STAMPlorations Inspiration

Hello crafters! How are you? I'm so happy days are finally starting to feel longer, there is a sliver of light in the mornings when I leave home, and even some in the evening as I drive home. As I drive east in the mornings and west in the evenings, I often see the most stunning sunrises and sunsets.

Anyhow, enough about sunsets as we are here to see some crafting, right? As it's Tuesday, it's time for another STAMPlorations Inspiration post. For today's card, I used the super cute Tweet Love stamp set, stamping the adorable little Ellie Elephant and coloured her in Copics before fussy cutting her. I created a background using the Oh My Stars! Mini stencil and yellow Distress Ink. Last, I added a sweet sentiment from Tweet Love.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Tweet Love

Stencil: ARTplorations Oh My Stars! Mini

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Onyx Black, Copics, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Squeezed Lemonade

If you feel like doing a bit of shopping, you may want to check out the STAMPlorations Springtime Sale in the STAMPlorations store!

Products in the SPRINGTIME section are

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STAMPlorations Inspiration

Happy Tuesday and happy STAMPlorations Inspiration Post day. It's time for the weekly dose of STAMPlorations Inspiration. This time I created a baby card using Deepti's adorable stamp set Tweet Love. I started by creating a background using Distress Inks and splattered it with water. Then I stamped the cute little critters, coloured them with Copics and die-cut them with the matching dies. Quick and easy. I decided to use neutral colours as I don't know if it will go to a boy or a girl.

I'm linking up over at 2 Crafty Critter Crazies and Cute Card Thursday. 

Stamps: STAMPlorations Tweet Love and coordinating dies
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Ink, Copics

Check out the CURRENT PROMOTIONS in the STAMPlorations store for some awesome deals: October fall sale, new CUTplorations dies pre-order sale, coffee-themed sale, freebies with orders, and more!

Welcome Baby Girls

I created this card a while ago for a friend who was having twin baby girls. I have completely forgotten to blog about it and thought now is a good time with all the heart/love themed challenges.

I stamped the cute balloons from STAMPlorations Tweet Love and watercoloured with Distress Inks. I also splattered watercolours onto the panel for added interest. I added a sentiment from Lawn Fawn Critters Down Under. I die cut the second part of the sentiment using Lawn Fawn Cole's ABCs, using a piece of cardstock inked with the same colours I used for colouring the balloons. I die cut the panel using a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Die. I die cut a piece of patterned paper from Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid Spring using the Scalloped Rectangle dies for added colour.

I'm linking up with the following challenges:

Brown Sugar - Love and/or Valentine's day

Simply Create Too - ATG/optional twist of hearts

Cute Card Thursday - ATG

Crafty Gals Corner - CAS

Unicorn Challenge - Include a Heart

Dragonfly Dreams - Include a Heart

Stamps: STAMPlorations Tweet Love, Lawn Fawn Critters Down Under

Dies: Lawn Fawn Scalloped Rectangle Stackables, Stitched Rectangle Stackables, Cole's ABCs

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versafine Onyx Black, Tim Holtz 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.

Little Birdie Told Me...

I needed a card to congratulate a colleague on the upcoming arrival of a little one but was short of inspiration. Luckily I stumbled across the colour challenge over at House of Cards and realised they will work perfectly with one of my favourite baby card stamp sets, Tweet Love. I was also inspired by the animal theme over at Make My Monday.

I stamped the cute little giraffe and tweetie bird in Versafine onto watercolour paper and watercoloured them. I layered a few different greens and added some green splatters to create a background before die cutting with Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Dies and stamping a sentiment from Tweet Love . I added some really old Stampin' Up patterned paper onto a card base before attaching my panel to the card and added a few adhesive gold pearls to finish.

Card and patterned paper: White 200 gsm card, 250 gsm watercolour paper, old Stampin' Up patterned paper from my stash

Stamps: STAMPlorations Tweet Love

Ink and Colouring: Versafine Onyx Black, Gansai Tambi watercolours

Other: STAMPlorations Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Dies, adhesive pears 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.

