STAMPlorations Inspiration

 

And so we are here - it's almost Christmas! December has flown by, hasn't it? We are all facing a different and weird Christmas this year given the (sometimes rather last-minute) lockdowns we face. I hope whatever you do for Christmas you stay safe, wash your hands, keep a distance and all that. If you decided to not see family this Christmas to keep safe, I send you big hugs. And as always if you are one of the heroes keeping us safe or alive over the holidays, you have my big thanks for sacrificing your time for the benefit of us all.

This year I gave almost exclusively home-made presents (if you follow me on Instagram you will know I'm an avid knitter and struggling crocheter). Socks, hats, hand warmers, even a few crocheted blankets (never again, I'll tell you!). And this year all of my gifts had hand-made tags on them (probably a first!) as I was inspired by my exceedingly talented DT colleague Deepti of Dees Art Utopia and her amazing use of stencils and Distress Inks/Oxides. I tried (poorly) to imitate her genius and you already saw a batch of my tags last week and here are some more for this week's STAMPlorations Inspiration post. Don't forget to leave a comment on the post to be entered into a monthly draw for a $15 prize code.

For my tags, I started by inking tags using Distress Inks and Distress Oxides and cutting the tags using Stitched Tags Nesting Dies. I then used various STAMPlortions stencils (there are so many amazing stencils to choose from!) and either sprayed them with water to make impressions of the stencil in the ink or inked through the stencil in the same colour as my background tag to make a subtle stencil pattern on the background of the tags. After letting the tags dry thoroughly, I stamped the wreath from Joyful in Versamark and heat embossed in gold. Last, I die cut a sentiment using Christmas Sentiments Phrase Dies in shimmery card. I think these turned out quite nice!

Stamps: STAMPlorations Joyful

Stencils: ARTplorations All Swirls Slimline Stencil, Burst Slimline Stencil, Flair Slimline Stencil, 

Placid Stencil

Dies: CUTplorations Christmas Sentiments Phrase Dies, Stitched Tags Nesting Dies

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Oxides, Tsukineko Versafine

STAMPlorations discount code: If you want to save 20% when shopping at the STAMPlorations store you can use the code STAMPGIRLKAROLA at checkout. The code cannot be combined with other discount codes. And if you use my code you also get to pick a freebie to the value of $7 (for details see the badge below).

Note that as a STAMPlorations affiliate, I get a small commission on any orders you place in the STAMPlorations store using the links in my blog post or my coupon code STAMPGIRLKAROLA. This is at no added cost to you. Thank you for your support to keep my craft addiction going :) 

Last Minute Inspiration

Every year I promise myself I won't leave Christmas things to the last minute, and every year that's how it turns out. This year I wouldn't even have sent out Christmas cards, but as my dearest set to write some cards, I thought that as a card crafter I simply cannot skip that duty. But to my shame, we did send out some shop-bought cards in addition to some handmade ones, and the majority of cards I had were from the stash I made inspired by our Christmas in July event over at STAMPlorations. Future me, please take note for next year...

I made a batch of snowflake tags for my presents this year. I used Stitched Tags Nesting dies on offcuts of kraft card which had been laying around in my UFO box forever. I stamped the lovely snowflakes using Stampin' Up Endless Wishes and heat embossed them in white. I added some of the small sentiments from the same stamp set which I stamped on a scrap piece of blue card. These were really quick to mass-produce and I think they matched the wrapping paper really well.

Anyhow, I have tried to be a bit more thoughtful about gift wrapping this year. I bought some recycled wrapping paper without any glitter or foil so it's compostable or recyclable. However, I had one very big gift and it would have used up the whole roll of that wrapping paper, so instead, I decided to use some of the brown paper that you get with your Amazon parcels. I simply smoothed out the paper and stamped the lovely images from Joyful in Distress Oxides. (sorry about the horrible pictures, this was literally last minute late in the evening...) 

I then added some nice festive ribbon, which can be re-used over and over (I already had tons of this in my stash, so no new ribbon was bought for any of the presents this year). I used a scrap of the store-bought wrapping paper, and die cut a tag using Stitched Tags Nesting dies, which I attached to a tag I had die cut from scrap cardboard from a chocolate bar! I used one of the Christmas Sentiments dies to cut the red sentiment. Super easy and super quick!

