Happy Birthday STAMPlorations

Hello Crafty Friends!

Today is my turn to share some of my past favourite makes plus a couple of new ones as part of STAMPlorations' 5th Birthday Celebrations. Happy Birthday to everyone at STAMPlorations, most of all Shery. You are working so hard to bring us all these amazing stamps, stencils and dies to play with. You are truly AMAZING!!!!

I also want to extend my thanks to Shirley, Deepti and Becca ... your stamps are fun to work with ... and Sanna for giving us some fabulous stencils to play with too.

There are lots of things going on over on the STAMPlorations Blog, feel free to check out the details. The main theme for this month is CASE-ing A STAMPgirl .... well there are a few projects of mine you might want to have a look at.

First up are the past three makes ... I had quite a difficult time deciding which makes to pick. Maybe it was best to back in time a little and go for some makes that capture my love for experimenting and trying something new ...

Here they are three of my favourite makes ....

I am really going back a few years with my Gelli Plate Print card using one of my very first gelli prints made with acrylics, Shutters Stencil, the large rose from the Blossom Overture set and a sentiment from Hashtag Authentic. I ought to get that plate out again.

Next up another card where I experimented with brusho powders on a Color Blooms page

This link for the Color Blooms & Brusho Card will take you to the original post showing you all of the 8 cards I made from one single page.

As you probably know, I also love making books .... of course I had to share one with you ...

My little Die Storage Booklet is still very much used and loved. You can find a full step-by-step Tutorial on the STAMPlorations Blog.

I also believe that quite a few of you love shaker cards ... As the first one of today's new projects, I got a little slider shaker tutorial for you ...

• cut two frames using the large and medium Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies, cut one medium rectangle, a piece of acetate and base card fitting the dimensions of the frames

• cut one end from one of the frames as shown and attach the partial frame to the reverse f the full frame

• attach the acetate to the reverse of the partial frame as shown

• Using the large rectangle die and a couple of Flutter Zen 1 die cuts as a guide align and stamp your sentiment directly on the base card

• stamp another sentiment on the die-cut rectangle again using the butterflies as a guide. The idea is for the butterflies to be attached to the surrounding frame.

• attach foam pads to the back of the acetate to form a full frame as shown

• add sequins to your base card and partially peel back the backing of the foam tape. I personally find this the easiest way of positioning my topper. I can lightly put it into place before attaching the exposed tape and gently peeling off the rest of the tape before pressing it into place.

• attach the topper

• lightly mark the width of your butterfly's wing

• this is where I felt that it might be best to lightly sand the edges of the rectangle to help it slide more easily

• cut  a strip small and narrow enough to sit behind your butterfly without being seen once folded and attach it to your rectangle between the 'wing marks' made earlier

• sliding your rectangle between the acetate and the frame, it will look similar to this; the butterfly's wing will sit in front of the frame hiding the little tab

• layer up your butterflies, I used three made of glitter card and golden mirror card, attaching one to the front of your tab making sure that the wing can still slide over the frame. For extra stability attach a white solid butterfly to the reverse making sure that the front butterfly still clears the frame once in place. The glue on my photo gives a rough indication of where to join the butterflies. You can do this without using a tab, just using the butterflies only, but I find that the tab helps the slider to move more easily.

• attach two more butterflies to the frame

• add some colour to the sentiment and slide the slider into place

I had to make a little gift box to match. I simply stamped the little butterfly from the Happy Everything set around the edge and next to my die-cut sentiment and finished off with some stmped accents using the barcode stamp from the Mixed Media Grunge set.

Hope you feel inspired to CASE. You can link up your makes here on the STAMPlorations Blog. Shery has also planned lots of surprises and offers for you.

That's it from me for today. Have fun playing along and joining STAMPlorations Celebrations!

For your chance to win a $25 gift certificate, leave a comment on this post and on this post here on the STAMPlorations Blog.

Have a lovely weekend!
hugs
Monika xxx

Here is what I used from the STAMPlorations Shop, remember to apply my personal discount code STAMPGIRLMONIKA (not case sensitive) at check out for a 20% discount on their stamps ***, stencils and dies:

for my new projects:
Happy Everything, Birthday Bash, Mixed Media Grunge, Flutter Zen 1 layering Dies
   

Celebrate Big Phrase Die, Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies
 

*** Discount code works on sale items too