STAMPlorations Birthday Blog Hop Day 2

Hi Everyone,
Welcome to the STAMPlorations 2nd Birthday Blog Hop Celebrations. Yes, STAMPlorations is celebrating its 2nd birthday and true to form we, the STAMPlorations Girls, are having a party and you are invited. to join us for 5 days of blog hop fun. Each day we'll be joined by a different guest designer ... and today the talented lady joining us is ANNI LERCHE from Annikarten.

Shery, Deepti and Shirley designed one stamp set each to celebrate this special birthday occasion. These are the sets we'll be using throughout our celebratory hop. For my second project I decided to work with Party Time and Party Mates to create this softly blended card:

I started by stamping the candles and adding a touch of orange using a Promarker to their flames before blending my inks (melon mambo, daffodil delight and pacific point). I was working with a variation of the glue resist technique which unintentionally made the candles pick up more colour. I then layered on my black base card, added my white embossed sentiment and finished with a few sequins for sparkle.

Here is another look at my card in a different light ...

Now back to the blog hop....

There are two ways you can join us in the celebrations and ways to be entered into prize draws, firstly by hopping along and leaving comments on our posts and secondly by joining in at our Linky Party over at the STAMPlorations Blog by linking up your party themed cards inspired by this photograph:

The linky will be found on all 5 birthday blog hop posts. Commenting and linking will close on Monday, 6th July and the winners will be announced on Tuesday 7th July.

Check out what the rest of the team made! You'll find links to all birthday blog hop projects here.

-----------------
The prizes up for grabs are:

Prizes for commenting on the STAMPlorations blog, STAMPlorations designers blogs, and guest designers blogs:
1 winner of $25 gift certificate
5 winners of $10 gift certificate

Prizes for linking up a party/celebration/birthday project:
3 winners of the party stamp sets (1 winner of Party Mates, 1 winner of Party Time, 1 winner of PartyGirl)
1 winner of $25 gift certificate (if STAMPlorations stamps/stencils are used) or $15 gift certificate (if non-STAMPlorations stamps/stencils are used)

That's it from me for today, I shall be back again tomorrow with another project.
Have a lovely day!


Hugs
Monika xxx


links to previous blog hop days:

DAY 1

the stamp sets I used, links can be found in the text above:



melon mambo, daffodil delight and pacific point inks from Stampin'Up!

Party Time

Hi Everyone,

You may have noticed that there is a real party atmosphere over at STAMPlorations as we are celebrating their 2nd birthday. I also have quite a few friends who's birthday falls into early July hence i have a couple more birthday cards for you.
First up one for my friend Jo who is celebrating big this year ....

I worked with the ARTplorations Retro Circles stencil for my background which is simply sponged using Crushed Curry and Melon Mambo inks. I then used the ARTplorations Bloom Silhouettes stencil sponged in black and the splashes from the Holiday Artsy set to set the scene for a party atmosphere. The white embossed sentiment from the Party Time set and some sequins finish the look. As you can see it's hot of the press, the glue hasn't even had time to dry ....

Next up is a card I made for our friend John, which I wanted to have a summery feel ...

I used a piece of pre-embossed core-dinations card, think it's called core impressions, for my base, the die cut shapes were a little 'left overs' from a Sizzix die. I used the ARTplorations Honeycomb Delight stencil to sponge a matching background on my die-cut panel, stamped my sentiment from Party Time and coloured it using alcohol markers. I then highlighted a few of the embossed shapes with a marker, layered everything as seen and finished with a few square gems.

For more fun and inspiration pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog. If you feel like CASEing one of the DT's cards made during June, we would love to see your creations. The linky will be open until 5th July.

That's it from me for now, I shall be back again in an hour with my contribution to the Blog Hop Birthday Celebrations.

Enjoy!!