I also used some scraps of the store-bought wrapping paper (waste not, want not and all of that) which I die cut using the Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies and added the same sentiment using Christmas Sentiments and adhered everything to a cardbase made from some beautiful handmade paper.

I created a variation on the theme using vellum as the card base and added a hand-lettered greeting inside the card. 

That is a wrap on all my Christmas presents this year (apart from something I ordered from a shop which said they would guarantee delivery by Christmas, but yesterday I got an email to say it won't make it after all. I'm really annoyed, but I guess there are bigger problems in the world after all).

Stamps: Stampin' Up Endless Wishes, STAMPlorations Joyful

Dies: CUTplorations Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies, Stitched Tags Nesting dies and Christmas Sentiments

Life Is Short

I haven't been creating much in the last few months. Things have happened. Life has happened. We had a death in the family. I started a new job. I simply had no energy to create at all. To be honest, I also had no energy to cook, clean or exercise. This weekend I felt the call of the craft room for the first time in months. So I cranked the music up and answered that call. I'll show you what I created some other day. Today I'll show you something I had forgotten I made earlier. I knew a few months ago things were going to get tough, so I created this tag while I was grieving for things to come. I found it yesterday when I was performing an archaeological excavation in my craft room (also known as cleaning your crafting desk).

I don't usually do mixed media, so this is a bit out there for me. I have to admit, I can't even quite remember what I did to create the tag, as it now seems like a lifetime ago. I think I started with a background created with Distress Oxides, then added Gesso on top of that. I stencilled the floral using ARTplorations Bloom Boldly using texture paste mixed with Bronze Distress Paint. I then splattered some watercolours and white acrylic. I also think I stamped some grungy stamps on the background before stamping sentiments from It's a Girl Thing:Kindness and It's a Girl Thing: Sunshine onto a previously created rainbow coloured leftover piece of cardstock.

I'm linking up over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where Anything Goes, Love 2 Create and A Inky Mess where anything mixed media goes, and Tuesday Throwdown where the theme is Stenciling.

Stamps: STAMPlorations It's a Girl Thing:Kindness and It's a Girl Thing: Sunshine 

Dies: CUTplorations Maila Tags Nesting Dies

Stencil: ARTploratons Bloom Boldly

Inks and colouring: Distress Oxides, Distress Paint, Distress Ink, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black

STAMPlorations discount code: If you want to save 20% when shopping in 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.

March STAMPlorations TAG challenge - Spring

Welcome to the STAMPlorations March TAGplorations challenge. Our theme is spring, with an optional twist of birds. Is it getting spring-y where you are? I love March as spring starts to show just a little bit with nature turning green and early spring flowers shyly make their way above ground. Thank you for playing along with our February Love challenge, you certainly made it hard to pick our favourites! 

I started by stamping Hummingbird - Large onto watercolour paper and coloured him with Gansai Tambi watercolour and pearl watercolours. For the background, I watercoloured through the Honeycomb Delight Mini stencil and then went a bit overboard with splattering lots of watercolour onto the remaining tag for interest. The sentiments are from Bold Sentiments: Hashtag Authentic and Noteworthy 2.

Stamps: STAMPlorations Hummingbird - Large, Bold Sentiments: Hashtag Authentic, Noteworthy 2
Stencil: ARTplorations Honeycomb Delight Mini
Dies: CUTplorations Luggage Tags Nesting 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.

4 Crafty Chicks - Tags

Time for those last minute Christmas presents. And nothing completes a beautiful hand wrapped present like a handmade tag. This week's challenge over at 4 Crafty Chicks is Tags so we would love it if you shared your tags with us if you are making any this week!

I created a big batch of tags using my favourite Lawn Fawn stamp sets. I started by stamping the snowy background from Snow Cool in Versamark and heat embossed it in clear powder onto tags I die cut using the Tag You're It die. Then I inked the background using distress inks. I stamped lots of cute little critters and coloured them in the same colour scheme as the background using Copics. Last, I stamped the sentiment in black ink and added some pink and blue twine from my stash.

I'm linking up with the current challenge over at Lawn Fawnatics where the theme is to use your favourite stamp set. I'm slightly cheating as I couldn't choose whether I like Winter Alpaca or Winter Unicorn more - so I'm linking up both tags!