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.

Welcome Little One

I made this card for a friend a while ago but never got around to publishing it. The background panel is a watercolour panel which initially was meant for something completely different but didn't turn out as I wanted. But I couldn't just get rid of it so it ended up in my UFO pile and then after a while found it's way to this card. I love it when that happens. 

The front panel was lots of stamping and die cutting. The sky, sun and grass are inked with a mix of Distress Inks and Distress Oxides and the critters are coloured with Copics. I also stamped and coloured an envelope to match the card, again creating the backgrounds with Distress Inks, this time colouring the critters with coloured pencils.

I'm linking up the card over at Make My Monday where the theme is Coloured Image, Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where Anything goes and Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers where the theme is Colouring. I'm also linking up the envelope over at Shopping Our Stash where the theme is to Get krafty.

Main ingredients:

Lawn Fawn stamps (Critters Down Under) and various Lawn Fawn dies

Tim Holtz Distress inks and Distress Oxides

Copics

Gansai Tambi watercolours

Happy Unicorns

Can we talk about adulting just for a minute? I have just scrubbed my whole bathroom from top to toe, including the most disgusting task in the house - removing the hairs from the shower drain. The smell, the soapy build-up... blargh! I feel so good now that my bathroom is shining, and I know having a clean bathroom is its own reward, but sometimes I just wish someone would give me a hug and tell me what a great job I've done. So if you feel like you have been doing some adulting lately that you haven't been acknowledged for, just let me know and I'm more than happy to tell you what a great job you have done, as you truly deserve it.

Today's cards are for twin baby girls. I wanted to make something cute and colourful, and the idea developed from the watercoloured backgrounds. First, I created two watercolour backgrounds using Distress Ink and die cut the rainbows and painted them with Distress Inks too. I stamped the cutie unicorn and watercoloured with Distress Inks. Last, I die cut the clouds from a shimmery white card, and the letters from silver glitter card. 

I'm linking up with Just Us Girls and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where Anything goes this week.

Card: white 200 gsm card, Daler & Rowney 300 gsm watercolour card, white shimmer card, silver glitter card, Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid Rainbow paper

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Winter Unicorn and matching die

Dies: Lawn Fawn Fluffy Cloud Border dies, Rainbow die, Stitched Rectangle dies, Lawn Fawn Scalloped Rectangle dies, Cole's ABCs dies

Ink and colouring: Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Versafine Onyx Black

Welcome Baby Roo

Just a quick post today to show you my quick Sunday card - I've been busy most of the weekend enjoying the Peaks from horseback and spending quality time with my Sis. But after getting home and getting the most urgent chores done (cleaning up my snake's vivarium and making a big batch of tomato soup from the produce in our greenhouse) I did find a bit of crafty time which I wanted to spend with some cute critters. 

I was inspired by the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches to make today's baby card. I'm also linking up with AAA Cards where the theme is "Inspired by a film" (Winnie the Pooh).  Last but not least I'm sneaking in just under the deadline for Lawn Fawnatics where the theme is Happy Little Critters.

Card: 300 gsm white card, Neenah Solar white card

Paper: Lawn Fawn Watercolor Wishes, Let's Polka in the Meadow

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters Down Under, Gleeful Gardens and matching dies

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics

Dies: Lawn Fawn Say Cheese, Everyday Sentiment Banners, Spring Showers, Grassy Border

Welcome Baby Boy

Just a quick post today to show you a card I made. I haven't made as many cards as I thought I would, as I've been busy practising my lettering (which you can find on my Instagram). It all looks so easy when you watch the videos, but it's soooo hard!! But practice makes better, at least I'm hoping so... I know it has done so for my cards, so maybe in two year's time when I watch my clumsy attempts at lettering, I'll feel like I've made progress!

