10 gift certificate to the STAMPlorations shop ($15 if using STAMPlorations products), and the DT will also vote on favourites who get to display the top pick badge on their blog! Don't forget that to be eligible for the price we ask you to display the challenge graphic (the thing right below this line of text!) in your blog post and to link back to the CAS challenge page so others can join in the fun too!

For my card I used the Bloom Sketches stamp set. This is the stamp set that made me fall in love with the gorgeous stamps from STAMPlorations and it's one of my most used stamp sets. I started by stamping the flower in Staz-On ink and cover it with a mask. I then decided to add a bit of inking through a stencil as well. Actually two stencils, as I created a rectangle window home-made stencil by die cutting using a rectangular die, and then added that on top of the STAMPlorations Retro Circles stencil before using sponges to ink with Tim Holtz distress inks in Squeezed Lemonade, Cracked Pistachio and Twisted Citron. After removing the masks, I watercoloured the flower with various yellow Distress Inks and added a bit of Vintage Photo to the centre. Last, I stamped one of the sentiments from Bloom Sketches in black. This is all a one-layer card, and I used linen textured card to add a bit of texture and interest to it all. Now it's your turn to show us your creative CAS cards.

I'm linking up with the following challenges:
CAS on Sunday - One Layer Wonder
Unicorn Challenge - CAS 
Freshly Brewed Challenges - Spring
Little Red Wagon - Layer of One
The Artistic Stamper - Springtime

Card: 300 gsm white linen textured card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Bloom Sketches
Stencil: STAMPlorations Retro Circles  
Ink: Tsukineko Staz-On Jet Black, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Cracked Pistachio, Fossilized Amber, Mustard Seed, Squeezed Lemonade, Twisted Citron and Vintage Photo

Disclaimer: I have received some STAMPlorations products for free in exchange for creating cards for the challenge. All opinions however are completely my own. As you can see by browsing my blog, I have been using STAMPlorations products (which I bought myself) way before my time on the DT and I wouldn't recommend them unless I absolutely loved them myself.