STAMPlorations Inspiration

 

Hi fellow crafter, thank you for visiting my blog today. How are you? What have you been crafting lately? I'm here today to share my creation for this week's STAMPlorations Inspiration Post. Every Tuesday I have the pleasure to join my fellow Inspiration team members to share our latest projects made with our favourite new and old STAMPlorations products. I hope our projects inspire you to be creative too, using your favourite crafty techniques.

For today's card, I've stepped a bit outside of my comfort zone and gently dabbled in some mixed media techniques. I started with a background I created by smooshing Distress Oxides. A while ago I created a bunch of backgrounds using randomly drawn colours and this was one that I liked quite a bit. I used one of the For the Birds Dies and I also die cut the sentiment from the same panel using  Everyday Sentiments Dies. I created a card background by inking brown distress inks through one of my favourite stencils, Retro Circles and then adhered the die cut pieces to my card. 

Dies: CUTplorations For the Birds Dies, Everyday Sentiments Dies
Stencil: ARTplorations Retro Circles
Ink and colouring: Distress Oxides, Distress Inks

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.

Note that as a STAMPlorations affiliate, I get a small commission on any orders you place in the STAMPlorations store using the links in my blog post or my coupon code STAMPGIRLKAROLA. This is at no added cost to you. Thank you for your support to keep my craft addiction going :) 

STAMPlorations Inspiration

Happy Tuesday, it's time for another Inspiration Post over at STAMPlorations! How is your autumn going? I can't believe we just blasted in November. I hardly got to the point where I got accustomed to writing 2019 and now we are only weeks away from Christmas and having to learn yet another year. At least next year should be easy to remember... 2020. That feels so futuristic. I guess the future is now.

Anyhow, after that dose of philosophical thought it's time for something more crafty. This week I had lots of fun with Distress Inks. I created a background using purples and blues and splattered with water. I inked up another piece of card using pinks and browns, and after splattering it with water, I die cut it with For the Birds Dies and finished the card with a sentiment from a discontinued stamp set.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Tree Silhouettes (discontinued)

Dies: CUTplorations For the Birds Dies
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz Distress Inks

Don't forget to check out the super November discounts in the STAMPlorations store (and you can use my discount code STAMPGIRLKAROLA for 20% off full price items and 20% extra in the coffee lovers sale)

March STAMPlorations challenges - Mid-Month Reminder

This year just keeps speeding through. Can you believe we are halfway through March already! It's great to move into warmer weather though, isn't it? Have you had time to play along with our STAMPlorations March challenges yet? If not, don't worry as you still have a few more week's to play along. If you played along earlier, maybe you are inspired again and would like to share another project with us? If your mojo is lost, check in the March challenge reminder post over on the STAMPlorations blog where the design team are sharing our latest projects for inspiration!

The theme for our March TAGplorations challenge is All About Spring with an optional twist of birds. I created bird tags using Distress Oxide smooshed backgrounds I found in my UFO box. I used the Stitched Tags Nesting Dies to cut the tags, stamped one of the birds from the For the Birds stamp set using Versafine black ink and die cut the Thanks sentiment using Thanks word die from matching pieces of leftover card. The second part of the sentiment is also from the For the Birds stamp set.

The optional colour twist for the March CAS challenge is Coral Pink. I thought a coral pink scooter would be really cool so I stamped the scooter from Born To Roam and watercoloured it with Abandoned Coral and Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I added a sentiment from the same stamp set. Last, I stencilled Vintage Photo Distress Ink through the Retro Circles stencil for added interest.

Stamps: STAMPlorations For the Birds, Born To Roam
Dies: CUTplorations Stitched Tags Nesting Dies, Thanks word die
Stencil: ARTplorations Retro Circles
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versafine Onyx Black, Distress Ink, Distress Oxides

Don't forget the Spring Clean March Sale in the STAMPlorations Store, where most stamps and dies are 30% off until the end of March. 

