TMR 27th November - Ugly Sweaters

Hello Crafty Friends!

It is Wednesday and time for a new challenger over at The Male Room challenge blog where the bi-weekly challenge is all about making projects for the men in our lives. Our guest designer for the next fortnight is Vicky, you can check out her fabulous creations on here on Vicky's blog.

My DT project for the new challenge is ...

Each challenge, of course, has a different theme. As you can see, the theme for challenge #125 is Inspired By Ugly Sweaters. Lots of scope there!

#125 Inspired By Ugly Sweaters

I opted to include some knitwear in my card and found some lovely free printables from a magazine online. They were paired with some snowflake paper from my stash and die-cut wintery hills. The frame was an old-fashioned ruler and craft knife job.

Fancy creating something for a male person in your life, pop over to The Male Room for more inspiration and to link up your masculine makes.

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

here is what I used:
Christmas Jumper Papers - Papercraft Inspirations Magazine past issue
Stitched Winter Landscape Edge Die, Stitched Snow Hills, sentiment from Trendy Christmas Trees (retired) - STAMPlorations, feel free to use my personal discount code STAMPGIRLMONIKA for a 20% discount on their stamps, dies and stencils
Always Artichoke card - Stampin'Up!
Snowflake paper - Poundland
black Versafine ink, red and white card - from my stash

Layered Lights

Hello Crafty Friends!

It's Tuesday and this means it's Inspiration Time over at STAMPlorations. Today's DT piece is a little Christmas card with a stencilled background, here it is ...

I used the Holly Background Mini Stencil, some of my Izink inks and little eye shadow applicator brushes to blend my background. The Layered Lights are stamped, fuzzy cut and ... well ... layered.

Just giving you a little heads up, STAMPlorations are having a Thanksgiving Sale this month, for details feel free to check out the graphic at the end of my post.
You can check out all of STAMPlorations' current promotions here.

That's it from me for today. Pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog to join the fun.
Have a lovely day!

hugs
Monika xxx


here is what I used from the STAMPlorations Shop:

Layered Lights, Holly Background Mini Stencil
 

Check out their latest offers ...

Sparkly Christmas

Hello Crafty Friends!

It's Tuesday and this means it's Inspiration Time over at STAMPlorations. This week they are celebrating with a little Christmas CUTplorations Redux Hop & Giveaway.

My DT project for this week used a couple of Christmas dies in combination with a partially stenciled background. Here it is ...

Inspired by the Christmas theme, I dug out some glitter paper to add some sparkle. The tree was die-cut several times and layered for a 3D look ... an easy card for batch making.

How can you join the Christmas CUTplorations Redux Celebrations ...

It is a simple blog hop where we invite you to leave comments on the STAMPlorations Blog and the participating designers' blogs. The following prizes will be randomly drawn from all the comments left:

• ONE (1) winner of Christmas dies ($30 MSRP) drawn from all comments left on the blog and designers'  blogs.

• ONE (1) winner of $15 gift code drawn from comments left on the STAMPlorations blog, designers' blogs.

Commenting closes on December 8. Winners posted on December 10 in the November winners post.

More details and the links to all the participating designer's blogs can be found in today's post here on the STAMPlorations Blog.

That's it from me for today. Pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog to join the fun.
Have a lovely day!

hugs
Monika xxx


here is what I used from the STAMPlorations Shop:

Christmas Tree #1, Christmas Sentiments Dies, Oh, My Stars! Stencil
  



You can check out all of their current promotions here.

Choose Happy

Hello Crafty Friends!

This is a little reminder that there is still time to play at this month's challenges over at STAMPlorations.

Here is my card for a bit of more inspiration ...

The theme for the current challenge is Stamps & Circles and the photo prompt can be seen below. Your project can either be inspired by the theme, photo prompt or both. The full challenge rules can be found here on the STAMPlorations Blog.

This time I took inspiration from both the theme and the photo. The little flower from the photo reminded me of the Bloomdala Bliss Masks. and the little tree was added to go with the Stamps & Circles theme. 

As for the prizes:
Two winners, one of a $15 gift certificate and one of a $10 gift certificate, will be picked by one member of our DT.
Plus 3 randomly drawn winners will each receive a $5 gift certificate.

In order to be considered for a prize, make sure you've followed the rules here.

Pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog to check out how my teamies interpreted the challenge theme and prompt and of course to join in the fun too.

Need more inspiration? Check out the Challenge Reminder Post here on the STAMPlorations Blog.

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

hugs

Monika xxx

here is what I used from the STAMPlorations Shop:

Gratitude Trees, Noteworthy 2, Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies, Bloomdala Bliss #15 Mask

   

Elf At Work

Hello Crafty Friends!

It's November and Tracey McNeely is hosting the 25 Days Of Christmas Tags celebrations. Today it's STAMPlorations turn. Given that I am part of their DT, I was able to take part in this event.

My project using STAMPlorations products is this shaker tag .....

I used the largest of the Stitched Tags in combination with one of their Basic A2 Panel Dies in combination with the Christmas Elf stamp set, their new Christmas Sentiments Dies and the Oh, My Stars! Mini Stencil. Links to all products can be found at the end of my post.

I started off by cutting the tag twice from white card and once from acetate. I stamped the elf legs on one of the tags, masked them off and sponged with Daffodil Delight SU ink before cutting the panel and sponging the stars around the legs.

