Deep in Thought

Hi All,

It is time for another Inspiration Post over at STAMPlorations. For today's card I tried my hand at watercolouring using ink from marker pens. I was working with The Bee's Knees Smallbirds and added a sentiment from VIGNETTE Trendy Feathers.

I thought it might be fun to give the bird a sort of shadowy, hazy type of feel hence I white embossed the Kingfisher on watercolour paper and, taking a leaf out of Shirley's book, sloshed some colour around. To finish I stamped my sentiment, distressed and inked the edges and mounted it at a slight angle on matching card.
This is an easy card to make, perfect for those moments when you just need one 'now'.
Pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog for more inspiration from my teamies. This is also where you can play along with us in the Inspiration CASE Playground simply by CASEing one of our cards and link up, each month a winner will be drawn at random. There is still time to link up for April!!!

I am linking my card to the following challenges:
CASology - Flight
Addicted To Stamps And More - Make your Mark

That's is from me for today, back soon with more inspiration.
Enjoy your day! hugs
Monika xxx

 

Two For One Die Cuts

Hi All,

Back today with another two for one card I made using the Timeless Celtic Dream Die which features a very beautiful feline ...

I simply blended some Daffodil Delight, Summer Starfruit and Gumball Green SU inks using my trusted shaving brushes on two pieces of 12 x 12 cm white card for a subtle yellow and green background, which is a little more intense than the photos would suggest. I then die cut my shape from a black 12 x 12 cm piece of black card. For the rest I made a little video, please excuse my usual ramblings ...

I am entering my cards at the Lavinia Blog Challenge - Lime and Lemon

That's it from me for today.
Have a lovely day!
hugs
Monika xxx

Love and More

Hi All,
Thanks for all your lovely comments, they were very much appreciated. It was good to hear that you enjoyed all the inspiration my teamies and I had prepared for the April Release Blog Hop.
Well, today it is time for a little more inspiration. I made a couple of cards and a little box to go with my second one.
First up is a card, where I did some stenciling and heat embossing. I felt inspired by one of the sentiments from the new Fond Expressions set.

I die cut a heart shape to create my large heart stencil and attached the ARTplorations Stencil: Hearts All Over to it before sponging through both. Vicki did a great tutorial here on how exactly to do this enclosed stenciling technique. I removed my stencils and gold embossed my sentiment, layered on my kraft base card and added a couple of tiny hearts to finish. One could add a little shadow outline with a fine tip pen to the sentiment, however it is much more visible in real life than the photo makes you believe.

Next up is a little card using another sentiment from the Fond Expressions set and the daisy from the Bloom Sketches set ...

I started by spritzing a piece of white card with a little Cardinal Red Artiste Spritzing ink. Once dry I stamped the daisy in Bravo Burgundy and coloured it using pastel yellow and burnt orange Promarkers adding an outline in warm grey. Next I stamped my sentiment and added a couple of dashed lines to finish. I made 5 of these to fit the box below, plus envelopes of course.

The box was made using my envelope punch board from a piece of white card already spritzed and daisy stamped all over. Once the card was cut to size, punched and scored, I added a border to the sides and to frame the visible squares using the slightly dotty stamp from the Mixed Media Grunge set as you can see in the photographs below. I also added the same border to my DP ribbon and blended the edges.

I assembled the box, added my cards and envelopes, attached the ribbon and added a fancy die cut circle. I then stamped and fuzzy cut some leaves from the Trendy Leaves set, stamped, coloured and fuzzy cut the daisy, die cut some branches and attached it all to the front of the circle before adding some gems and glossy accents to finish.

This is it from me for today. Pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog to see the gorgeous projects my teamies made plus if you feel like CASEing one or two of our projects, you can link them up here too. A winner will be randomly drawn from all the entries to our Inspiration CASE Playground to win either a $15 gift certificate or their choice of ant 2 ARTplorations Stencils.

Back again shortly with more inspiration.
Have a lovely day!
hugs
Monika xxx

the sets I used from STAMPlorations:
    

dies used:
heart die - Xcut nesting dies by docrafts
Pine Bough - Sue Wilson by Creative Expressions
Italian Collection Decorative Frames - Sue Wilson by Creative Expressions

inks used:
Cardinal Red - Artiste Spritzing ink by docrafts
Melon Mambo, Riding Hood Red, Bravo Burgundy, Garden Green, Ruby Red - Stampin'Up!

STAMPlorations April Blog Hop Day 5

Hi All,
Welcome to Day 5 of the STAMPlorations April Stamp Release Blog Hop. Today we are introducing you to The Bee's Knees SMALLBIRDS set, a set of 5 absolutely cute birds who have already made their presence felt on my blog here, here and here.

