Recycling and Stained Glass Effect

Hi Everybody,

First of all BIG APOLOGIES ... I forgot to share the project I made for the Spotlight Feature over at the STAMPlorations Blog last week. It went live on their blog but I forgot to so my bit here. I had a week off to turn the house upside down for some massive re-organisation ... guess what ... it still looks very much upside down!!! I somehow hadn't realized how big a job it was ... hoping to get finished today.

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Anyway, here are the projects ...

This month's STAMP CLUB set The Birds And The Blooms lends itself perfectly for some stained glass effect colouring. First I tried my hand at making a shaker card.

I simply stamped the daffodils and the sentiment on a piece of acetate using black StazOn ink and coloured from the reverse using Peeloff markers. I attached my frame, added some foam tape, added the sprinkles and attached a piece of white card before layering on my white base card and stamping the swirls, using a stamp from the Distressed Floral Swirls set, into place.

TIP!: For a stronger contrast try heat embossing on heat resistant acetate, which would make the sentiment a little more visible. I quite like it with the StazOn only as it adds a little magic and makes you shake the card in order to find out what the message is. :-)

Of course this sounds a whole lot easier than it was. For some reason, my black StazOn doesn't seem to want to stamp properly despite me trying new ink pads, but that's another story. I got over this little hiccup using my MISTI as you can see in the video. I had to over stamp several times to get the ink to cover, and MISTI is perfect for doing just that. It helps you to always stamp exactly where you want to. Once I had the coverage I needed I could colour my image and add the fun bits which was really easy!

Below is a photograph which captures the transparency of the stained glass effect beautifully as the sunlight shines through the painted daffodils. Well it a sort of makes you see double.

Next I tried to create a little window pane.

I stamped and coloured my daffodils and sentiment as before this time giving my blooms and sentiment a green outline. I then attached my frame to the acetate and added the green frame using my Peeloff markers. I then spritzed my base card using Garden Green, Crushed Curry and Tangerine Tango Stamp'n'Write Markers before stamping my swirls in Gumball Green and attaching my 'glass pane' directly to my base card. Again you are getting a great glass effect as the splashes are visible through the coloured daffodils.

I made a little video for my first card. It gives you my thoughts and the usual tips and tricks as I go along.

Feel fee to leave a comment on the STAMPlorations Blog too and you will be entered into a monthly prize draw. Just as a reminder below are the sets I used for my projects, the links can be found in the text above.

  

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Well, I thought I'd share another project with you. It is one of the cards I made in a mixed media workshop with Lindsay Mason at the weekend. We were able to bring some of our own stamps which I thought was a great idea given that there were about 30 of us in the class.

This one uses alcohol inks on cast coated card. I love hoe the background turned out. It reminded me of the Guinness advert from a few years back hence I had to use horses. The stamps I used were from Visible Image (horses - revolution), Sheena Douglass (flower silhouettes and sentiment - cover gift from Quick Cards) and Indigo Blue (swirl - cover gift from Simply Cards and Papercraft).

That's almost it from me, just a little teaser before I go ... there will be a big birthday bash towards the end of the month over on the STAMPlorations Blog, details can be found here.

Back shortly with more inspiration.

hugs

Monika xxx

CASEplorations June

Hi Everyone,
It's a new month and that means a new round of CASEing starting over at the STAMPlorations Blog. CASE normally means copy and show everything, in our Playground however it is interpreted as take inspirations from. Each month you can take inspiration either from the card we, the STAMPlorations Girls, are CASEing or any of the cards posted by the Inspiration Design Team which you can find in the Inspiration Posts during any given month. This month we are featuring a card by Virginia Lu from Virginia Lu's Blog. Her post for our featured can can be found here ...

 ... and this is her beauty of a card ...

There is lots of inspiration to be had: layers, embossing, vellum, colouring, the colours themselves, kraft card, stripes, hearts, flowers ...

... I decided to work with The Birds And The Blooms set and this is the card I made ...

It is probably more of an anniversary than a wedding card and at first glance it doesn't look anything like Virginia's card, yet it has a lot of the elements she used; gold embossed flowers, colouring with markers, vellum, punched flowers and even some stripes.

I found it a little daunting doing all this gold embossing on vellum given that my vellum is very thin and light hence it tends to fly about a lot when I get the heat tool on it. I had to have a re-think and decided to gold emboss my flowers as a background. Virginia's card has a lace like quality which I tried to bring in through using a strip of vellum with a partially die-cut and embossed frame. The stripes from the Mixed Media Grunge set are partially covered by the vellum and in reality a little more visible than in the photograph. Given that I already had flowers for the background, I went for the hummingbird as my focal image. I stamped the hummingbird and my sentiment on a die cut piece of shrink plastic using black StazOn ink and coloured it from the reverse using Promarkers before heating it up with my heat tool to shrink. I had to keep my cool as at some point it looked as if I had to start again ... shrink plastic has its own mind as it crinkles and rolls up during the shrinking process, but it usually flattens out at the end ... Once it had cooled I run my gold Tinge Alcohol Marker along the edge to finish. I then punched a few daisies, layered as shown and finished off with some pearls.

