October STAMPlorations CAS Challenge - Black

After a summer break, the STAMPlorations CAS challenge is back! I'm so excited to get back to making CAS inspired creations and seeing what you create. The rules are the same as they always were, you can create using any product you want as long as you create a CAS card. Remeber to link back to the main challenge post on the STAMPlorations blog and to include the challenge graphic in your post to be eligible to win the monthly prizes. 

This year we are doing things a bit differently as we will no longer have a mid-month inspiration post, just the main post on the first Thursday of every month. Just as there has always been, you will find an optional colour twist which I love using just to push myself a bit.

This time the optional colour twist is black, and I thought why not change things up a bit and use black card. I have bought a small set of Faber Castell Polychromos pencils, inspired by all your fabulous pencil colouring out there on the Interwebs. I used to admire other people's beautiful colouring on black card, but the non-brand colouring pencils I had didn't really work on black card and I used to wonder what I was doing wrong. Well, I can tell you that using real artist's pencils is what made the difference! These work like a dream, although I still need to learn to use them... I'm already dreaming of a bigger set as I only have 12 colours at my disposal at the moment. But that is just about enough to colour the beautiful Blossom Sprays #1 stamp, and I heat embossed a sentiment from Noteworthy 2 in white.

Card: Black 200 gsm card

Stamps: STAMPlorations Dee's Artsy Impressions Blossom Sprays #1, Noteworthy 2

Ink and Colouring: Tsukineko Versamark, Faber Castell Polychromos

Other: Wow Opaque Bright White Super Fine embossing powder 

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.

October STAMPlorations TAG Challenge - Fall

I'm very excited to be blogging today about the October STAMPlorations TAG Challenge as I have been given a wonderful opportunity to join the design team. Hopefully you have a lot of pent-up TAG mojo in store after our summer break! I can't wait to hop around to all of your blogs and to be inspired by what you create. Our first challenge of the season is All About Fall with an optional twist of red, orange and gold. 

My tag is inspired by the colourful leaves and all the birds migrating to a warmer climate right now. I started by blotting Twisted Citron, Spiced Marmalade, Fossilized Amber and Vintage Photo Distress Oxide onto a craft mat, spritzing and picking up several layers of ink onto white card. Then I used one of the Manila Tags Nesting Dies to cut the tag. I inked up the Trendy Leaves stamps in yellow, orange, red and brown Distress Oxide, spritzed with water before stamping and fussy cut them. I also die cut some leaves using the Trendy Spring Blooms dies. Then I randomly stamped various stamps from Mixed Media Grunge in red, orange and brown around the edges of the tag and added a sentiment from Noteworthy 2. Before attaching the leaves, I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink through the Some Birds stencil and last I stamped and heat embossed some dots in gold in the upper left corner of the tag and added some ribbon and twine.

There are very few rules - please follow the theme and your project has to have a tag in some form. You don't have to use STAMPlorations products but if you have any we would love to see how you were inspired to use them. Don't forget to link back to the challenge and add the challenge graphic to your post if you want to be eligible to win prizes.

I'm linking up my tag over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme is Tag It.

Card: 200 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 190 gsm white card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Trendy Leaves, Noteworthy 2, Mixed Media Grunge
Dies: CUTplorations Manila Tags Nesting Dies, Trendy Spring Blooms
Stencils: ARTplorations Some Birds
Ink: Distress Ink Vintage Photo, Distress Oxides Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade, Twisted Citron, Spiced Apple, Barn Door, Vintage Photo, Tsukineko Versamark
Other: gold embossing powder, ribbon, twine, sequin and an adhesive gem 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.

When Life Gives You Lemons

I have been meaning to have a play around with my new STAMPlorations Layered Citrus for a while and when I saw the challenge over at Fusion I knew I had to play along. First I was going to re-create the inspiration image with yellow and orange fruit and the green leaves, but I thought I could also use green to stamp some limes to complement the oranges and lemons. I stamped the outlines of the fruit in Distress Oxide and then used the layering stamps to fill in the fruit with lighter shades of Distress Ink, masking as I went along. I stamped the first part of the sentiment in Versamark on black card and heat embossed in black and stamped the second part directly onto the fruit. 

