Tuesday 30 December 2014

Loving Distressed Damask


Hi Everyone.
Hope you all had a lovely Christmas.
You might have noticed that I changed over from WordPress. Ever since I decided on the move, I had been looking for the Google Friend Connect button and finally found it!!! YAY! Given that it has taken me so long to find the little gadget I am extending the Blog Candy, one of my hand made calendars, deadline until Sunday 4th January 12 noon GMT. I shall be drawing two lucky winners of one calendar each.
This is a quick post from me today coinciding with a Spotlight Feature on the STAMPloratios Blog. I finally got round to ordering two stamp sets I had wanted for a while. They arrived through the post the week before Christmas, and I couldn't help but playing. Here are the two cards I made using the Distressed Damask Background and the Distressed Floral Swirls plus a couple of stamps to keep you looking forward to the New Year.

I wanted to go for all out colourful and used all my little cat eye ColorBox inks for the background.I quite like the mottled effect you get from using them to create a pattern on the stamp whilst inking up. I could have added some more stamping, splashes or ink spritzes to my first card, but I decided to leave it as is given that the random inking adds a lot of interest and depth.
For my second card, I used the second imprint of the stamping and layered a pattern on top using fainter and brighter inks to add more depth.
Both sentiment stamps are from a new range Shery is going to introduce next year: The STAMP LAB! Exciting times ahead ... Watch This Space!

Given that I had so much fun, I couldn't resist making another card to sneak in before the post goes live. This time teaming both sets with our current STAMP CLUB set Sugar Rush.
This time I decided to only ink part of the stamp creating a pattern for my background. It a sort of reminded me of wafers and scoops of ice cream once I stamped hence I turned it into this ice cream themed beauty.
A more detailed description on how to make the cards can be found on the STAMPlorations Blog here.
Hope you feel inspired using the Distressed Damask Background in different ways. I for one am looking forward to seeing your makes using this technique.
Before I go, just a quick note: If you have been sitting on the fence about joining our STAMP CLUB, now is a really good time to do it. With more products being added to the inclusive package next year, joining now will actually save you money. The full details and pre-view of what's new for 2015 can be found here. The After Christmas Sale is still on until 31st December 2014, and as a STAMP CLUB member there will be extra savings for you too, details of which can be found here.
Wishing you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR full of crafting magic!
hugs
Monika x


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Here are the videos for my cards:
1st card
2nd card
3rd card

Friday 19 December 2014

Hello And Welcome

Hi Everyone,
this is just a quick post to welcome you to my new blog. It is still work in progress whilst I am transferring my blogging from WordPress.
To ease the transition period, I am putting up a Blog Candy, one of my little desktop calendars similar to the one shown below, to be drawn from all my followers on this blog by 10 am GMT on Tuesday 30th December 2014. The winner will be announced later the same day.
Deadline extended ... The draw will now happen Sunday 4th January 2015 at 12 noon. Only just managed to find the Google Friend Connect button today (29th December), hopefully the extension will give you plenty of time to join and follow my site.
In the meantime, have a lovely Christmas!
hugs
Monika xxx
If you are still looking for that special crafty gift ... click here for details