Anyhow, today's card is for a new baby boy and it was inspired by the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and the colours over at Sunday Stamps. I'm also linking up with CAS Mix Up where the theme is Stamping+Watercolour Wash+Your choice (die cutting and heat embossing). Last but not least I'm linking up with Make My Monday where the theme is Something For a Child and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is Clean and Simple. 

Card: 200 gsm white card, Neenah Solar white card, 300 gsm Daler&Rowney Aquafine watercolour paper, scraps of navy blue, light blue and turquoise card

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Baby Plus One, Bannerific and matching dies

Ink and Colouring: Tsukineko Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Peacock Feathers, Broken China, BluePrint Sketch

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Papermania Seafoam White Embossing powder, Ranger Clear Embossing powder

Bundle of Joy

I have often said this, but for a professional project manager I really suck at managing my own life. Unless by managing you mean eating chocolate and hiding from the world in my craft room. Anyhow, today I have taken refuge from the craziness that is my life and the craziness that is British February weather into the safety (and chaos) of my craft room. I'm writing this on the sofa, covered by blankets, munching on some Christmas chocolates our friendly nearby chocolate shop was selling at a whopping 70% off. Now that's what I call a good deal (for my wallet, not my waistline).

It's been a while since I've managed any crafty time, and I was inspired by a few recent challenges to create this card using the Lawn Fawn Plus One stamp set which I haven't had a chance to use yet. I was inspired by the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and the colour palette at Color Throwdown. I was also inspired by the Transport It theme over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and the Birds theme over at Make My Monday. Last but not least I'm also linking up with the Anything Goes theme over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.

This wasn't anything particularly sophisticated, a bit of die cutting, a bit of stamping and a bit of Copic colouring and hey presto. I like the colours as they are quite gender neutral so it would be great for a little bundle of joy of any gender.

Card: 250 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160gsm white card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Plus One and matching dies
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics
Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka Mon Amie and Let's Polka in the Dark
Dies: Lawn Fawn Simple Puffy Cloud and Spring Showers

February STAMPlorations CAS Challenge - Mid-Month Inspiration

We are midway through February so it's time for a quick reminder of our current STAMPlorations CAS challenge. Although we have now passed the pink day (did you have a good V-day? or maybe you had an awesome Galentine's instead?) there are still a few weeks left to create a CAS card featuring hot pink for the challenge. It's an optional colour twist so if you had enough of pink for a while (whaaaaat??) you could just as well create a non-pink CAS card if you prefer. Pink or not I can't wait to see what you create!

I created a card to match my tag for day 2 of Love TAGplorations. I used Deepti's super cute Tweet Love stamp set which I watercoloured using Tim Holtz Distress Inks. I also stamped the sentiment using Sketchy Alphabet and coloured the letters in yellow. I added a bit of colour to the background by watercolouring through the Dots All Over stencil. Last, I die cut the Hello from a scrap of yellow card and added loads of Ice Stickles. 

Card: 300 gsm Daler&Rowney watercolour paper, scrap of yellow card

Stamps: STAMPlorations Tweet Love, Sketchy Alphabet

Ink and colouring: Tim Holtz Distress Inks

Stencil: ARTplorations Dots All Over

Dies: Hello Word Die

Other: Ranger Ice Stickles

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. If you have any questions or problems, just let me know!

Welcome Babysaurus!

What a week it has been! I have been going a bit stir crazy as I have been working from home for the last three days. Being the antisocial Finn I am I thought it wouldn't be a problem at all, but I have to admit as soon as the Culinary Consultant has come in through the door in the evening I have had a 20 minute bout of verbal diarrhoea. I'm hoping to go and pick up my new car tomorrow, and my old car is fixed enough to make it safe to drive, so either way I can get to work next week. I feel a bit sad giving up my old car, it's been such a good car, I really love it but it's also been a bit of a money pit. Hoping to have better luck with the new one, although as the Culinary Consultant always says, there is no such thing as a cheap car.