Hugs
Monika xxx

stamps and stencils I used, link are in the text above
    

melon mambo, crushed curry, early espresso inks, early espresso Stamp'n'write marker, crushed curry card - from Stampin'Up!
pricked rectangle die - die-namics

STAMPlorations Birthday Blog Hop Day 1

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the STAMPlorations 2nd Birthday Blog Hop Celebrations. Yes, STAMPLorations is celebrating its 2nd birthday and true to form we, the STAMPlorations Girls, are having a party and you are invited. to join us for 5 days of blog hop fun. Each day we'll be joined by a different guest designer ... and today the talented lady joining us is AMY TSURUTA from Tsuruta Designs.

Shery, Deepti and Shirley designed one stamp set each to celebrate this special birthday occasion. These are the sets we'll be using throughout our celebratory hop. For my first project I decided to work with Party Time and Party Mates to create this zesty ad sparkly card:

... here it is in a slightly different light with a little more shadow yet brighter colours ...

The weather picked up and I finally wasn't working as it was Saturday which enabled me to snap a few more photographs outside.

I basically stamped, coloured and masked my glass and umbrella, blended some crushed curry (yellow) and melon mambo (pink), spritzed some water and allowed it to dry. I purposefully kept the blending of the crushed curry a little splodgy as I felt it helped with the zesty, hazy party feel I wanted to create. Once dry, I stamped my sentiment into place, layered on my black base card and added some sequins to finish.

There are two ways you can join us in the celebrations and ways to be entered into prize draws, firstly by hopping along and leaving comments on our posts and secondly by joining in at our Linky Party over at the STAMPlorations Blog by linking up your party themed cards inspired by this photograph:

The linky will be found on all 5 birthday blog hop posts. Commenting and linking will close on Monday, 6th July and the winners will be announced on Tuesday 7th July.

Check out what the rest of the team made! You'll find links to all birthday blog hop projects here.

-----------------
The prizes up for grabs are:

Prizes for commenting on the STAMPlorations blog, STAMPlorations designers blogs, and guest designers blogs:
1 winner of $25 gift certificate
5 winners of $10 gift certificate

Prizes for linking up a party/celebration/birthday project:
3 winners of the party stamp sets (1 winner of Party Mates, 1 winner of Party Time, 1 winner of PartyGirl)
1 winner of $25 gift certificate (if STAMPlorations stamps/stencils are used) or $15 gift certificate (if non-STAMPlorations stamps/stencils are used)

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

Have a lovely day!

Hugs

Monika xxx

the sets I used links for which are in the text above:

 

crushed curry and melon mambo inks - Stampin'Up!

Flowers Whisper

Hi All,
another quick post from me. This time I worked with the Blooming Buds set designed by Deepti (Dee's Artsy Impressions). It is the first card I made using this set of beautifully drawn blooms. I decided to keep it CAS and use my at present favourite colour Bermuda Bay.

I stamped my image using archival ink and watercoloured it using Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry and a touch of Always Artichoke inks before stamping my sentiment and adding a little spritzing in gold Artiste Ink for added interest and shimmer. Once dry I layered on my base card, Bermuda Bay of course, and my card was finished.

I am entering at:
Addicted to CAS - Splash
Addicted to Stamps and More - Photo Inspiration


Next up just a quick reminder ...



... details about the birthday bash can be found here.

As always there is fun to be had before that too, you can CASE any of my/our cards and link up at the Inspiration CASE Playground, short playground, to share your creation with us, enter in the blog challenges, comment on Spotlight Projects and more is already happening over at the STAMPlorations Blog.

GIVE AWAY reminder: I will email a copy of my digi stamp, the sentiment of the butterfly card here, to every new follower of my blog. Anyone who joins between now and 10th July 2015 will get one. Remember to click on the small green/blue squares to the right of the 'join this site' button to join. To claim your free stamp email me at tinkercardsATgmail.com, please replace AT with @.


