Noel

Hi Friends!

It's Tuesday which means it's Inspiration Time over at STAMPlorations. Here is my DT project ...

I created a little scene using the Stitched Winter Landscape and one of the Stitched Snow Hills dies. I used Snowflake embossing powder to add some glittery highlights. In hindsight glitter glue might have been better, The embossing powder looks a little bit creamy against the white card. 

Here are the affiliate links to the products I used today:

Stitched Winter Landscape, Stitched Snow Hills, Basic A2 Panels Nesting Dies

  

Joy

Should you feel like browsing STAMPlorations' 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.

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

Christmas Trees & Stencils

Hello Crafty Friends!

Today I'm sharing a couple of projects made for March's Christmas In The Air feature over at STAMPlorations. In this special feature Nancy and I are sharing a couple of Christmas projects each on the 2nd Wednesday in March and May.

This month I thought I'd go with Christmas Trees and stencilled backgrounds allowing the Sketchy Yule Trees to take center stage.

My first card features one of them with a starry background ...

I coloured the tree with metallic pencils, stencilled the stars and grounded my tree with my stamped sentiment. It was stamped in full to one side of the tree and just a bit of it to the other side.

You can easily do this using a stamping tool, simply by sliding your card across as shown ...

As you can see, these photos of the easy way were taken after my card was finished which means I did it the hard way. ;)

If you don't have a stamping tool, it's easy to do with a craft mat and ruler too. Simply align your card with the grid of your mat and make a faint pencil mark as your stamping guide.

Here is a close up of my first card ...

Next up is a Banksy inspired card ...

Initially I had a grungy look in mind, but going with the flow an almost CAS look suited my messy watercoloured tree better.

Given that white embossing looks best on coloured background, I decided to colour outside the lines for maximum impact before fuzzy cutting my tree. You can go rather messy with the colouring, it will be much neater once the tree has been cut out.

I popped it up on foam pads and added it to my stencilled background, stamped my sentiment and finished off with small gems.

Brick Wall, one of Helen's new stencils due to be released next week, was stencilled using Smoked Paprika Prism ink.

Here is one last look ...

Pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog to check out the lovely projects my teamie Nancy made. The Christmas In The Air feature also doubles up as a mini blog hop. Shery will randomly draw one winner of a $15 gift code from all the comments left on the Christmas In The Air posts on the STAMPlorations Blog, on Nancy's log and on my blog.


Have fun hopping along.
hugs
Monika xxx


here is what I used from the STAMPlorations Shop

Sketchy Yule Trees, Christmas Elf, Oh, My Stars! Mini Stencil
  

Joy, Brick Wall Stencil (designed by Helen G Designs) due to be released next week

Round In Circles

Hello Craft Friends!

Have you seen the new additions to STAMPlorations' Digital Store? They got some really cute new printables suitable for easy and quick last minute Christmas makes. I've put some of them through their paces.

Here are my makes using the Black & White Christmas 1 inch circles and Nativity Tags/Labels/Journaling Spots ...

I really love the cute little circles from the B&W Christmas set. There are 30 of them on one A4 page. I grabbed a 1-inch circle punch and off I went ...

First up are a few last minute tree decorations for which I used gold mirri card, black pearls, glossy accents, gems, golden bells and wire. Twine would do too, but I didn't have any fine gold one in my stash. The colours were chosen to fit with our Christmas Tree colour scheme of black artificial tree (a real tree, as much as I love them, is far too big for our small lounge) with red and golden decorations.

The decorations are two sided and layered sandwiching the wire between layers.

Next up is a Christmas card using 3 of the circles in combination with the Merry Christmas Word Art Die and a little help from the Art Marks stamp set. I arranged them in a Christmas Tree shape and finished off with a confetti star and sequins.

Whilst making the first card, I had one of those 'I wonder, if' moments which led to making my second card. I used the grungy circles from the Art Marks set to stamp out my tree shape. The large ones were used to frame the images and the small ones filled in the gaps. I added some more stamped colour using one of the splatter stamps from the same set and a little pencil colouring to my images using my metallic pencils. To finish, I stamped my sentiment and added a few embellishments.

Next up is a card and envelope combination giving you a couple of ideas on how to use the Nativity Tags/Labels/Journaling Spots.

The envelope features a collage stamped background using the Joyful set with stars from Art Marks. I simply doodled a grungy border for my label to finish.

The card has a stencilled background and a bit of background stamping. The label was layered on matching red card. To finish, I added the fuzzy cut nativity scene, a few gems and a sentiment from the Kathryn & Christmas set.

As you can see, this card/envelope combination is for my friend Dianne. Dianne has been busy knitting herself a little nativity scene this year. Her work looks rather similar to the one from the label.

I shall leave you with a few close-ups.

That's it from me for today. Hope, you feel inspired to get some last minute Christmas crafting done. I am sure you can think of may more uses for these cute new printables.

Looking forward to seeing your makes. Have a lovely day!

hugs
Monika xxx


here is what I used from the ...

- STAMPlorations Digital Store
Black & White Christmas 1 inch circles, Nativity Tags, Labels, Journaling Spots
 

- STAMPlorations Shop
Joyful, Art Marks, Kathryn & Christmas, Joy
   

Merry Christmas Word Art Die, Oh, My Stars! Mini Stencil
 

Making Spirits Bright

Hello Crafty Friends!

Welcome to November and the start of another round of challenges over at STAMPlorations. Here is my DT piece for this month's Theme & Photo Prompt Challenge ...

The theme for the current challenge is Stamps & Holidays 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.

As you probably already guessed, I took inspiration from both the theme and the photo for my coffee lover's Christmas card. I stamped the background using mainly the outline stamps of the Joy set in combination with the stars from the Kathryn And Christmas set. The sticker was attached to my stamped and fuzzy cut frame.

I thought it might be fun to add a mini Christmas tree cookie to the cups's label.

As for the prizes:
Two winners, one of a $15 gift certificate and one of a $10 gift certificate, will be picked by one member of our DT.
Plus 3 randomly drawn winners will each receive a $5 gift certificate.

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

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 xxx

here is what I used from the STAMPlorations Shop:

Joy, Kathryn And Christmas, Latte Love, Christmas Cookies & Cheer

   

Floral Bliss, Merry Clear Stickers
 

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