Love All Around

Hi All,

I have been playing with my Gelli Plate in preparation for a demonstration at my Craft Club in a couple of weeks time. Today I was trying out mirror stamping ... here are the results ...

The first card was actually stamped using one of the sticky, gel like mobile phone holders for your car dashboard. It is a good way for trying out this technique should you not wish to splash out on a Gelli Plate which certainly gives you a clearer print as you can see in my second card. The left hand seahorse and the right hand cat were stamped/printed in this way. The right hand seahorse is stamped, but I wasn't careful enough hence I disguised my bad stamping with a couple of hearts.

I am entering my 'Purrfect Love' card at:
Addicted to Stamps and More - CAS
Addicted to CAS - red

I am entering my seahorse card at:
Sisters Of Craft - Anything Goes
613 avenue Create - Anything Goes, use something from your stash - black hearts which I punched out a while ago, but never used

There is a short video showing the technique which I recorded in between seeing clients today, it's short and sweet as I didn't have time to finish my card there and then.

... a last look at both card ...

 

That's it from me for today. back soon.
Have a lovely weekend!

hugs
Monika xxx

here is what I used:
from STAMPlorations Sentiment Builders: Love, Pets and Vignette Celebrate Artsy
  

From KatzelKraft Les Chats russes, Seahorse and Mur De Pluie
  

From Stampin'Up! the following inks: Bermuda Bay, Summer Sun, Melon Mambo and Real Red
From Stash: cool grey Promarkers 1,2,3 and black Memento ink; card and black punched hearts punch by Creative Memories, had it for ages)

Magic Of Christmas

Hi Everyone,

I'm definitely getting on a roll making Christmas cards, and I am very much linking using non-Christmas stamps in them too. For today's card, my contribution to the Inspiration Feature over at the STAMPlorations Blog, I incorporated stamps from the Balloons and Banners set combined with stamps from Joyful, Blossom Overture and SB Christmas & New Year.

I started off with a white base card spritzed with Gold Artiste Ink on which I stamped my sentiment (made up of stamps from Balloons and Banners, Joyful, Blossom Overture and SB Christmas & New Year) and bows and string. I then added my stamped and coloured stars, the fuzzy cut star balloons, and doodled a partial border to finish.

The second project on the Inspiration Post is one I made for the Coffee Lovers Fall Blog Hop. You can read about it here.

Hope you feel inspired, pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog for more inspiration, tutorials, challenges and simply commenting to win ...

I shall be back soon with more inspiration. Have a lovely week!

hugs
Monika xxx

here is what I used:
stamps from STAMPlorations, links are in the above text
   

Playing Around

Hi Everyone,

It is Inspiration Time again over at STAMPlorations. My project came about when I was playing with some dies in preparation for making some much needed Christmas cards. Well, what can I say ... the first one ended up being a birthday card instead ...

I die cut the star border from cream Centura Pearl card and combined it with stamps from the Balloons and Banners set. I stamped coloured and fuzzy cut my balloon, stamped my sentiment in black Memento and the little stars in Pumpkin Pie before layering up as shown.

As I quite liked the green - orange combo, I decided to finally venture into making a Christmas card.

Using stamps from the Joyful and Sentiment Builders: Christmas and New Year to make up my sentiment, I simply stamped my sentiment and added some tiny die cut stars. A very quick and easy card to make.

Should you wish to CASE any of my or my teamies cards, please link them up at the Inspiration CASE Playground. You find the Linky at the end of each Inspiration Post on the STAMPlorations Blog ... hope to see you there.

Just in case you missed it, here is another look at my card from yesterday's post ...

That's it from me for today. I shall be back soon.

Have a lovely day!

hugs
Monika xxx

here is what I used:
stamps from STAMPlorations, links are in the above text
  
Twinkle Twinkle Die'sire Edge'ables and green core-dinations card (was a lucky dip colour) - Crafter's Companion
Pumpkin Pie and Gumball Green inks - Stampin'Up!
Tinge Alcohol Markers for colouring balloon - The Works

CASEplorations July

Hi Everyone,

It's time to explore CASEing again in the STAMPlorations Inspiration CASE Playground. This month we are taking inspirations from a card  made by Tenia Nelson, who is part of the STAMPlorations Challenge Design Team. She made this funky new home card:

You can find her original post here on her blog Jazzy Paper Designs. Well I had a go at making two cards this month. First up is a card I made for Katie, a friend's daughter. She and her partner have just bought and moved into their first home!!!! ... a real achievement given that they are still in their mid twenties! When I looked through my sentiments deciding which one to use, it really tickled me thinking that Katie rather than buying lots of shoes would buy a house ...

... and I hunted through my stash to find these paint brush and paint pot papers, added a few stamped splashes using a stamp from the Holiday Artsy set and layered them on my chevron embossed base card (core-dinations). I stamped my house from the Houses set, fuzzy cut, layered and fuzzy cut again for the shadow, added the die-cut SOLD, a piece of Washi and my altered sentiment from the A Girl And Her Shoes set. As you can see I roughly kept the same layout, the one chevron became the chevron embossed base card. Here is another look ...

Next up is a card I made in advance for Nick's sister who is in the process of selling her house and buying a new one. It has a different slightly more patchwork like feel to it ...

