STAMPlorations Birthday - Birthday Cover Plate Dies

Happy Friday! It's been quite a week, I have had so much fun celebrating six years of STAMPlorations. Happy (slightly belated) birthday STAMPlorations, here's to many more! Congrats to Shery and David for making your business a success. Your products are the best, and I'm glad to see your hard work pay off and wish you all the best for the future. I'm so honoured to be part of your STAMPfamily. 

Today it's the last day of new festive product releases and I'm joining fellow design team members over on the STAMPlorations blog to showcase two new Zen Doodles birthday dies. And you still have plenty of time to celebrate with us to win great prizes. You can comment on the blog posts and the designer's blogs, you can link up to the Wishlist Linky Party or share your birthday- or celebration themed creations in the Birthday Linky Party. The linky parties are open until November 5th so you still have a few weeks to play along!

 

My first card is a Christmas card I created using Zen Doodled Birthday Gifts Cover Plate die. I die cut the plate three times - once in brown, once in red and once in green. I attached the brown outline onto white card, and paper pieced some of the areas in green, red and brown. I added a sentiment using the new Joy Christmas sentiment stamp set.

For my second card I went, as my dear sister put it, 'a bit psychedelic'. I die cut the plate twice, once in a shimmery grey card and once in a watercolour card. I watercoloured the latter before taking it apart, and paper pieced the whole card into the grey frame. Depending on your personality type, you will either find this completely infuriating or very mediative. I am, as you can guess, of the latter type. I die cut the sentiment using the Celebrate word die in black, attached it to a scrap of vellum and added stickles for that little bit of extra bling.

For my last card, I used a die cut of the plate as a stencil. I inked throuhg it using Distrss Oxides and added a sticker from Birthday Word Art for the sentiment. Last, I added some rainbow washi tape to frame the main image.

That's it, that's the end of the STAMPlorations Sixth Birthday Bash. I feel like it's the morning after the party - the kitchen is full of dirty dishes and various leftovers, and there are a few strange stains on the carpet. It's time to put the dishes in the washer, take out the stain remover and think back of all the fun while clearing out the mess. I need to take a breather for a few days, clear out my craft room and re-set my brain for new projects but there are already lots of fun ideas which are bubbling under the surface.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Joy

Dies: CUTplorations Zen Doodled Birthday Gifts Cover Plate die, Celebrate word die

Stickers: STAMPlorations Birthday Word Art Clear Stickers

STAMPlorations Inspiration

Today is a special post for me, as I can reveal that I am now officially part of the STAMPlorations Inspiration team. I'm so excited to join the incredibly talented designers who have inspired me to start creating with STAMPlorations products many years ago and still blow my mind with every one of their gorgeous creations. I feel slightly out of place among them, but I'm so happy I get to share the projects I enjoy making using all the STAMPlorations products I have come to love so much over the years. On top of everything, all the ladies on the Inspiration team are super nice too!

For my first Inspiration project, I have used the Bloomtangled 2 Cover Plate Die. I find it so relaxing to assemble cards using the cover plate dies. I started by die cutting the cover plate in black to form the frame for the flowers. Then I die cut it a second time from watercolour paper and watercoloured that version using Distress Oxides. I then assembled them, piece by piece into the black frame. I find the process almost meditative. Just me, a cup of coffee, a good podcast and a pair of tweezers.

As always, you can win a gift certificate over on the STAMPlorations blog. If you comment on the Inspiration team blog posts, you are entering in a draw to win a $10 gift certificate.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Llama Tell You 

Dies: CUTplorations Bloomtangled 2 Cover Plate Die, Happy Word die

Colouring: Distress Oxides

Currently, there are several great promotions in the STAMPlorations store, including a great offer if you want to pre-order the new dies which will be available in October. You can find all the promotions summarised on the Promotions Page. You can also find great discounts on dies and stamps.

May STAMPlorations TAG challenge - All About Mom

It's time to get your tags ready for the May TAGplorations challenge! This month the theme is All About Mom. There is also an optional twist of vellum, which I decided not to use this time.

I started by cutting a tag from kraft card using the Stitched Tags Nesting Dies. I also die cut a piece of scrap card using the Bloomtangled #1 Cover Plate Die which I then used as a stencil. I coloured thought the makeshift stencil using Distress Crayons and used my fingers to smudge the colours. I then added some splatters by painting using gold watercolour through Dots All Over. I created the sentiment by die cutting using Thinking Of You Phrase Die from grey card, and fussy cut the "you" from that sentiment. I then stamped the LOVE from Trendy Butterflies onto a scrap of light blue card and doodled using a black marker. I added leftover blue and violet ribbon from my stash. 

Stamps: STAMPlorations Trendy Butterflies

Dies: CUTplorations Bloomtangled #1 Cover Plate Die, Stitched Tags Nesting Dies, Thinking Of You Phrase Die

Stencils: ARTplorations Dots All Over

Ink and colouring: Tim Holtz Distress Crayons, Tsukineko Versamark Onyx Black, Gansai Tambi Starry Colours

Don't forget the Things With Wings sale in the STAMPlorations store, and my discount code STAMPGIRLKAROLA which will give you a 20% discount. Lots of good reasons to stock up on new crafty goodies for spring!