Happy Father's Day

I've been in search of my mojo lately but I did manage to put together a Father's day card for my Father in law. I created the background by watercolour blending Distress Inks, and I hand lettered the sentiment. I stamped some critters from Lawn Fawn sets, coloured them with Copics and fussy cut them. Quick, easy and cheery.

I'm linking up with the Lawn Fawnatics challenge where the theme is Cards for Guys.

Card: 300 gsm Daler&Rowney watercolour paper, Hobbycraft 190 gsm white card, white linen textured card

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Party Animal, Critters In the Jungle

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Inks Twisted Citron, Cracked Pistachio, Mermaid Lagoon, Blueprint Sketch, Copics

Other: STAMPlorations Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies

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.

Let The Heavy Stuff Go

I've had been deeply contemplating the following question today: How many feather stamp sets does a girl need? After much deliberation, I have come to the following answer: "One more feather stamp set you need" (said in the voice of Yoda). Currently, this is my favourite one (it's STAMPlorations Feathery). Tomorrow, how knows?

I was inspired by the beautiful inspiration image over at Inspired by All the Small Things. I probably need not say more. I'm also linking up over at CAS on Friday where the theme is Embossing and at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where Anything Goes this week. I heat embossed the feathers in gunmetal embossing powder and watercoloured the feathers using Distress Inks. Last, I stamped and heat embossed one of the sentiments from Noteworthy 2 and fussy cut part of the sentiment banner. Note to self, I need to get a lighter weight black card, the one I have is super heavy and really tricky to fussy-cut, and thanks to the magic of eBay I hope I will have some early next week.

Card: 300 gsm Daler&Rowney watercolor paper, silver grey card base, scrap of black card

Stamps: STAMPlorations Feathery, Noteworthy 2

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz Distress Inks 

Other: Gunmetal embossing powder (no brand) and Wow Opaque Bright White Super Fine embossing powde

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.