I combined birdie, as I call him, with a sentiment from the HOLIDAY SKETCHES: Christmas Flower set for today's project.

I know it is still early in the year, and Easter has hardly passed, but birdie twisted my arm ... he wanted to become a robin! I stamped and coloured birdie using Promarkers before fuzzy cutting him. I then die cut my pine twig from a piece of white card, set it aside and spritzed some gold Artiste ink over the leftover piece of white card before stamping my sentiment into position using black VersaColor ink. I then cut the bare twig from kraft card and layered my elements as seen on a green base card.

As with every blog hop, check out the fabulous projects my Teamies have created and please leave a comment on all our blogs for your chance to win one of our fabulous prizes. You don't have to, but it certainly increases your chance of winning. You can find all the links here, just as a reminder these are the stops for day 5:

..... yes, we were lucky to be joined all week by the fabulous Darnell ...

Darnell - Guest Designer

Becca

Cornelia

Deepti

Maria

Monika - that's me

Sari

Shery

Shirley

Vicki

Prizes: 5 commenters randomly drawn from the designers' blogs will win a $10 gift certificate each and 1 commenter randomly drawn from the STAMPlorations blog will win a $25 gift certificate plus there will be some surprise prizes depending on the response we get. Commenting closes April 27 and the winners will be announced April 29.

Good Luck, Everyone!!!
hugs
Monika xxx

links for previous blog hop days:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4

additional stamp set I used for today's project:


dies -  Festive Collection: Pine Bough by Sue Wilson

STAMPlorations April Blog Hop Day 4

Hi All,
Welcome to Day 4 of the STAMPlorations April Stamp Release Blog Hop. Today we are introducing you to the HEAVEN SENT set, a set of 3 images and 14 sentiment elements.

I combined one of the images with a sentiment from the Fond Expressions set featured on Day 1 of our blog hop to make today's cuddly card.

Did you know that hugs can boost your immune system??? I knew they could make you feel good, and, according to this article here, there is even scientific proof of it. Well, I must say, I do like sending imaginary hugs by card ... and this cute little teddy bear fits the bill perfectly. I simply stamped and coloured him, added a stitched die cut border, layered on a piece of pretty paper already embossed with my sentiment and on my kraft base card before finishing off with a couple of sequins.

As with every blog hop, check out the fabulous projects my Teamies have created and please leave a comment on all our blogs for your chance to win one of our fabulous prizes. You don't have to, but it certainly increases your chance of winning. You can find all the links here, just as a reminder these are the stops for day 4:

..... yes, we were lucky to be joined all week by the fabulous Darnell ...

Darnell - Guest Designer

Cornelia

Deepti

Julie

Maria

Monika

Shery

Shirley

Vicki

Wei Wei

Prizes: 5 commenters randomly drawn from the designers' blogs will win a $10 gift certificate each and 1 commenter randomly drawn from the STAMPlorations blog will win a $25 gift certificate plus there will be some surprise prizes depending on the response we get. Commenting closes April 27 and the winners will be announced April 29.

Good Luck, Everyone!!!
hugs
Monika xxx

links for previous blog hop days:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

here is the additional set I used for today's card:

STAMPlorations April Blog Hop Day 3

Hi All,
Welcome to Day 3 of the STAMPlorations April Stamp Release Blog Hop. Today weare introducing you to the NOTEWORTHY set, a set of 6 encouraging and uplifting sentiments.

I combined one of the sentiments with the large dot from the VIGNETTE Retro Mod Shapes set for today's card.

I wanted to give my card the feel of memories floating about in our minds, some of them fainter and others more in sharp focus. The good times being represented by the large sponged circle. I used pink, orange and yellow to randomly stamp my dots and also to sponge the large circle. My sentiment is black embossed and the sequins are simply symbolic of the lift one gets when remembering the good times. They are the sparkle that gets added back into life.

As with every blog hop, check out the fabulous projects my Teamies have created and please leave a comment on all our blogs for your chance to win one of our fabulous prizes. You don't have to, but it certainly increases your chance of winning. You can find all the links here, just as a reminder these are the stops for day 3:

..... yes, we were lucky to be joined all week by the fabulous Darnell ...

Darnell - Guest Designer

Becca

Cornelia

Deepti

Julie

Maria

Monika - that's me

Shery

Shirley

Vicki

Prizes: 5 commenters randomly drawn from the designers' blogs will win a $10 gift certificate each and 1 commenter randomly drawn from the STAMPlorations blog will win a $25 gift certificate plus there will be some surprise prizes depending on the response we get. Commenting closes April 27 and the winners will be announced April 29.