January STAMPlorations CAS Challenge - Burgundy

It's time for the STAMPlorations January CAS challenge. Nothing like getting off to a crafty start in the new year! For our first CAS challenge this year our optional colour twist is Burgundy. I hope you are inspired to play along. Thank you to everyone who linked up to our December challenge, the gallery was full of gorgeous projects. Don't forget to check in on the STAMPlorations blog on January 10th when we reveal the winners. 

Inspired by the burgundy colour theme I decided to create a thank you card as I always need them this time of year. I used the super cute flowers from Bloom Doodles to stamp along the edge of my watercolour card front. I used Distress Inks to watercolour the flowers. I die cut the main sentiment using Thanks word die from scraps of burgundy and purple card and stamped the second part of the sentiment using a stamp from For the Birds. I then added small squares of burgundy and purple card to two diagonal corners of the card before attaching it to the card base to add interest.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Bloom Doodles, For the Birds

Dies:  CUTplorations Thanks word die

Ink: Distress ink and Tsukineko Memento Onyx Black

If you are looking to do some New Year's crafty shopping,

 you can use the discount code NY2019 for 25% 

off stamps, stencils and dies. 

For more details see the STAMPlorations store.

May STAMPlorations CAS Challenge - Things With Wings

Welcome to the STAMPlorations CAS Challenge for May. Yes, we are back to the usual challenges after a few months - I hope you enjoyed playing along with the all singing, all dancing STAMPlorations super challenge over the last few months. Now we are back with a shared theme across all STAMPlorations challenges - Things With Wings. There will be plenty of prizes and lots of extra chances to win during the month, so don't forget to check back regularly over on the STAMPlorations blog. There are also some new fabulous Things With Wings in the STAMPlorations store!

As the name suggests, we are challenging you to create a CAS project including something with wings. You don't have to use STAMPlorations products but if you have any, we always love to see how you are inspired by them! 

For my card, I started by die cutting the birds using CUTplorations For The Birds Dies. I coloured them in ombre rainbow colours with my watercolours. While the watercolours were drying, I stamped some background stamps using Mixed Media Grunge in Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain distress ink behind where I was planning to attach the birds. I also splattered some Vintage Photo ink onto the card base. Last, I die cut the sentiment using the Hugs Word die in dark brown card and attached it with 3D foam dots.

Card: White 250 gsm card, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm watercolour card, a scrap of dark brown card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Mixed Media Grunge
Dies: CUTplorations For The Birds Dies, Hugs Word die
Ink and colouring: Tim Holtz Distress Ink Walnut Stain and Vintage Photo, 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.

Thank You card with Birds

How can it be Sunday afternoon? I swear it was only Friday evening a few hours ago. I can't complain though, I had a lovely Saturday in London with a friend despite the icy cold weather. I even came across a dress I wanted to buy a few weeks ago but didn't as it was too expensive. Well it was now very generously on sale and they still had it in my size. That of course means only one thing - I had to buy it. And I found another lovely dress too which resolves the issue of what to wear on Tuesday as I have to give a talk and want to look somewhat respectable. Double yay!

Today I have spent most of the day in the craft room, mostly working on my Bujo, but I also took some time to create a few cards. I was inspred by a few bird themed challenges, one over at Shopping Our Stash and another at Daring Cardmakers.

I started by creating the background by inking blue Distress Inks through the ARTplorations Bubbles stencil, and splattering water and ink on the watercolour card base. The I die cut the panel using Crazy Double Running Stitched Rectangles dies. I stamped the birds from For the Birds and the sentiment from the same set in Versafine black ink. I love that this is a super black ink so it creates great contrast. Then I adhered the panel onto a white card base.

Card: 300 gsm Daler&Rowney watercolour card, 250 gsm white card
Stamps: STAMPlorations For the Birds
Ink: Tsukineko Versafine Onyx Black, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Broken China, Blueprint Sketch
Other: CUTplorations Crazy Double Running Stitched Rectangles dies, ARTplorations Bubbles stencil

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.