Happy New Year and January CASEplorations

Happy New Year, Everypone! May 2016 bring you lots of joy and crafting time!

Over at STAMPlorations we are kicking the new year off with an invitation to join us in the CASEplorations Playground. This year Shery has given it a proper challenge status, yay! This means the Playground will like in past be open for a whole month, the winner of the best CASE as voted for by the team gets a $15 gift certificate and two Top Picks will each receive a $5 gift certificate, full rules can be found here on the STAMPlorations Blog.

What is the CASE inspiration for this month, you might be asking. Well, it is a card by the fabulous Laura Bassen of Doublestick Heaven which you might recognize as her project when she joined us last January for the STAMPlorations January Release Blog Hop ...

Laura posted a tutorial on how she made her card here on her blog. There is lots of inspiration to take from her card, such as using texture paste, colour scheme of pastel rainbow colours, the Leaf Prints ARTplorations stencil, the Hashtag Authentic stamp set, twine ...

Here is what I picked:

• texture without the paste, I used Fran-tage Powders instead
• ARTplorations Leaf Print stencil
• white embossing on black card, I used my Shabby White Fran-tage Powder
• sentiment in two different banner pieces which I turned into one embossed and one die-cut
• multiple colours seamlessly blending into each other which I emulated using three different colours of Fran-tage powders, Shabby White, Shabby Pink and Aged Gold
• fine strands of twine which I turned into a squiggly die-cut as I am no good at looping twine and fixing it to a card
• subtle sparklies, in my CASE not so subtle

Finally, here it is, my take on Laura's card ...

I rather like the almost Art Deco feel, the leaves look a little bit like the stylized pineapples that were so fashionable at the time; it must be all the gold in the Fran-tage powders ... It was not a look I had in mind when I started off, it came about when the Aged Gold powder turned out to look rather more black than gold. The larger golden bits of the powder didn't attach well to the pigment ink, maybe I hadn't inked well enough through my stencil.

It is actually an easy card to make. I attached a piece of white card to the Leaf Print Stencil and applied clear pigment ink through it before removing the stencil and sprinkling with my powders, one at the time, starting at one end and moving across to the other. Once embossed I added my golden scribble, my embossed sentiment from the Sentiment Builder Christmas & New Year, my die-cut sentiment (layered x 3) and sparklies to finish.

Pop over to the Playground to join the fun and to see what my teamies and Laura herself made as heir CASEs.

Wishing you a

hugs
Monika xxx


here is what I used, links to STAMPlorations Products are in the above text
 

Shabby White, Shabby Pink and Aged Gold Fran-tage Powders - Stampendous
Tim Holtz Scribbles and Splat dies - Sizzix
'happy' word die - Clearly Besotted

Shimmery Leaves

Hi Everybody,
thanks so much for all your lovely comments, they are very much appreciated.
Today I'm sharing with you a project I made a couple of days ago as my regular Spotlight Feature over at the STAMPlorations Blog. This time round I wanted to highlight how to heat emboss with stencils especially since my ARTplorations stencils, the new additions to the STAMPlorations Shop, had just arrived in the post the same day, and I had to have a play. I don't know about you,but I always love using my new 'toys'. :-)
Here is the card I made ...

This is a really quick and easy project to make, simply attach a piece of pink card to the reverse of the Leaf Prints stencil, sponge watermark pigment ink all over, remove stencil and heat emboss using clear embossing powder. Add some Perfect Pearls and heat set, emboss the sentiment (Sugar Rush, our current Stamp Club set, and Bold Sentiments: HELLO or Boxed Blooms) in white on a piece of vellum, layer up as seen and finish off by adding a few sequins.
I love the shimmer on the leaves when they catch the light, of course you could use any colour embossing powder for a more striking contrast.
Below are a couple of more photos capturing the subtle shimmer of the embossed leaves.

As always, there is a craft-along video tutorial giving you some extra hints and tips as I go along.

If you pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog and leave a comment there on my Spotlight Feature, you'll be entered into a prize draw. Also check back next week Monday for our week long Stamp Release Blog Hop.
I am entering this card into the following challenges:
CASology - Friend - I hope that the subtle pattern with the simple sentiment is still CAS enough
Less is More - Friends
4 Crafty Chicks - Best Friends
In The Pink - Pink & Pearlie, Ranger perfect pearls adds Mother of Pearl finish to embossing, hope this counts 
Uniko Studio - Love and Friendship, Gillian and Sarah from Sazzle Dazzle encouraged me to link up, hope it's ok given that I used the STAMPlorations watermark. if it is a problem please feel free to remove the entry. x
That's it from me for today. Hoping to be back tomorrow with some more inspiration for you ... until then ...
hugs
Monika x

materials used:
Regal Rose card stock by Stampin'Up!
Ranger Perfect Pearls
Watermark Pigment ink, white and clear embossing powder, vellum, sequins and stamps from the following sets:
  or