STAMPlorations Inspiration

Hi crafters! For this week's STAMPlorations Inspiration post I'm doing some serious stash diving in my UFO box. I decided to create Christmas cards using as many different bits and bobs which I have already made for something else but didn't get used. It was a fun way to challenge myself and to give a new life to things. 

I started by selecting three tags I have created in the past using Distress Oxides and Inks and ARTplorations stencils. One of these already had the stag's head from Yuletide Deer heat embossed on it, so it was perfect to go as it was. I also found a stamped image of the Poinsettia Row which I had watercoloured and then abandoned, so I die cut the middle of the image into a fourth tag. I also found some stamped and heat embossed but not yet coloured images from Joyful which I watercoloured and fussy cut for the two other tags. Next, I used some leftover printouts from a friend's wedding invitation I made many years ago and used the reverse of those as the card backs (the kraft panels). To create some texture, I ran the panels through my die-cut machine using the Circles All Over Texture Cover Plate and inked some Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the edges. Last, I used a mix of sentiments I had pre-cut in the past and also die cut a few new sentiments using scrap pieces of coloured card to finish the cards. Not too bad for a pile of unfinished objects! Below you can see close-ups of the cards.

Stamps: STAMOplorations Joyful, Yuletide Deer, Poinsettia Row

Stencils: ARTplorations All Swirls Slimline Stencil, Flair Slimline Stencil, Tribal Triangles

Dies: CUTplorations Stitched Tag Nesting Dies, Circles All Over Texture Cover Plate, Christmas Sentiments Phrase Dies

Ink and colouring: All the inks....

Note that I have received some of the stamps and other craft supplies for free as a member of the STAMPlorations Design Team, therefore this blog post has to be identified as an ad. I have been using STAMPlorations products for years before joining the Desing Team at which time I paid for all my STAMPlorations products and I love them as much today as I did then. 

STAMPlorations discount code: If you want to save 20% when shopping at the STAMPlorations store you can use the code STAMPGIRLKAROLA at checkout. The code cannot be combined with other discount codes. And if you use my code you also get to pick a freebie to the value of $7 (for details see the badge below).

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 :) 

June TAGplorations Challenge - All About Dad

It's time for the June TAGplorations challenge. This time we are all about the Dads out there.  If you are a regular follower of the STAMPlorations blog, you may have seen Shery's recent post about losing her Dad less than a month ago. My deepest sympathy and my thoughts are with Shery and her family in these difficult times. So for this challenge, I hope you will be inspired to create something in honour of a fantastic Dad, Granpa or another amazing man in your life, whether someone who is with you or someone who will always live on in your heart although no longer with you in person.

My tag was inspired by a stencilled background I had created using Tribal Triangles for another project which didn't work out so it got a new life as a tag. I stamped the letters from Sketchy Alphabet and the phone from Hello You on white card, coloured them with Copics and fussy cut. I then randomly stamped the grungy Art Marks stamps in Vintage Photo Distress Ink on the background, added the stamped images and finished the tag off with some leftover bits of wool from a pair of socks I knitted earlier (for my Dad in fact, so very appropriate for the theme!).

I hope you are inspired to create something with a tag for the June TAGplorations challenge.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Hello You, Art Marks, Sketchy Alphabet,  

Stencil: ARTplorations Tribal Triangles

Dies: CUTplorations Manila Tags Nesting Dies

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

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. 

Geometric Twofer

I've missed out on loads of great challenges lately as I don't currently get to spend as much time in the craft room as I would like to. Life has an annoying way of getting in the way of the fun stuff, but luckily today after donating blood in the morning I needed something very sedentary to do for a few hours and therefore decided to see if I could come up with something for this month's Twofer challenge where the theme is geometric.

Every time I see the challenges come up in my Feedly feed, I swear I will play along and then a mere blink of an eye later I see the top picks posted for the challenges and yet again realise I didn't get around to play along. Does that ever happen to you?? 