Card: white 200 gsm card, scrap of black card
Stamps: STAMPlorations Layered Citrus
Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Distress Oxide Spiced Marmalade, Fossilized Amber, Lucky Clover, Distress Ink Squeezed Lemonade, Wild Honey, Twisted Citron
Other: Wow white embossing powder

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.

Autumn Jam

Today I have something a bit different to share. In the last week or so we have been overwhelmed by the number of plums our plum tree has produced, and which have fallen to the ground as a result of storm Ali. We had so many plums we didn't know what to do with them, our kitchen was full of tubs filled with plums. I've eaten so many plums lately I'm happy to wait until next plum season before I have any more, as delicious as they were. I've baked several plum cakes, and we made a batch of boozy plum marmalade (nothing like a bit of brandy to enhance that lovely plum flavour). I decorated a jar of marmalade to give to a friend. 

I used Stampin' Up and Lawn Fawn patterned paper to decorate the jar, and Lawn Fawn dies to cut leaves for decoration. I used a scrap of card I had inked earlier with Distress Oxides and added some hand lettering to create a label. Last, I added some twine. 

I'm linking up over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme is "It's a Wrap" and Make My Monday where the theme is autumn colours.

Twofer Leaves

Last month when I played along with the Twofer challenge I got it wrong and didn't follow all the rules so let's try again. The idea is to use the same stamp or dies to make two cards. This time I used the Lawn Fawn Leaf dies for two different cards. For my coffee card I used the dies to die cut some card I had inked up by smooshing Distress Oxides. For my other card I used the dies to create a stencil which I inked Distress Oxides through. Hopefully this is in line with the rules!

This card was also inspired by the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and I'm also linking up over at Just Add Ink where the theme is Just add K (in my case kraft card)

My second card was inspired by the image over at Just Us Girls. As I added some adhesive gems from my stash, I'm also linking it up over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where the theme is Bling It On.

Card: White 250 gsm card, watercolour card, Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid and Perfectly Plaid fall, scrap of kraft card

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Love You a Latte, Sending Hedgehugs and matching dies

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Oxide, Copics

Dies: Lawn Fawn Stitched Leaves
Other: Burlap twine from my stash, adhesive gems from my stash

Calla Lily Congrats

I'm constantly amazed by this creativity thing. I can spend a whole day trying to create something specific and keep binning card after card as they just don't work. And then I get an idea which I don't think will even work, and then 10 or 15 minutes later I've created a card that I really like. Like the right two brain cells finally managed to meet up. Go figure!

Anyhow, today's card was inspired by the CAS on Friday challenge where the theme is Flowers, the inspiration image over at Time Out and the colours over at Color Throwdown. 

Card: Watercolour paper from my stash, scraps of kraft and black card

Stamps: STAMPlorations In Bloom: Classic Calla Lilies

Ink and colouring: Tsukineko Versafine Onyx Black, Gansai Tambi watercolours

Die: CUTplorations Congrats Word die

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.

Fall Forest Alpaca

Today's card is inspired by the mood board over at Lawn Fawnatics, the colours over at Color Throwdown and the sketch over at AAA Cards.  I'm also linking up over at Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is Stamp It On.

I rummaged through my pile of scrap pieces of Lawn Fawn patterned paper for die cutting the fall forest scene. It always feels great to be using up those leftover pieces which you can't quite bring yourself to throw away just in case you could use them for a future project. I coloured the alpaca with Copics and paper pieced his little scarf. 

Card: white 250 gsm white card

Patterned paper: Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid Chill, Knock on Wood, Knit Picky, Let's Polka in the Dark, Perfectly Plaid Fall

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Winter Alpaca and matching dies, Thank you Tags

Ink and Colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics

Dies: Lawn Fawn Stitched Circle, Stitched Tree borders, Simple Puffy Clouds