STAMPlorations Spring Fling and Blog Hop Reminder

This is your official reminder that you still have a few days (until the end of the month) left to hop along and/or link up to the STAMPlorations Spring Fling Blog Hop & Linky Party if you were planning to do so but haven't yet done so. You can find lots of inspiration for spring-themed creations on the STAMPlorations Spring Fling blog post and if you hop along and comment, or link up your own creations you can win one of several great prizes. In addition, there is a free digi which you can download and which I used for my project.

I created my card using the free Coffee Bloom Prints Digital Stamp, which you can download from the STAMPlorations digi store for free! I re-sized the digi to 80%, printed it, coloured with Sharpies and fussy cut it. I ran a black marker around the edges of the coffee cup before attaching it to a background I created by blending Distress Oxides and splattered it with water. I heat embossed a sentiment from What's Brewing in white onto black card to finish the card.

I'm also linking up this card over at the Spring/Summer 2020 Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. Don't forget that STAMPlorations is one of the super sponsors for the hop, and there are additional prizes to be won over on the STAMPlorations Coffee Lovers Blog Hop post.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Coffee Bloom Prints Digital Stamp, What's Brewing

Ink and colouring: Distress Oxides, Sharpies, Tsukineko Versamark 

If you feel like shopping for new craft stash you should check out the promotions in the STAMPlorations Store. And if you want 20% off normal priced products, you can use the code STAMPGIRLKAROLA at checkout!

 

Products in the SPRING FLING section are 15% off instantly. Discount is applied automatically when you add qualifying items in your cart.

 

Products in the COFFEE/TEA LOVERS section are 40% off with code COFFEE40.

STAMPlorations Inspiration

Happy May, my favourite month of the year! How are you coping? I'm looking forward to a long weekend this week as we have a bank holiday on Friday and I'm taking a day of annual leave on Monday, enjoying four lovely days away from work. I'm planning to... well, stay at home, but not work, hehe. Maybe take a few long walks and work in the garden. It will still feel like a holiday, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for good weather. And today is Tuesday, and that means there is a new STAMPlorations Inspiration post too.

For today's card, I started with one of my Distress Oxide blended backgrounds. I made a big batch of them a few weeks back. I then stamped the lovely Sweetly bouquet of flowers in white heat embossing on vellum. I die cut the sentiment using Everyday Sentiments. Last I added a strip of patterned paper both for the decorative effect and to secure the edge of the vellum to the background. I'm really chuffed about how this card turned out.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Sweetly

Dies: CUTplorations Everyday Sentiments

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Oxides, Tsukineko Versamark

We are soon going to start the Spring Fling blog hop and linky party, so don't forget to check in on May 6th.

 

Products in the SPRING FLING section are 15% off instantly. Discount is applied automatically when you add qualifying items in your cart.

Christmas Moon

I recently went a bit crazy and ordered a huge batch of Lawn Fawn stamps and dies. Oh, how I remember thinking that making my own cards would be such a great idea to save money. Makes me laugh every time. I think I once worked out that my cards come out at about £30 each... I hope the recipients appreciate them. My partner just rolls his eyes every time I get a new delivery. But I'm preaching to the choir here, right?

Anyhow, among many, many, other things, I ordered the Lawn Fawn Winter Skies and Wish Upon a Star stamp sets which are so adorable. And this morning I saw that this week's Just Us Girls challenge is Celestial Elements. So instead of cleaning my kitchen, I made this card!

I've been doing a lot of blending with Distress Oxides lately but this time I dug out the trusty old Distress Inks and I do love the vibrancy of the colours. I had so much fun inking the moon and the night sky in Peacock Feather, Blueprint Sketch, Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot. I used Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed and Fossilized Amber for the moon. I heat embossed the stars in white after ensuring the ink had dried thoroughly and liberally using my embossing buddy all over the sky (don't ask me how I know...). I die cut the pieces for the scenery and coloured the adorable bears and their big scarf with Copics. Don't they just look so cosy sitting there, gazing upon the winter sky?

I'm also linking up over at ABC Christmas Challenge where the theme is U is for Upon (or V is for Very Quick, which this card definitely was not), Christmas Crafts All Year Round where the theme is Santa, Elf or Fairy, Crimbo Crackers and Sweet Stampin' Christmas where the theme is Anything Goes.

Card: Neenah Solar white card, white shimmer card, scraps of green and red card from my stash

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Winter Skies, Wish Upon A Star

Dies: Lawn Fawn Forest border, Stitched Hillside borders, Scripty Merry

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black and Versamark, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed and Fossilized Amber, Peacock Feather, Blueprint Sketch, Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot, Copics

Other: WOW white embossing powder

North and South Pole Tags

I've been working on my stash of Christmas cards, but not really on any gift tags yet. So today, I thought I would change that as I was inspired by the cute bear tag over at Tag You're It challenge and the Clever Gift Packaging Challenge over at Lawn Fawnatics (not sure if tags really count as gift packaging or not, but I saw a few other tags in the gallery so I thought why not!). I'm also linking up with the Christmas Gift Tag challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge and Anything but a card over at Make My Monday.

I started by die cutting the tags in Neenah Solar white card, and inking the sky with Tim Holtz Distress inks, splattering with water mixed with some Perfect Pearls (which gives the sky a nice, subtle shimmer which I wasn't able to capture in the photos). Then I die cut the mountains in kraft card, and the snowy mountaintops, the snowy hillside and the forest border in white card. Last, I stamped the cute critters, colouring them with Copics and die cutting with the matching dies. After assembling the tags, I added some twine for attaching the tags to the gifts. I will stamp a greeting on the reverse of the tags.

Card: Neenah Solar white, kraft card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters in the Snow and matching dies
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Broken China, Peacock Feathers, Mermaid Lagoon, Copics
Dies: Lawn Fawn Tag You're It, Forest Border, Stitched Mountain Borders, Stitched Hillside Borders
Other: blue and white twine from my stash

Autumn Leaves

The colours of the leaves are stunning outside, so I can't stop creating inked leaves and using all leaf dies I can find in the craft room. I've been so much into die cutting lately, much more than stamping to be honest. Today I made a bit of a mess with Distress Inks and STAMPlorations dies with a very strong CAS flair. It's just so much fun getting that ink everywhere and then splattering with water and some more ink. 

Today's card was inspired by the blue background and beautiful fall leaves in the inspiration image over at Fusion Card Challenges. I was also inspired by the ink blending themes over at AAA Cards and Daring Cardmakers.

Card: Neenah Solar white card

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Broken China, Blueprint Sketch, Faded Jeans, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Festive Berries, Barn Door, Aged Mahogany, Vintage Photo

Stamps: STAMPlorations Trendy Feathers 1 (retired)

Dies: STAMPlorations Trendy Leaves 2 coordinating dies

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.