That's it from me for today. Back soon.
Have a lovely week!


hugs
Monika xxx


the set from STAMPlorations I used, link is in the text above:

Bermuda Bay ink and card stock, Crushed Curry and Always Artichoke inks by Stampin'Up!

Gold Artiste Spritzing ink by docrafts

Birthday Girl

Hi Everybody,

Just a quick post today featuring a card with a monochrome colour scheme. I decided to work with the Rosebuds set and combined it with a sentiment from Party Time one of this months new sets ...

I don't do this look often, but I really felt like some simple elegance. I stamped and masked the roses and used the stamp with the definition of rosebud to create my background using smoky slate (SU ink) wiping bits of the ink away as I went along. Next I did a little blending and adding of gel glittery highlights to the buds before layering on my black base card and finishing off with my white embossed sentiment.

For the inside, I stamped the roses and slightly blended the edges of my card with smoky slate.

Next up just a quick reminder ...

... details about the birthday bash can be found here.

As always there is fun to be had before that too, you can CASE any of my/our cards and link up at the Inspiration CASE Playground, short playground, to share your creation with us, enter in the blog challenges, comment on Spotlight Projects and more is already happening over at the STAMPlorations Blog.

GIVE AWAY reminder: I will email a copy of my digi stamp, the sentiment of the butterfly card here, to every new follower of my blog. Anyone who joins between now and 10th July 2015 will get one. Remember to click on the small green/blue squares to the right of the 'join this site' button to join. To claim your free stamp email me at tinkercardsATgmail.com, please replace AT with @.

That's it from me for today. Back soon.

Have a lovely week!

hugs

Monika xxx

the sets from STAMPlorations I used:

 

smoky slate ink by Stampin'Up!

black Memento ink, white embossing powder, Versamark ink, Sakura Gelli Roll glitter pen from stash

More Mixed Media Style

Hi Everybogy!
I am back with another Spotlight Feature for STAMPlorations. Today I am making a mixed media card with lots of layers built into a single layer working with the Mixed Media Grunge and The Birds And The Blooms sets, both of which are sets available through our Stamp Club. I chose the Black Hooded Oriole as my main image, a bird native to India hence my colour scheme. There is also a lovely story from Bengal about this bird which I found when doing some research. It too inspired my card and can be found here.

I first started by stamping the oriole in black Memento, colouring it with Promarkers (Gold, Tulip Yellow, Burnt Orange, Cold Grey 4 and Soft Green), going over it all with a clear Emboss Dual Pen and heat embossing it with clear embossing powder.

TIP!: Make sure that the whole image is covered with a layer of clear embossing. If bits are missing use the fine tip of the pen and more embossing powder to fill and heat set. The layer needs to be complete to provide resistance to the ink when blending in order to avoid ink seeping through and staining the coloured image.

Next I blended pink (a mix of melon mambo and crisp cantaloupe) and yellow (crushed curry) as my base layer for my background, stamped the marigold into place using my yellow ink, stamped the sentiment into place using pink (crisp cantaloupe only) and blended some baked brown sugar around the edges of my panel over my bird to create a shadow. Then I added some further layers and texture by spritzing with a little water and stamping the background using stamps from the Mixed Media Grunge set. For this I used mainly second generation stamping in crushed curry and rich cocoa ink. To finish, I added a layer of rich cocoa Memento ink around the edges, layered on my red base card and added a few sequins to ground the oriole.

For the inside I simply stamped the oriole in baked brown sugar and doodled a border.

As always there is a craft along video which starts after the embossing of the oriole. It focuses mainly on how I built my background. It also contains the usual tips on how to cover up 'mistakes', the little things that happen to take your card into a different direction to the one initially intended.

If you ever fancied making a card of this style, why not give it a go and share it over at the Inspiration Case Playground on the STAMPlorations Blog. Pop over to leave a comment my Spotlight Post to be entered into a prize draw. Whilst you there feel free to have a look around as there is always so much going on with Inspiration Projects for cards, Mixed Media Projects and Tutorials, Prize Draws and lots of opportunity to play along too.