Anyhow luckily I have also been able to do a bit of crafting, playing with some of my new Lawn Fawn goodies like the Snowy Backdrop die which I actually used as a night sky instead this time. I can't take full credit for the idea for this card as it was a request from my Sis and she also came up with the sentiment. I was inspired by the colours over at Colour Q and the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I'm also linking up with Daring Cardmakers where the theme is to be inspired by the song "What a wonderful world" and I was inspired by the "dark sacred night" as well as watching babies grow. Last but not least I'm linking up with both Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where the theme is Stamp It in celebration of STAMPtember. 

Card: 300 gsm hammered white card, 160 gsm Hobbycraft white card, scraps of dark blue, yellow and red card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters from the Past and matching dies, Critters Down Under, Claire's ABCs
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics, Signo white gel pen
Other: Lawn Fawn Snowy Backdrop, Stitched Circle and Everyday Sentiment Banners dies

Welcome Baby from Down Under

First thing I did when I woke up this morning was heading to the craft room. It's been too long old friend! I had loads of fun getting out and old Lawn Fawn stamp set for the In With the Old challenge over at Lawnscaping.  I thought this would be a perfect baby card for a friend, as she is from Australia. I was inspired by the awesome sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and the colours over at Your Next Stamp 

 

I die cut the grass using the Lawn Fawn Grassy border die, and the front panel from watercolour paper using a Stitched Rectangle die. I watercoloured the sky using Broken China Distress ink, and the grass using Peeled Paint. Then I stamped the adorable kangaroo and koala from Critters down under, coloured them with Copics and die cut using matching dies. Last, I stamped the sentiment in black ink, attached a strip of Let's Polka DSP and adhered the front panel using foam tape.

Card: 300 gsm watercolour card, white hammered 300 gsm card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters Down Under and matching dies

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress ink Broken China and Peeled Paint

Colouring: Copics E00, E34, E39, YG11, YG13, YG15

Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka

Other: Lawn Fawn Grassy Border and Stitched Rectangle dies

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 

Welcome baby in pink

I think short is sweet today, I came home from the gym, had a shower and am writing this while eating dinner, about an hour past my bedtime. Some days life just gets a bit nuts. But I"m glad I dragged my ever increasing behind to the gym and had a great workout. I think I made a mistake sitting down on the sofa (yes, I admit, I eat dinner on the sofa) as I'm not sure I will be able to drag my aching bones, muscles and other tissues to bed.

On to more crafty things. Love seems to be all around. Valentine's day is just around the corner, and every card challenge is either about pink, hearts or love. I thought a slightly different take would be nice just for a change. I hope you like it!

I would like to enter the following challenges:
STAMPlorations - Sketch challenge #27
STAMPlorations - February challenge Stamps and Hearts
Crafty Creations - Owl how I love thee
House of Cards - Love 
Just us Girls - Love
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Red + pink
Tuesday Throwdown - Love is in the air
Artistic Inspirations - Anything goes with a heart
Crafty Cardmakers - Love

Card: kraft card
Paper: Stampin' Up More Amore Speciality DSP
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz distress inks Festive Berries, Worn Lipstick
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters from the Past with matching dies, Paper Smooches A Little Lovin'
Colouring: Copics B00, R20, R43
Other: Tim Holtz Hearts stencil, Lawn Fawn Say Cheese die

Welcome baby in pink

I love the cute little elephants in the Paper Smooches A Little Lovin set. They have seen their fair share of use already, and with a colour scheme like the one over at Just Us Girls, who could resist making another baby card. This time I use paper piecing for the little oliphants using the same papers as I used for the background. The layout is based on this week's My Favourite Things sketch challenge, which you can see I followed rather literally. I am also entering this card at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, where the theme is Tag it. 

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Inks: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Worn Lipstick

Stamps: Paper Smooches A Little Lovin

Paper: Docrafts Back to Basics III

Other: Stampin' Up Banner blast punch, Scalloped Tag Topper Punch, Nellies MultiFrames MFD020 die, Stampin' Up buttons subtles collection