Card: 200 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 190 gsm white card

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Winter Alpaca, Winter Unicorn, Critters in the Snow, Toboggan Together, Critters in the Arctic, Winter Penguin, Snow Cool and matching dies

Ink and Colouring: Tim Holtz Distress Inks Blueprint Sketch, Broken China, Worn Lipstick, Spun Sugar, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Copics

Other: Lawn Fawn Tag You're It dies, Ranger Clear embossing powder, Signo White Gel pen 

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

STAMPlorations Christmas Release - Christmas Cookies

All set for Christmas? No? You think I'm crazy? Well yes, I am, but that's beside the point. Today I'm super excited to join a group of super talented STAMPlorations design team ladies to show you the new Christmas products. I usually have made a good bunch of Christmas cards by end of July, but this year I have really struggled with inspiration. Until I got a look at the awesome new Christmas stamps from STAMPlorations that is. Now I have most of my Christmas cards sorted. I'm hoping that over the following days we can inspire you to get your Christmas cards and tags sorted as well. After all, when December is here there are so many other things to worry about, so having your cards and tags all done in good time is a great start.

Today we are playing with the super fun Christmas Cookies & Cheer stamp set from the awesome Becca. You can find more inspiration from my STAMPlorations sisters over at STAMPlorations Christmas Release Day One. To join in on the fun, and of course for your chance to win some awesome prizes, you can leave comments on the main STAMPlorations blog and participating designer's blogs from August 14th to 21st. All the awesome prizes are listed in the STAMPlorations Christmas Release Day One post. And if you are not one of the lucky winners but want to get your hands on the stamps, you can use my discount code  STAMPGIRLKAROLA in the  STAMPlorations store for a 20% discount on your shop!

I thought this stamp set would make super fun tags for home-made Christmas cookies. I started by die cutting the tags using the CUTplorations Luggage Tags Nesting Dies and stamped the super cute sentiments and cookie stamps on the tags. For my kraft tag I stamped the images in Vintage Photo Distress Oxide ink. I really love the way it stamps, it's super crisp. I used the same ink to watercolour the cute little gingerbread men and the rolling pin, but the colour looks a bit different as it gets oxidised by the water. Last, I added some icing on the gingerbread men using a white gel pen. For my white tag I stamped the sentiment in Festive Berries Distress ink and stamped the cookies in Vintage Photo Distress Oxide, again watercolouring the cookies.  

Card: 250 gsm white card and 250 gsm kraft card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Christmas Cookies & Cheer
Ink and colouring: Distress Oxide Vintage Photo, Distress ink Festive Berries, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics, White Gel Pen
Other: CUTplorations Luggage Tags Nesting Dies, red ribbon from my stash

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.

Reindeer tags

Are you guys using your virtual assistants on your phones? I got a new phone very recently, as my age old assistant-less phone was giving up the ghost totally. And I just love the fact that my new phone has an assistant that I can just call out to whenever. It's so convenient in the kitchen to just set a timer without having to clean all the dough off your hands. And I love it that when something pops into my head in the evening right before I fall asleep I can just ask my assistant to make a note for the next day, or add something to my shopping list without even having to turn on the light. I'm a bit slow to catch on, but I'm catching up real quick!

I was completely fed up with the traffic around here, it has been such a nightmare lately. I have been going through audiobooks like no-ones business. At least it gave me the opportunity to plan these tags in my head while sitting still in traffic, going nowhere fast. There was a slight adjustment to the plan when I saw the new sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch. I'm assuming I'm allowed to use it on a non-card item too? I was also inspired by the great colours over at Color Throwdown (and who can resist those glittery shoes, I had a pair similar to those back in the days...) and the Wrap It theme over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge. I'm also linking up over at the STAMPlorations Anything Goes challenge, Crimbo Crackers where the theme is Pink and Christmas Stampin' All Year Long where the theme is Pair of Tags.

I started by die cutting the tag from watercolour paper. Then painted the whole tag with lots of water, and dropped two drops of Picked Raspberry ink directly onto the card, adding more water and just swooshing it around (yes that's a technical term). Then I used a tissue to just dab around and soak up some of the colour. Next, I added some Festive Berries ink using a watercolour brush around the edges, and smudged with paper some more. After drying with a heat tool I sponged a bit more Festive Berries around the edges. I used the gorgeous Christmas Reindeer stencil from STAMPlorations to ink the reindeers in Black Soot, and flicked some water drops to create some splotches. For one card, I dies cut the sentiment from sparkly pink card, and for the other I stamped the sentiment in Versamark and heat embossed in red. Last, I die cut a few Mini Snowflakes from white sparkly paper and added an adhesive gem as a finishing touch along with some twine and ribbon from my stash. Unfortunately we are now into the depressing time of the year when the only option is flash photography, and the cards look a bit more dynamic in real life, the colours came out a bit muted in the picture.

