Adding Black Marks

I'm over on the STAMPlorations blog with these two cards showing how black marks can give you some really cool modern cards.

Create your own vase beneath a floral cluster.

Or add a funky modern background.  Details on the STAMPlorations blog.

Seize The Birthday - Sentiment As Focal Image

Hello!  We've got a new challenge at Seize The Birthday and the theme is Sentiment as a Focal Image.  (Or you can just play along with any birthday-themed creation.)

This is all one stamp called Birthday Splodges by Woodware.  It was just a case of spodging some colour around the letters, and it was done!

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog for some more fabulous inspiration from the team, and from our surprise party guest Joyce, and join in with us.

STAMPlorations Inspiration #256

Hello!  It's Inspiration Tuesday at STAMPlorations, and today I've gone a bit grungy.  I stamped the bouquet from Sweetly onto white card, then covered it with Newsprint Background Bits #1 stickers and fussy cut the image.

The background stamping on the kraft card is with Mixed Media Grunge and Art Marks 2.  The letters are from Uppercase Alphabet die leftovers.  I only had one 'I' so I cut the foot off an 'L'.

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog for some more fabulous inspiration from the team, and don't forget to leave a comment for your chance to win a $10 gift certificate.  While you're shopping, don't forget to use my code STAMPGIRLSHIRLEY for 20% off.

STAMPlorations Inspiration #255

Hello, it's Inspiration Tuesday at STAMPlorations, and today I'm using one of the new stamp sets, Sweetly, by Shery.

I stamped the butterfly, watercoloured it with Distress Inks and fussy cut it.  I had a negative sentiment diecut from an earlier session, which I'd backed with black glossy card, so I adhered that across the lower portion of the card then added the butterfly.  I just glued down the body and tilted the wings up, but it will lie flat for posting.

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog to see some more fabulous inspiration from the team, and don't forget to leave a comment for your chance to win a gift certificate for $10.  And while you're shopping, use my code STAMPGIRLSHIRLEY for 20% off.

STAMPlorations Stencil Sunday

Hello, I'm on the STAMPlorations blog today with my stencil project.  So I decided to use one stencil, Peeking Dahlias, to produce four different cards using different techniques.

For this first card I added Distress Oxides using blending brushes.  I only wanted to use one flower so I masked off the other.

I added some Tumbled Glass shading around the edges, and was going to just add a sentiment, but because my other cards below are quite CAS, I wanted one of them to have a bit more going on.

So I watercoloured a bright background.  At this point I thought I'd spoiled it, so I added some splatters and stamped marks from Art Marks 2 in Distress Oxides.

Then I added the HB2U that I found in my stash and stamped zigzags from Art Marks 2.

And added some turquoise Stickles in the centre of the flower.  And then I liked it :)

For my second card I painted watercolour brush colours through the stencil, then painted the background, blotting it with kitchen roll to add texture.

The colours were used undiluted.

I added a butterfly and Skinny Sentiment from my stash.  Tip: when you're die cutting a skinny sentiment, cut and make up an extra set while you're at it, then you've got one in your stash ready for an 'emergency' card.

For my next card, I sponged Distress Inks through the stencil,

then I removed the stencil and added light doodles.  The sentiment is from Everyday Sentiments.

My last card uses Distress Oxides on a dark background with another sentiment from Everyday Sentiments.

They glide on so smoothly, and stand out well on darker card.  I added some white crayon marks, but the crayon wasn't happy about being on Distress Oxide.  I could have used white pen, but that would have given me a more pronounced mark and I only wanted a hint of white.

I hope I've inspired you to try different techniques with your stencils.  Leave me a comment here and over on the STAMPlorations blog for your chance to win a $15 gift code.  And don't forget to use my code STAMPGIRLSHIRLEY for 20% off whenever you're shopping in the store.

STAMPlorations Release Day 5

It's the last day of the new release on the STAMPlorations blog, and I've got another card for you using my set, Layered Vase.

I've used Distress Inks to ink up the outline image and for the solid images.  The 'birthday' is part of the Skinny Sentiments dies, and 'wishes' is from Big Monsters.

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created, and don't forget to leave comments on all the blogs for your chance to win: there are two prizes on offer - a $20 gift code for one winner and the stamp set of their choice for another winner.  The stamps are 10% off until 19 February, and if you use my code STAMPGIRLSHIRLEY you'll get an extra 20% off.

Seize The Birthday - White Space

Hello, we've got a new challenge for you at Seize The Birthday - we want to see 'white' space on your card ('white' being open unadorned space on your card that allows the focal point of your card to shine).

This is version 2 of my card - you can see version 1 below.

My original intention was to use the diecut flowers as a mask while I coloured the background.  You could argue that this works on two levels: the white space is actually the focal point, and the coloured background becomes the 'white space'.  But I thought that might be pushing the definition a bit far, so I went with the conventional white space, but I couldn't resist some black splattering.  Well, it didn't look finished...

The flowers were already coloured from the masking process, so I just added a bit of detail with coloured pencils.

Pop on over to the Seize The Birthday blog to see some more fabulous creations from the team, and play along with us.

STAMPlorations Release Day 4 - Sweetly

It's Day 4 of the STAMPlorations Release, and today we're featuring Shery's other set, Sweetly.

I stamped the image in Ink On 3 Fadeout ink, then did a bit of no-line colouring, in the style of the Colouring Challenge Road Trip and added a few black splatters.

