Sunny Days

Hello Crafty Friends!

It's Tuesday and this means it's Inspiration Time over at STAMPlorations.  I thought I'd try and spread a little Spring cheer. After a long and dark Winter we'e had almost a week of sunny weather now. Turns out the sun is still there, we just didn't see much of it. I am sure this is something I'll have to keep in mind during the months to come ...

Sunshine always help brighten the spirit no matter how difficult things seem. Pastels seem to be around everywhere I look. I went with Apple Green, Camellia Pink and Periwinkle Prism inks to stamp the Bloomdala Bliss background with the addition of some dots from Folk Flowers.

I added a white matting layer reflective of the uncertain times ahead, a blank canvas for many ... and we all know how daring they can be! A sentiment from Bloom Happy and some sequins finished my card off.

If you feel like bagging yourself a bargain and take advantage of STAMPlorations' Springtime Sale check out the graphic at the end of this 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 check out my teamies' beautiful makes.

Hope you're having a lovely week!

hugs
Monika xxx


here is what I used from

- STAMPlorations Shop:

Bloomdala Bliss, Folk Flowers, Bloom Happy, 
  

Art Edges Edge/Border Dies


this is the graphic for STAMPlorations current sales

Coffee Loving Cat

Hello Crafty Friends!

Hope your Sunday is going well. Just another quick one today to hopefully make you smile.

This ueber-cool cat is from a set by Katzelkraft, so is the sentiment. Both are stamped with black Versatile ink on Centura Pearl card. The take away coffee cup is stamped with black dye ink. I pulled a little bit of the black along with my water rush to create the spilled coffee. I added a die-cut border, coloured the eyes and finished off with a bright pink sequin.

Here is another look ...

I am entering my card at:
Addicted To CAS challenge #104 - Pets

That's it from me for now. I shall be back in a bit with my DT project for the STAMPlorations Mixed Media Challenge. Their CUTplorations Challenge has just started too. Check out my previous post for more details.

Have a lovely day!
Hugs
Monika xxx

Here are the stamps I used from the STAMPlorations Shop. Entering my personal discount code STAMPGIRLMONIKA at checkout will give you a 20% discount.
Art Edges CUTplorations Die, Gone Postal
 

STAMPlorations January Release Week Day 4

Hello Crafty Friends!

Welcome to Day 4 of the STAMPlorations January Release Blog Hop which today features A Snarky Birthday To You, a set of 4 image stamps and 6 snarky sentiments ....

This set was calling for a bold card ...

using the Square City ARTplorations Stencil coloured with Marvy Brush Markers and edged using one of the Art Edges CUTplorations Edge Dies.

As with every Blog Hop leaving comments along the way on all participating blogs increases your chance of winning one of these fabulous prizes:

• 2 winners of $25 gift certificates randomly drawn from comments left the STAMPlorations Blog and designer blogs links to which can be found here
• 1 winner of her choice of 1 stamp set from the new release randomly drawn from STAMPlorations' Facebook page
• 1 winner of her choice of CUTplorations die from the new release randomly drawn from STAMPlorations' Instagram page

To join the fun hop, leave a comment on my blog and pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog for more commenting and all the links to the fabulous projects my teamies created.

Commenting closes on Tuesday 7th February and the winners will be announced in the January's Winners Post on Friday 10th February on the STAMPlorations Blog.

All four stamp sets and three CUTplorations die plates in this release are available at a 5% discount, no coupon needed, from the STAMPlorations Shop until Friday, 10th February. For an added 20% off enter the discount code STAMPGIRLMONIKA at checkout.

That's it from me for now, I shall be back tomorrow with more Blog Hop Inspiration.
See You then ...

hugs
Monika xxx

links to previous days: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

here is what else 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 all their stamps, stencils and dies:
Square City ARTplorations Stencil, Art Edges CUTplorations Edge Dies
 

December Stencil Sunday

Hello, Crafty Friends!

Welcome to another Stencil Sunday in December. May I take the opportunity to remind you of the current Mixed Media Challenge over at STAMPlorations. As you know Anything Mixed Media Goes as long as it is not a card and you use at least one stencil.

My DT contribution for this Stencil Sunday is ... gift wrapping

I had these bags for a while, and they came in very handy when I was looking to dress up handmade chocolate lollies for Nick's great nieces and nephew. Nope, I didn't make them myself, but I can certainly vouch for their quality as this is about the third lot we bought from our local corner shop. The others never made it as far ...

Using the large reindeer from Reindeer Games and Fuchsia Pink StazOn, I stamped the front of the bag being careful not to move to much as it is easy to 'slip' on a non-porous surface when stamping. Note to self: Try using MISTI

Next I created a tab to fold over the top. I cut a piece of kraft card and embossed it using my embossing mat and the Oh, My Stars! stencil in the correct Big Shot sandwich before lightly swiping it with white Craft Ink to pick out the stars.

I added some white faux stitching, a strip of Washi and a die-cut Art Edges border.

Next I dry embossed a gold pearlescent star using the Dots All Over stencil. This time, I decided to put my sandwich through the Big Shot twice going in the same direction and I ended up with a really cool 'shadow' double embossing effect. Due to the rubber mat stretching, my star got pulled along a little and the dots ended up either very close to each other or partially overlapping. It also made the dots look more random which was perfect for my use of the star.

I then edged my star with Versamark and sprinkled it with a mix of Snowflake (Heat It Up!) embossing powder and Primary Apple Red (WOW) embossing enamel which I was left over from my card here before heat setting and layering on my tab.