Card: 300 gsm watercolour paper, sparkly pink card, white sparkly card
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress inks Picked Raspberry, Festive Berries, Black Soot, Versamark
Stamps: Stampin' Up Endless Wishes
Dies: Lawn Fawn Tag You're It, Merry Christmas Border and Mini Snowflakes dies
Other: STAMPlorations Christmas Reindeer stencil, adhesive gems, twine and ribbon from my stash, red embossing powder

Holly Jolly - Tag It

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our "Frame It" challenge over at Holly Jolly. If you haven't had a look yet, hop over to see if you were one of the lucky winners. We also have a new challenge up for the next two weeks and this time we are challenging you to "Tag It". You can make a Tag or a project with a tag on it, there are many ways to interpret the challenge.

This time our sponsors are Stitchy Bear and QKR Stampede who are giving away prizes to lucky winners. You can hop over to the Holly Jolly challenge to see how the other Design Team members have interpreted the theme and showcasing images from our sponsors.

 

For my tags I used the QKR Stampede digi Christmas Moose. Very simply, I printed the moose onto kraft card and coloured him with Sharpies and Copics and stamped the sentiment. Then it was just a matter of inking Vintage Photo distress ink around the edges and then distressed the edges using a distress tool. I used a snowflake punch to make a hole for the twine. I also thought that one of my moose shaped paperclips would make the perfect embellishment for the tag.

I would like to join the following challenges

Winter Wonderland Challenge Blog - Anything But a Card

Sparkles Christmas Challenges - Christmas Animals

Jingle Belles - 12 Days of Cardstock

 

Card: Kraft card
Stamps: QKR Stampede digi Christmas Moose, Lawn Fawn Violet's ABC's
Inks: Tim Holtz Disterss inks Vintage Photo, Stampin' Up Melon Mambo, Old Olive, Sharpies, Copics
Other: twine from my stash, Fiskars snowflake punch, reindeer paperclip from my stash

 

Posted with Blogsy

White Christmas Tags

Today is Christmas here in Finland (we celebrate on the evening of the 24th). Today we will eat our traditional Christmas rice porridge for brunch. It's an age old tradition to put an almond in the porridge, and the one who gets the almond can make a wish for the year to come. Then it's time to relax in the Christmas sauna, and then relax your way to the Christmas eve dinner. We always focus more on the starters, salmon and herring with roe. By the time main course is served we usually only have a tiny little bit as we are stuffed from the starters. And we don't even bother with dessert, apart from munching on the chocolate Santa always brings every year. 

Should you still have access to your crafting room on Christmas unlike me this year, you could put together these quick last minute gift tags in mere minutes. These match the White Christmas cards I made earlier. I used the Stampin' Up Scalloped Tag Topper punch to create the tags out of beige cardstock and stamped and heat embossed the images in white. To finish, I added gold baker's twine. Super quick and simple for those last minute presents.

I want to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas, I hope you have a wonderful and relaxing time over the holidays and that you have loads of delicious food to enjoy with your loved ones.

I'm entering the tags in the following challenges:
Loves Rubberstamps Challenge - Anything Goes 
Papertake Weekly Challenge - Pick any previous challenge (I picked two or four legs, although I'm not sure the snowman fits in either of them...)
The Cutie Pie Challenge - Lots of cuteness on anything but a card
Vintage Stamping Challenge - A Christmas Song (I'm dreaming of a white Christmas)
Cardstock: Coloured 240 gsm card beige
Stamps: Stampin' Up White Christmas
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark
Other: Stampin' Up Scalloped Tag Topper punch, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, gold baker's twine

Quick and easy Christmas tags

CASEing the Catty has moved from the annual catalogue to the holiday catty and the theme for the current challenge is tags. I need to make some tags for Christmas, so I thought this was a good chance to get started. I based my tags on the funny Moose tag on page 28 but used a different stamp set for my tags. I used the White Christmas stamp set and heat embossed the images using white powder. I don't have the angled tag topper punch, so I just cut the corners off the tag and used a die from Chalk Talk to make the hole in the tag. These were super easy and quick to put together and I like the very simple look of them. If needed, these would be very easy to mass-produce. I'm also entering these over at Completely Christmas where the challenge this week is Anything Goes with the twist of Add a Tag.

