STAMPlorations Inspiration

Welcome to this week's STAMPlorations Inspiration post! As usual, it's time for me and the rest of the Inpiration team to showcase some of our favourite STAMPlorations products. I was inspired by dragonflies today, probably because I'm already missing summer, although it's barely gone. So I inked up some summery colours and did some die-cutting to bring back some of that summer feel. As always, don't forget to leave a comment on the Inspiration post on the STAMPlorations blog for a chance to win a gift certificate!

For my card, I created a background using Distress Oxides and a stamp from Vignette: Celebrate Artsy. It's such a quick and easy way to create an impressive background. I then used the Dragonfly Layering Dies to die cut the dragonfly in vellum and white shimmer card. Last, I added a sentiment from Vignette: Celebrate Artsy in black.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Vignette: Celebrate Artsy

Dies: CUTplorations Dragonfly Layering Dies

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Oxides Mermaid Lagoon, Peacock Feathers, Wilted Violet

Don't forget you have a few more days to take advantage of the great

 End-of-summer sale in the STAMPlorations store.

White Butterfly

After a few super hot days, we have cooling rain today. And of course, rain means craft room time! I bet the garden is enjoying the rain, but I feel sad that it will completely undo all my hard work cleaning my windows over the last week. We were going to have the out-laws over for a visit this weekend so I wanted our windows to be shiny clean. Now the visit is postponed due to the rain, so they will never see my shiny clean windows, only the water-stained ones. Sigh. Not that they would care, but I do.

Anyhow, end of rant. I had lots of fun in the craft room today, and I had Distress Oxides on my craft room desk which were perfect for this week's Color Throwdown. I also was inspired by the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. 

I used Distress Oxides to stamp the background using a stamp from STAMPlorations Vignette: Celebrate Artsy and stamped the sentiment using a stamp from the same set. I then cut the beautiful Flutter Zen 2 layering butterfly die, using white card and vellum for the background.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Vignette: Celebrate Artsy 

Dies: CUTplorations Flutter Zen 2

Inks: Tim Holtz Distress Oxides Mustard Seed, Spicy Marmalade, Picked Raspberry, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black

Pastel Spring Florals

I decided that for once I'll take out some overtime and enjoy an even longer weekend. So far I have not done anything useful yet, I had a cinnamon bun for breakfast, and the rest of the day so far has been spent in the craft room. No useful but extremely relaxing! And I haven't been able to put down the new Bloomtangled Cover Plate dies. There are so many ways of using them, and this time I went for a quick and easy design.

I started with a watercolour panel I had in my UFO box which I initially created for something else, can't even remember what it was. I then die cut the panel with the Bloomtangled #1 Cover Plate Die. I die cut the sentiment using the Hello Sunshine Phrase Die using another leftover piece of watercolour card. Three sequins from my stash finish off this super quick card.

I'm linking up over at Sunday Stamps with their colour challenge and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where Anything Goes. I'm also linking up over at Happy Little Stampers where Anything Goes With Dies.

Card: White shimmer card, watercolour card

Colouring: Gansai Tambi watercolours

Dies: CUTplorations Bloomtangled #1 Cover Plate Die, Hello Sunshine Phrase Die

Other: Sequins from my stash

Love TAGplorations

I'm very excited to be part of STAMPlorations Love TAGplorations, seven days of Valentine tag making fun. We hope you will like the tags we have created with the DT to give to the important people in our lives and to showcase the gorgeous new Valentine's stamps, stencils and dies in the STAMPlorations shop. And as usual this wouldn't be half as much fun unless you could join us in the celebrations by commenting on the tags you see during the event and by linking up your own tags too which you can do between February 8th and 14th. And there are loads of prices:

• 3 randomly drawn winners from all comments left on the STAMP blog and participating designers blog will each receive a $10 gift certificate to the store
• 1 randomly drawn participant in the Love TAGplorations linky party will receive her choice of stamp set (Pocket Blooms, A Full Heart, or Two of Us)
• 1 randomly drawn participant in the Love TAGplorations linky party will receive her choice of any 2 of the new love-themed dies (Love, Always, XOXO, Forever, You & Me, Clustered Hearts)
• 1 randomly drawn participant in the Love TAGplorations linky party will receive her choice of tag set: Luggage Tags or ATC/Tag Builder

Also don't forget that you can use the discount code STAMPGIRLKAROLA to get 20% off your purchase in the STAMPlorations store if you want to, see the end of this post for further details.

