STAMPlorations Inspiration

It's Tuesday and that means it's time for a new STAMPlorations Inspiration Post. Every Tuesday the STAMPlorations Inspiration team get to showcase our latest creations with our favourite STAMPloratons products. Over the years I have amassed quite a bit of these, and although I love them all, I have to admit some of them have become things I reach for over and over again. The Succulently stamp set is definitely one of my favourites, as I love house plants and succulents and cacti in particular (as they have a much better chance of surviving in my care than some of their more high maintenance cousins).

I started by stamping all of the sentiments from Succulently on kraft card in a matching ink for a subtle background. Then I stamped a few of the plants, coloured them with Copics and fussy cut them to create the focal image. Last, I die cut the sentiment using another workhorse of my crafty stash, the Hugs word die in brown card and added a few accents with my gel pen. 

Don't forget to leave a comment on the  Inspiration Post and the designer's blogs for a chance to win prizes every month!

Stamps: STAMPlorations Succulently
Dies: CUTplorations Hugs word die
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Copics, Signo white gel pen

Check out the CURRENT PROMOTIONS page 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!

October STAMPlorations CAS Challenge - Mid-Month Inspiration

Welcome to your mid-month reminder for the STAMPlorations CAS challenge. It's great to see that you have found your way to the challenge after our summer break, it's so lovely and inspiring to see your gorgeous cards in the gallery. 

For my card, I stamped the Bloomtangled ATC #2 stamp and coloured it with Copics. I've been on a colouring spell lately. It's so relaxing! I thought the only thing needed for my card was a die cut sentiment, which I cut in white and red card and layered them on top of the coloured image. I used a slightly textured hammered white card for some additional subtle texture.

Card: 250 gsm white hammered card, Neenah Solar White card, scrap of red card

Stamps: STAMPlorations Bloomtangled ATC #2
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics
Dies: Bloom and Grow phrase die

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.

Bloomtangled

I know you already had a  glimpse of the beautiful new STAMPlorations colouring book for National Colouring book day but today we are here with some of my fellow STAMPlorations DT ladies to showcase the book and some projects we made from the coloured pages for the official Bloomtangled Blog Hop and Linky Party.  And of course we want you to have some fun too, you can comment on the main blog post and all the designer's posts for a chance to win some prizes. On the main blog post you will also find a download from the colouring book. If you download the page, colour it and turn it into any kind of project you can link up and win even more prizes.

First I'll show you some pages I coloured with different mediums. 

Coloured with Faber Castell Albrech Durer watercolour
pencils and light blending with a little water.

Gansai Tambi watercolour on clear gesso.

Sharpies work really well with the colouring book -
I just love the vibrant colours.

Of course I wanted to turn my coloured pages into some projects. I used the page I coloured with Sharpies and made two cards by die cutting the coloured page using the Crazy Double Running Stitched Rectangle, matting it onto pink and purple card and adding black and white die cuts. 

I used the watercoloured page to decorate my bullet journal - I die cut a large panel of the page again using the Crazy Double Running Stitched Rectangle. I added some die cuts and used the Sketchy Alphabet stamps to create the letters to spell August. I inked through the ARTplorations Ethnic Organic One stencil using Distress ink to create the background for the journal page. I used leftover strips of the colouring book page to decorate the weekly spreads.

I also made another card from a page I coloured earlier for National Colouring book day. Again the beautiful florals just needed nothing other than a simple sentiment 

I love the page I coloured with watercolour pencils, so I haven't had the heart to cut it yet!

Card: white 250 gsm card, pink and purple card, scrap of black card
Colouring: Sharpies, Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Wilted Violet, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Peeled Paint, Faber Castell Albrech Durer watercolour pencils, Gansai Tambi watercolours
Dies: Crazy Double Running Stitched Rectangle, Fabulous word die, Hello word die, Gorgeous word die, Seriously word die, Awesome word die, Celebrate word die
Stamps: Bold Sentiments Fabulous, Sketchy Alphabet
Other: ARTplorations Ethnic Organic One stencil, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder

National Colouring Book Day and Bloomtangled

Bloomtangled page coloured with Sharpies

Did you know that today is National Colouring Book Day? Not that you necessarily need an excuse to get out your colouring book and colouring medium of choice, but if you haven't done that for a long time, let me remind you how incredibly relaxing and fun it is to sit down and just colour away. As a special treat, today I and some of the amazingly talented ladies of the STAMPlorations DT are sharing some colouring inspiration from the new STAMPlorations colouring book Bloomtangled. We will show you more from this super fun book later, but today we are sharing a lot of pages we have coloured over on the STAMPlorations blog. 