Check out all the team's CASEs here on the STAMPlorations Blog. If you feel like getting your creative juices flowing and linking up with our Playground you can find a LINKY at the end of the post or at the end of any Inspiration Post. Linking up will close 5th July and there will be a random prize winner too.

That's it from me, back soon with more inspiration.

Have a lovely day!

hugs
Monika xxx

from STAMPlorations I used The Birds And The Blooms, which is our June/July STAMP CLUB set, and Mixed Media Grunge
  
dies used - Labels 28 and Imperial Gold Labels 28 by Spellbinders - Bic Warehouse via eBay
daisy Xcut palm punch by docrafts - local stockist
Tinge Alcohol Markers - The Works

More Bling

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick post from me today with another card using the ARTplorations Droplets stencil. I really liked how I can use some of the gems from my stash to pick out shapes and patterns when using this stencil.

For today's card I went with featuring a heart ...

It is really easy to make, which is what I love about using stencils, you can quickly get amazing results. I simply sponged some Crushed Curry and Bermuda Bay inks through my stencil, attached the gems, stamped my sentiment from the Fond Expressions set in Imperial Purple and layered on my purple base card - done!

For more inspiration and to link up any of your CASEd projects pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog. We would love to hear which one of our projects you cased and what inspired you ... It would be fabulous if it was one of mine ...

Back again soon. Have a lovely weekend!

hugs
Monika xxx

from STAMPlorations I used, links in the text above
 
from Stampin'Up! - Crushed Curry and Bermuda Bay inks
Versafine - Imperial Purple ink

ARTplorations Stencil Blog Hop Day 5

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 Droplets stencil to create this shaded purple beauty... here in the sunshine ...

... here without the shadows ...

... and here on the inside ...

I simply sponged some light purple pigment ink through the Droplets stencil shading as I went along. I stamped my sentiment from the Celebrate Artsy set in Imperial Purple Versafine ink and added some gems. I have lots of these gems and never used them ... until now! They were a perfect match and turned the droplets into a field of candles. At least that's what I like to think. :-)

I decided to go for an asymmetrical border for extra interest. On the inside I stamped the couple from the VIGNETTE Ever After set in the same light purple pigment ink (it looks a little more pink here) and my sentiment from the Birthday Cake in Imperial Purple before doodling a partial border.

I am entering my card at:

Inkspirational - purple

CASology - story

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.

Have a lovely day!

hugs

Monika xxx




Here is what I used:


stamps and stencils from STAMPlorations, links are in the text above
    
light purple pigment ink - Papermania
Elegant Eggplant Stamp'n'write marker - Stampin'Up!
cardstock and droplet gems from stash

ARTplorations Stencil Blog Hop Day 4

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 Happy Flowers stencil to create two cards using some Black Stars Sparkle Medium. As you've probably noticed, I always look for ways to do things differently, normally one would apply the sparkle medium in the same way as embossing paste ...... I decided to use a brush instead to get the following two effects.

For my first card I stenciled the sparkle medium through the Happy Flowers directly on cream card using my brush before adding some grunge using stamps from the Mixed Media Grunge and Mini Mixed Media Backgrounds and a little blending with Basic Grey ink. I heat embossed my sentiment from Fond Expressions on a torn strip of vellum and layered as shown. To finish I 'grunged' one of the corners, added some sequins and a little paper twine. I quite like the slightly surreal looking effect I achieved.

For my second card, I first prepared my background using stamps from the Mixed Media Grunge set. I then sponged the Happy Flowers using Charcoal ink before applying the sparkle medium as above. I then simply layered on my black base card and finished off with organza ribbon and bow.

You can just about see the sparkle in both of the cards.

TIP!: Applying the medium with a brush gives the image a rough textured look which adds further interest. I will have to try this now using embossing paste, I guess, to see what the effect will be....

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 or two.

Have a lovely day!

hugs

Monika xxx

Here is what I used:

stamps and stencils from STAMPlorations, links are in the text above
  
Charcoal Vintage Ink Spot, Summer Starfruit, Gumball Green and Basic Grey ink - Stampin'Up!
Black Stars Sparkle Medium - Imagination Craft
Paper Twine - The Works
Organza Ribbon - Fantastic Ribbons
orange embossing powder and card from stash

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

ARTplorations Stencil Blog Hop Day 2

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 Christmas Trees and the Oh My Stars! stencils.

I first sponged my stars in yellow shading the colour to give more subtle looking stars towards the center. I then sponged my Christmas Tree in green and gave it a brown outline before doodling my border. I then added some shimmer using a Sakura Gelly Roll Clear Star pen, stamped my sentiment from the Joyful set, layered on my base card and finished off with a few gems.

Here is a close up of the sparkle ...

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


stencils and stamp set from STAMPlorations, links are in the text above:

Mossy Meadow card stock, Summer Starfruit, Gumball Green and Early Espresso inks, Early Espresso Stamp'n'write Marker from Stampin'Up!

Sakura pen, gems and card from local craft shop