September Mixed Media Challenge

Hello, Crafty Friends!

Welcome to this first Sunday in September and the start of a new 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 September is ... a coaster ....

... which is now adorning my craft table for somewhere to rest the all important brew on.

Here are the basic steps on how I made it:

• die cut a large circle to fit a chipboard coaster base
• blend the background using turquoise, yellow and pink inks (I used Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight and Melon Mambo SU inks)
• use white Craft ink through the Dots And Dashes stencil
• sponge pink (Melon Mambo) through the Gridlocked stencil
• stamp the foot prints and sentiments from the Born to Roam stamp set
• apply Sparkle Medium (Cherry) using the Some Birds stencil
• stamp, colour and fuzzy cut the globe and sentiment from Born To Roam, create a shadow for the globe using copper coloured chalk and attach in place
• add sequin and coat with ModPodge

I hope you feel inspired to create something different .... 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.

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:
ARTplorations Stencils: Gridlocked. Dots And Dashes, Some Birds 
  

STAMPlorations Stamps: Born To Roam

Color Blooms ATCs Part 2

Hello, Crafty Friends!

Welcome to this first Sunday in August and the start of a new 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.

As promised I shall be showing you the last three ATCs I made using one of the pages from Color Blooms ...

I attached my piece of Color Bloom page to a piece of card sponged with Crushed Curry and lightly sponged a frame in Pimpkin Pie using the ARTplorations Stencil Gridlocked. Next I used the Art Splatters Stencil and paste for the running paint and sprinkled it immediately with golden glitter. Once dry, I doodled a little border, stamped my sentiment from the Vignette Artful Flutters set, layerd onto my ATC base and finished off with some glitter around the edges.

For my next ATC, I sponged the edges of my piece of Color Blooms with Rich Razzleberry, used Art Splatters for the running paint, doodled a border, stamped my sentiment from the Trendy Butterflies set and added lots of sequins.

On my 3rd and last ATC today, I used only a narrow strip of my Color Blooms Page and layered it up with newsprint paper sponged with Tempting Turquoise. Again I used the running paint bit from the Art Splatters stencil with a little bit of glitter. I then stamped a partial border using the heart square from the Patchwork Frenzy Graphic Squares set, stamped and heat embossed my small butterflies from the Trendy Butterflies set, stamped and fuzzy cut another one, doodled a golden outline and finished off with a sentiment from Artful Flutters, some gems and a little daisy.

I hope you feel inspired to create something different .... 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.

That's it from me for today. If you want to know what I used to colour my page from Color Blooms, check out my Spotlight Project here on the STAMPlorations Blog. I shall be back soon with another project to share.

Have a lovely day!

hugs
Monika xxx

here is what I used:
ARTplorations Stencils: Gridlocked and Art Splatters, Color Blooms colouriong book
  

STAMPlorations Stamps: Vignette Artful Flutters, Trendy Butterflies, Patchwork Frenzy Graphic Squares
  

CASEplorations September

Hi All,

Can you believe it, it's already September! Well the good news is that this month's CASEplorations inspiration project by Gail, better known as ionabunny the Crafty Nomad, is sure to raise at least a smile ...

What do you think ... did it make you smile ... or laugh out loud? Well, I burst out laughing when I first saw this cute little piggy. You can find Gail's original post here, check it out.

The question was how do I CASE this magical tag without having Penny, the pig??? I had to get down to basics and look ... what did I see??? I saw Designer Paper, Retro Circles ARTplorations Stencil, three catchy words, distressed edges, sequins, ribbon, an animal, fun and laughter, cuteness, brad, wiggly eyes, tag, die cut and lots of pink.

Here is what I made of it, my second project was the one I made first, and I'll come to that later.

For my butterfly card I decided to use the Artful Flutters set and went with the three  catchy words, Designer Paper, Retro Circles stencil, die cut, sequins and an animal.