I attached the panel in place as shown to match with my yellow frame tag. I was using Flower Soft, something I had for ages, as my snow and only needed a shallow pocket hence it didn't matter that I attached the piece of card to my base tag. It actually helped with aligning the 3D sticky tape to my base tag.

STAMPlorations owner Shery has a little surprise for you, pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog and leave a comment for your entry in the prize draw and your chance to win the Christmas Sentiment Dies my teamies and I used in our tags today.

I added the stamped holly, layered up my tag, added my sentiments and finished off with gold ribbon and a couple of coloured bells.

Pop over to Tracey's Blog for more tag inspiration from my teamies and all the other wonderful crafters who have contributed so far.

I shall leave you with a last look art my project ...

Have a lovely day!
hugs
Monika xxx

here is what I used from the STAMPlorations Shop:
Christmas Elf, Basic A2 Panels Nesting Dies, Stitched Tags Nesting Dies, Christmas Sentiments
   

Oh, My Stars! Mini Stencil

Christmas Inspiration

Hello Crafty Friends!

Today I'm sharing a couple of projects made for the Christmas In The Air feature over at STAMPlorations. In this special feature Nancy and I are sharing a couple of Christmas projects each on the 2nd Wednesday in November, January, March and May. You can never start too early making Christmas cards.

Given that it's already November, I kept things easy, perfect for making small batches.  Here is my first card:

I used some strong pretty paper from my stash for the background, but felt that it needed some texture. I decided to emboss it using the Holiday Words mask. The sandwich I used on top of my Big Shot's base plate was: cutting plate - Holiday Words Mask, making sure the words were readable - pretty paper, design facing up - rubber embossing mat - second cutting plate.

All that was left was to stamp my sentiment, add a pink dressed Kathryn and finish off with some gems, sequin and a touch of Stickles.

Next up is the second one of two almost identical cards using the Festive Bloomdala stencil.

I chose three shades of red and two shades of green. To make blending easier, I used a couple of small make-up brushes. The small brushes allowed me to be a more precise with applying the inks. I found the flatter one of the two really helpful for blending the leaves, the round one was perfect for the flower.

The first card had a few liquid watercolour splashes added to it. I used a pipette and they ended up being rather big hence I made a second card for a cleaner look and finished the first one off with a stamped sentiment and red sequins.

Here are a couple of close-ups ...

Pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog to check out the lovely projects my teamie Nancy made. The Christmas In The Air feature also doubles up as a mini blog hop. Shery will randomly draw one winner of a $15 gift code from all the comments left on the Christmas In The Air posts on the STAMPlorations Blog, on Nancy's log and on my blog.

Have fun hopping along.

hugs

Monika xxx

here is what I used from the STAMPlorations Shop

Festive Bloomdala, Christmas Elf, Kathryn And Christmas, Holiday Words

   

TMR 13th November - Hobbies

Hello Crafty Friends!

It is Wednesday and time for a new challenger over at The Male Room challenge blog where the bi-weekly challenge is all about making projects for the men in our lives. Our guest designer for the next fortnight is Lyn, you can check out her fabulous creations on here on Lyn's blog.

My DT project for the new challenge is ...

Each challenge, of course, has a different theme. The theme for challenge #124 is Hobbies. You might have noticed that quite a few of this year's challenge themes could fall under the heading of 'hobbies'. If you need more inspiration, simply check them out!

#124 Hobbies

I kept things simple today and went with a them for a music lover ... be it that they play the sax ... go to Jazz concerts ... or love a good tune to dance too. The mood of my card could cover any of them, but was actually inspired by my saxophone playing brother.

Fancy creating something for a male person in your life, pop over to The Male Room for more inspiration and to link up your masculine makes.

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

Thank You

Hello Crafty Friends!

It's Tuesday and this means it's Inspiration Time over at STAMPlorations. This week they are celebrating with a little Thanksgiving Blog Hop.

It is also the perfect time for me to say THANK YOU for the lovely comments you've been leaving. For today's project I have chosen autumnal colours to go with the new Gratitude Trees Layering Dies, have a look ...

I cut one of the trees in multiple colours and layered them as multi coloured trees on a stenciled background. I finished off with a stamped sentiment and sequin.

How can you join the Thanksgiving Celebrations ...

Shery has a little fun planned for you, in as much that there are certain tasks that need completing to be entered in a special Rafflecapter prize draw to win 1 year or 6 months worth of craft supplies. You cab check out the graphics below. All the details to this special draw can be found here on the STAMPlorations Blog in a special post from Friday 8th November.

 

Back to the Thanksgiving Hop ...

There'll be 3 randomly drawn winners of a $15 gift code each from all the comments left on the STAMPlorations Blog, the designer's blogs and the corresponding posts on STAMPlorations Facebook and Instagram pages.

Commenting closes Sunday 8th December, so does entry to the Rafflecopter prize draw. The winners will be announced Tuesday 10th December in the November Winners Post on the STAMPlorations Blog.

More details and the links to all the participating designer's blogs can be found in today's post here on the STAMPlorations Blog.

That's it from me for today. Pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog to join the fun.
Have a lovely day!

hugs
Monika xxx


here is what I used from the STAMPlorations Shop:

Gratitude Trees, Gratitude Trees Layering Dies, Dots All Over Stencil
  

You can check out all of their current promotions here.