Not So Traditional Valentine

Hi Friends!

I'm back with another project. It's one i made for my Spotlight Project Post over at STAMPlorations. 

It's also the third of my little trilogy featuring the Sketched Hearts Stencil. This Time I used it to frame a little background scene for these love birds. Have a look ...

This card would make a really sweet Valentine's Day card for those who didn't want to use the traditional red hearts and sentiment.

If you want to see how it came together, check out my step-by-step tutorial here on the STAMPlorations Blog.

These are the products I used from STAMPlorations to make my card.

Sketched Hearts Stencil, Small Birds, Funny Kinda Love, Balloons And Banners

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. Wishing you a lovely week. Stay safe and healthy.
hugs
Monika ❤

Happy Bird-day

Hello Crafty Friends!

Happy New Year to you all! May it be a joyous, prosperous, healthy and magical one ... and of course, a crafty one too.

We are back over at STAMPlorations showcasing makes for the Inspiration Posts. Here is my DT piece ...

I fancied using some loose watercolouring with this sketchy puffin. I used markers, scribbled them on an acrylic block and picked the colour up with a damp/wet brush.

The sentiment, Birds of Paradise, and the little dots, Folk Flowers, are simply stamped.

I am keeping it short and sweet today. For more inspiration, pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog to see the beautiful projects my teamies created and whilst there you can leave a comment for your chance to win a gift certificate redeemable at their store.

Enjoy the start to the new year!
hugs
Monika xxx

here is what I used from the STAMPlorations Shop:
Small Birds, Birds Of Paradise, Folk Flowers
  
For a 20% discount on their stamps, dies and stencils, feel free to use my personal discount code STAMPGIRLMONIKA at checkout.

CASEplorations June

Hi All,

It's time for a new CASEplorations challenge over at the STAMPlorations Blog.

This month we are taking our inspiration from Shelly Kurth and her lovely CAS card below.

Shelly blogged about her card here.

With Summer fast approaching, Maria must have been thinking weddings. What would inspire you?

• CAS style
• Wedding theme, could also be engagement, anniversary. ...
• Circular topper
• Twine
• Pastel shades
• Two roses

Well, here is what inspired me:

• Engagement theme
• CAS style
• Two roses became two birds
• Circular topper became a ring

When I first saw Shelly's card, I immediately thought of creating a ring topper for an engagement card in which birdie wanted to play a part.

I die-cut my circles from golden and white pearlescent card, partially blended the white one with Strawberry Slush and Smokey Slate inks and brushed lightly with a damp brush. I then stamped and fuzzy cut birdie from the Small Birds set, doodled and fuzzy cut the diamond, stamped my sentiment from the Trendy Feathers 2 set, layered on a pearlescent white base card and finished off with a touch of glitter glue for added sparkle.

You could easily transform my card into a wedding one by adding a few tiny gems as a mini tiara to one of the birds and giving the other one a bow tie and possibly a top hat too. .... in fact I almost did before deciding that I'd rather wait for Shirley to come up with the accessories set.

Pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog for more CASEplorations inspiration and to link up your wonderfully inspired make(s).

I shall leave you with a last look at my creation.....

Have a lovely weekend.

Hugs
Monika xxx

here is what I used:
Small Birds, Trendy Feathers 2
 

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

Birdie Is Back

... and this time he's having a party.

Hi Everyone,

It is Inspiration time again over at the STAMPlorations Blog. Today I'm sharing a card that made itself. Have you ever had one of these? I was looking for some pink card the other day and found a gelli plate print which was left over from before Christmas last year, the time was right for it to be used ...

... to cut the stitched border balloons, current cover gift of Simply Cards & Papercraft, and my stitched border piece at the bottom of my card, well it is actually the other part of the one I used for this card here. The rest was easy. Birdie from the Small Birds set was given a party hat from the Party Mates set and fuzzy cut before sitting pretty just above my sentiment from the Party Time set. I then simply doodles some lines for my balloons and my card was done.

I really like how you can use the Party Mates set and combine it with other sets for some fun cards. It a sort of reminds me of Tim Holtz' Crazy Birds and their accessories.

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 sets by STAMPlorations, links are in the text

   

Border die - Lil-inkers (in the UK available from Make the Day Special)

You Are Amazing

... at least that is how the British public feels about the little robin.

Hi Everybody!

Yes. yesterday it was revealed that the robin is Britain's favourite bird as voted for by the public!!! What better way to celebrate this event than making a card ... better even as it was also time to create a project for the Inspiration post over at the STAMPlorations Blog.
The thought of robin had me straight away reaching for The Bee's Knees Small Birds set. I had also been watching part of the Inventive Ink class over at Craftsy and wanted to try out some of the techniques ... here is my result ...

Birdie had to get dressed up as robin again. This time I decided to keep it sketchy and give him an orange (SU's Tangerine Tango) chest only to help him stand out from the colourful mixed media style background I had in mind. In the class Marjie Kemper uses DI's and blending tools, I decided to see how far my trusted SU inks (Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point), brushes and dried baby wipes could stretch to create similar effects. I started off lightly dusting some MM and DD on a piece of white card before stenciling part of the ARTplorations Bubbles stencil in DD, part of the Christmas Trees stencil in MM and some of the Confetti Circles stencil in PP before lightly blending the edges with PP. I then stamped my sentiment from the Hashtag Authentic set in black, did the same with the bar code strip and doodles chevrons from the Mixed Media Grunge set before doodling a border and lightly spritzing with TT and black. I then blended PP around the edges of my white base card, fuzzy cut birdie, layered everything in place and added some sequins to finish.

