STAMPlorations Reminder - Artsy

Have you hopped yet?  Did you comment?  I hope so :)  Here's another little reminder of what you can do with the stamps from the new release.  This time I've gone for a more masculine card.  The Vignette Celebrate Artsy set is great for grungy and not-so-grungy male cards.  Add some strong colours and a bold design, and you're there!

Click here if you want to hop along.

I'm adding my card to the Keep It Simple challenge, which is turquoise.

Blog Hop Reminder - Cupcakes

Are you hopping along with the STAMPlorations birthday blog hop?  You're in with a chance of a win at each step on the hop as we're all giving away one of our personal favourite stamp sets.  And the whole of the new release is up for grabs for one lucky winner if you comment on the STAMPlorations blog.

I've made some more cards using stamps from the new release.  I used the top tier of the birthday cake and turned it into cupcakes.

So go on then, get commenting!

*** The stops in the hop*** 

STAMPlorations Blog

Design Team:

Cornelia | Debra | Kylie | Maria | Monika | Nonni | Shery | Shirley | Vicki

Guest Designers:

Ardyth | Chrissie | Deepti | Melissa | Mynn

Just Us Girls Guest Designer - Week 4

My final post as this month's Guest Designer for Just Us Girls :(  This week it's a photo inspiration:

The starting point for my card was the chevrons on the wall.  Followed by the flower.  I used Weathered Wood and Tumbled Glass Distress Inks on the chevron stencil à la Tim Holtz, then stamped the flower on some spare card and sloshed a bit of Tumbled Glass on, then fussy cut it.  I drew in a stem and stamped the HB2U either side of the stem then drew leaves around them.

I'm entering my card into Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes, and Simon Says Work It Wednesday, where it's also Anything Goes.

Pop on over the Just Us Girls and join in the challenge (thank for having me, ladies!).

Stamps: Woodware Mini Flowers; STAMPlorations Vignette: Celebrate Artsy

STAMPlorations Birthday Blog Hop

STAMPlorations turns a year old this month and we're celebrating with a blog hop! We're also releasing the new stamps for July so it's a double celebration. The other STAMPlorations girls and I are sharing projects we created that feature the new stamps. And we've got 5 talented card-makers celebrating with us too! Visit all the stops on the hop and leave a comment for a chance to win stamps. We're giving away over $120 worth of stamps!

FOURTEEN (14) lucky hoppers randomly drawn from the designers' blogs will each win a stamp set and ONE (1) lucky hopper randomly drawn from the STAMPlorations blog will win all the stamps in the July release. You have until Wednesday, July 2, 11:55 p.m. PDT (GMT -700) to comment here and on my fellow designers' posts for a chance to win. Winners will be announced on the STAMPlorations blog on Sunday, July 6.

I've used the text block from Vignette: It's Your Day to make my background, then stamped the cake from the same set, sloshed some Distress Ink watercolours on and fussy cut it. Love that cake!  I mopped up the Distress Ink pools with the large swoosh stamp from Vignette: Celebrate Artsy then overstamped it with the Celebrate from Sentiment Builders: Celebrate.  And splatted.  Love splatting.

Don't forget to comment on each step of the hop.  Leave a comment here and you'll be in with a chance of winning the Sentiment Builders: Happy set.

*** The stops in the hop*** 

STAMPlorations Blog

Design Team:

Cornelia | Debra | Kylie | Maria | Monika | Nonni | Shery | Shirley | Vicki

Guest Designers:

Ardyth | Chrissie | Deepti | Melissa | Mynn

Colour Me...! Guest Designer Week 4

It's my last week as guest designer with Colour Me...!  :(  Here are this week's colours:

I watercoloured some images from Neat & Tangled's Just For You set and stamped the sentiment in Versafine Onyx Black, then added a few splatters (of course!).  I'm entering this into Little Tangles Watercolour,

and Less is More where the theme is also Watercolour.

Thanks so much for having me as Guest Designer at Colour Me...! girls, I've really enjoyed it :)

Butterfly and Blogger

Got this fabulous butterfly from Uniko Studio Challenge, just as Beverley from Uniko was guest designing at Muse with this card, so I had to play along :)

I stamped the image off the edge, and sloshed and splattered some Distress Inks (Barn Door, Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire).  I blatantly stole CASEd the partial frame idea from Cornelia, adding dots every time the lines intersected, to reflect the dots in the butterfly image.  I deliberately left the card flattened out while I splattered so that it would continue onto the back.  The sentiment is from Winnie & Walter The Big, The Bold and The Happy.

I'm playing along with Less Is More, where the theme is Watercolour

One Layer Simplicity, where the theme is I've Been Framed

and City Crafter, where the theme is Red, White and Blue

Anyone else having problems with Blogger feed?  It's decided to only show one post in my reader.  Not one post per blog I follow - ONE. SINGLE. SOLITARY. POST.  Whichever blog post is the most recent.  Apparently it's a bug known to Blogger but there's no sign of a fix yet.  How's a girl to cope?  Until yesterday, I was very happy with getting my posts through Blogger, but I can't cope without you all, so I'm now stalking you by Bloglovin until normal service is resumed at Blogger - if ever!