... probably because I used rose patterned paper and stamped stitching from the Graphic Pentagons set on the Washi. I did pick the papers to reflect her mature age and the card reminds me of a mood board of her style. Instead of the chevron I used the heart from the Sentiment Builders: Love set. I kept with the stenciled YAY (ARTplorations Hello and Company stencil) and added A New Home which I made up from another two of STAMPlorations Sentiment Builders Christmas & New Year and Happy. This time I kept three of the rounded corners and a couple of sequins finished my card off perfectly.

If you enjoy CASEing or want to give it a go even if you've never done it before, pop over to the Playground to join the fun. There are also lots of other things going on over at the STAMPlorations Blog, currently you'll find the Birthday Blog Hop, the never ending Anything Goes Challenge for projects using STAMPlorations goodies, commenting to win on the Inspiration and Spotlight Posts plus the new monthly and sketch challenges will start soon too. Links to each of these as always are found at the top of the home page.

I shall be back in a little while with my third installment for the Birthday Blog Hop and Linky Party.
Until then....

hugs
Monika xxx

stamps and stencils used, links as always in the text...
      

ARTplorations Stencil Blog Hop Day 3

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to the ARTplorations Stencil Blog Hop. This is where we, the STAMPlorations Girls, put our stencils through their paces.

For today's project I worked with the Daisy Dance and the Shutters stencils. The Daisy Dance stencil coordinates perfectly with one of the daisies from the Bloom Sketches set, more about this later, firstly here is the card ...

First I used the Shutters stencil and sponged some Crushed Curry (yellow) all over, then I used the Daisy Dance stencil and sponged some Bermuda Bay (turquoise) all over before stamping my daisy from the Bloom Sketches set in Tangerine Tango (orange). The keen eyed of you may have spotted that my stamped daisies don't perfectly align with the stencil ... I did it on purpose as I wanted a very sketchy, slightly grungy look. The stencil fits the daisy perfectly, I simply flipped it over before stenciling to achieve my look. That's what I love about stencils, you immediately have a very usable mirror image. :-)

Next I stamped and embossed my sentiment from the SENTIMENT BUILDERS Happy on a strip of vellum, layered up as shown and attached some paper twine and charm to finish.

I am entering my card at:

Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes, STAMPlorations are sponsoring

Allsorts - Birthday

Time Out - Grunge, STAMPlorations are sponsoring

Check out what the rest of the team made! You'll find links to all our projects here. Feel free to leave comments as you go along. Every comment will be entered into a prize draw. Commenting closes on 29th May and the winners will be announced on 1st June. Good Luck!

Prizes:

SIX (6) winners (2 winners per day) will receive their choice of ARTplorations stencil. Winners will be randomly drawn from all comments left on the designers' blogs.

THREE (3) winners will each receive a $10 gift certificate. Winners will be randomly drawn from comments left on the STAMPlorations blog.

+ Extra prizes for those who participate in the Flash Stencil Project Linky Party and link up by May 31.

That's it from me for today. I shall be back again tomorrow with another stencil project.

Have a lovely day!

hugs

Monika xxx

Here is what I used:

stamps and stencils from STAMPlorations, links are in the text above

Crushed Crurry, Tangerine Tango and Bermuda Bay ink plus Bermuda Bay card stock from Stampin'Up!

paper twine from The Works

charm, black ink and embossing powder from stash

Stamp Spotlight SB Love and Newlyweds Extras

Welcome to Day 4 of the STAMPlorations Stamp Release Spotlight Blog Hop Week!!!

Today we, the STAMPLorations Girls and our guest designer Laura Bassen, are shining the spotlight on: The Bee's Knees Newlyweds Extras and Sentiment Builders: Love

  

For today's project I made a CAS card using Sentiment Builders: Love

First I stamped the two hearts and embossed them in white. I then masked the top bit off and blended yellow and pink inks. I removed the mask and stamped my sentiment into place before rounding the corners, layering on my base card and finishing off by adding a few gems.
I would like to enter this card into the CAS challenge over at Addicted to Stamps and More, STAMPlorations is sponsoring this week. :-)

My next card is another CAS card, this time with a birthday theme, using the The Bee's Knees Newlyweds Extras and VIGNETTE Chevron & Arrows. This is one I want to enter in the current CASology challenge (Birthday), which STAPlorations is sponsoring too.

I went back to basics and used coloured inks to stamp the bouquet and sentiment before rounding a couple of corners, layering on my kraft base card and adding some gems to finish.

Check out what the rest of the team made! You'll find links to all our projects here.

Commenting closes 3rd February, and the winners will be announced 5th February
Prizes:

SIX (6) commenters randomly drawn from the designers' blogs will each win a $10 gift certificate.

ONE (1) commenter randomly drawn from the STAMPlorations blog will win a $30 gift certificate.

There might even be some surprise prizes.
On a different note: I am still having trouble with people not being able to join my site through Google Friend Connect. Shirley however has got this tip for you, she emailed me with what she did to enable her to join: I got round yours by copying your blog URL and adding it to my blog list on my Blogger Dashboard page.

Thanks so much, Shirley!!!
 We'll be back again tomorrow with more inspiration,

Have a lovely day!

hugs

Monika xxx

the other STAMPlorations set I used