I am entering the amazing birdie at:
Time Out Challenges - Happy is the Birdie that the Sun shines on
Moo-Mania - Anything Goes
Sisters of Craft - Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes with optional twist to make something for a best friend

Next up just a quick reminder ...

... details about the birthday bash can be found here.

As always there is fun to be had before that too, you can CASE any of my/our cards and link up at the Inspiration CASE Playground, short playground, to share your creation with us, enter in the blog challenges, comment on Spotlight Projects and more is already happening over at the STAMPlorations Blog.

GIVE AWAY reminder: I will email a copy of my digi stamp, the sentiment of the butterfly card here, to every new follower of my blog. Anyone who joins between now and 10th July 2015 will get one. Remember to click on the small green/blue squares to the right of the 'join this site' button to join. To claim your free stamp email me at tinkercardsATgmail.com, please replace AT with @.

This is it from me for today. Back soon with more inspiration.

Have a lovely day!

hugs

Monika xxx

from STAMPlorations I used ... (links can be found in the text above)
      

Addicted to CAS

Hi Everyone,

First of all, I want to say 'thank you' to the girls over at Addicted to CAS for asking me to be their Guest Designer for May! This means I have the honour of joining them for two of their challenges.

Each challenge has a different code word in addition to the card having to be clean & simple. Today's code word is ...

The 'Birds' challenge is hosted by Jan from Lilypuss Cards and the sponsor is Casual Fridays. When Loll asked me, I was thrilled to bits especially since I had just received my new Small Birds set ... now here is a thought ... as you are reading this, providing it is about 1pm BST, I might actually be having a cuppa with Shirley who designed the set. We are due to meet up at my local STAMP Fair in Port Sunlight. Back to my card ...

I stamped and masked the Kingfisher, sponged my partial circle, removed the mask and coloured my bird using Stamp'n'write markers. I stamped my sentiment, added a couple of scored lines to the side of it, layered on my kraft base card and my card was finished. It a sort of reminds me of holidays ...

I am entering my card at:
Crafty Calendar - Things with Wings

Hope you enjoyed today's offering, it you want to follow my blog, please feel free to do so by clicking on the small green squares to the right of the 'join this site' button.
Thanks for stopping by.
Have a lovely weekend!
hugs
Monika xxx


here is what I used:
stamp sets by STAMPlorations I used: Noteworthy and The Bee's Knees: Small Birds
 
Stamp'n'write Markers by Stampin'Up!: garden green, more mustard, pumpkin pie, tempting turquoise, basic grey and early espresso

Upcoming event:

Deep in Thought

Hi All,

It is time for another Inspiration Post over at STAMPlorations. For today's card I tried my hand at watercolouring using ink from marker pens. I was working with The Bee's Knees Smallbirds and added a sentiment from VIGNETTE Trendy Feathers.

I thought it might be fun to give the bird a sort of shadowy, hazy type of feel hence I white embossed the Kingfisher on watercolour paper and, taking a leaf out of Shirley's book, sloshed some colour around. To finish I stamped my sentiment, distressed and inked the edges and mounted it at a slight angle on matching card.
This is an easy card to make, perfect for those moments when you just need one 'now'.
Pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog for more inspiration from my teamies. This is also where you can play along with us in the Inspiration CASE Playground simply by CASEing one of our cards and link up, each month a winner will be drawn at random. There is still time to link up for April!!!

I am linking my card to the following challenges:
CASology - Flight
Addicted To Stamps And More - Make your Mark

That's is from me for today, back soon with more inspiration.
Enjoy your day! hugs
Monika xxx

 

STAMPlorations April Blog Hop Day 5

Hi All,
Welcome to Day 5 of the STAMPlorations April Stamp Release Blog Hop. Today we are introducing you to The Bee's Knees SMALLBIRDS set, a set of 5 absolutely cute birds who have already made their presence felt on my blog here, here and here.

I combined birdie, as I call him, with a sentiment from the HOLIDAY SKETCHES: Christmas Flower set for today's project.

I know it is still early in the year, and Easter has hardly passed, but birdie twisted my arm ... he wanted to become a robin! I stamped and coloured birdie using Promarkers before fuzzy cutting him. I then die cut my pine twig from a piece of white card, set it aside and spritzed some gold Artiste ink over the leftover piece of white card before stamping my sentiment into position using black VersaColor ink. I then cut the bare twig from kraft card and layered my elements as seen on a green base card.

As with every blog hop, check out the fabulous projects my Teamies have created and please leave a comment on all our blogs for your chance to win one of our fabulous prizes. You don't have to, but it certainly increases your chance of winning. You can find all the links here, just as a reminder these are the stops for day 5:

..... yes, we were lucky to be joined all week by the fabulous Darnell ...

Darnell - Guest Designer

Becca

Cornelia

Deepti

Maria

Monika - that's me

Sari

Shery

Shirley

Vicki

Prizes: 5 commenters randomly drawn from the designers' blogs will win a $10 gift certificate each and 1 commenter randomly drawn from the STAMPlorations blog will win a $25 gift certificate plus there will be some surprise prizes depending on the response we get. Commenting closes April 27 and the winners will be announced April 29.

Good Luck, Everyone!!!
hugs
Monika xxx

links for previous blog hop days:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4

additional stamp set I used for today's project:


dies -  Festive Collection: Pine Bough by Sue Wilson