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. 

Krafty flower power

I have been widowed for the day due to a violent computer game. I have hardly exchanged two words with the Culinary Consultant as he has only come up for air once (lunchtime) and other than that spend the day blasting the living daylights of pixel monsters. So that means I made a batch of blackberry muffins in the morning, and after that have spent most of the day in my craft room. I've started watching Suits and have worked my way through the whole first season in the last few days (thank you Netflix). Not sure this is how I thought it would be when you are in a relationship, but hey ho... 

Anyhow, I have got caught up with my DT assignments for a while to come and also had time to catch up on all the wonderful challenges out there. There seems to be quite a few floral themed challenges, so I thought I would absorb some inspiration from them for a card. I was inspired by the "Crafty Bouquet" challenge over at CASual Fridays, as well as the inspiration photos over at Curtain Call and Fusion. The colours in the images from Curtain Call and Fusion are very bright and vibrant colours, a bit different from the pastels I usually go for, but I thought it's a good exercise for my crafty muscles. Challenge yourself. Kind of like crafting push ups, or maybe burpees. Hard to do, but rewarding when done. I was also inspired by the great sketch over at Sweet Sunday Sketch. I actually coloured the flowers with Sharpies instead of my usual Copics to get the most intense colour on the kraft card. I also got out my never before used Lawn Fawn hello die. I really like it, it cuts really clean and it's easy to work with. 

Card: Kraft card, coloured navy 240 gsm kraft card

Paper: Scrap of Stampin' Up  DSP

Stamp: Stampin' Up So Very Grateful

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Colouring: Sharpies

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Hello die, piece of burlap twine from my stash

Neon!

I made it home from work early enough to photograph this card in daylight, yay! Fading daylight to be fair, but daylight still. Days are getting longer (and I left work really early...). It will be spring soon! I'm trying to keep the spirits up, I'm convinced we will get through this miserable winter soon. The weather last weekend was lovely, and we did some gardening. I guess weeding in January is proof of a very mild winter, it seems a bit unnatural. I'm hoping we won't have any cold spells, as a lot of our bulbs have already popped their heads above ground and I would hate to lose them to frost. 

Nothing like a bit of super-bright colours to cheer us all up. Today's card is one of those you will either love or hate. I happen to love it, although I guess I'm a bit biased. The card is inspired by the very colourful inspiration picture over at Cure for the Monday Blues. I used the sketch over at STAMPlorations for the layout. I'm also linking up over at CASology where the theme is Birthday, Make My Monday where the theme is Bright and Cheerful Colours and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where Anything Goes.

This stamp is one of those I just had to have, but it has remained almost unused since it's arrival in my craft room. So I thought it would be perfect for this challenge. I also love the technique of heat embossing in white and then colouring with Sharpies, as you don't have to buy a big bunch of coloured embossing powders. The colouring is also really fun! I stamped the arrow from Petal Parade in white craft ink on vellum and created the sentiment using die cut letters with Ice Stickles.

Card: Black 240 gsm coloured kraft card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum, Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card
Stamp: Hero Arts Sweet Threads Spirals, Stampin' Up Craft Ink Whisper White
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark
Colouring: 80's Glam Sharpies
Other: Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, Ranger Ice Stickles

Pink peonies

When I saw the gorgeous inspiration image over at Just Add Ink I knew exactly which stamp I was going to use. Then I realised I actually don't have the stamp, I have just seen it so much around that my brain somehow thought I had it. Signs of early onset dementia? On to plan B: Googling "fee digi stamps peony". And to my big surprise, I found a wonderful stamp over at a blog called Tidbits Trinkets. Based on a very quick browse it seems like a great place for free digis. And while I was there, I happened upon a link for this site which has oodles of free vintage images, if you are into that sort of thing. I also found this site, which has lots of links to free digis. I haven't checked it out in detail, so don't know if the links truly work etc. but I thought I would mention it if it was useful for someone (and so that I could refer back here myself the next time I was looking for the site...). Who knew there was so much free stuff out there!

