National Colouring Book Day with STAMPlorations

Did you celebrate National Colouring Book Day on Friday? I have to admit I missed it, but the great news is that over on STAMPlorations we celebrate all month! Today I'm here to showcase some projects for the STAMPloraitons National Colouring Book Day linky party. I love colouring. Usually, I colour stamped images, but sometimes it's lovely to not have to think about creating an image to colour, but just pull out your pencils or markers and get going. I love it if I am in a creative slump and really can't get going at all. And a colouring book is great to take away when travelling, all you need is the book and a small number of pencils. Sometimes not having access to a large selection of colours can be really interesting too. Great entertainment on long flights!

If you want to join us for National Colouring Book Day, there is a free digital colouring page for you to download on the STAMPlorations blog. You can also win great prizes (including a colouring book!) if you comment on the post or join the linky party using the free digi.

Did you know that there are three STAMPlorations colouring books? They are perfect for cardmaking and other types of crafting, you could use them for art journals, tags, ATCs or just to colour for the joy of colouring! I created two projects using a colouring page from the Bloomtangled colouring book.

Just getting started...

I used Faber Castell Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils for colouring the page. I used the Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies to cut a panel for my card from the coloured page, and matted it onto black card. I then found a perfect strip of vellum in my random stash box, and heat embossed a sentiment from Noteworthy 2 in black shimmery embossing powder to complete the card. 

I used Stitched Tags Nesting Dies to die cut a tag from the rest of the colouring page, and adhered it to a white card panel cut with the same die. This time I used some water to blend the colours. I think they become more vibrant this way. I used the leftover piece of the vellum to stamp the sentiment, again from Noteworthy 2. I hope these projects inspired you to colour something, and don't forget to download the free digi and join us for the linky party over on the STAMPlorations blog.

I'm linking up my card over at Fusion Card Challenges, Just Add Ink where the challenge is "Just add C" (my C is colour, colouring, colouring book and contrast) and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where Anything goes this week. I'm also linking up my tag over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme is bright and cheerful.

Colouring book: STAMPlorations Bloomtangled

Stamps: STAMPlorations Noteworthy 2

Dies: CUTplorations Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies, Stitched Tags Nesting Dies

There are some great offers in the STAMPlorations store in August, including (of course!) a colouring book sale!!

Clear Stickers are 30% off with code CLEAR30 Coloring Books are 25% off with code COLOR25 Clear Stamps* are 25% off with code STAMP25

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. 

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