More Bling

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick post from me today with another card using the ARTplorations Droplets stencil. I really liked how I can use some of the gems from my stash to pick out shapes and patterns when using this stencil.

For today's card I went with featuring a heart ...

It is really easy to make, which is what I love about using stencils, you can quickly get amazing results. I simply sponged some Crushed Curry and Bermuda Bay inks through my stencil, attached the gems, stamped my sentiment from the Fond Expressions set in Imperial Purple and layered on my purple base card - done!

For more inspiration and to link up any of your CASEd projects pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog. We would love to hear which one of our projects you cased and what inspired you ... It would be fabulous if it was one of mine ...

Back again soon. Have a lovely weekend!

hugs
Monika xxx

from STAMPlorations I used, links in the text above
 
from Stampin'Up! - Crushed Curry and Bermuda Bay inks
Versafine - Imperial Purple ink

ARTplorations Stencil Blog Hop Day 5

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to the ARTplorations Stencil Blog Hop. This is where we, the STAMPlorations Girls, put our stencils through their paces.

For today's project I worked with the Droplets stencil to create this shaded purple beauty... here in the sunshine ...

... here without the shadows ...

... and here on the inside ...

I simply sponged some light purple pigment ink through the Droplets stencil shading as I went along. I stamped my sentiment from the Celebrate Artsy set in Imperial Purple Versafine ink and added some gems. I have lots of these gems and never used them ... until now! They were a perfect match and turned the droplets into a field of candles. At least that's what I like to think. :-)

I decided to go for an asymmetrical border for extra interest. On the inside I stamped the couple from the VIGNETTE Ever After set in the same light purple pigment ink (it looks a little more pink here) and my sentiment from the Birthday Cake in Imperial Purple before doodling a partial border.

I am entering my card at:

Inkspirational - purple

CASology - story

Check out what the rest of the team made! You'll find links to all our projects here. Feel free to leave comments as you go along. Every comment will be entered into a prize draw. Commenting closes on 29th May and the winners will be announced on 1st June. Good Luck!

Prizes:

SIX (6) winners (2 winners per day) will receive their choice of ARTplorations stencil. Winners will be randomly drawn from all comments left on the designers' blogs.

THREE (3) winners will each receive a $10 gift certificate. Winners will be randomly drawn from comments left on the STAMPlorations blog.

+ Extra prizes for those who participate in the Flash Stencil Project Linky Party and link up by May 31.

That's it from me for today.

Have a lovely day!

hugs

Monika xxx




Here is what I used:


stamps and stencils from STAMPlorations, links are in the text above
    
light purple pigment ink - Papermania
Elegant Eggplant Stamp'n'write marker - Stampin'Up!
cardstock and droplet gems from stash

ARTplorations Stencil Blog Hop Day 4

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to the ARTplorations Stencil Blog Hop. This is where we, the STAMPlorations Girls, put our stencils through their paces.

For today's project I worked with the Happy Flowers stencil to create two cards using some Black Stars Sparkle Medium. As you've probably noticed, I always look for ways to do things differently, normally one would apply the sparkle medium in the same way as embossing paste ...... I decided to use a brush instead to get the following two effects.

For my first card I stenciled the sparkle medium through the Happy Flowers directly on cream card using my brush before adding some grunge using stamps from the Mixed Media Grunge and Mini Mixed Media Backgrounds and a little blending with Basic Grey ink. I heat embossed my sentiment from Fond Expressions on a torn strip of vellum and layered as shown. To finish I 'grunged' one of the corners, added some sequins and a little paper twine. I quite like the slightly surreal looking effect I achieved.

For my second card, I first prepared my background using stamps from the Mixed Media Grunge set. I then sponged the Happy Flowers using Charcoal ink before applying the sparkle medium as above. I then simply layered on my black base card and finished off with organza ribbon and bow.

You can just about see the sparkle in both of the cards.

TIP!: Applying the medium with a brush gives the image a rough textured look which adds further interest. I will have to try this now using embossing paste, I guess, to see what the effect will be....

Check out what the rest of the team made! You'll find links to all our projects here. Feel free to leave comments as you go along. Every comment will be entered into a prize draw. Commenting closes on 29th May and the winners will be announced on 1st June. Good Luck!

Prizes:

SIX (6) winners (2 winners per day) will receive their choice of ARTplorations stencil. Winners will be randomly drawn from all comments left on the designers' blogs.

THREE (3) winners will each receive a $10 gift certificate. Winners will be randomly drawn from comments left on the STAMPlorations blog.

+ Extra prizes for those who participate in the Flash Stencil Project Linky Party and link up by May 31.

That's it from me for today. I shall be back again tomorrow with another stencil project or two.