I used my Sharpies to colour the peonies. They don't blend as well as Copics, but I only have a limited colour selection of Copics. I definitely wanted a bright fuchsia colour for the peonies, so I used my glorious 80's Glam Sharpies. I think the colours are just stunning, even if you can't say the same about the colouring... After colouring and fussy cutting three of the peonies, I have forever sworn off from using this digi stamp again. My neck and shoulders were sore from sitting for hours perched over my desk, and although fussy cutting is always fussy, this was fussy to the n-th degree. But it was worth it in the end, I'm happy with how the card turned out. Funnily enough the theme for this week's Love to Create is fussy cutting, so I had to enter the card there. For obvious reasons I decided not to put another peony inside the card, although who knows maybe I get inspired some other day to do one more and put it inside the card. 

Card: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm smooth white card, coloured 240 gsm kraft card Pink Raspberry, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamp: Free digi stamp, Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler
Ink: Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay
Colouring: 80's Glam Sharpies

Splat!

I have been feeling restless all day. I tried to craft but didn't feel very creative, so I had a browse around the Blogosphere for inspiration and inspiring challenges. When I saw the current Always Playing with Paper/Merry Monday challenge, I immediately thought of a tutorial (which unfortunately I cannot acknowledge as I can't for my life remember where I saw it) about using alcohol markers to colour white heat embossing on black cardstock. I immediately thought the challenge and the sketch would be perfect for trying out this technique. I did interpret the sketch very literally, but sometimes you just need to take the easy way out. I did enjoy colouring in all the small splatters, it kept my mind busy as I was singing loudly along to very embarrassing music from my youth. 

I am also linking up my card to this week's Craft Your Passion challenge where the theme this week is to add something yellow to your card. I am also entering this week's Clear It Out challenge where the theme is embossing and the stash item is embossing powder/folder. For this card, I only used stuff from my stash. The black card was from a leftover piece of cardstock, the orange card in the background is from a bunch of orange papers which have been in my stash for so long I thought they would disintegrate soon, and the colouring was done with my beloved Sharpies I got for Christmas last year. For some added bling, I added a bit of Distress stickles in yellow and orange, although they don't show very well on the photo.

Cardstock: Leftover black and orange cardstock from my stash, Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm smooth white card

Stamps: Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grunge, Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler

Ink: Tsukineko Versamark

Other: 80's glam Sharpies, Tim Holtz distress stickles in Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmelade, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder

Hey chickie

I know pretty much on first look whether I like a stamp brand or not. The stamps with the girl with no mouth - freaky! Not my thing at all (and no offence meant to anybody, I know there are some seriously beautiful cards out there with those stamps, but like I said, just not my thing). But then there are others that I just fall for from the first time I see them, and would love to buy every single stamp and die they have ever made. I am a sucker for the cute cartoon characters. And Paper Smooches is definitely one of those brands. I finally bought a few of their classic stamp sets, including this one called Chubby Chums. It actually reminded me of me and Best Friend. We are both chubby chums. Chubby in a very cute and loveable way!

My stamps arrived just in time to make a card for Best Friend's birthday. I love love love the Hey Chickie sentiment. Makes me chucle every time. And I thought, what could be better than to celebrate my first Paper Smooches card than to participate in the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge. This week it's a sketch challenge (see below). The round circles in the background inspired me to stamp the little chickie all over the background. I was also inspired by the CAS-ual Friday challenge, which this week was three thirds. I used three gems and three XO:s on the tag which covers about a third of the card surface. As a bonus, I used three colours for the chickies in the background, and there is three scalloped tag ends on the two tags on the card. How's that for threes! I will also submit the card to this week's Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge, despite the fact that there is already more than 430 submissions for the challenge, and this will just get lost in the crowd. But the theme this week is keep it clean and simple and I figured if the shoe fits...

For my card, I stamped the chickie onto white cardstock using black ink, coloured using Sharpies and fussycut using scissors. I used the Stampin' Up scalloped tag punch to make the two tags, one in Crisp Cantaloupe and the other in vellum. I stamped the chickie onto the background panel in Crisp Cantaloupe, Daffodil Delight and Tangerine tango. Then I just adhered everything into place and added the twine and gems. I also stamped the cute little moo inside the card.