From page 28 of the Stampin' Up Holiday Catalogue 2014

Card: Stampin' Up Black and Whisper white card
Stamps: Stampin' Up White Christmas
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Stampin' Up Real Red
Other: Papermania Seafoam White Embossing Powder, Stampin' Up Chalk Talk dies

Simon Says Stamp challenges - time and tags

Yesterday I spent most of the evening in my craft room working on this tag. I haven't done many tags before, but obviously I have admired all the amazing tags out there created by amazingly talented crafters. And one of my tag heroes is without a doubt Tim Holtz, and his grungy, shabby take on crafting. I also love working with the Tim Holtz craft supplies, and Vintage Photo is probably my most used distress ink of them all, it's just a perfect colour.

This time I was inspired by two challenges, the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge "tick tock", which is about time. With my holiday drawing to a close soon, I have been thinking about time a lot, especially about how it flies when you are having a wonderful time. I have enjoyed my time in the garden, kitchen and craft room, but these short one and a half week have just flown by, so I definitely wanted to participate in this challenge as it was so... timely... for my current situation. When I saw that the Simon Says Wednesday challenge was "tag it" and it also encouraged the use of Ranger product (for once something that I do have a huge selection of) I knew I wanted to combine the two challenges. I have been meaning to do a tag or two for quite a while, but halfway through I always give up as they don't turn out quite as I wanted them to. This time I was determined to get one done!

I only had one piece of crafting supplies with clocks on it for the time theme, and that was the Tim Holtz texture fades embossing folder Pocket Watches from Sizzix. Without a doubt this had to be the focal point of my tag. I started by inking a Ranger Inkssentials #8 Craft tag using Victorian Velvet, Seedless Preserves, Vintage Photo and Walnut stain to create a leathery look. I then embossed using my Sizzix and coloured the embossed areas using the Picket Fence marker. I used the Stampin' Up white pigment ink to stamp the Tim Holtz script stamp around the edges of the embossed areas of the tag, and used the Picket fence marker to draw some stitching to the top of the tag. I then distressed the edges of the tag.

Then onto the embellishments. I used the Tim Holtz Alterations Gadget gears die form Sizzix to die cut the gears, and inked with the same colours and added two layers of Ranger Ice Stickles in Coffee ice. I stamped the angels from Tim Holtz Stampers anonymous Regal Flourish set in Walnut stain and fussycut using scissors (this was definitely the most time consuming part of the tag) and then inked using Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain. I also stamped a banner from the Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Sketch CMS131 set in walnut stain, fussycut it and inked. I wrote the sentiment free hand. Lastly, for that little bit of colour, I used the Tim Holtz distress paints in Picked Raspberry and Seedless preserves to stamp the adorable butterfly from the Tim Holtz Visual Artistry Heartfelt set onto vellum, fussycut it and inked around the edges with Vintage Photo and Walnut stain. As a final touch, I added some paper twine and a die cut lace border using the Tim Holtz Vintage Lace sizzlit which I inked using the same colours as the tag.

My first completed tag! I'm quite chuffed, although of course it never ends up looking as you wanted it in the first place. But I'm quite happy with this none the less, a good effort.

Card: Ranger Craft tags #8, Daler & Rowney 190gsm watercolour paper, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white cardstock, Dovecraft Premium Vellum 110 gsm
Inks: Tim Holtz distress inks in Seedless Preserves, Victorian Velvet, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Stampin' Up 
Stamps: Banner from Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Sketch CMS131 set, angels from Tim Holtz Stampers anonymous Regal Flourish, butterfly from the Tim Holtz Visual Artistry Heartfelt set, Tim Holtz script stamp
Dies: Tim Holtz Alterations Sizzlits Vintage Lace, Tim Holtz Alterations Gadget Gears
Other: Tim Holtz Texture Fades embossing folder Pocket Watches, Tim Holtz distress marker Picket Fence, Tim Holtz distress marker Black Soot, Ranger Ice Stickles glitter glue in Coffee Ice, Tim Holtz idea-ology paper twine