Have a lovely day!

hugs

Monika xxx

Here is what I used:

stamps and stencils from STAMPlorations, links are in the text above
  
Charcoal Vintage Ink Spot, Summer Starfruit, Gumball Green and Basic Grey ink - Stampin'Up!
Black Stars Sparkle Medium - Imagination Craft
Paper Twine - The Works
Organza Ribbon - Fantastic Ribbons
orange embossing powder and card from stash

ARTplorations Stencil Blog Hop Day 3

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to the ARTplorations Stencil Blog Hop. This is where we, the STAMPlorations Girls, put our stencils through their paces.

For today's project I worked with the Daisy Dance and the Shutters stencils. The Daisy Dance stencil coordinates perfectly with one of the daisies from the Bloom Sketches set, more about this later, firstly here is the card ...

First I used the Shutters stencil and sponged some Crushed Curry (yellow) all over, then I used the Daisy Dance stencil and sponged some Bermuda Bay (turquoise) all over before stamping my daisy from the Bloom Sketches set in Tangerine Tango (orange). The keen eyed of you may have spotted that my stamped daisies don't perfectly align with the stencil ... I did it on purpose as I wanted a very sketchy, slightly grungy look. The stencil fits the daisy perfectly, I simply flipped it over before stenciling to achieve my look. That's what I love about stencils, you immediately have a very usable mirror image. :-)

Next I stamped and embossed my sentiment from the SENTIMENT BUILDERS Happy on a strip of vellum, layered up as shown and attached some paper twine and charm to finish.

I am entering my card at:

Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes, STAMPlorations are sponsoring

Allsorts - Birthday

Time Out - Grunge, STAMPlorations are sponsoring

Check out what the rest of the team made! You'll find links to all our projects here. Feel free to leave comments as you go along. Every comment will be entered into a prize draw. Commenting closes on 29th May and the winners will be announced on 1st June. Good Luck!

Prizes:

SIX (6) winners (2 winners per day) will receive their choice of ARTplorations stencil. Winners will be randomly drawn from all comments left on the designers' blogs.

THREE (3) winners will each receive a $10 gift certificate. Winners will be randomly drawn from comments left on the STAMPlorations blog.

+ Extra prizes for those who participate in the Flash Stencil Project Linky Party and link up by May 31.

That's it from me for today. I shall be back again tomorrow with another stencil project.

Have a lovely day!

hugs

Monika xxx

Here is what I used:

stamps and stencils from STAMPlorations, links are in the text above

Crushed Crurry, Tangerine Tango and Bermuda Bay ink plus Bermuda Bay card stock from Stampin'Up!

paper twine from The Works

charm, black ink and embossing powder from stash

ARTplorations Stencil Blog Hop Day 2

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to the ARTplorations Stencil Blog Hop. This is where we, the STAMPlorations Girls, put our stencils through their paces.

For today's project I worked with the Christmas Trees and the Oh My Stars! stencils.

I first sponged my stars in yellow shading the colour to give more subtle looking stars towards the center. I then sponged my Christmas Tree in green and gave it a brown outline before doodling my border. I then added some shimmer using a Sakura Gelly Roll Clear Star pen, stamped my sentiment from the Joyful set, layered on my base card and finished off with a few gems.

Here is a close up of the sparkle ...

Check out what the rest of the team made! You'll find links to all our projects here. Feel free to leave comments as you go along. Every comment will be entered into a prize draw. Commenting closes on 29th May and the winners will be announced on 1st June. Good Luck!

Prizes:

SIX (6) winners (2 winners per day) will receive their choice of ARTplorations stencil. Winners will be randomly drawn from all comments left on the designers' blogs.

THREE (3) winners will each receive a $10 gift certificate. Winners will be randomly drawn from comments left on the STAMPlorations blog.

+ Extra prizes for those who participate in the Flash Stencil Project Linky Party and link up by May 31.

That's it from me for today. I shall be back again tomorrow with another stencil project.

Have a lovely day!
hugs

Monika xxx


stencils and stamp set from STAMPlorations, links are in the text above:

Mossy Meadow card stock, Summer Starfruit, Gumball Green and Early Espresso inks, Early Espresso Stamp'n'write Marker from Stampin'Up!

Sakura pen, gems and card from local craft shop

ARTplorations Stencil Blog Hop Day 1

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to the ARTplorations Stencil Blog Hop. This is where we, the STAMPlorations Girls, put our stencils through their paces.

For today's project I worked with the Floral Mania stencil, which co-ordinates with the VIGNETTE Eclectic Florals stamp set, to make this card using the stencil only.