Good Luck, Everyone!!!
hugs
Monika xxx

links for previous blog hop days
Day 1, Day 2

the additional set I used in today's project:

STAMPlorations April Blog Hop Day 2

Hi All,
Welcome to Day 2 of the STAMPlorations April Stamp Release Blog Hop. Today we are introducing you to the The Bee's Knees BABY BUMP set, a set of 4 images and 5 sentiment elements.

For today's card, I combined with the Heaven Sent set due to feature on day 4 of our hop.

I decided to use use the sketch Quick Cards Made Easy posted on their Facebook page April 13 as my starting point. I cut my panels to size and randomly stamped my images and sentiment (congratulations) in yellow, orange, pink, green, blue and turquoise before edging them in blue and adding some faux stitching in blue too. I embossed a piece of white card, edged and added some faux stitching too. I then stamped, coloured and fuzzy cut my pregnant lady before matting and layering on light blue card and white base card as shown. I added my sentiment (so happy for you) and finished off with a few daisies and green gems.

As with every blog hop, check out the fabulous projects my Teamies have created and please leave a comment on all our blogs for your chance to win one of our fabulous prizes. You don't have to, but it certainly increases your chance of winning. You can find all the links here, just as a reminder these are the stops for day 2:

..... yes, we were lucky to be joined all week by the fabulous Darnell ...

Darnell - Guest Designer

Cornelia

Deepti

Maria

Monika - that's me

Shery

Shirley

Tenia

Vicki

Prizes: 5 commenters randomly drawn from the designers' blogs will win a $10 gift certificate each and 1 commenter randomly drawn from the STAMPlorations blog will win a $25 gift certificate plus there will be some surprise prizes depending on the response we get. Commenting closes April 27 and the winners will be announced April 29.

Good Luck, Everyone!!!
hugs
Monika xxx

links for previous blog hop day:
Day 1

This is the additional set I used in today's project:

STAMPlorations April Blog Hop Day 1

Hi All,
Welcome to Day 1 of the STAMPlorations April Stamp Release Blog Hop. Today we are introducing you to the FOND EXPRESSIONS set, a set of  7 sentiments for all occasions as you can see below.

I combined one of the sentiments with a bird from The Bee's Knees SMALLBIRDS set, which we'll be spotlighting on day 5 of the hop, to make this quick and easy card ideal to hold a gift card or voucher on the inside.

I black embossed my sentiment on a piece of pretty paper. To blend in the distressed edges, which were only on two sides of my paper, I used one of the stamps from the Mixed Media Grunge set, the one with the tiny dots and slight pattern, and stamped a border along the two other sides using white craft ink. I attached my paper to my card front, doodled a border and slightly folded one of the corners over for added interest. The I cut a banner from black card, stamped, coloured and fuzzy cut my bird, attached both to my card and added a few tiny black pearls to finish.

As with every blog hop, check out the fabulous projects my Teamies have created and please leave a comment on all our blogs for your chance to win one of our fabulous prizes. You don't have to, but it certainly increases your chance of winning. You can find all the links here, just as a reminder these are the stops for day 1:

... and yes we managed to have the fabulous Darnell guest designing for us all week :-) ...

Darnell - Guest Designer

Cornelia

Deepti

Maria

Monika - that's me

Sari

Shery

Shirley

Tenia

Vicki

Wei Wei

Prizes: 5 commenters randomly drawn from the designers' blogs will win a $10 gift certificate each and 1 commenter randomly drawn from the STAMPlorations blog will win a $25 gift certificate plus there will be some surprise prizes depending on the response we get. Commenting closes April 27 and the winners will be announced April 29.

Good Luck, Everyone!!!

hugs

Monika xxx

Here are the other sets I used for today's card:

 

Candyfloss Inspired

Hi All,

It's time for more inspiration over at the STAMPlorations Blog where my Teamies and I are showcasing some of the older sets. I decided to work with VIGNETTE It's Your Day and Sugar Rush. Somehow things didn't go quite to plan as birdie from The Bee's Knees SMALL BIRDS wanted to have a say too...

My first card is inspired by one of my first ink pads I bought. I only realized the other day, when making my cards that it had never been opened!!! Luckily it's still in fine working order. It is one of those pigment ink pads with three colours, and I decided to use it to stamp the background using the word stamp from the It's Your Day set. I did this after I had die cut a corner off a piece of white card using one of my Li-inker Border dies. I layered my two pieces on my pink base card and tied pink organza ribbon into a bow. I then stamped the cake in black, fuzzy cut it and attached it to my card finishing off by adding some candyfloss glitter glue highlights.