Next up just a quick reminder ...

... details about the birthday bash can be found here.

GIVE AWAY reminder: I will email a copy of my digi stamp, the sentiment of the butterfly card here, to every new follower of my blog. Anyone who joins between now and 10th July 2015 will get one. Remember to click on the small green/blue squares to the right of the 'join this site' button to join. To claim your free stamp email me at tinkercardsATgmail.com, please replace AT with @. Please be patient, it might take a few days for me to get back to you as I am away on holiday until Monday 22nd June.

That's it from me.
Have a lovely day!

hugs
Monika xxx


stamp sets from STAMPlorations I used, links are in the text above
  

From Stampin'Up! - poppy parade card stock and the following inks: baked brown sugar, crushed curry, crisp cantaloupe, melon mambo (which was not directly used but still enough of it was on my brush to blend with the cantaloupe for the link you see in the card)
from stash - Promarkers: gold, tulip yellow, burnt orange, soft green and cool grey 4, Emboss Dual Pen by Tsukineko in clear, clear embossing powder, rich cocoa Memento ink, white card and sequins

Latte Love

Hi Everyone,

just a quick post with my Latte Love card to join in the Coffee Lovers Summer Blog Hop before the deadline...

As you can see I am still in my Mixed Media Inspired Zone. My Mod Podge arrived today hence I had a go at some masking techniques. The rest is straight forward stamping and blending to achieve the layers and texture. The card has a sort of a backpackers postcard feel and should fit the Summer theme.

I am linking up with:
Coffee Loving Cardmakers - Summer Blog Hop
Cardz4Guyz - Texture
Moo Mania - Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes

That's it from me.
Have a lovely day!

hugs
Monika xxx


sets I used: Mixed Media Grunge and Latte Love from STAMPlorations
 

Just a quick reminder ...

... details about the birthday bash can be found here.

As always there is fun to be had before that too, you can CASE any of my/our cards and link up at the Inspiration CASE Playground, short playground, to share your creation with us, enter in the blog challenges, comment on Spotlight Projects and more is already happening over at the STAMPlorations Blog.

GIVE AWAY reminder: I will email a copy of my digi stamp, the sentiment of the butterfly card here, to every new follower of my blog. Anyone who joins between now and 10th July 2015 will get one. Remember to click on the small green/blue squares to the right of the 'join this site' button to join. To claim your free stamp email me at tinkercardsATgmail.com, please replace AT with @.

You Are Amazing

... at least that is how the British public feels about the little robin.

Hi Everybody!

Yes. yesterday it was revealed that the robin is Britain's favourite bird as voted for by the public!!! What better way to celebrate this event than making a card ... better even as it was also time to create a project for the Inspiration post over at the STAMPlorations Blog.
The thought of robin had me straight away reaching for The Bee's Knees Small Birds set. I had also been watching part of the Inventive Ink class over at Craftsy and wanted to try out some of the techniques ... here is my result ...

Birdie had to get dressed up as robin again. This time I decided to keep it sketchy and give him an orange (SU's Tangerine Tango) chest only to help him stand out from the colourful mixed media style background I had in mind. In the class Marjie Kemper uses DI's and blending tools, I decided to see how far my trusted SU inks (Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point), brushes and dried baby wipes could stretch to create similar effects. I started off lightly dusting some MM and DD on a piece of white card before stenciling part of the ARTplorations Bubbles stencil in DD, part of the Christmas Trees stencil in MM and some of the Confetti Circles stencil in PP before lightly blending the edges with PP. I then stamped my sentiment from the Hashtag Authentic set in black, did the same with the bar code strip and doodles chevrons from the Mixed Media Grunge set before doodling a border and lightly spritzing with TT and black. I then blended PP around the edges of my white base card, fuzzy cut birdie, layered everything in place and added some sequins to finish.