I cut a rectangle from DP and sponged the Retro Circles using not quite navy ink. I then black embossed my sentiments, red embossed and fuzzy cut my butterfly, spritzed my white base card with a little gold and die cut the flourish from white Centura Pearl card before layering it all up and finishing off with a gem and some sequins

For my next card I went with stencil, distressed edges, die cut, cute animal and fun hoping that it would at least get an Awwww ... that was until I realized that the set I used hasn't been released yet! Here it is anyway as a little teaser of things to come ...

The set designed by Shirley is called Pets and due to be released this month with a Mini Blog Hop over on the STAMPlorations Blog. The pets and sentiments are absolutely adorable and a really good reason to stay tuned.

I die cut a rectangle from cream textured card, stamped and watercloured (Soft Suede, Sahara Sand) the little dog, stamped my sentiments, all from the Pets set of course, and added a punched bone. I then imagined what it might look like if a boisterous puppy or kitten were let loose in my already somewhat chaotic craft space ... I had to create a mess!!! I did this by sponging the ARTplorations Gridlocked stencil using Sahara Sand and lots of spritzing with Sahara Sand, Early Espresso markers and spritzing tool plus Cardinal Red and Gold spritzing inks. I scrunched up and distressed (Soft Suede) a piece of map from an old diary before layering as see ... and my card was finished.

I hope you'll feel inspired to give CASEing a go this month. You can find the linky at the end of each months Inspiration posts, linking closes on the 5th of the following month, in this case the 5th October.

Back soon with more inspiration.

Have a lovely day!

hugs
Monika xxx

here is what I used:

sets and stencils from STAMPlorations, links are in the above text. Sorry I can't give you a link nor graphic for the Pets set as yet, but will update as soon as it becomes available.

  
Pierced Rectangle stax dies by Die-namics
flourish die - Britannia dies
Designer Paper, Not Quite Navy, Soft Suede, Sahara Sand, Early Espresso inks, Sahara Sand and Early Espresso Stamp'n'write Markers by Stampin'Up!
Cardinal Red and Gold Artiste Spritzing inks - docrafts
Black and red WOW embossing powders
White Centura Pearl card - Crafter's Companion

CASEplorations August

Hi Everyone,

It is CASEplorations time again over at the STAMPlorations Blog. Today I'm not sharing one but two cards.

First we need to know what we're about to CASE. This month we are taking inspiration from Karen Dunbrook, who made this beautiful card ...

She posted about it here on her blog Snippets when she was Guest Designer for our Stamps & Die Cuts Challenge last August. She used stencil, stamp and die cut in her card.

This is my first interpretation ...

I used the ARTplorations Gridlocked and Bloom Factory stencils combined with the Subway Art Builders: Create. I started off by [pacing the Gridlocked stencil on a piece of white card and sprayed it with turquoise Artiste Spritzing Ink. I removed the stencil, placed the Bloom Factory stencil on my still damp card, I wanted the colours to mix a little, and sprayed a little green. Once dry I embossed my SAB in black and stenciled some white Craft ink through my Bloom Factory stencil in a few patches to lighten and add texture to my background before layering up and adding a die-cut butterfly with pearl to finish.

For my second card I simply sprayed turquoise ink through the Bloom Factory stencil, stamped the SAB and added birdie from the Small Birds set to finish. I needed something to lift my card as the simply stamped SAB didn't provide the contrast I wanted hence birdie is bright orange. :-)

Pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog for more inspiration. This is also where you can find and link up with any other current challenges or simply comment to win draws. Each month we invite you to CASE any of our cards featured in the Inpiration Post and link them up for your chance to win a prize. By the way you can use any type of stamps you like to CASE our projects, and we'd be over the moon if you were to use STAMPlorations stamps, but you don't have to. Hope to see you in the Inspiration Case Playground to have fun and enjoy!

Have a lovely day!

hugs
Monika xxx

here is what I used:
Stamp and ARTplorations stenils by STAMPlorations, links are in the text
   

butterfly die - Britannia dies