Shery has made a page sampler from the book available over on the STAMPlorations blog so you can join in on the fun immediately. You can link up your coloured page until Sunday, August 7th and one randomly drawn winner will receive a copy of the colouring book. You can also find the book over in the STAMPlorations store. And don't forget by using the code STAMPGIRLKAROLA you will receive 20% off at checkout. Below you will find several pages I have coloured using different media.

The book and my beloved Faber-Castell watercolour pencils.  

So far I have tried out Sharpies, Copics, Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils (with very little water) and Gansai Tambi watercolours but before using the watercolours I covered the page in clear Gesso. My absolute favourite was the Sharpies due to their super vibrant colours. 

Watercolour pencils before adding water

Gansai Tambi watercolours on a page covered in clear Gesso.

I had so much fun with the Copics
I had to colour another page.

Nothing like a bit of colouring and a happy cup
of coffee to get the day started.

Now it's your turn to do some colouring and don't forget to link up your free Bloomtangled sampler for a chance to win the book. Together with the DT team, we will be showing you some projects we created from our coloured pages in a few week's time so don't forget to come back to check in. And there are a few other great new releases coming soon as well which I can't wait to share with you. I would love to hear from you if have ever tried colouring. Did you enjoy it? Which book would you recommend? What media do you enjoy using?

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. 

Things With Wings Blog Hop Reminder 2

It's been a full week since I've shown you some wings - so here we go! This is your second reminder that the STAMPlorations Things With Wings blog hop is still in full swing. I hope you have been enjoying the inspiration so far, we certainly have loved the gorgeous creations in the link-up.

For my third card, I decided to do a whole lot of stamping, masking and fun colouring. The awesome Trendy Butterflies 2 are perfect for colouring with all their beautiful, intricate patterns. I used pretty much all the colours of my Tim Holtz Distress markers when creating this card! Then I simply stamped one of the sentiments from the same stamp set in Versamark on black card and heat embossed in white for a high contrast sentiment. Sometimes it's nice to create something with nothing but one stamp set and some markers, no fancy techniques or tons of equipment. Just you and your markers. So even if you are just getting into crafting and haven't bought very much stuff yet, there are so many options out there. And of course, if you want to do some shopping you can use the discount code STAMPGIRLKAROLA at checkout in the STAMPlorations store for 20% off your purchase!

I'm linking up with the following challenges:

Make My Monday - Embossing Heat or Dry 

The Card Concept - Fresh Flutters (style: clean and simple)

Time Out - Inspiration image

Card: 250 gsm white smooth card, scrap of black card

Stamps: STAMPlorations Trendy Butterflies 2

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Markers

Other: Papermania Seafoam White Embossing Powder

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!

National Colouring Book Day

Did you know that it's National Colouring Book Day today? In honour of this, I am playing along with the colouring event over at STAMPlorations. Did you know that the wonderful Shery of STAMPlorations has just published a gorgeous Color Blooms colouring book which you can find here? And even better, if you hop over to STAMPlorations you can download a free page from the book to print and colour right now! And that's still not all - by linking up a picture of your coloured page you can win a copy of the colouring book. How awesome is that?

I started by printing the colouring page onto watercolour card. I then die cut a part of the page using the CUTplorations stitched die and watercoloured the flowers using Tim Holtz Distress ink (using very little water as my printer ink doesn't seem to be very waterproof). After the panel dried I inked around the edges in Ground Espresso using a foam applicator. I adhered the front panel onto a mat of Chocolate Chip card. I die cut the happy from the same card, and die cut a banner from Blushing Bride and stamped the word birthday from the Blossom Overture stamp set. After attaching everything to some white card I added a bit of Ice Stickles to the sentiment for that finishing touch. 

I'm linking up with the following challenges: 
Just Add Ink - colour challenge
Just Us Girls - Anything Girly
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Celebrate
Allsorts - A touch of sparkle

Card: 300 gsm white linen textured card, Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip and Blushing Bride card, 300 gsm watercolour paper
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink Spun Sugar, Victorian Velvet, Ground Espresso
Stamps: STAMPlorations Blossom Overture
Dies: CUTplorations Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle, Happy Word Die, Lawn Fawn Everyday Sentiment Banners 
Other: Ranger Ice Stickles