I really wanted to give this card the fluffy candyfloss feel as a contrast to the wonky cake.

Next up is birdie. Let's see what his input is today ...

Can you believe it, his favourite treats are macarons!

For this card, I worked with the Sugar Rush set and die cut a cloud corner from a piece of white card, stamped both images in black, stamped two lines of sentiment in black and the word macarons using my tricolour ink pad before clear embossing it and layering all on a pink base card. To ground my image I simply added some pink shading using my PP2 Spectrum Noir Marker and blender pen.

I would like to enter birdie at the following challenges:
CASology - Sweets, Shery from STAMPlorations is sponsoring this week, lucky to be on her DT
Crafty Calendar - Add a Sentiment
The Crafting Cafe - Flight of Fancy
Sisters of Craft - Anything Goes
Scribbles & Scrap - Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore - Make a Card

Quick update: Birdie got an Honorable Mention over at CASology #141, thanks Ardyth for picking my card!

Pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog for more inspiration and to play along at our Inspiration CASE Playground.

That's it from me for today, back again latest next week Monday with lots of inspiration for the STAMPlorations April Release Blog Hop. Hope to see you there.

Have a lovely day!
hugs
Monika xxx

   

New Arrival

Hi All!
First of all thanks for all the lovely comments, they are very much appreciated.
It is time for another Inspiration Post over at the STAMPlorations Blog as we are warming up for our Stamp Release Blog Hop next week.
I have been getting my creative mojo going by making a new baby card using the Heaven Sent set, one of the new sets from STAMPlorations' April release ...

I coloured the pram using a mix of Spectrum Noir and Promarkers, die cut the rounded stitched border, layered on my white base card, stamped the sentiment and attached some pink ricrac ribbon and gem to finish.

I am entering my card at the following challenges:
CASology - News, this is when I realize that it might have been better to have made a boy's card. Maybe you could pop round for the blog hop next week. I promise I'll post one then. :-/
Crafty Calendar - Add a Sentiment

I'll keep it short today, my head is buzzing with ideas which means I find it difficult to focus on writing. All I can think of is stamping!
Pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog for more inspiration, please make sure you leave a comment there too to be entered in a prize draw plus this is where you can link up your CASEs of one of our cards too. Lots of opportunities to play :-)

I shall be back soon with more inspiration.

Have a lovely day!
hugs
Monika xxx

Springtime Smiles

Hello All,

good to see that you were feeling inspired to use your eye shadows for card making! I would really love to see your CASEs for this technique in our Inspiration CASE Playground.

Today's card uses a mixture of STAMPlorations stamp sets which are: Boxed Blooms, Blossom Overture, Mixed Media Grunge, Mini Mixed Media Backgrounds and The bee's Knees: Small Birds.

This card started off as an Easter card project which never got properly underway. I simply run out of time and turned it into a card capturing the essence of Spring. Daffodils are still in boom around here and they looked especially pretty in the Easter sunshine. I always love seeing their bright and cheerful yellow popping up as an early sign of Spring. I used Promarkers to colour mine. I then masked them off and stamped the backdrop using one of the stamps from the Mixed Media Grunge set, our current Stamp Club set, in orange turning the stamp as I went along. I removed the mask and and continued into stamping a border using the same stamp. I added some extra texture using the dots from the Mini Mixed Media Backgrounds set before black embossing the word smile (Boxed Blooms) and stamping the sending you a (Blossom Overture) into place. I added a doodled border, used my warm grey Tinge Alcohol Marker to add a shadow and popped little birdie from the Small Birds set on to finish. I decided to layer on a dark blue base card as it best enhanced the cheerfulness; black was too stark, kraft drained the colour, and orange, green and yellow didn't work either. Guess that blue sky we've had of late wanted to be included too. :-)

My next card is the one I intended to post on Good Friday, but as you know my husband had other ideas ...

I used stamps from the Blossom Overture set, coloured with alcohol markers layered on a texture base card. I purposefully layered my panel off center to add some subtle interest.
If you feel inspired to CASE any of today's card, you can link up here where you'll also find more inspiration plus when you leave a comment you'll be entered into a random prize draw the winner of which will receive a $15 gift certificate or 2 ARTplorations stencils of their choice.

Here are the new April release stamps for you to have a quick look at, we will be introducing each set with a week long blog hop starting 20th April ...

if you can't wait until then you might want to pop over to the shop now .... Shery has extended the 10% off offer on these sets until 12th April plus you'll get free international shipping too and if you area STAMP CLUB member you can also claim your 15% discount on top!

Well that's it from me for today.
Have a lovely weekend!
hugs
Monika xxx


the sets I used: