STAMPlorations Inspiration

It's Tuesday and you know what that means. It's time for a new STAMPlorations Inspiration post. Today I went for something slightly different as I thought you might be inspired to make some bookmarks for yourself or to give away to friends. A lot of people seem to be reading a lot more these days which is great! I have to admit I have been trying to read more but I haven't been able to concentrate very well due to... oh well, I bet you can imagine! I did read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo recently which was a really great read, I didn't want to put down the book at all. But apart from that, I have only been reading Moomin books before bed to ensure I'm thinking of something other than news in the evening. I warmly recommend the Moomin books if you haven't read them, great for children and adults alike and will take you to a magical and lovely world.

About my bookmarks, I used a regular card front and inked a rainbow of Distress inks through the Clouds Stencil. Then I split the card front into two bookmarks, shaped the corners and die-cut the hole using one of the dies from ATC Tag Builder. For one of the bookmarks, I added two suitable sentiments from Literary Caffeine-ations and the super cute coffee-drinking bunny from Bunnies 'N Beans. A bit of purple ribbon finishes off the bookmarks.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Bunnies 'N Beans, Literary Caffeine-ations

Stencil: ARTplorations Clouds Stencil

Dies: CUTplorations ATC Tag Builder

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics, Tim Holtz Distress Inks

 

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Coffee and Donuts

I'm back to celebrate the wonder of coffee and this time I'm celebrating the sweet union of coffee and donuts. Every time I look at the STAMPlorations Sugar Rush stamp set I get such a craving for donuts. I love the "Drink Coffee, Read Books, Be Happy" sentiment from the fantastic Literary Caffeine-ations by the funny and talented Becca Cruger but I thought she had left out a very critical bit about eating donuts, so I decided to add that little bit to make the sentiment complete. 

I started by stamping the coffee mug from Coffee Happy, and after masking the mug I stamped the coffee pot and then the donuts onto a white card base that I had die cut using the Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting dies. I stamped the sentiment and die cut the happy using CUTplorations Happy Word die twice, once using black card and once using patterned paper from Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid Fall paper. I coloured the images using Copics inspired by the colours from the patterned paper. Last, I inked around the edges of the die cut panel using Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink and attached the stamped panel onto Early Espresso card.

I'm linking up over at the Fall Coffee Lovers Blog Hop for one last time, it's been such a blast as usual and the inspiration from all you fellow crafters has been so amazing. I'm also linking up over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenges Anything Goes and AAA Card Challenges where the theme is masking. 

Card: Neenah Solar white card, Stampin' Up Early Espresso, scrap of black card

Stamps: STAMPlorations Sugar Rush, Coffee Happy, Literary Caffeine-ations 

Ink and Colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Vintage Photo, Copics

Dies: CUTplorations Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting dies

Other: Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid Fall paper

Pastel Afternoon Tea

Happy Friday peeps! I am celebrating my birthday today by taking a day off work as is the Culinary Consultant. We don't have any special plans, just having a lazy day is special enough - we slept in (although it's quite sad that we are getting so old that sleeping until 7am is considered sleeping in!) and I'm planning on making a delicious brunch involving eggs, bacon, smoked salmon, mozzarella and raspberry and white chocolate scones. Not to mention the first coffee I have had in two weeks, which I know will taste absolutely delicious (I'm trying to cut down on my addiction to calorie-rich over sweetened caffeinated drinks). I did start the day with a bit of crafting, as I'm sure it's the best way of starting out a good day!

Today's card is inspired by the challenge over at The Card Concept (this is for the Clean and Simple category). What a great opportunity to get to use one of the lovely stamps from the STAMPlorations Coffee Happy stamp set combined with one of the hilarious sentiments from Literary Caffeine-aitions. I was also inspired by sketch over at The Paper Players, and I'm linking up with Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenges where Anything Goes.

I started by stamping the tea cups in Versafine Onxy Black and masked the image. Then I used a round die to cut a hole in a scrap piece of paper and added water to the cardstock base through this home-made stencil to create the circular background. I painted the background in Tim Holtz Distress ink in Iced Spruce and Peacock Feathers. After the background dried, I added some splatters of water and Peacock Feathers before painting the cups and adding some gold Sharpie around the edges of the cups. I stamped the sentiment in Versamark and heat embossed it in gold - inspired by the gold frame in the inspiration image. Last, I added some enamel dots.

