Going Grungy

Hi Everybody,

Just a quick post to share a one layer card I made using some of my new toys from my latest visit to Burleydam.

I am entering my card at:

Simply Less is More - one layer masculine
Inkspirational - Grunge
Cardz4Guyz - Sketch

That's it from me for now, I shall be back in a little while with more inspiration.

hugs
Monika xxx

Just a quick update:

here is what I used:
Chase Rainbows and Butterflies stamps by Kaisercraft
Amazing Inspirations stamps by Inspired by Stamping
gathered twigs, spiced marmalade and scattered straw Tim Holtz Distress Inks and sepia Archival ink by Ranger
basic grey ink and marker by Stampin'Up!
grey 1 Promarker pen


NEWSFLASH

The new July stamps have arrived and are available in the STAMPlorations Shop at a 10% discount. Stamp Club Subscribers get an extra 15% off when using their personal discount coupon code!!! YAY!!! I can't wait to get mine!

Artsy Brushos

Hi Everybody,

I am back again with some more inspiration for you ... and just in case you wondered what happened to the backgrounds I made in my video here once they had dried ... well look no further. I used one of them in today's card ...

I simply cut it down to size, stamped the ring from the Newlyweds Extras set in crushed curry, die cut a leafy flourish (Britannia Dies) from white card, stamped my sentiment from the Noteworthy set in elegant eggplant, embossed a butterfly from the Artful Flutters set in gumball green before fuzzy cutting and layering as shown. To finish I added a pearl to my butterfly and doodled a border using my elegant eggplant marker.

I am entering my card at:
Moo Mania - swirls, leafy flourish with a couple of swirls and doodled border giving a swirly feel will hopefully qualify
Time Out - Nature with optional twist animals
Inkspirational - Grunge

There is more inspiration over at the STAMPlorations Blog plus lots of opportunities to play along in challenges, leaving a comment to win, CASEing one of our cards in the Inspiration Playground and of course lots of tutorials too. Make sure you pop over and check it out.

That's it from me for today, a very quick post. I shall be back soon.
Have a lovely weekend!
hugs
Monika xxx

here are the stamp sets from STAMPlorations I used. Links can be found in the above text:
  
inks and embossing powder used - Stampin'Up!

Playing with Brushos

Hi Everyone.
Today I am back with another Spotlight Feature over at the STAMPlorations Blog. My head was quite busy with lots of ideas, that's why I decided to keep things easy by creating some Brusho backgrounds and combining them with stamps from the The Birds And The Blooms, STAMPlorations' current Stamp Club set. Sometimes this can be a good way to clear your mind and ground your ideas.

As I am relatively new to using Brushos I thought it would be great to share my progress. The first time I used Brushos, I simply sprinkled them on damp card. This time 'round I sprinkled first and then spritzed with water ...

First up is a card using the daffodils and the black hooded oriole from the The Birds and The Blooms set ...

Just to recap: Generally speaking for the background, pick the Brusho colours you want to work with and sprinkle a little on a piece of white card, spritz with water and allow to dry. I made my two backgrounds together and tiny particles of turquoise ended up on my Brilliant Red/Cardinal background adding a little more interest.

I decided I wanted to add a little something and spritzed with gold Artiste ink too after the Brusho splatters had dried of course. Once dry I stamped the daffodils in matching red and the oriole in black before colouring my bird with Promarkers. To finish off I stamped my sentiment, layered on my base card and added some tiny pearls.

I am entering my card at:

Addicted to Stamps and More - Make your Mark

Time Out - Nature with an optional twist of animals

Inkspirational - Grunge

Just us Girls - Word

My next card is even easier to make.

 I created my background as above using Turquoise and Ultra Marine. Again I spritzed with gold. This time I wanted to do something a little different and simply stamped the cardinal on a die cut square. The cardinal, like all the other stamps in the set, is so beautifully drawn, it can very well hold the space and be the center piece without needing to be coloured. I layered everything up as seen and finished  by adding some twine and a charm.

