STAMPlorations 3rd Birthday Blog Hop

Good afternoon all.

STAMPlorations is three today and to celebrate we're having a birthday blog hop + linky party, and we'd love you all to join us by either (or both) commenting on the team’s blogs or joining our linky party for a chance to win one of the prizes. Commenting closes on July 5, 11:55 p.m. Pacific. Winners will be announced on July 7.

I've used the brand new Kathryn’s Big Wishes for my cards. At first sight this set is very cutsie and girly but I needed some birthday cards for a couple of nephews so used the sentiment along with the Art Splatters stencil and Art Marks stamps to get this grungy finish. Thank goodness for the bit box as I didn't actually have any card in the house!!

To join the linky party create something inspired by the mood board (up to 3 per player; new projects only; any/all products welcome). Our mood board must be displayed in your blog post and you must link to any of the 7 blog hop posts to qualify for the prizes).  Linky will be open from June 29th to July 5th. 

PRIZES

All prizes will be randomly drawn using Random.org

Prizes for commenting on the STAMPlorations blog and STAMPlorations designers blogs:

• THREE (3) winners of $25 gift certificate
• SEVEN (7) winners (1 per day) of $10 gift certificate

Prizes for liking, commenting, sharing, and tagging a friend on the STAMPlorations Facebook page post:

• TWO (2) winners of $15 gift certificate -- 1 for the commenter and 1 for the friend she tags in the comment

Prizes for creating and linking up a party/celebration/birthday project:

• ONE (1) winner of Kathryn’s Big Wishes stamp set
• ONE (1) winner of CUTplorations word dies (winner chooses 3 from 10 available)

Christmas Card Club "Cute"

Good morning all. Hope everyone is well and sending hugs to those who need them.

Still packing here, managed to finish most of the china yesterday and lots of it is unpacked, washed and put away in the new house. So one house is filling up nicely and the other has appeared again from under the piles of boxes and packing materials!

From under the chaos of packing boxes I have managed to get to my blog candy goodies...and with huge apologies to the ladies who won, I can now say your prizes have been packaged and are now ready to be taken to the post office.

Another two weeks have flown past and it's Sylvie's turn to host our Christmas Card Club challenge and she asked for "Cute". As is usual at the moment my card was a last minute one and this decoupage was the nearest thing I had to hand which vaguely resembled cute!

Another of my Joanna Sheen decoupage sheets used up...so like this snowman! Die from Wplus9.

You'll find a list of the other ladies in my sidebar if you'd like to see how they interpreted the challenge.

Blossom Canvas - tutorial

Good afternoon all.

Sneaking in a little extra tutorial this month over at ARTplorations as with all the new girls I get next month off. I've got a framed canvas to show you today, I hope you like what you see. As always to see the full tutorial please pop over to the ARTplorations blog.

Stencil Sunday #51

Good afternoon all. Today I'm packing china....not my favourite task and I'm such a hoarder!!

Sadly this weekend I've experienced the seedier side of crafting...I feel so sad that a challenge blog that was started by a crafter, for all crafters and which I had nurtured for so long in memory of it's founder has disappeared in a cloud of deceit and lies! 

It's my turn to provide some inspiration on the Stencil Sunday blog today, I hope you like what you see.

I decided I needed a new bookmark, so I created this using a leftover piece of the mood board I'd made for the Big Bloom Factory blog hop earlier this month. To make my mood board I used the Big Bloom Factory large stencil and Big Bloom Factory stamps. I die cut my piece from the board and mounted it onto a larger die cut. Using the same distress inks as I'd used previously I stamped some added texture using stamps from the Mixed Media Elements set. My sentiment is from the Bold Sentiments: Explore set, I stamped onto tissue paper and used medium gel to attach.

I love losing myself in a book so this is being put to good use.

Christmas Card Club "Star of Wonder"

Good morning all. Hope you're well.
(Note to self when scheduling posts...get the date right!!!)