For today's tag, I used Faber Castell watercolour pencils to colour through the Zen Hearts stencil onto a kraft tag I cut using the larges of the Luggage Tags Nesting Dies. I then traced the outlines of the coloured pieces using a white gel pen. To match my white outlined stencilled heart I die cut the Clustered Hearts Die from white card and also from a scrap of pink card from my UFO box - I think I created this with Tim Holtz Distress Paints. I then sprayed the tag with gold perfect pearls to give it a very subtle gold sheen - unfortunately I didn't manage to capture that in the photo.

I used another scrap of watercoloured card I created with Distress paints, this time in pink and blue to die cut the "always" using Always Word Die. I adhered the die cut pieces to the tag and stamped the first part of the sentiment in Versafine Onyx Black using a stamp from the Pocket Blooms stamp set. For a finishing touch I added some stickles to the die cut sentiment, a few adhesive rhinestones and a white ribbon from my stash.

Pocket Blooms

Zen Hearts

Card: kraft card, scrap of white 250 gsm card, 300 gsm Daler&Rowney watercolour paper

Stamps: STAMPlorations Pocket Blooms

Stencils: ARTplorations Zen Hearts

Dies: CUTplorations Always Word Die, Clustered Hearts Die, Luggage Tags Nesting Dies

Inks and colouring: Tim Holtz Distress Paints, Tsukineko Versafine Onyx Black, Faber Castell watercolour pencils, White Gel Pen

Other: Adhesive gems and white ribbon from my stash, Ranger Coffee 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!

Hearts All Over a Wedding Card

Tuesday is the perfect day for Happy Mail, as I do my gymmin' in the morning on Tuesdays so I get home at a decent time. And today I found this fine bunch of crafty goodness when I came home which immediately meant an evening in the craft room! 

Another reason I'm hiding away in my craft room is that downstairs stinks something horrible - one of our snake-babies wasn't hungry last night and seems like the other half left in a bit of a hurry this morning and forgot to take out the rat which has now been stewing in tropical heat for a whole day. Let me just say I hope it's a smell I hope you will never have to experience. 

Me and the other half are going to a wedding next weekend, one of his cousins who I have never even met. Fun, fun, fun... And wedding means wedding card. I really need to get a wedding stamp set, as these wedding cards always make my mind blank out completely. Any good suggestions? This time, I used a few Spellbinders dies, classic colour combo of white, silver, a bit of vellum with some pink thrown in for good measure.

For the vellum, I used Picked Raspberry Distress Ink on the reverse side for inking through the super cute ARTplorations Hearts All Over Mini stencil. I wasn't sure if it would work or not, but I think it turned out quite nice. For the sentiment I die cut a luggage tag using CUTplorations Luggage Tag Nesting Dies, stamped the sentiment using Sketchy Alphabet and heat embossed in white. To finish, I added a whole lot of adhesive gems to bling it all up.

I also just realised that I haven't shown you another wedding card I made a while ago for my Sis's friends. I was in such a hurry to get it sent to her that I forgot to take a picture of the finished product - in the picture below it's almost done, but I hadn't glued on the small panel with the sentiment yet as I had to check whether it was indeed for a Mr and Mrs or whether I needed to change the sentiment. I used the same Spellbinder dies, a Spellbinder embossing folder and Lawn Fawn Violet's ABCs.

I'm linking up with the following challenges:

Create and Makes - Anything Goes with Optional die cutting

Sunny Day Crafting - Anything Goes

ABC Challenges - Q is for Quick

Die Cut Divas - Embossing

Happy Little Stampers - Anything Goes with Dies

Card: 300 gsm white card, silver card, Dovecraft 110gsm premium vellum
Stamps: STAMPlorations Sketchy Alphabet
Dies: CUTplorations Luggage Tag Nesting Dies, Spellbinders Romantic Rectangle Nestabilities
Stencils: ARTplorations Hearts All Over Mini
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Picked Raspberry
Other: Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, 

You Flamin-go Girl!

