Taking The Scenic Route

Hello Crafty Friends!

It is Wednesday and time for a new challenger over at The Male Room challenge blog where the bi-weekly challenge is all about making projects for the men in our lives. Our guest designer for the next fortnight is Asa, you can check out her fabulous creations on here on Asa's blog.

My DT project for the new challenge is ...

Each challenge, of course, has a different theme. For challenge #110 is Add An Age. Lots of scope there!

#110 Add An Age

Well, I went for the mature and young at heart male in form of my brother who celebrates his 60th birthday this year. He loves his motorbike and regularly takes it on holiday! 😀

I love collage stamping, it's great for one-layer cards which this one is apart from the added age. I started off by spreading some ink (Daffodil Delight and Tempting Turquoise) on my craft mat, lightly spritzing it with water and mopping it up with my base card. The rest is simple stamping with the addition of splatters and a die-cut 60.

Fancy creating something for a male person in your life, pop over to The Male Room for more inspiration and to link up your masculine makes.

That's it from me for today
Have a lovely day!
hugs
Monika xxx

here is what I used:
motorbike stamp - past issue of Creative Stamping Magazine
cogs stamp - current issue of Creative Stamping Magazine, at the point of writing
World Birthday Cakes, Wanderlust Hipster Icons, Gone Camping, Mixed Media Elements, Numbers Plate Die - STAMPlorations, feel free to use my personal discount code STAMPGIRLMONIKA for a 20% discount on their stamps, dies and stencils
Daffodil Delight and Tempting Turquoise inks - Stampin'Up!
Miel Izink Ink - Craft Stash
black Versafine ink and white card - from my stash

Monster Birthday

Hello Crafty Friends!

It is Wednesday and time for a new challenger over at The Male Room challenge blog where the bi-weekly challenge is all about making projects for the men in our lives.

My DT project for the new challenge is a somewhat grungy monster card ...

Each challenge, of course, has a different theme. For challenge #87 we are looking for projects with the theme 'Little Boys". Lots of scope there!

#87 - 6th June - Little Boys

I thought that boys surely must like monsters, and monsters always need a bit of grunge, at least in my books. A bit of stamping, sponging, watercolouring using inks, spritzing and fuzzy cutting was all I needed to create a monster base to attach my die-cut '6' to.

Fancy creating your 'Little Boys' inspired make, pop over to The Male Room for more inspiration and to link up your masculine makes.

That's it from me for today
Have a lovely day!
hugs
Monika xxx

here is what I used:
Stencil - Clarity Stamps

Sahara Sand and Basic Gray inks, Basic Gray Stamp'n'Write Marker - Stampin'Up!

Mer Du Sud, Ocean, Verveine, Menthe, Aurore, Miel and Cire IZINK inks - Craft Stash
Canson Mixed Media Card - Amazon
black Versafine ink - stash

from STAMPlorations .... they have lots of special offers this month as they're celebrating their 5th birthday:
Big Monsters, Little Monsters, Numbers Plate Die
  
remember to apply my personal discount code STAMPGIRLMONIKA (not case sensitive) at check out for a 20% discount on STAMPlorations stamps ***, stencils and dies:
*** Discount code works on sale items too

5th Birthday Bash @ STAMPlorations

Hello Crafty Friends!

STAMPlorations turns 5 this month, and they are celebrating BIG STYLE all month long! Check out the graphic below for details ....

Their Inspiration Team, which I am lucky to be a member of, is kicking off the celebrations with the first of many projects for you to CASE showcasing some new release stamps and dies. Please be aware that under CASE-ing we understand 'taking inspiration from' as explained in this post here.

With no further ado, here are my 6 projects ....

First up an almost white on white shaker card using Birthday Wishes Phrase Die and Happy Everything stamp set in combination with the Pierced Curly Frames/Tags Nesting Dies.
The alcohol marker coloured cupcake adds interest and dimension and picks up on some of the colours from my holographic silver disks in the shaker.

Next up is another shaker card using the Birthday Bash stamp set and the Make A Wish Phrase Die. This time I went for a brush marker coloured image and silver spritzes on the white card.

This time I used the Make A Wish Phrase Die with the large candle from Kathryn's Big Wishes, a previous STAMP Birthday Celebration set, and a little help from the Mixed Media Grunge set.
The rays from the candle were created using simple sponging as explained in my tutorial here on the STAMPlorations Blog.

My next card uses both the Happy Everything and Birthday Bash sets with the 'left over' spritzed circle from m 'make a wish' shaker card. The butterfly is silver embossed on vellum and fuzzy cut.

This card was made for my sister-in-law's 70th last month. Again I used the Happy Everything and Birthday Bash sets, this time in combination with the Numbers Plate Die for some faux inlaid die cutting.

Who can resist a good cupcake to finish off a beautiful day? I treated myself to some new inks and did some quick blending trials on different types of card. This one reminded me on the beautiful aroma coming off a freshly baked cake. It had to be used with this beautiful sentiment from the Happy Everything set and that yummy cupcake from the Birthday Bash set with a little help from the Mixed Media Grunge of course.

So how can you play along and join the celebrations?

• For the Wish List Linky, you simply create a wish list in the STAMPlorations Shop and link it up here on the STAMPlorations Blog where all the steps are explained in detail

• comment on the designers blogs. Today's links can be found here plus starting tomorrow we STAMPgirls, one at a time, share three of our favourite makes plus one or two new makes for you to CASE. Please check them out too, they can always be found on the STAMPlortaions Blog Home Page.

• For the CASE-ing of projects, you can link up your CASEd makes here on the STAMPlorations Blog. Please note, this is link is different to the one for the wish list linky. 

Commenting and linking up to both the Wish List and the CASE-ing parties closes on Tuesday 3rd July and the winners will be announced on Tuesday 10th July.

For prizes and special promotions during STAMPlorations Birthday Celebrations check out their blog here. Shery has planned so much for you to enjoy during June in the STAMPlorations Shop, here are just a few examples:

• Freebie Days: every Wednesday to Sunday all orders (no minimum required) qualify for one free 3x5 stamp set or one free word/phrase die up to $10 value. Items must be in stock.
• 50% off Flash Sale: every Monday until Tuesday 23.59 Pacific, selected items will be placed into the flash sale category where they will be on sale at 50% off, no coupon needed.
• $5 Birthday Bash Surprise Bags: each bag contains a 'handmade with love' stamp ($3 value) plus 2 or 3 previous released products, a combination of dies and/or 3x5, 2/6, 4/4, 4x6 stamps; the total MSRP value of each bag is a t least $20. Only whilst stock lasts.

I shall leave you with a close-up of my projects as an inspiration for you to CASE ....

That's it from me for today, pop over to STAMPlorations to join in and enjoy the party!

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:

from the new release:
Birthday Wishes, Happy Everything, Birthday Bash, Make A Wish
   

in combination with:
Pierced Curly Frames/Tags Nesting Dies, Kathryn's Big Wishes, Mixed Media Grunge, Numbers Plate Die
   
*** Discount code works on sale items too

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