First, I used my stencil to de-boss the flowers by creating the correct sandwich and put it through my Big Shot. Next I sponged yellow and turquoise to create my yellow-green-turquoise background. I removed the stencil, cleaned it and inked it well up with some orange, spritzed it with water and 'stamped' it on my card making sure that I aligned the stencil as much as possible with my de-bossed pattern. Once dry, I stamped my sentiment from the Fond Expressions set, layered on my base card and finished with some paper ribbon.

Check out what the rest of the team made! You'll find links to all our projects here. Feel free to leave comments as you go along. Every comment will be entered into a prize draw. Commenting closes on 29th May and the winners will be announced on 30th May. Good Luck!

Prizes:
SIX (6) winners (2 winners per day) will receive their choice of ARTplorations stencil. Winners will be randomly drawn from all comments left on the designers' blogs.

THREE (3) winners will each receive a $10 gift certificate. Winners will be randomly drawn from comments left on the STAMPlorations blog.

+ Extra prizes for those who participate in the Flash Stencil Project Linky Party and link up by May 31.

That's it from me for today. I shall be back again tomorrow with another stencil project.

Have a lovely day!

hugs

Monika xxx

Heaven Sent

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick post before the ARTplorations Stencil Blog Hop starts in an hour. As it happens I used the Christmas Trees stencil to sponge my bubbly background which looks rather grey in the photo but is a really nice soft green in reality!

It a sort of tickled me to have a floating pram to go with the 'a gift from heaven' sentiment border ... as if it was being lowered to the ground from some other reality. I almost used the seagull from the Small Birds set as a stork ....
The card itself is pretty straight forward, sponge the bubbles turning the Christmas Trees stencil as required, stamp the word borders (Heaven Sent stamp set), stamp the bar code border (Mixed Media Grunge stamp set), stamp the sentiment (from the Noteworthy stamp set, maybe even black emboss it), stamp, colour and fuzzy cut the pram, punch some tiny daisies, layer everything up and finish off with ribbon and pearls.
Pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog for more inspiration and to link your projects to the Inspiration Case Playground and of course to browse around and see if you can enter one or the other prize draw too. That's it from me for now, back again shortly with my project for the stencil blog hop.

hugs
Monika xxx

   

Addicted To CAS Two

Hi All,
as promised I am back with some more inspiration, this time in the form of a CAS card, which is no coincidence as it is my second outing as Guest Designer over at Addicted to CAS.

You might have guessed it, today's code word is: Animal ... and that for me means usually anything catty. :-)

The lovely Joanna from Harty by Heart is your hostess for the next couple of weeks and Create A Smile Stamps are sponsoring the challenge ... which reminds me, I am one of the lucky ones who were able to get one of their exclusive Sunshine Kits. It's still in the post as of the time of writing, but it should be with me soon. I already got plans of what to do with it! :-)

Back to my card now ... it was quite easy to make ... I used a quote about animals to create my own digi stamp to fit my die-cut cat, printed it out and cut my panel to size. I then sponged rainbow colours through part of the Confetti Circles ARTplorations stencil before attaching my black cat and layering on my base card. I loved this concept so much that I made another card with a landscape layout and some stamped stitching to ground the cat.

I am entering my cards at:
Happy Little Stampers CAS - die cuts/punches, the black cat is a die cut (hope it is still o.k. if I complete the link up on Monday, when I am back from my long weekend away)

Well, that's it from me for today. I shall be back with two!!! posts on Monday, one for inspiration and the other one for the ARTplorations Stencil Blog Hop. Hope to see you there.

Have a lovely weekend!
hugs
Monika xxx

stencil and stamps used from STAMPlorations:
 
Mixed Cat cutting dies - Xcut by docrafts

Masked Birthday

Hello Everybody,

Hope you enjoyed having a look around Snowdrop yesterday.
Today's piece of inspiration is a little easier to make, and I have given a couple of older sets an outing too. Older in this context of course means that I haven't used them in a while, but they are actually some of my favourite sets: Mini Mixed Media Backgrounds, Sentiment Builders Happy and VIGNETTE Chevron & Arrows. I combined them with the rose from Blossom Overture to make this birthday card.

I first stamped and masked the roses, next I masked out the oval and sponged some yellow inside before adding texture using a couple of Mini Mixed Media Backgrounds. I removed my masks and coloured the roses using stamp 'n' write markers before stamping the HAPPY sentiment and adding some black splashes and layering on my black base card. I then stamped the word BIRTHDAY on a strip of white card stock, attached it to my card and finished off by adding a few sequins.
Well, if you fancy CASEing my creation and linking it up at the Playground over on the STAMPlorations blog, here is the link. This is where you can also see the amazing projects created by my teamies. If you pop over, please leave a comment there too and you'll be entered in a prize draw.
I shall be back again tomorrow with another bit of inspiration for you.

Have a lovely day!
hugs
Monika xxx