TIP!: With Brushos you never quite know what your background will look like. Make several and use the one that best fits the stamps you want to work with. Leave the others for another time or to be altered and added to.

As always there is a craft along video for you featuring how I used the Brushos and how I made the first of my cards.

That's it from me for today. Here is another quick look at the finished cards.

Hope you feel inspired trying out and playing with a different medium, I would love to see what you come up with. Pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog to link up any of your CASEd cards, to check out other Spotlight Features, all of which are tutorials introducing new and re-visiting favourite techniques. Feel free to leave a comment to be entered in our monthly prize draw.
I shall be back again tomorrow with a project featuring the yellow background from my video. Until then ...
Have a lovely day!
hugs
Monika xxx

 

STAMPlorations Birthday Blog Hop Day 5

Hi Everyone,
Welcome to the STAMPlorations 2nd Birthday Blog Hop Celebrations. Yes, STAMPLorations is celebrating its 2nd birthday and true to form we, the STAMPlorations Girls, are having a party and you are invited. to join us for 5 days of blog hop fun. Each day we'll be joined by a different guest designer ... and today the talented lady joining us is JENNIFER INGLE from Just Jingle.

Shery, Deepti and Shirley designed one stamp set each to celebrate this special birthday occasion. These are the sets we'll be using throughout our celebratory hop. For my fith project I decided to work with Party Time and Party Mates again to create this 2nd Birthday card with a tumbling cupcake:

This is pretty straight forward stamping, colouring and masking with a little shading. Here is another look ...

This is the last day of the blog hop and here is a little reminder how you can join:

There are two ways you can join us in the celebrations and ways to be entered into prize draws, firstly by hopping along and leaving comments on our posts and secondly by joining in at our Linky Party over at the STAMPlorations Blog by linking up your party themed cards inspired by this photograph:

The linky will be found on all 5 birthday blog hop posts. Commenting and linking will close on Monday, 6th July and the winners will be announced on Tuesday 7th July.

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

-----------------
The prizes up for grabs are:

Prizes for commenting on the STAMPlorations blog, STAMPlorations designers blogs, and guest designers blogs: 
1 winner of $25 gift certificate 
5 winners of $10 gift certificate 

Prizes for linking up a party/celebration/birthday project: 
3 winners of the party stamp sets (1 winner of Party Mates, 1 winner of Party Time, 1 winner of PartyGirl) 
1 winner of $25 gift certificate (if STAMPlorations stamps/stencils are used) or $15 gift certificate (if non-STAMPlorations stamps/stencils are used)

That's it from me for today, I shall be back again tomorrow with another project.
Have a lovely day!

Hugs
Monika xxx


lnks to previous blog hop days:

DAY 1 - DAY 2 - DAY 3 - DAY 4

the stamp sets I used, links can be found in the text above:

 

STAMPlorations Birthday Blog Hop Day 4

Hi Everyone,
Welcome to the STAMPlorations 2nd Birthday Blog Hop Celebrations. Yes, STAMPlorations is celebrating its 2nd birthday and true to form we, the STAMPlorations Girls, are having a party and you are invited. to join us for 5 days of blog hop fun. Each day we'll be joined by a different guest designer ... and today the talented lady joining us is TAHEERAH ATCHA from Newton's Nook Designs.

Shery, Deepti and Shirley designed one stamp set each to celebrate this special birthday occasion. These are the sets we'll be using throughout our celebratory hop. For my fourth project I decided to work with Party Time and Party Mates again to create this 'confetti sprinkled' card with lots of fun spritzing:

I stamped, coloured (Spectrum Noir) and masked the gift parcels, stamped the chevrons from the Mixed Media Grunge set, added lots of spritzing as my confetti, stamped my sentiment, layered on my base card and finished off with sequins.

Here is another look ...

Back to the blog hop ...

