Thursday 31 March 2016

Acetate Butterfly

Hi All,

I am still liking creating acetate highlights. Today I want to share a card I made as an entry for some challenges. Here it is ...


I would like to enter at:
Addicted to Stamps and More - Make your Mark, coloured acetate with Peel Off Markers
Less is More - Polka Dots
CASology - Washi
Allsorts - Wings
Addicted to CAS - Delicate

That's it from me for today. Have a lovely day!
hugs
Monika xxx

Here is what I used:
Winged Things - STAMPlorations
Feeling Sentimental - Clearly Besotted
Butterfly punch - retired Stampin'Up!

Tuesday 29 March 2016

Borders ... Glorious Borders!

Hi All,

STAMPlorations have got some fantastic new stamps ... Artsy Borders!!! ... four in total ... Butterfly Row, Cupcake Row, Daffodil Row and Daisy Row ... You will LOVE them! They have already become my favourites as they make for easy, quick and classy cards!

They look absolutely stylish, simply stamped in black on white card and paired with a simple sentiment from the Bloom Sketches set and finished off with a few clear gems ...

 


 

This combination would make a great gift as a set of cards, and it is easy and quick to make, just perfect for those last minute birthday presents.

Of course you can add some colour too ...


... through adding some fuzzy cut and coloured elements, butterflies in my case, or ...



... through adding some acetate highlights, or ...


... trough colouring and fuzzy cutting the whole chain of glorious cupcakes, made a little more glossy with a coat of Mod Podge, or ...


... through adding a die-cut splash of colour and spritzing, or ...


... trough creating a faux no-line-watercolour look, for which I stamped the Daisy Row in Sap Green Archival before watercolouring around it with Pistachio Pudding SU ink and highlighting the daisy centers with Crushed Olive DI. To finish I stamped my sentiment from the Boxed Blooms set in Garden Green SU ink and added a couple of decorative score lines  and rounded corners.

There is even room for taking things much bolder ...


.... such as using a very bright colour scheme with a touch of glossy accents for a real Sugar Rush of a sweet treat, or even going all out artsy ....


... with a Gelli Plate print as backdrop inspired by a sunny Spring afternoon sitting in the garden with a cuppa ... birds tweeting ....
There is a little video on how I made the print which I spritzed with gold Artiste Spritzing Ink before cutting it to size. I then added some green dotted Washi, my coloured and fuzzy cut Daffodil Row and Sketchy Coffee Cup, my potting soil stamped Trendy Birds and a Noteworthy sentiment. Some doodles and sequins finished the look.

Well, and at the end once you finished making your card, you can always look over the piece of paper you used to try out your stamps or for stamping off and blending etc. to see, if there is a card like this, you could make ...


I found this piece of paper on the messy stamping paper (scrap paper in other words), I had been using for quite a while, and simply added some stamped splashes from the Mixed Media Elements set, the sentiment from the Bloom Sketches set, some doodles, ink spray and sequins.

Well, all of these pieces of inspiration came about before I was even following my original idea and pairing the borders with their full size counterpart like the Cupcake row with the Sketched: Cupcake and the Daisy Row with the daisy from the Bloom Sketches ... I guess these will have to wait for another post ....


here is the little video:

That's it from me for now.
Have a lovely day!

hugs
Monika xxx

here is what I used:
Butterfly Row - Artsy Borders, Cupcake Row - Artsy Borders, Daffodil Row - Artsy Borders
SheryRuss_ButterflyRow2x6-preview SheryRuss_CupcakeRow2x6-preview SheryRuss_DaffodilRow2x6-preview
Daisy Row - Artsy Borders
SheryRuss_DaisyRow2x6-preview
Bloom Sketches, Sketched: Cupcake, Boxed Blooms, Sugar Rush, Sketchy Coffee Cups,
BloomSketches.jpeg stmp1057.jpeg stmp1053.jpeg stmp1083.jpeg SRD-SketchyCoffeeCups-preview

Trendy BirdsNoteworthy, Mixed Media Elements
TrendyBirds-web-preview Noteworthy-preview SheryRuss_MixedMediaElements

Acetate Accents

Hi All,

It's Inspiration Time over at STAMPlorations, and I have been playing with acetate. I got the idea a while ago from coloured disc shaped foils I was using for work. I thought this might be something to be transferred into card making ...


I simply black embossed and stamped my sentiment from the Big Greetings set on a die-cut panel and added my coloured acetate dots ... easy and effective.

Here is a little video on how I made them ...



I really like this way of adding a pop of colour, expect to see more of it.
Pop over to the STAMPlorations blog for more inspiration and to leave a comment for an entry to win a $10 gift certificate.

I shall be back later today with lots more projects.
See you then.

hugs
Monika xxx

what I used:
Big Greetings
preview-SheryRussDesigns-BigGreetings

Thursday 24 March 2016

Sending Love

Hi All,

Today I'm in a catty mood ... hence I finally made a card I've been wanting to make ever since I got some stamps from Katzelkraft ...


Don't forget to laugh ... I thought this sentiment (French Quotes by Katzelkraft) was purrfect for the slightly grumpy looking tom (Les Chats Russes by Katzelkraft) , especially given that there is a rather tasty looking rat sitting right next to him.

I stamped both, cat and rat, with black Memento, coloured them with alcohol markers and applied a coat of Mod Podge. Once dry, I went to town sponging with Crushed Curry ink, adding my stenciling (ARTplorations Stencils: Honeycomb Delight reversed) with Pumpkin Pie, adding some watercolouring to ground and shade using Pumpkin Pie and Early Espresso inks before stamping the raindrops (Mur De Pluie by Katzelkraft) and border (Mixed Media Elements by STAMPlorations) in Crumb Cake and the chevrons (Mixed Media Grunge by STAMPlorations) in Pumpkin Pie. I added and coloured (alcohol markers) my sentiment and layered on a red base card to finish.