It's been a while since my last post. Work is as crazy as ever and I have been really good, spending lots of time at the gym. And this weekend I had the best guest - my sister. We went to the gym, cooked and baked, celebrated Midsummer and enjoyed a wonderful BBQ prepared by the Culinary Consultant. But sadly the weekend is coming to an end. I did manage to sneak in a bit of crafty time to enjoy my new Lawn Fawn stash. And next week there will be plenty of posts as I look forward to celebrate something special. Pop in on Wednesday to see what's happening, all I can tell you is that someone is giving out prizes!!

Today's card was inspired by a number of challenges. First of all I absolutely had to play along with this week's Color Throwdown as I just adore the bright, summery colour selection this week. I was also inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I was also inspired by the Distress Maniacs challenge over at Lawnscaping (I used Distress Inks to create the background). Last but not least I was inspired by the Use Patterned Paper over at Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge. 

I started by die cutting a piece of white card using a stitched rectangle die. Then I sponged yellow and red Distress ink and spritzed with water. Next, I stamped and die cut the super-cute flamingo on pink patterned paper from Let's Polka in the Meadow. I also die cut the sun and palms. After stamping the sentiment I arranged the die cuts and matted the panel onto white card using 3D foam tape. 

Card: 300 gsm smooth white card, 300 gsm textured white card, scrap of red card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Flamingo Together and matching dies
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Abandoned Coral and Squeezed Lemonade
Other: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka in the Meadow, Spring Showers and Stitched Rectangle dies

Flamingo-a-go-go

Happy Saturday! I have finally managed to create a card, after at least two weeks out of the craft room. I've said it before and I'll say it again - working full time really poo-poos any attempts to enjoy the fun things in life. I have also lately been busy in the garden as the weather has finally turned a bit more summer-y which is lovely but is definitely time away from the craft room. And I had to take some drastic measures as I wasn't able to zip up my jeans any longer, so I've spent quite a bit of time in the gym and out running. And food prepping - after all weight loss is 90% about the nutrition. So I stand in my kitchen all evening, prepping salads and veg for the next day. Somehow all of this combined has left zero time for crafting! 

Getting back in the craft room was hard - just as getting back to the gym is hard. You need to exercise your crafty muscles to keep them active and I had to really work hard to be able to create anything. Luckily there were a few great challenges to help me get going again. First and foremost I was inspired by the flamingotastic inspiration image over at House of Cards. They have a end-of-term blog hop, there are a few more days to go so make sure you get flamingo-a-go-going and hop the hop! I'm also playing along with the sketch challenge over at Sunday Stamps. I'm also linking up over at Sweet Stampin' where the theme is 3 Or More Layers and That's Crafty where the theme is In The Pink.

Card: 300 gsm textured white card, gold mirri card

Stamps: Your Next Stamp Fred and Ginger

Ink and colouring: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics

Dies: Lawn Fawn Stripey Backdrop, Say Cheese, Scripty Hugs

Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka in the Meadow

Adorable pink flower

We were finally able to do our first barbecue of the year today. A selection of sausages, burgers, sweetcorn and Jamie Oliver's mozzarella and bacon skewers all went down a treat along with some sweet potato wedges baked in the oven. And the best thing is that there are leftovers galore!

I'm very happy to have been able to spend some time in the craft room today while the Culianry Consultant took care of cooking. I managed to catch up on some DT assignments and created a few cards just for the fun of it, inspired by a few new purchases like the Paper Smooches Adorable Array die I used for this card. I was inspired by the card over at Muse. I'm also linking up with the following anything goes challenges: Tuesday Throwdown, Jade's Sparkling Butterflies and Crafting with Friends.  

I started by randomly watercolouring the background using Distress Inks, finishing by flicking some splatters on the background. I die cut the flower from various leftover pieces of coloured card. I stamped a sentiment onto a banner and attached it to the card base before assembling all the tiny pieces of the die cut. For a finishing touch I added a few adhesive rhinestones.

Card: 300 gsm watercolour card, scraps of coloured card from my stash
Stamps: Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Abandoned Coral, Picked Raspberry, Worn Lipstick
Other: Paper Smooches die Adorable Array, Lawn Fawn Everyday Sentiment Banners, Stampin' Up Basic Adhesive Rhinestones