There are two ways you can join us in the celebrations and ways to be entered into prize draws, firstly by hopping along and leaving comments on our posts and secondly by joining in at our Linky Party over at the STAMPlorations Blog by linking up your party themed cards inspired by this photograph:

The linky will be found on all 5 birthday blog hop posts. Commenting and linking will close on Monday, 6th July and the winners will be announced on Tuesday 7th July.

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

-----------------
The prizes up for grabs are:

Prizes for commenting on the STAMPlorations blog, STAMPlorations designers blogs, and guest designers blogs:
1 winner of $25 gift certificate
5 winners of $10 gift certificate

Prizes for linking up a party/celebration/birthday project:
3 winners of the party stamp sets (1 winner of Party Mates, 1 winner of Party Time, 1 winner of PartyGirl)
1 winner of $25 gift certificate (if STAMPlorations stamps/stencils are used) or $15 gift certificate (if non-STAMPlorations stamps/stencils are used)

That's it from me for today, I shall be back again tomorrow with another project.
Have a lovely day!

Hugs
Monika xxx


links to previous blog hop days:

DAY 1 - DAY 2 - DAY 3

the stamp sets I used, links can be found in the text above:

STAMPlorations Birthday Blog Hop Day 3

Hi Everyone,
Welcome to the STAMPlorations 2nd Birthday Blog Hop Celebrations. Yes, STAMPlorations is celebrating its 2nd birthday and true to form we, the STAMPlorations Girls, are having a party and you are invited. to join us for 5 days of blog hop fun. Each day we'll be joined by a different guest designer ... and today the talented lady joining us is KEREN BAKER from Keren Baker's Blog.

Shery, Deepti and Shirley designed one stamp set each to celebrate this special birthday occasion. These are the sets we'll be using throughout our celebratory hop. For my third project I decided to work with Party Girl to create this fairy tale inspired card:

I started off by stamping, colouring (peacock feathers, victorian velvet and tea dye) and masking Party Girl, Next I stamped my frame for the mirror from the Blossom Overture set and the mirror image of the face inside which was first stamped on an acrylic block and from there on my card. I then added some stenciling using the ARTplorations Retro Circles stencil and blending (tumbled glass, peacock feathers and pickled raspberry) before stamping my sentiment, layering on my base card and finishing off with some sequins.

I decided to only use the 'you are' from City Girl as my sentiment and leave the options open to such as 'one in a million', 'beautiful', 'awesome', 'amazing', 'a diamond', 'a star' ...... These can easily added to the inside of the card depending on use.

Here she is again in a slightly different light ...

I am entering my card at:
Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes
Sisters of Craft - Anything Goes
Card Mania - Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes, optional twist: add a rose or pearl
Stempelsonne - Anything Goes

Back to the blog hop ...

There are two ways you can join us in the celebrations and ways to be entered into prize draws, firstly by hopping along and leaving comments on our posts and secondly by joining in at our Linky Party over at the STAMPlorations Blog by linking up your party themed cards inspired by this photograph:

The linky will be found on all 5 birthday blog hop posts. Commenting and linking will close on Monday, 6th July and the winners will be announced on Tuesday 7th July.

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

-----------------
The prizes up for grabs are:

Prizes for commenting on the STAMPlorations blog, STAMPlorations designers blogs, and guest designers blogs:
1 winner of $25 gift certificate
5 winners of $10 gift certificate

Prizes for linking up a party/celebration/birthday project:
3 winners of the party stamp sets (1 winner of Party Mates, 1 winner of Party Time, 1 winner of PartyGirl)
1 winner of $25 gift certificate (if STAMPlorations stamps/stencils are used) or $15 gift certificate (if non-STAMPlorations stamps/stencils are used)

That's it from me for today, I shall be back again tomorrow with another project.
Have a lovely day!

Hugs
Monika xxx


links to previous blog hop days:

DAY 1 - DAY 2

stamp sets and stencil I used, links as always in the text

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...