Determined not to miss out on one of my favourite challenges out there, the fantastically fun Twofer challenge, I created two cards using the ARTplorations Tribal Triangles stencil as I thought the triangles would fit the theme perfectly. My first card is a baby card where I inked Spun Sugar Distress ink through the stencil to create a very soft background. I then stamped the super cute elephant from STAMPlorations Tweet Love. I coloured her with Copics, fussy cut and attached to the card. I die cut small stars using the Lawn Fawn Stitched Journaling Card die and added a sentiment from Critters Down Under. The colours for this card were inspired by Color Throwdown.

For my second card, I used the Tribal Triangles stencil for stencil monoprinting using Distress Oxides. I attached the panel onto black card, die cut a black circle and the sentiment from STAMPlorations Feel Better Soon Phrase Die in gold mirri card. Last, I stamped a grunge barcode from Mixed Media Grunge at the bottom of the card and added some colourful dots and tiny adhesive gems. 

This card was inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I'm also linking up over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is to Distress It. **Addition** Last night when I published the post I was so tired I wasn't thinking straight but after a good night's sleep it's all coming back to me. I was of course inspired by the wonderful CAS Mixup challenge to use the stencil monoprint technique (thank you as always for the wonderful inspiration!!!) and this is the second card I'm linking up over there. I'm having a great time using my stencils this way and may have one more card up my sleeve as the rules allow you to link up three cards to the challenge!

Card: 300gsm watercolour card, black 200 gsm card, Hobbycraft 190 gsm white card

Stamps: STAMPlorations Tweet Love, Mixed Media Grunge, Lawn Fawn Critters Down Under

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versafine, Distress Oxides, Distress Ink Spun Sugar, Copics

Stencil: ARTplorations Tribal Triangles

Dies: STAMPlorations Feel Better Soon Phrase Die, Lawn Fawn Stitched Circle die, Stitched Journaling Card die

Other: Enamel dots and adhesive gems from my stash

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.

Another Tribal Triangles card

Happy Sunday, I hope you have enjoyed your weekend so far, and how great that it's only early Sunday morning so a whole day of freedom still ahead. I woke up to a great surprise in my blog feed as I saw one of my recent cards was highlighted in Fawny Flickr Friday, that always makes me so happy. Lawn Fawn has always been one of my favourite brands and the cards in the Lawn Fawn Flickr gallery are so incredible so getting highlighted by Kelly Marie is always such a thrill. And talking about Flickr galleries, I have my own over here, and I do have a Pinterest here and Instagram here as well. I use the Instagram for some other stuff from time to time as well, such as pictures of my sweet little Gary. 

Anyhow, back to the main subject matter, as we are about to head out for a walk on the North Norfolk coast, so I will try to finish the post quickly so we can get going. It looks a bit grey out there, so hopefully we won't get soaked! Sorry, drifting off on a tangent again. So today's card is a super simple one, and I was inspired by a few challenges. I thought I was quite aware of all the challenges out there in the blogosphere, but I actually came across a new (to me) one called Pinterest Inspired Challenges. It's a monthly challenge with a inspiration image from Pinterest. This month, the inspiration image is a blue hued geometric pattern (see below). So that was the inspiration for the colour scheme and the use of the STAMPlorations Tribal Triangles stencil. The layout was inspired by this week's sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I was also inspired by the Getting Geometric theme over at Daring Cardmakers and the Stencil theme over at The Friday Mashup. 

I inked with foam applicators using Tim Holtz Distress Ink through the stencil. I picked colours that were a bit earthier than the inspiration image, I'm not quite sure why, but I wasn't looking at the image when I was picking the colours, I only had it in my head and for some reasons the colours were different in my head. This happens all the time, might be because I don't have a very good memory, or maybe not a very good perception of colours? Anyhow, I list the colours I used in the list of supplies below. Then I die cut a black frame and the sentiment using Lawn Fawn dies and added Stampin' Up Crystal Effects to make them look really shiny. It doesn't come across that well in the photo, but in real life they almost have a plastic look to them from the glossy accents. I was going to add some sequins or something, but then I thought maybe better to just leave it alone!

