Colouring With Stamps

Happy Monday! Hope this will turn out to be a good week for you. I suffer from an issue that is surely troubling many of you - my day job keeps getting in the way of crafting... Anyhow, I'm blogging over on the STAMPlorations blog today showcasing a few cards I made using the "colouring with stamps" technique which Shery, the creative and talented owner of STAMPlorations has perfected to an art form. I thought I would try my hand at it, and hopefully, you will be inspired to try it too. It works best on images which don't have too many tiny and delicate details, although I love the look when the colour splotches extend a bit beyond the stamped image. If you like stamping, you will love this technique as you get to stamp a lot! If you don't have any suitable "splotchy" stamps, you can use the reverse of some small round-ish stamps, that works well too.

For my first card, I stamped the Radiant Roses in black and used stamps from Art Marks to colour in the roses using Distress Oxides. I also stamped some ink spots in the bottom part of the card, before adding the sentiment from Bold Sentiments: Hashtag Authentic.

For my second card, I stamped the French Marigold Large, and this time I used Distress Inks to colour the flower. I added a sentiment from Noteworthy 3 and splattered some green ink on the card front for added interest.

For my third card, I decided to go with pastel colours. I stamped the Classic Calla Lilies along the long side of the card, before again using the splotch stamps from Art Marks to colour the florals with Distress Inks. The sentiment is from Noteworthy 3.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Radiant Roses, Art Marks, Bold Sentiments: Hashtag Authentic, French Marigold Large, Noteworthy 3, Classic Calla Lilies
Inks: Tim Holtz Distress Oxides and Inks

There are some fantastic offers in the STAMPlorations store in August. Don't forget to check them out if you are looking to extend your crafty stash.
Clear Stickers are 30% off with code CLEAR30 Coloring Books are 25% off with code COLOR25 Clear Stamps* are 25% off with code STAMP25
*Excludes newly released stamps. Codes may be used multiple times per customer throughout promotion period. All 3 codes may be used together in one order. BYOCS/Stamp club subscribers: use your personal coupon code with the codes for 50% to 70% off on qualifying items + your free shipping code on your order of at least $30.

March STAMPlorations TAG challenge - Spring

Welcome to the STAMPlorations March TAGplorations challenge. Our theme is spring, with an optional twist of birds. Is it getting spring-y where you are? I love March as spring starts to show just a little bit with nature turning green and early spring flowers shyly make their way above ground. Thank you for playing along with our February Love challenge, you certainly made it hard to pick our favourites! 

I started by stamping Hummingbird - Large onto watercolour paper and coloured him with Gansai Tambi watercolour and pearl watercolours. For the background, I watercoloured through the Honeycomb Delight Mini stencil and then went a bit overboard with splattering lots of watercolour onto the remaining tag for interest. The sentiments are from Bold Sentiments: Hashtag Authentic and Noteworthy 2.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Hummingbird - Large, Bold Sentiments: Hashtag Authentic, Noteworthy 2
Stencil: ARTplorations Honeycomb Delight Mini
Dies: CUTplorations Luggage 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.

February STAMPlorations challenges - Mid-Month Reminder

Hi, how are you? Can you believe we have already made it halfway through February? This is your official and only reminder that you have less than two weeks to play along with our STAMPlorations February challenges (that's the difficulty with the shortest month of the year, less time to play along with challenges. 

My first card is for the February CAS challenge where the colour twist is Cerulean Blue. I used Deepti's stunning stamp set Live, Love, Ride. I coloured the gorgeous horse with Gansai Tambi blue water colours, and had a lot of fun splattering the colours and making a mess in general. I added a sentiment using Bold Sentiments: Hashtag Authentic and die cut the panel using Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies.

My second project is for our February TAGploratoins challenge where the theme is love. I used  the gorgeous stamp from Becca's Funny Kinda Love, the background is created by painting Gansai Tabi pearl pink watercolour through the ARTplorations Hearts All Over Mini stencil and the tag was cut using Stitched Tags Nesting Dies. 

I made a prototype for the blue horse card, but it didn't turn out quite how I wanted it. However, it helped me get to the card at the top, so it wasn't a complete waste of time after all.

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.

February STAMPlorations CAS Challenge - Cerulean Blue

Happy February! We got through the first month of the year and already the days are getting just that little bit longer. As usual, a new month means a new CAS challenge over on the STAMPlorations blog. This month our optional colour twist is Cerulean Blue. 

You know the old saying "You never know what you have until you clean your craft room"? Well, I have been in major clearing out mood. Not quite sure why (and no, I haven't watched the Marie Kodo Netflix series...). Anyhow, I listed a big bunch of old crafty stuff on eBay. And I discovered a few envelopes of the narrow and long persuasion. I felt like I wanted to create some long and narrow cards to fit the envelopes and then send the cards off and that would get rid of those weirdly shaped envelopes. What a cunning plan, right?

I used my current favourite flower stamp set, STAMPlorations Bloom Doodles, to create a row of flowers which I coloured with Gansai Tambi watercolours. I stamped one of the flowers on the envelope too. I then die cut the sentiment using CUTplorations Fabulous Word Die directly from the front panel, careful to keep track of all the small pieces of the die cut. I then attached the die cut using 3D foam pads. So you can just about make out the sentiment, it's very subtle. I really love the look. I hope this has inspired you to play along with us over at STAMPlorations CAS challenge. And if you played along in our January challenge, don't forget to check in on the 10th when we reveal all the winners for all our January challenges and blog hops!

I'm linking up my card over at CAS Mix Up where the theme is dimensional die cuts (I promise my sentiment is attached with 3D foam pads, I just didn't quite manage to capture the dimension in my photo). My "your choice" is watercolour and masking.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Bloom Doodles,  Bold Sentiments: Hashtag Authentic

Dies: CUTplorations Fabulous Word Die

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versafine Onyx Black, Gansai Tambi watercolours

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.