Next I stamped, coloured and fuzzy cut my reindeer and gave it some googly eyes, popped it up on 3D foam pads and finished off with the die-cut name, Stickles and gems .... perfectly girly ...

Here is a close-up of my tab ...

I hope you feel inspired to create something different, maybe even do some up-cycling or re-purposing .... why not link it up with the Mixed Media Challenge over at STAMPlorations. The theme is always Anything Mixed Media Goes except cards which means projects such as tags, ATCs, canvases, layouts, art journal pages etc,are perfect for entering, and you must have used at least one stencil (any brand) in your project. The challenge will close at the end of the month. You can find the full challenge details plus more Mixed Media inspiration here on the STAMPlorations Blog.

You can also link your stencil make up with the ARTplorations Stencil Hop Linky Party, which closed at 11.55pm Pacific on Friday 23rd December (7.55am GMT Saturday 24th December)

That's it from me for today. I shall be back soon with another project to share.

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:

ARTplorations Stencils: Oh, My Stars!, Dots All Over
 

STAMPlorations Stamps: Reindeer Games


CUTplorations Dies: Art Edges

CUTplorations Mini Release

Hello Crafty Friends!

It's CUTplorations Mini Release time over on the STAMPlorations Blog and this means more Blog Hop Fun! Two sets of dies are being released. the Art Edges Border Dies and the ATC/Tag Builder Dies. You might have seen us using them already over the last couple of weeks ... you know what it is like once new toys arrive ... one just has to play!
Here are my DT projects for your inspiration ...

I used the toothy edge die to cut my piece of white card diagonally in half, layered it on some pretty paper, added my die cut sentiment, Peace On Earth Phrase Die, stamped and die cut my reindeer, Christmas Reindeer stamp set and Coordinating Dies, layered it all on my base card and finished of with a red nose and copious amounts of Stickles.

Next up is a tag I made using both of the new sets with a little help from Reindeer Games and Gone Postal, here it is ...

I die cut my basic shape from kraft card using the ATC/Tag Builder dies, added two white borders using one of the Art Edges dies and rounded the corners of the bottom one to make it blend in. I stamped, coloured and fuzzy cut my reindeer, white embossed my sentiment, added some ribbon and Stickles before popping my reindeer on to finish the tag. Here are a couple of close-ups ...

For the last one of today's projects, I combined the ATC/Tag Builder with the CUTplorations Word Die Wonderful and stamps from the Holiday Sketches: Christmas Candles, the Sentiment Builder: Christmas & New Year and the Large Ice Skates from the Stamp Lab.

I cut my tag from white card, added some pretty paper with a torn bottom edge, distressed the tag edges, stamped, coloured fuzzy cut and attached the skates, added my sentiment and finished off with twine, sequins and Stickles. Again I got a couple of close-up of the ATC/Tag Builder edges ...

Back to the Hop ...

Leave a comment on my blog and pop over to the STAMPloratiosn Blog to leave a comment there. Plus that's where you'll find the links to all the contributing blogs too. Commenting closes on Tuesday 15th November. Two winners will be randomly drawn from all the comments left on the STAMPloratiosn blog and the designers' blogs. the winners will be announced on the STAMPlorations Blog in their November Challenge Winners and Blog Hop Winners post on Friday 9th December. If you don't want to miss this, please make sure to follow their blog to get your regular updates.

Ooops, I almost forgot to mention the prizes ... there will be one winner of a $15 gift certificate and one winner to get their choice of either the Art Edges or the ATC/Tag Builder dies. All the information will of course be on the STAMPlorations Blog.

I am leaving you with a last look of my projects.

Have a lovely weekend and Happy Hopping!

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 Mini Release: Art Edges, ATC/Tag Builder
 
STAMPlorations Stamps: Christmas Reindeer, Reindeer Games, Gone Postal, Holiday Sketches: Christmas Candles
   
Sentiment Builders: Christmas & New Year, Stamp Lab for large Christmas images


CUTplorations Dies: Christmas Reindeer Coordinating Dies, Peace On Earth Phrase Die, Wonderful Word Die
  

Going Festive

Hello Crafty Friends!

It's Inspiration Time over at STAMPlorations plus there is still time to join with the Holiday TAGplorations event too ... which made me think ... how about creating a tag with a difference ....

... one to feed ribbon through ...

I cut my basic shape from a piece of kraft card using the ATC/Tag Builder CUTplorations Die. I then stamped the trees from the Oh, Christmas Tree! set in Versamark, sprinkled with white embossing powder and dabbed off as I would normally do for heat embossing .... but here is the difference ... I went back to sprinkle some more on to create the snow, thicker towards the bottom and fine dust towards the top ... before heating the powder from underneath the card. To finish, I added a red metallic Merry Christmas, a jumping Christmas Reindeer including red nose and metallic red ribbon. I tied the tag to a wooden box to demonstrate how it could be used in gift wrapping like a label or you could just attach ribbon to both ends or .... whatever your imagination suggests.

The die-cut strip at the top symbolizing icicles is the negative from one of the new Art Edges Dies used in my CUTplorations Challenge DT project here.

That's it from me for today, pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog for more stamping, die-cutting and stenciling inspiration from my teamies ... and of course to leave a comment for your entry in to their monthly prize draw. There is still time to join their TAGplorations Party too.

Have fun and 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:

STAMPlorations Stamps: Oh' Christmas Tree!, Christmas Reindeer
 

CUTplorations Dies: Merry Christmas Phrase Die, ATC/Tag Builder Dies, Christmas Reindeer Coordinating Dies and
  

Art Edges Border Dies