Card: 300 gsm watercolour paper, scraps of black 300 gsm card
Stencil: STAMPlorations Tribal Triangles
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Inks Broken China, Chipped Sapphire, Crushed Pistachio, Forest Moss, Peeled Paint, Pumice Stone and Scattered Straw
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle and Scripty Hugs die, Stampin' Up Crystal Effects

Stencil watercolour background

Woohoo, we have all made it to another weekend. It's time to enjoy life for two days. Are you planning anything special for Valentine's? We are not very romantic in this house, but I think we will cook our traditional Valentine's Day Venison from the farm a few villages over. And today I'm making pancakes for pudding, as we missed out on Pancake Day earlier in the week. I bet the pancakes will be delicious with a touch of our home-made Apricot jam. 

I made this card yesterday, but the photos I took were so horrible due to sunset that I didn't think they really did the card justice. Today I just about made it home before losing the light, still not as good as I wanted, but a definite improvement over yesterday's photos. So here we go! My card is inspired by the colour challenge over at ColourQ and the really inspiring new sketch over at CAS(E) this sketch. I couldn't resist the urge to get out one of my favourite stencils and play around a bit with watercolours. A few quick die cuts and a step of matting onto pink card later - done! 

I'm also linking up with: 
Alphabet Challenge - Y is for You Choose
Craft for the Craic - Something to make you smile
Crafting With Friends - Anything Goes
PDE Linky Party - Anything Goes
Simply Papercraft - Anything Goes

Card: 300 gsm white card, 190 gsm watercolour paper, Stampin' Up Melon Mambo card, gold mirri card
Ink: Stampin' Up Pink Pirouette, Calypso Coral, Melon Mambo
Stencil: STAMPlorations Tribal Triangles stencil
Other: Lawn Fawn Scripty Hugs and Stitched Rectangles stencils, gold sequins from my stash

STAMPbaby blog hop

I'm enjoying the bank holiday Monday despite the abysmal weather. I've managed to stick to my good eating plan despite being home all day (it's so much harder not to eat goodies when at home all day, but I'm not complaining, I'm still enjoying they day off instead of dragging myself to work). In fact, I made a watermelon, quinoa and feta salad which was very good, I used to make it lots back in the day when I was serious about this clean eating business, but had forgotten all about it. The recipe is here if you are interested, although I have adapted it by reducing the quinoa, increasing the watermelon and skipping the honey to make it lower in calories (yes, I'm serious about getting back into all those lovely dresses I own but can't squeeze myself into even with a crowbar). Anyhow,  I had some crafty plans which soon went out the window when I saw the happy news over at the STAMPlorations blog. Shery has given birth to a baby girl and the ladies over at STAMPlorations have created gorgeous cards for the new STAMPfamily and made a hop of it for us to join in.

I created a pink background which went straight into the bin as it was absolutely horrible. Then I thought, why stick to just pink. This baby will be surrounded by art and colours, so I created a background with all the colours of the rainbow. I used one of Shery's own stencils and used watercolours to create the pastel background. I added some gold flecks as well (by the way, if anyone can recommend a good golden embossing powder, one that really looks like gold, I would be really grateful. The one I have isn't very golden). I stamped the cute Kanga and Roo as well as the eucalyptus tree from Lawn Fawn Critters Down Under in Antique Linen ink onto watercolour paper and watercoloured using Tim Holtz distress inks. I popped Kanga and Roo up using foam pads. Last, I stamped a sentiment from a Paper Smooches set, I thought black would be too harsh against the pastel colours so I used grey ink instead.

I would like to link up with the Shery's Finally Popped Hop, Shopping Our Stash (my second entry for this challenge) where the theme is Splish Splosh or use a wet medium, STAMPlorations August challenge where the theme is Stamp and Watercolour and Graph It Markers Challenge where the theme is backgrounds.

Card: 300 gsm white hammered card, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters Down Under and matching dies, Paper Smooches A Little Lovin, Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grunge
Ink: Tim Holtz distress inks
Other: Gold embossing powder from my stash, Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies