A Caravanner's Year

Hello Crafty Friends!

Sorry to have been quiet for a while. Nick has been taken ill and was in need of my undivided attention. He is on the mend now which means I can get back to crafting.

Nevertheless I am keeping it short and sweet today, just sharing a postcard I made for this month's swap ath the UK Stampers Forum Facebook group. Here it is ...

It was quite easy to make ... a little ink blending through the Peonies All Over ARTplorations Stencil, stamping, colouring and fuzzy cutting the Vintage Caravan from Stamposaurus, a bit of shading and stamping of Trendy Leaves, adding handwritten sentiments and finishing off with a doodled border, some fine glitter and a coat of Mod Podge for protection.

That's it from me for today. Have a lovely week!
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:
Trendy Leaves, Peonies All Over ARTplorations Stencil

 

*** Discount code works on sale items too

CUTplorations November Challenge

Hello Crafty Friends!

Over at STAMPlorations it's the second month of their new challenge ... The CUTplorations Challenge ... It's a monthly challenge requiring you to use die(s) and take inspiration from the monthly changing photo which for this month is ...

image source: Smashing Magazine

So what have we got ...

• skeleton leaves
• rain drops
• umbrella
• girl being blown about in the wind
• grey background
• colours: purple, orange and yellow plus B&W
• autumn theme, cold, damp and windy

I went with the leaves, colours and the autumn theme which made me think of warm and hot drinks ...

I stamped the leaves using the textured ones from the Trendy Leaves set to get some of the translucent effect of skeleton leaves. I then stamped and fuzzy cut my Sketchy Coffee Cups, added and coloured the heart and attached it to my card. I then added the die-cut border from the upcoming Art Edges Cutplorations Edge/Border Dies (watch out for a Mini Release Hop next week), die-cut and attached the Birthday sentiment. Next I die-cut the Warm Winter Wishes Phrase Die, snipped off the warm and wishes and added them to my card before finishing off with some doodled stem and hearts.

Here is another look ...

Pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog to see how my teamies interpreted the photo and to link up your entry too. A little birdie told me that you could win some of the word/phrase dies we used in our projects in their random draw.

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

CUTplorations Dies: Art Edges CUTplorations Edge/Border Dies, Birthday Word Die, Warm Winter Wishes Phrase Die
 

STAMPlorations Stamps: Trendy Leaves, Sketchy Coffee Cups
 

Love You Like Coffee Take 2

Hi Everyone!

Thanks so much for all the lovely comments on my previous post featuring the coaster I made. Well I thought I'd follow it up with a matching desk calendar. The two would make a perfect gift ...

... plus it gave me the opportunity to do a follow up and do a little tutorial on how I created the background.

As a reminder, this was the coaster ....

... and here is the matching calendar ...

... and here is the video explaining how I made it.

I thought it was best to simply have the video explain rather than me trying to put it into written words. Here are the links for the stamps I used:
Trendy Leaves, Eat Drink Be Merry, Mixed Media Elements, Sketchy Coffee Cups (the little heart on the cup), Freebie Digi (books and cup as of 8th Oct 15), which I flipped before printing to get my right handed image.

If you want to craft along to the video, apart from the stamp sets, please get the following ready too:
piece of kraft card measuring 21 x 14.5 cms, scored along the 21 cm edge at 9, 18, 19 and 20 cms
piece of cream card measuring 14 x 9 cms
a calendar tab mounted on a piece of red card
Crushed Curry, Real Red, Chocolate Chip and Sahara Sand Stampin'Up! inks brown fine tip marker, back Versafine ink
Have your digi stamp sized, printed (think I set the height at 6 cm before printing to give you an indication of the size I used), coloured with alcohol markers and fuzzy cut
acrylic blocks and shaving brushes or blending tools, glue

I am linking up with the following challenges:

Sisters of Craft - Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes optional use pink

That's it from me for now, back again in a few hours with another stamping tutorial.
See you then!

hugs
Monika xxx

stamp sets from STAMPlorations, links are in the above text
   

Love You Like Coffee

Hi Everyone,

Just quickly wanting to share my second project for the Coffee Lovers Fall Blog Hop. This time I opted for making a coaster which currently is drying before I can apply several more coats of Mod Podge for protection. I took the photo after just one coat, here it is:

I die cut a large circle from cream card and sponged my background using my trusted shaving brushes with Crushed Curry and Real Red inks. Next I stamped the leaves (Trendy Leaves) in Crushed Curry and added some script detail (Mixed Media Elements) in Sahara Sand plus further detailing using stamps from the same set in Early Espresso. I flipped and printed my digi stamp, added the heart (Sketchy Coffee Cups) to the coffee cup, coloured (alcohol markers),fuzzy cut my image and attached it in place before stamping my sentiment (Eat Drink Be Merry) and layering on a thick cardboard coaster. To finish I applied several coats of Mod Podge.

I am linking up with:
Coffee Loving Cardmakers Blog - Fall
Craft Stamper - Take a Technique

Pop over to the Coffee Loving Cardmakers Blog and join the fun.

Have a lovely weekend!

hugs
Monika xxx

stamps by STAMPlorations used, links are in the above text
   

Real Red, Crushed Curry, Early Espresso and Sahara Sand inks - Stampin'Up!
Alcohol markers used are a mix of Promarkers and Tinge Markers
digi stamp - STAMPlorations, freebie from their Anything Goes Challenge open to entries using their stamps

Coffee Lovers Autumn Blog Hop

Hi Everyone,

it's that time of year when the leaves shine in the most beautiful and amazing colours, it's also time for me to join the Coffee Lovers Fall Blog Hop. This is my project:

I sponged my background using Crushed Curry and Real Red Stampin'Up! inks, added some detail using the ARTplorations Dots and Dashes stencil with a touch of Real Red, stamped the leaves (Trendy Leaves by STAMPlorations) in Pumpkin Pie and Chocolate Chip (Stampin'Up!) and added some stamped coffee beans (Latte Love) interest too. Next I stamped coloured and fussy cut my coffee cup (Latte Love by STAMPlorations), stamped my sentiment (Eat Drink Be Merry), layered as shown and finished off with a doodled border.

Pop over to the Coffee Loving Cardmakers Blog and join the fun.

Have a lovely weekend!

hugs
Monika xxx

stamps and stencil used, links are in the above text
   

Love and More

Hi All,
Thanks for all your lovely comments, they were very much appreciated. It was good to hear that you enjoyed all the inspiration my teamies and I had prepared for the April Release Blog Hop.
Well, today it is time for a little more inspiration. I made a couple of cards and a little box to go with my second one.
First up is a card, where I did some stenciling and heat embossing. I felt inspired by one of the sentiments from the new Fond Expressions set.

I die cut a heart shape to create my large heart stencil and attached the ARTplorations Stencil: Hearts All Over to it before sponging through both. Vicki did a great tutorial here on how exactly to do this enclosed stenciling technique. I removed my stencils and gold embossed my sentiment, layered on my kraft base card and added a couple of tiny hearts to finish. One could add a little shadow outline with a fine tip pen to the sentiment, however it is much more visible in real life than the photo makes you believe.

Next up is a little card using another sentiment from the Fond Expressions set and the daisy from the Bloom Sketches set ...

I started by spritzing a piece of white card with a little Cardinal Red Artiste Spritzing ink. Once dry I stamped the daisy in Bravo Burgundy and coloured it using pastel yellow and burnt orange Promarkers adding an outline in warm grey. Next I stamped my sentiment and added a couple of dashed lines to finish. I made 5 of these to fit the box below, plus envelopes of course.

The box was made using my envelope punch board from a piece of white card already spritzed and daisy stamped all over. Once the card was cut to size, punched and scored, I added a border to the sides and to frame the visible squares using the slightly dotty stamp from the Mixed Media Grunge set as you can see in the photographs below. I also added the same border to my DP ribbon and blended the edges.

I assembled the box, added my cards and envelopes, attached the ribbon and added a fancy die cut circle. I then stamped and fuzzy cut some leaves from the Trendy Leaves set, stamped, coloured and fuzzy cut the daisy, die cut some branches and attached it all to the front of the circle before adding some gems and glossy accents to finish.

This is it from me for today. Pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog to see the gorgeous projects my teamies made plus if you feel like CASEing one or two of our projects, you can link them up here too. A winner will be randomly drawn from all the entries to our Inspiration CASE Playground to win either a $15 gift certificate or their choice of ant 2 ARTplorations Stencils.

Back again shortly with more inspiration.
Have a lovely day!
hugs
Monika xxx

the sets I used from STAMPlorations:
    

dies used:
heart die - Xcut nesting dies by docrafts
Pine Bough - Sue Wilson by Creative Expressions
Italian Collection Decorative Frames - Sue Wilson by Creative Expressions

inks used:
Cardinal Red - Artiste Spritzing ink by docrafts
Melon Mambo, Riding Hood Red, Bravo Burgundy, Garden Green, Ruby Red - Stampin'Up!

Sketch 26 at STAMPlorations

Hi Everybody,
As promised, I'm back today with another piece of inspiration for you. It is time for another sketch challenge at STAMPlorations. This is what I came up with:

My inspiration cam from a client who asked me if I already had any Mother's Day cards. This prompted me to dig a little deeper into my stamp supplies and bring out some golden oldies, apart frommit getting towards that time of year anyway. This card could be used any time of year, just to say thank you for being there.
I used Trendy Butterflies, Trendy Leaves, SB Thank You and MOM SAB #3 - Quiet Strength. To start with, I blended some inks (yellow, orange and pink) and stamped the SAB in orange to create my background, rotating it as I went along. It is a technique Shery has used a lot, and I thought I'd give it a go. ☺
I blended some more inks, cut my banner, upside down tag, and stamped my leaf and butterfly before liberally spritzing it all with golden ink. Once dry I over-stamped my butterfly with clear pigment ink and clear embossed it to give the color more strength before fuzzy cutting leaf and butterfly. I gold embossed my sentiment, layered my elements as shown and finished off by adding a few sequins, pearl and gems.
Here are another couple of pictures capturing the subtle golden shimmer.

Now back to the challenge. This is the sketch to take your inspiration from, and as always there is lots of scope.

Our Guest Designer Maria and my teamies created some stunning cards to showcase over at the STAMPlorations blog. The challenge will end 30th January and the winner will be announced 6th February. As always there are lots of prizes to be won including some guest designer spots. Pop over to the STAMPlorations blog for the full details and to enter your project.
Back soon with more inspiration. Have a lovely day!
Hugs
Monika xxx