I am entering my card at:
Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes
Sisters of Craft - Anything Goes
Stempelsonne - Anything Goes

Next up is a card I made as an entry for the Spring Coffee Lovers Blog Hop ...

12661786_10208877635328742_1011373880191829209_n


This card is my tribute to re-using. The background is made from a piece of card I used to roller some ink off my brayer when I made my video here, the pink sponged circle started life as a mask when making my cards here and the green sponging was just rubbing off some excess ink I didn't want to go to waste. I enhanced my background by simply stamping Perfume by Kaisecraft (check local retailer) down one side, layered my doily and partially sponged circle on top and added twine and charm. I stamped the teacups (cover gift Quick Cards Made Easy in 2015) on my sponged die-cut pierced rectangle, added my sentiment (Sweet Little Sentiments by Clearly Besotted) and layered on top to finish.

A last look at my finished cards ...

 

That's it from me for now ...
Have a lovely day!

hugs
Monika xxx

Tuesday 22 March 2016

Working Stencil Prints

Hi All,

It's time again for more inspiration over at STAMPlorations. I pulled out a couple of prints from my Gelli Plate demo at Craft Club last month to create some cards I could take to this month's meeting. The prints I used were taken off the stencil, Artplorations Stencil: Bloom Factory, whilst the paint was still wet.

First up are two cards using half of the print each ...



These were so easy to make ... I chopped my stencil print in half, die cut a curved stitched border from one piece, stamped my sentiments from the Fond Expressions 2 set, layered on red bases and finished off with gem and sequin. It really was that easy and quick ...

The print I used for my next card was yellow and red ... me being me, I had to add some Grape gelato to the flowers and some Grey to the background. That's when the fun started ...


... as happens at times I didn't know where I was going to go with it hence it was more a case of 'fasten seat belt and get ready for the ride' ...

I added some dots and/or doodles to the flowers using a white gel and a black fine liner pen before using a lilac fine liner to add a bold outline to three of the larger flowers. Next I decided to lend the edges with Elegant Eggplant (EE) ink before deciding that a touch of Folk Flowers was needed in form of some 2nd generation stamping of the small flowers and dots combined with 1st generation of the larger stems, all in EE. I black embossed my sentiment from the Noteworthy set, layered on a matching base card, added a doodled border and the card was finished. For more inspiration, pop over to the STAMPlorations Blog, where you can leave a comment for your chance to win a $10 gift voucher. They also still have a little Special Stamp Release Blog Hop, which finishes later this week. Why not hop along and have fun!

A spot of Garbarek's Visible World convinced me that I must post my last creation on my blog right away ... Live Life Out Loud!

Have a wonderful day!

Hugs
Monika xxx

here is what I used:
ARTplorations Stencil: Bloom Factory, Fond Expressions 2, Noteworthy, Folk Flowers
preview-web-stencil-043-BloomFactory preview-SRDFondExpressions2 Noteworthy-preview preview-TBS-FolkFlowers

Friday 18 March 2016

Spring Coffee Lovers Hop

... and Special Stamp Release at STAMPlorations!

Hi All,

It's double celebration time today ... Firstly, STAMPlorations have a special stamp release of caffeinated goodness ... cute, elegant and cheeky ... here they are ...

 

... just in time for the second celebration ...

12661786_10208877635328742_1011373880191829209_n
... more about this later.
To give you some ideas, I channeled my inner Queen, dug out the doilies and, working with the Always Teatime set, came up with the following inspiration ...


For my first card, I spritzed a pale pink base card with some pink and gold spritzing ink and attached my paper doily as seen. Next I enlisted the help of one of my watercolour brush stroke practicing cards and gold embossed one of the cups from the Always Teatime set before stamping the rising aroma from the Vignette: Eat Drink Be Merry set in fuchsia StazOn. I stamped a cheeky sentiment from the Literary Caffeine-ations and added another one from the Vignette: Eat Drink Be Merry set before finishing off with some sequins.

Next up is one with a more Spring like feel ...


I used another one of my brush stroke practicing pieces for the golden rays of hope emanating from the teacup. I stamped (in Tangerine Tango on cream card) and fuzzy cut the teacup (Always Teatime), stamped my sentiment (Always Teatime), added some leaves (Frames and Flowers), layered up, doodled a partial border, stamped the butterflies in Tangerine Tango (Frames and Flowers) and finished off by adding some sequins.

Next up is the card, I made first ...


I stamped mt teacup and sentiment, both from the Always Teatime set, on a piece of splattered watercolour background and added a little more colour to the flowers on the cup before distressing the edges and leaving to dry. I then embossed a piece of raspberry coloured card with a lace pattern. As I didn't want the pattern to be too dominant, I run the card through my machine again simply sandwiched between the cutting plates to flatten the embossing for a more subtle effect. I then layered everything up, doodled a white border and added some sequins and clear gems to finish.

That's my inspiration for today. Commenting on the STAMPlorations Special Stamp Release Hop finishes on Good Friday, 25th March at 11.59pm Pacific Daylight Time. Until the hop closes there is also ... wait for this .... a 15% discount on everything in the STAMPlorations shop, just enter coupon code SPRINGCLBH at check out. Two winners will be drawn at random and announced on Easter Sunday 27th March. The full rules and more inspirations from some of my teamies can be found on the STAMPlorations Blog.

I would also like to link my second card up with ...


That's it from me for today. Happy Hopping!

hugs
Monika xxx

here is what I used:
Always Teatime, Vignette: Eat Drink Be Merry, Literary Caffeine-ations, Frames and Flowers
 stmp1079.jpeg BG-LiteraryCaffeineations-preview preview-DAIFramesandFlowers