Sweet Peas

Ok, so I'm not quite done with pink yet.  Remember the gingko stamps I made last week?  Well, I thought they could double up as sweet peas when I saw the challenge from Curtain Call:

I used Tattered Rose, Worn Lipstick and Shaded Lilac Distress Inks, a bit of water and a bit of splodging and squidging, then added the short stems, which are also stamps I made, and just extended them down and added a few curly fronds.  The background numbers stamp is by Tim Holtz and the birthday stamp is Penny Black - I placed it in the bottom-right corner to make it look like a signature on a painting.  I sponged a bit of Antique Linen around the edges of the panel for a bit of an aged look.

I'm also entering it into Simon Says Monday Challenge, Anything Goes.

But not Everything Goes.  These sweet peas are faring much better than the ones in my garden, which are refusing to grow despite the warm weather we're having.  Maybe I'll just stick this card on the fence and pretend.

Just Us Girls Guest Designer - Week 3

I'm back with Just Us Girls for my third appearance as guest designer for June.  This week it's a juicy summery colour challenge:

I'm also playing along with CASology where they are celebrating their 100th challenge and the theme is, appropriately enough, Celebrate.

So I made them a cake of the no-calorie variety.  And because there are no calories, I doubled the recipe quantity by stamping an extra image and doing some cutting and layering.  All the stamps are part of the new release by STAMPlorations (see here for details).  For extra yumminess I added some glossy icing and some frosting - here's a close-up:

I'm also entering it into Simon Says Monday Challenge, Anything Goes.

Mellow Yellow

Today's card is brought to you by the colour Yellow.  Or more precisely, the colours in this challenge at Just Add Ink:

Then we have the joint challenge at CAS(E) This Sketch and Fusion:

And bringing up the rear we have The Paper Players' 200th challenge, where we can choose to revisit one of the challenges selected by the Design Team.  I chose Jaydee's clean and simple watercolouring:

I smooched some Distress Inks (Mustard Seed, Iced Spruce) onto an embossing folder (Craft Concepts, Grunge Stripe) and took a print, sloshed some Iced Spruce around the edges of the base card, grabbed the good old credit card and added some distressed lines.  Stitched a piece of cotton tape to the panel, stamped a butterfly (Uniko Studio) onto spare card and sloshed some colour on, then fussy cut and stuck it onto the tape.  And added a sentiment (Hero Arts CL646 Happy Birthday).

I'm in a Yellow phase at the moment, after having done Pink to death.  More yellow tomorrow.  It must be all the sunshine we're having :)

Seize The Birthday - No Toppings

It's Seize The Birthday time, and for this challenge there's no topping.  So, anything goes (as long as it's a birthday theme!).

I used Clearly Besotted Fabulous Fuchsias, applying Tombow markers directly to the stamps and spritzing then stamping.  The sentiment is stamped in Versafine Onyx Black.  Oh, and there's a bit of splattering going on ;)

I'm entering this into Clearly Besotted's challenge - Anything Goes.

Pop on over to Seize The Birthday for inspiration from the rest of the team, and join in!

Colour Me Guest Designer - Week 3

I'm back for week 3 of my guest designer stint at Colour Me...!  Here are this week's yummy colours:

I inked up the raised side of an embossing folder with Tattered Rose, Worn Lipstick and Evergreen Bough, spritzed with water and pressed my card onto the folder to get a print.  Trimmed it to an angle, adhered it to the card and added my latest craze, doodle stitching.

I'm entering this into Simon Says Monday Challenge Anything Goes.

Come on over to Colour Me...! and join in the fun!

The folder is Dream by Couture Creations
The stamps are from STAMPlorations Sentiment Builders: Happy

Two New Stamps

I've been playing with new stamps.  Or to be more precise, I've been playing with my Teresa Collins Stampmaker and I've been making new stamps.  I bought the machine last November - it was going to be a birthday present but I changed my mind before my birthday, thinking I probably wouldn't use it.  But then it was on offer and I managed to get 35% off, so I decided I needed it after all.  And there it's been, Darnell - languishing in the NBUS department.

Before I get to the detail, (and before I forget!) I'm entering this into Darnell's NBUS challenge which is a friendship theme (there's no sentiment on mine, but flowers are a token of friendship) and Time Out Summer Flowers.

 

So. Two things prompted me to have a go with the machine:  

This fabulous creation by Ruth which was the winning entry in the Craft Stamper Take It Make It potato stamping challenge.  Ruth used gingko cookie cutters, I've drawn some flower shapes and made stamps from the images.

Ruth's card - isn't it fabulous?

The other thing that prompted me was that I wanted a walking boots stamp for male cards and I couldn't find one.  Not one to take the easy route, I decided that I would create my own stamp from a photograph.  Got walking boots, got a camera, got a stampmaking machine.  Easy, right?  Almost. I couldn't fade out the background completely so in the end I printed it out then traced over the photo to get my image.  The quality of the stamp isn't brilliant because I printed the negative on the wrong setting, but I actually like the roughness of it, reminds me of a charcoal drawing.  The photo on the left is what I traced, and the image on the right is the stamped image rather than the traced image.

 So here are a couple of cards I made with the stamp:

I'm entering this first one into One Layer Simplicity Challenge where the theme is I've Been Framed and Keep It Simple, where it's Splatters.

And I'm entering this second card into Simply Less Is More where it's a One Layer Off The Edge challenge, and Just Add Ink where you've to use three out of the five colours.

The HB2U stamp is part of the new release from STAMPlorations.  Look out for our birthday blog hop coming soon!

Sorry it was a mega post but two of the challenges are closing today and it was easier to combine into one "new stamp" post.  Thanks for sticking with it to the end ;)