I am entering the amazing birdie at:
Time Out Challenges - Happy is the Birdie that the Sun shines on
Moo-Mania - Anything Goes
Sisters of Craft - Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes with optional twist to make something for a best friend

Next up just a quick reminder ...

... details about the birthday bash can be found here.

As always there is fun to be had before that too, you can CASE any of my/our cards and link up at the Inspiration CASE Playground, short playground, to share your creation with us, enter in the blog challenges, comment on Spotlight Projects and more is already happening over at the STAMPlorations Blog.

GIVE AWAY reminder: I will email a copy of my digi stamp, the sentiment of the butterfly card here, to every new follower of my blog. Anyone who joins between now and 10th July 2015 will get one. Remember to click on the small green/blue squares to the right of the 'join this site' button to join. To claim your free stamp email me at tinkercardsATgmail.com, please replace AT with @.

This is it from me for today. Back soon with more inspiration.

Have a lovely day!

hugs

Monika xxx

from STAMPlorations I used ... (links can be found in the text above)
      

Party Time

Hi Everybody,

It is time again for another day of inspiration over at the STAMPlorations Blog. For today's project, I worked with the rocking horse from the Heaven Sent set and combined it with party paraphernalia from the Party Mates set, a sentiment from the Party Time set and the Texturized Big Numbers Background.

It is quite an easy card to make ... a little stamping and masking combined with a spot of colouring, spritzing and doodling ... and you're done. I started off with the hat, masked and stamped the horse, masked and stamped the background, removed masks, added the other party bit the name of which elopes me ... did my colouring, added some paint spritzes, doodled the border, layered on my base card, added the sentiment banner and finished off with a blue button.

I am entering my birthday card at:
Splendiferous Creations - Boys of Summer
Scribble and Scrap - Anything Goes

I thought the splashes would be a fun way of adding confetti ... for a great party atmosphere ...

Next is another project from Saturday's workshop with Lindsay Mason I would like to share with you. I was able to use my own stamps for creating the projects and decided to use Part Girl and Party Mates to make this funky tag, which uses a new to me masking technique and some clever blending.

I will have to give it some further trial runs to find my own way with it, which will be the one I shall share in a future tutorial. It might lead me somewhere completely different. I shall let you know.

I am entering my tag at:
Stempelsonne - Anything Goes as long as main image is coloured by hand, I coloured mine using distress inks
Addicted to Stamps and More - Make your Mark
Moo Mania - Anything Goes
Well, you might have noticed that there is a distinct part feel to my post today ... there is a birthday coming up .... STAMPlorations turn two at the end of the month ... and we, the STAMPlorations Girls, shall be celebrating in style ...

... details about the birthday bash can be found here.

As always there is fun to be had before that too, you can CASE any of my/our cards and link up at the Inspiration CASE Playground, short playground, to share your creation with us, enter in the blog challenges, comment on Spotlight Projects and more is already happening over at the STAMPlorations Blog.

Before I go I would like to share another card with you, one I made last month, but haven't posted as yet ... and GIVE AWAY alert ....

To make these cards, I first printed off my sentiment, stenciled the rectangles in summer starfruit, a greeny yellow ink from Stampin'Up!), sponged the butterflies stencil in gumball green (also SU) and stamped the matching butterflies into place using tangerine tango ink (also SU).
They feature the Trendy Butterflies set and the Shower of Flutters ARTplorations stencil in combination with a stencil from Clarity Stamps and my own digi stamp sentiment.

I am entering my card at the following challenges:
Sisters of Craft - Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore - Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes, optional twist: make something for your best friend

GIVE AWAY: I will email a copy of my digi stamp to every new follower of my blog. Anyone who joins between now and 10th July 2015 will get one. Remember to click on the small green/blue squares to the right of the 'join this site' button to join. To claim your free stamp email me at tinkercardsATgmail.com, please replace AT with @.

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

from STAMPlorations I used, links are in the text above