CUTplorations May

Hello Crafty Friends!

A new month ... an new challenge, over at STAMPlorations the May CUTplorations Challenge has started. Here is my DT piece ...

How did it come about? Well, the CUTplorations Chellenge is a monthly challenge requiring you to use die(s) and take inspiration from the monthly changing photo which for this month is ...

image source: g5g5g5g5g5 images pixabay.com

So what have we got?

• flowers
• hearts
• leaves
• sunshine
• bricks/wall
• colours

As you can see, I went with ...

• bricks
• colours green pink, grey and white
• hearts
• the flowers reminded me of bunting

I stamped the brick pattern, added the stamped, watercoloured and fuzzy cut bunting, my die-cut wonderful from a blended piece of card, the word day cut from white card using the Lowercase Alphabet Plate Die, the small hearts from the Clustered Hearts Die, a bit of stamped sentiment, splattering, doodling and twine to finish.

Pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog to see how my teamies interpreted the photo and to link up your entry too. There are prizes for the winner ($10 gift certificate) and the two runner-ups ($5gift certificate each) as voted by the DT plus, if there are 30 or more entries, one randomly drawn winner can choose any 2 of the CUTplorations Word/Phrase Dies the DT used in their projects. That's well worth creating for, what do you think?

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 used: Wonderful Word Die, Clustered Hearts Die, Lowercase Alphabet Die Plate
  
STAMPlorations Stamps used: Balloons And Banners, Mixed Media Grunge, Blossom Overture
  

*** Discount code works on sale items too

CUTplorations April

Hello Crafty Friends!

A new month ... an new challenge, over at STAMPlorations the April CUTplorations Challenge has started. Here is my DT piece ...

How did it come about? Well, the CUTplorations Chellenge is a monthly challenge requiring you to use die(s) and take inspiration from the monthly changing photo which for this month is ...

image source: Alexas_Fotos pixabay.com

Looks interesting, when I saw, it I immediately thought of Easter and the coloured eggs turned into a colourful die-cut Easter sentiment. the bird is heat embossed and was masked before adding a little blending and stamping daffodils.

Pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog to see how my teamies interpreted the photo and to link up your entry too. There are prizes for the winner ($10 gift certificate) and the two runner-ups ($5gift certificate each) as voted by the DT plus, if there are 30 or more entries, one randomly drawn winner can choose any 2 of the CUTplorations Word/Phrase Dies the DT used in their projects. That's well worth creating for, what do you think?

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 used: Sweet Spring Wishes Phrase Die, Uppercase Alphabet Die plate, Lowercase Alphabet Die Plate
  
STAMPlorations Stamps used: Trendy Birds, The Birds And The Blooms, Mixed Media Elements
  

*** Discount code works on sale items too

Cupcake Inspirations GDT

Hello Crafty Friends!

Today I am hoping that your sweet day will get even sweeter with some Cupcake Inspirations. Shery from STAMPlorations is sponsoring their current challenge and everyone on her design team was invited to become a Guest Designer to which I happily said 'yes'. 😊

There is an inspiration photo featuring cupcakes, but cupcakes themselves don't have to feature on your project. The inspiration can be taken from the colours and theme of the photo which is ...

I am immediately thinking Valentine's Day! What better way to combine the colours with sweet hearts. Here is my inspiration for you ...

I went for a CAS design with a pop of colour. The large heart is cut from the negative of the Lowercase Alphabet Plate Die and layered on white linen effect card. I then simply created my 3D XOXO sentiment, attached it in place and finished off with two small hearts from the Clustered Hearts Die. Here is a close-up ...

Please pop over to the Cupcake Inspirations blog to check out the lovely projects everyone made and of course to join their challenge.

That's it from me for today. Have a lovely weekend!
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: Clustered Hearts, XOXO Word Die, Lowercase Alphabet Plate Die
   

Monkey Love

Hello Crafty Friends!

It's Day 2 Of the LOVE TAGplorations event over at STAMPlorations, and I decided to join the fun with this cutie of a shaker tag ...

I used the Luggage Tag Nesting Dies to cut the tag, frame and acetate. I then sponged the tag using one of hearts from the Zen Hearts stencil and Strawberry Slush ink. Next I stamped, watercoloured and fuzzy cut the cheeky monkeys and hearts from the Chickoo Goes Bananas set and die-cut the letters for the sentiment using the Lowercase Alphabet Plate Die. I assembled all the elements as seen and finished off with matching organza ribbon.

It's over to you now to join the LOVE TAGplorations party ...

.... by hopping and commenting on participating designer's blogs and creating your own love/Valentine's Day themed project, which must include a tag, to link up with the flash linky party. Your project can be anything from a card, art journal page, canvas, layout etc as long as it fits the theme 'Love/Valentine's Day' and has a tag in it somewhere.

As always with a blog hop, there are prizes you can win, here they are:

• - (3) randomly drawn winners from all comments left on the STAMPlorations Blog and participating designer's blogs will each receive a $10 gift certificate to the store
• - (1) randomly drawn participant in the Love TAGplorations Linky Party will receive her choice of stamp set (Pocket Blooms, A Full Heart, or Two of Us)
• - (1) randomly drawn participant in the Love TAGplorations Linky Party will receive her choice of any 2 of the new love-themed dies (Love, Always, XOXO, Forever, You & Me, Clustered Hearts)
• - (1) randomly drawn participant in the Love TAGplorations Linky Party will receive her choice of tag set: Luggage Tags or ATC/Tag Builder

Pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog for more Love TAGplorations inspiration, information and to join the party.

That's it from me for now. Have fun and enjoy the celebrations!
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:
Chickoo Goes Bananas, Zen Hearts ARTplorations Stencil, Luggage Tag Nesting Dies, Lowercase Alphabet Plate Die
   

STAMPlorations January Release Week Day 5

Hello Crafty Friends!

Welcome to Day 5 of the STAMPlorations January Release Blog Hop which today features the following CUTplorations Dies:

Numbers Plate Die,

Lowercase Alphabet Plate Die

and Uppercase Alphabet Plate Die ....

Here are my cards ...

First up a slightly grungy shaker card made with funky foam. I die-cut the numbers from funky foam and used only the '6' for my shaker element, the others are all filled in using the foam bits. the rest was pretty straight forward ... a bit of foiling, stamped and fuzzy cut cupcake, stamped sentiment plus a bit more die-cutting and doodling followed by Stickles and a couple of stars to finish.

Having finally started to use my Instagram account a bit more, I've started to # everything. A friend of ours is off to Greece this year for four weeks which provided the inspiration for this card. This is where it became a little tricky, I could have sworn that I had the sun lounger on the beach set which was in the Stamp Lab a while ago, but I didn't hence I went for the plane. My watercolour trees didn't work out the way I had intended, but were easily rescued by a Trendy Leaf and a little stamping.

Well I could not not do it, I had to # Happy Retirement too! 😉

Now this card was really fun to make. The cue is 'four word phrase of endearment', see, if you can find it. The idea came from these grids where you have to find words pretty much in any direction. It also gave the opportunity to use another new CUTplorations die called Clustered Hearts. a little bit of foiling finished off my card.

This is how I started off laying out the words for my little phrase. The other letters were simply filled in.

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, Day 4

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:
A Snarky Birthday To You, Hello You, Born To Roam, Trendy Leaves, Hashtag Authentic
    

Clustered Hearts CUTplorations Die