Card: 300 gsm white textured card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Coffee Happy and Literary Caffeine-aitions
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Iced Spruce, Peacock Feathers, Picked Raspberry and Spun Sugar, Gold Sharpie
Other: Gold embossing powder, Stampin' Up Candy dots, home made enamel dot

ARTplorations Stencil Blog Hop - Day two

Welcome back to day two of the ARTplorations stencil hop where we celebrate all the grogeous projects that can be created with stencils. If you missed it, you can find all the DT inspiration from day one here, along with the chance to win by commenting on the DT blogs. And the DT is more than happy to inspire you again today, with more projects using the fun ARTplorations stencils, on the STAMPlorations here. We wanted to remind you that you still have two days to link up with our Stencil Linky Party. You don't have to use ARTplorations stencils to join, but if you have them, we would love to see what you create with them.

Today I created two bookmarks using ARTplorations stencils, STAMPlorations stamps and Tim Holtz Distress inks. I started by creating a 5 cm wide slip of textured white card, and used the Stampin' Up Tag topper punch to create the top. I used a corner of the Distress ink container to draw the outline of the rounded corners and fussy cut them. 

For the first bookmark, I started by inking the card using yellow, orange and red Distress inks. I then inked through the Retro Circles stencil in Vintage Photo and Ground Espresso inks. To finish off the tag, I stamped two sentiments from Literary Caffeine-ations and some cups from Coffee Happy in Versamark and heat embossed in white. I added some twine to finish off the bookmark.

For my second bookmark, I started by inking the card using purple, green and blue Distress ink. I then inked through the Tribal Weave stencil in Versamark, and heat embossed the pattern in clear powder. The to the fun and messy part - inking the whole bookmark in black Distress ink. The embossing will resist the black ink showing the bright colours underneath. I used a tissue to wipe off the excess black ink from the embossed pattern. I also splashed some water around for a distressed look. Last, I stamped the sentiments Live, Love, Enjoy from Trendy Butterflies onto white card and added some faux stitching around the edges. A bit of ribbon to finish it off!

Card: 300 gsm white linen textured card
Stencils: ARTplorations Retro Circles, Tribal Weave 
Stamps: STAMPlorations Literary Caffeine-ations, Coffee Happy and Trendy Butterflies
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress inks Mustard Seed, Abandoned Coral, Rusty Hinge, Fossilized Amber, Festive Berries, Vintage Photo, Ground Espresso, Mermaid Lagoon, Wilted Violet, Cracked Pistachio, Black Soot, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black and Versamark
Other: Papermania Seafoam white embossing powder, Ranger fine clear embossing powder, ribbon and twine from my stash

In need of coffee

How have you all been? Long time no craft! And even now I should be cleaning, not crafting... but we did go through this the other day didn't we, and concluded that a happy crafter is more important than a clean house. Right? I did try to do some watercolouring after work one day this week, but that was a catastrophic waste of time. I cannot draw or paint, I knew this but somehow I thought that would magically have changed. Luckily there is always the option of stamping! So after a bit of a disastrous attempt this morning to make a card which ended up in the bin, I thought I really need to do something fool-proof to get back a bit of confidence in my crafting abilities. And luckily I have a whole stash of NBUS I recently ordered from the marvellous STAMPlorations. 

I didn't use to be a caffeine addict, but after starting in my new job I am living off large vanilla lattes. And I have to admit I now have to start my weekends with a large coffee as well. I am fully planning to wean me off the nasty stuff, but maybe a bit later... once I'm a bit more settled in my new job methinks. My card was inspired by the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. I'm also linking up over at Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is Inspired by a song. My song is One More Cup of Coffee by Bob Dylan. On top of that, I'm linking up with Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where Anything Goes, Crafty Creations where the theme is "Something to Eat or Drink" and Tuesday Throwdown where the theme is "Create Your Own Background".

Card: 300 gsm textured card, coloured 240 gsm chocolate card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Coffee Happy and Literary Caffeine-ations
Ink: Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip and Real Red