I cut a nesting tag, gathered some of the words from the set and stamped them all over the tag in grey.  I stamped the butterfly once on the tag and once on spare card, then coloured and cut out the spare and affixed it over the stamped image.  That way, I got the antennae without having to fussy cut around them.

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created, and don't forget to leave comments on all the blogs for your chance to win: there are two prizes on offer - a $20 gift code for one winner and the stamp set of their choice for another winner.  The stamps are 10% off until 19 February, and if you use my code STAMPGIRLSHIRLEY you'll get an extra 20% off.

STAMPlorations Release Day 3 - Softly

It's Day 3 of the STAMPlorations Release, and today we're featuring one of two stamp sets designed by Shery.  Today's set is called Softly.

I stamped the floral spray and watercoloured it loosely with Distress Inks then fussy cut it.  On my card base I painted some Fossilised Amber stripes and a quote then adhered the floral spray.

This next one is totally attributable to Michele Ferguson, whose card I fell in love with.  Rather than copy it completely (which I will do!), on this occasion I've made a pennant.  For this, all you need is a couple of isosceles triangles and a hole punch.  I coloured the spray in very similar colours to the previous one then added it to the pennant.

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created, and don't forget to leave comments on all the blogs for your chance to win: there are two prizes on offer - a $20 gift code for one winner and the stamp set of their choice for another winner.  The stamps are 10% off until 19 February, and if you use my code STAMPGIRLSHIRLEY you'll get an extra 20% off.

STAMPlorations Release Day 2 - Leafy

Welcome back to the STAMPlorations Release!  Today we're showcasing Deepti's new set, Leafy.

Such a lovely selection of leaves and sentiments.

I had this gorgeous pink and green mop-up panel in my stash so I stamped a few leaves and added a sentiment strip.

I found a smaller mop-up piece in my stash that I wanted to use.  I stamped the leaf image and sentiment, then layered it offset onto a piece of patterned paper then onto my card for a CAS thank you card.

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created, and don't forget to leave comments on all the blogs for your chance to win: there are two prizes on offer - a $20 gift code for one winner and the stamp set of their choice for another winner.  The stamps are 10% off until 19 February, and if you use my code STAMPGIRLSHIRLEY you'll get an extra 20% off.

STAMPlorations Inspiration

Did you see my new stamp set yesterday on the STAMPlorations blog?  Here's a another card for you - can't stop playing with this set :)

For this card I stamped the outline image in blue and green Distress Inks then pulled in some of the colour, and watercoloured the tulips.

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog for some more fabulous inspiration from the team, and don't forget to leave a comment for your chance to win a $10 gift certificate to the store.  And make sure you comment on all the posts this week for your chance to win one of the new stamp sets of your choice or a $20 gift code.

STAMPlorations Release Day 1 - Layered Vase

Hello, we've got a new release for you at STAMPlorations this week, and we're starting off today with my new set, Layered Vase.

The vase, flowers and leaves outline image is all one stamp, so all have to do is stamp that, then stamp the coordinating solid images, and you've filled your card front!  Easy peezy.

For my first card I stamped the vase in Stormy Sky, the leaves in Peeled Paint and the flowers in Shaded Lilac edged with Dusty Concord.  You can see from this where the corresponding solid images go.  I sloshed some Stormy Sky across the bottom to create a shadow, then fussy cut the whole image and overlaid it onto a stencil mop-up background (Sanna's Onion In Raws).

I stamped this next one in Ink On 3 Fadeout ink then used Distress Inks to paint everything.  I left a white outline around the vase.

For this card I only used the solid images, with a little help from one of the stamps in the Artsy Border Maker set to make a stalk.  I used Distress Oxides, kissing the stamp with a darker colour on the edge of the flowers.  I used another of the Artsy Border Maker stamps to create a border down the side of the card before mounting the stamped panel.  Then I finished it off with a Skinny Sentiment.

The longest solid stamp is the shadow that goes inside the vase, but it makes a great tulip leaf too!

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created, and don't forget to leave comments on all the blogs for your chance to win: there are two prizes available - a $20 gift code for one winner and the stamp set of their choice from this release for another.  The stamps are 10% off until 19 February, and if you use my code STAMPGIRLSHIRLEY you'll get an extra 20% off.

Craft Stamper Take It, Make It

Hello, it's a new month and a new challenge at Craft Stamper Take It, Make It!  It's Anything Goes with real stamps (but do take a look at the rules, because there were quite a few entries last month that weren't eligible for either prize).

Here's this month's random prize:

And the winner chosen by the design team will have their entry published in the magazine and the blog, along with a bio, and have a chance to be a guest designer in a future challenge.

For the background on my card I've used the free stamp with this month's Craft Stamper mag, along with an earlier free stamp.  I've doctored and dressed the Tim Holtz Bunny Hop for the occasion.

Pop on over to the blog for some more fabulous inspiration from the team, and play along for your chance to win!

STAMPlorations Inspiration #253

Hello!  It's time for some more inspiration over at STAMPlorations.  This is another piece that has been sitting in my stash for ages because I wasn't sure if I liked it.  But once I added the sentiment, I liked it a lot!

The base is a Gelli print with rosebud masks from Bloom Silhouettes which was overstamped with Rosebuds, and the Celebrate is from Skinny Sentiments.

Pop on over to the STAMPlorations blog for some more fabulous inspiration from the team, and don't forget to leave a comment for your chance to win a $10 gift certificate.  When you're shopping at the store, you can get 20% off when you use my code STAMPGIRLSHIRLEY.