December Theme & Photo Prompt

Hi Friends!

It's December and it's time for a new round of monthly challenges over at STAMPlorations. Here is my DT piece for December's Theme & Photo Prompt Challenge over on their blog.

The theme for the current challenge is Stamps & Candles 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.

The photo and theme are simply saying Christmas. That's what I went with.

The background got embossed using the Christmas Tree 1 stencil to represent the pine twigs from the photo prompt. The candle from Christmas Joy was stamped on one of the coordinating laser cut shapes and coloured with watercolour pencils and finished off with a touch of glitter glue.

As for the Theme & Photo Prompt Challenge prizes:
One winner of a $20 gift code ($25, if STAMPlorations products were used as the main focal point) will be picked by one member of our DT.
Plus 2 randomly drawn winners will each receive a $10 ($15, if STAMPlorations products were used as the main focal point) gift code.

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

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These are the STAMPlorations products I used in today's card:

Christmas Joy, Christmas Joy Laser Cut Shapes, Christmas Tree 1 Stencil

  

Season's Greetings Phrase Die, Pierced Curly Frames/Tags Nesting Dies

 

Should you feel like browsing in STAMPlorations online shop, check out their latest offer below.

Using my personal discount code STAMPGIRLMONIKA at checkout for a 20% discount on your order makes you qualify to pick a free product from their store up to the value of $7. I've got to be honest, if you use the code and/or the link to the STAMPlorations Shop I provide in my posts for your purchases, I will get a little reward, at no extra cost to you of course.

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.

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

Monika 💖

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.

Joy & Festive Christmas Release

Hello Crafty Friends!

STAMPlorations are releasing two new Christmas stamp sets and they are celebrating with a little blog hop over on their blog.

I was working with one of the sets called Joy. I really like the combination of solid and outline stamps that can be used either on their own or combined. Have a look at my cards ...

The first one was inspired by brightly coloured gingerbread. I randomly stamped the outline and small word stamps in bright colours to create my background.

For my next card, I pencil coloured the word Christmas using 3 shades of red.

For my last card, I simply arranged the outline word stamps and combined some of them with their solid counterpart.

Having one basic layout you can easily change the look by choosing different words to highlight.

Here are the two sets being released today ...

 

Joy/Festive

Two winners, one of a $15 gift code and one of a in-stock 4x6 Shery Russ Designs stamp set, will be randomly drawn from all the comments left on the STAMPlorations Blog and contributing designer's blogs. Commenting closes Tuesday 8th October and the winners will be announced in the September Winners post on 10th October.

More details and all the links can be found here on the STAMPlorations Blog.

That's it from me for today. Pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog to join the hop and check out the beautiful cards my teamies made.

Have a lovely weekend!

hugs

Monika xxx

here is what else I used:

Christmas Reindeer, Christmas Reindeer Coordinating Dies, Kathryn And Christmas, Christmas Tree #1 Die

   

January TAGplorations Reminder

Hello Crafty Friends!

Just a little reminder that January's TAGplorations Challenge is in full swing over at STAMPlorations. There is still time to enter.

The theme for January is: All About Winter

The optional twist is: to use Texture Paste

Well, as you can see, I've gone all out for the optional twist of texture paste with my trees.

I cut a tag from a piece of card I had used to mop up some ink from my craft mat. I then used some texture paste through the Christmas Tree 1 stencil and sprinkled it with glitter to make my trees sparkle.

Whilst the paste was drying, I did some stamping using the Winter Chill set, colouring and fuzzy cutting plus a bit of heat embossing and doodling before assembling my tag and finishing off with a few snowflake sequins and a bit of silver and black ribbons.

If you love tags, why not give it a go and play along? Your project can be anything as long as it features a tag. You can enter as many projects as you want, but one per blog post please, and you don't have to use STAMPlorations products, yet we'd be thrilled if you would. There is currently a free winter/holiday image to download at STAMPlorations Never ending Anything Goes Challenge here. Please check out the full revised challenge guidelines here on the STAMPlorations Blog.

One lucky winner, voted for by the DT, will win a $15 STAMPlorations gift certificate and 3 randomly picked players will win a $5 STAMPlorations gift certificate each.

Ready for more tagtastic inspiration? Pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog to see the gorgeous projects my teamies created and, of course, to link up your tag project/s too.

If you like challenges, check out January's Challenge Reminder Post over on the STAMPlorations blog too.

That's it from me for today. Have a lovely week.

hugs

Monika xx

here is what I used from the STAMPlorations Shop, you can use my personal discount code STAMPGIRLMONIKA at checkout for a 20% discount on their, stamps, dies and stencils

Christmas Tree 1 Stencil, Winter Chill, Manila Tags Nesting Dies

  

here is what else I used:

Versamark, Snowflake embossing powder, black Versafine ink, Tempting Turqoise ink, silver and black ribbon, glitter, white and black card, brush markers, snowflake sequins, black fine liner pens

Things With Wings - May Mixed Media Challenge @ STAMPlorations

Hello, Crafty Friends!

It's Sunday 6th May today which means, it's the start of a new Mixed Media Challenge combined with a Blog Hop & Linky Party over at STAMPlorations. This month we are looking for non-card mixed media makes following the theme of 'Things With Wings' using at least one stencil (any brand).

My DT contribution for May is ... a little tag ....

... not quite in Spring colours, but with a rich golden background, guess I've been digging over too much soil in the garden ready for sowing and planting veggies and hedges hence the earthy feel. 😁

Gold acrylic effect medium on a background of mopped up ink with a bit of stenciling (Christmas Tree 1), stamping (Art Marks, Mixed Media Grunge) and a touch of white Craft ink around the edges for a dreamy look finished off with a beautiful die-cut butterfly (Flutter Zen 1 Layering Dies), doodles and gems.

I hope you feel inspired to dig into your crafty resourcefulness and create something to enjoy  .... why not link it up with the Mixed Media Challenge over at STAMPlorations. The theme for this month's Mixed Media Challenge is 'Things With Wings'. Any mixed media make following the winged theme 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. You can link up as many winged projects as you want as long as they follow the rules and have their own separate blog post. The linky 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.

Ooops, almost forgot to mention the prizes: one winner as chosen by the Mixed Media DT will receive a $15 gift certificate and two randomly drawn winners will receive a $5 gift certificate each, all of course redeemable at the STAMPlorations Shop.

That's it from me for today. I shall be back soon with another project to share. Please leave a comment and join the hop.

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/Masks: Christmas Tree 1

STAMPlorations Stamps: Art Marks, Mixed Media Grunge
 

CUTplorations Dies: Flutter Zen 1 Layering Dies

*** The personal discount coupon STAMPGIRLMONIKA works on already reduced items too, but can not be combined with any other coupon codes.