Cardstock: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Cardstock, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin Up' Crisp Cantaloupe cardstock, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum
Stamps: Paper Smooches Chubby Chums
Inks: Hobbycraft black pigment ink, Stampin' Up Crisp Cantaloupe, Daffodil Delight and Tangerine Tango
Other: Stampin' Up Scalloped tag punch, 80's Glam Sharpies, Papermania adhesive gems Capsule Sunshine, yellow twine from my stash

Sharpie owls

I just realised I should celebrate my first crafting birthday. Although it feels like such a long time ago, it was only last year that I got my first pack of cardstock and a heart punch and made a few very clumsy Valentine's day cards. After that, this whole crafting thing has gotten just a little bit out of control. I shudder to think how much money I have spent on stamps, inks, cardstock and all sorts of other crafting equipment in these short 12 months. But also, how much joy they have brought me. Especially once I found the products that really work for me and the stamps and inks I'm most comfortable working with. Papercrafting is such a great hobby, it is relaxing and creative at the same time, and you are only limited by your own imagination (and all those cool new stamps and other products that keep going straight to the top of my "must have" list). 

I love the Stampin' Up owl punch. The owls are just so cute with their googly eyes. My sis loves owls, she has owl pillows on her sofa, and I have made an owl card for her before. But this one is better! I sent it to her for Valentine's day.

I used the owl punch to stamp owls from watercolour paper. I used my lovely set of 80's glam Sharpies my dear Culinary Consultant got me for Xmas to colour the owls. I love the colours, they are so bright. To create the tree, I used the Cracked Tim Holtz Sizzix folder to emboss white cardstock. I then fussycut the tree based on a template I drew free hand and inked it with Scattered Straw, Vintage Photo and Walnut stain distress inks.  Then I created the setting sun, again using distress inks (Fired Brick, Spiced Marmelade, Wild Honey and Mustard Seed) and die cut a circle. The background is inked (from top to bottom) using Broken China, Dusty Concorde, Worn Lipstick, Wild Honey, Peeled Paint and Pine Needles. Then I attached everything onto Kraft cardstock. This is one card which actually turned out better than I ever thought, I love all the bright colours and the lightly crazy looking owls. It makes me smile every time, and I like the way the Cracked embossing folder makes the tree look really cool.

Distress inks: Broken China, Dusty Concord, Worn Lipstick, Wild Honey, Peeled Paint, Pine Needles, Fired Brick, Spiced Marmelade, Mustard Seed, Scattered Straw, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain
Cardstock: Daler & Rowney 190gsm watercolour paper, Hobbycraft white 160 gsm cardstock, Kraft card 
Other: Stampin' Up Owl punch, Tim Holtz Sizzix embossing folder Cracked, 80's glam sharpies

Die cut Valentine's day card

TGIF - Thank God It's February. January was rough this year, but hopefully February will be easier. At least the last week of the month will be happy, as I am on holiday before starting my new job in March. 

So what does February mean for a card crafter? Valentine's day of course. In Finland, Valentine's day is called Ystävänpäivä, which translates to Friend's day. It's more about celebrating friendship instead of romantic love. I made this card for my Grandma to wish her happy Friendship day (the sentiment on the card says "Happy Friendship day".

Looking at the card, can you guess who just bought a die cutting machine which came with a set of alphabet dies? Bet you can never guess. I used my new Sizzix Big Shot to die cut the letters from white cardstock using the Sizzix Bug in a Rug Alphabet die set. I then coloured the letters using my 80's Glam Sharpies set which I love both because the colours are so happy and bright, but also because my dear Culinary Consultant gave the set to me for my Christmas Present. I then attached the letters onto Stampin' Up Basic Grey cardstock. I used the Stampin' Up owl punch for the hearts from white cardstock and coloured them with the Sharpies too. 

I rumbled around in my leftover stash and found some different coloured scraps and I used the Fiskars butterfly punch to punch out the small butterflies. The big butterflies are stamped onto vellum using the butterfly stamp from the Tim Holtz Heartfelt set using Distress paints in Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, Broken China and Brushed Pewter and fussycut using scissors. I matted the card onto bright yellow cardstock and Kraft card.

Dies: Sizzix Bug in a Rug Alphabet Sizzlits
Stamps: Tim Holtz Heartfelt
Punches: Fiskars butterfly, Stampin' Up Owl punch
Distress paints: Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, Broken China, Brushed Pewter
Cardstock: Stampin' Up Basic Grey, Hobbycraft three shades of yellow 160 gsm cardstock, Kraft card, Dovecraft Premium Vellum 110 gsm
Other: 80's glam Sharpies