Had a very busy week cleaning up behind all the workmen, ironing and hanging curtains etc. The house is now beginning to look like a home...thank goodness! Planning a little me time this week to catch up with everyone and relax a little before the final move takes place.

Don't know where the last fortnight went to but it's time once again for the Christmas Card Club to strut their stuff. Zoe has given us the theme of "Star of Wonder".

I remembered about 8pm last night that this was due, so it was a mad scramble through what little stash I have at home to come up with something relevant. Luckily this stamp from The Artistic Stamper was lurking in my box and the greeting came from Clearly Besotted. Dies from Wplus9. Finished with a wee gem from my stash. The mat is actually plum coloured to match the ink but looks rather black!

If you'd like to check out how the rest of the girls did you'll find their links on my sidebar.

Bloghop - Big Bloom Factory

Good afternoon all.

It's stamp release day at STAMPlorations and we're having a blog hop...come on over and join in the fun for a chance to win a set of the new stamps Big Bloom Factory - now in the shop with 10% discount!

I started with a mood board...embossing the Big Bloom Factory large stencil then over stamping the corresponding stamps from the newly released Big Bloom Factory set. These were heat embossed with white EP. I then inked the whole piece using a variety of colours of DI.

After die cutting the piece I wanted for my project I fussy cut one of the flowers and added it with a foam pad. The whole piece was matted onto another die and I added some pearls.

This is the back...I used the piece on my Auntie's funeral flowers last month.

For a chance to win a set of stamps, please leave comments on the STAMPlorations blog and designers' blogs for an entry to the random drawing.

HLS Mixed Media Challenge June "Texture"

Good evening all.

We've had some beautiful sunny weather here the last few days...long may it last! 

Sadly my final post as part of this fabulous DT as the new house is taking up much of my crafting time at the moment. It's time for our new Mixed Media challenge at HLS and this month we'd like to see some texture on your projects.

This was made for the little girl next door who recently celebrated her fifth birthday. Stamps are all from Stamplorations. Dies from Lawn Fawn and Spellbinders.

The dinosaurs are stamped onto a waste piece of card which had been embossed and treated with distress paint (sadly the texture doesn't show in the photo), fussy cut and attached with foam pads to give some dimension.

Do pop by the challenge blog to see what my teamies have made...you won't be disappointed.

This challenge is sponsored by

Stencil Sunday #49 + June Mixed Media Challenge

Good afternoon all.

Time once more to inspire you with a mixed media project using stencils over at STAMPlorations. Thanks to all of you who entered last month's challenge.

I've upcycled a mirror this month. Eldest had made this many moons ago and when I found it during a bedroom clean out I decided it needed a makeover! This is how it started life (excuse the reflection!).

After masking off the mirror I coated it with several layers of gesso, then used the Honeycomb Delight Reversed stencil with Black Lava textured gel on each of the corners. The project then sat unfinished for several weeks!! To finish I painted with red acrylic paint....this was when things started to go wrong and I lost some of the black from the stenciling. To fix this I repositioned the stencil before using versamark to ink and heat embossed with black EP. I'm not happy with the finished colour but couldn't find a Liverpool red in my stash...will have to remedy that!!

I hope you can pop over to the challenge to see my teamies projects this month, you won't be disappointed.

HLS Christmas June Challenge "Twine"

Good evening all.

A day spent cleaning and dressing rooms at the new house, thought I'd get the utility finished then found out I'd ordered two blinds for the same window instead of one for each....luckily the spare will fit another window as they were made to measure!!

Sadly my last post for HLS Christmas Challenge, life is getting in the way of crafting at the moment so I'm taking a step back. Many thanks to Kylie for having me this past year. Our challenge this month is to use "Twine" somewhere on your creation.

The joys of having most of my crafting stash in the other house means I'm very limited to what I can use to craft at the moment...it took me nearly two weeks to remember to hunt out some twine!

Stamp from Crafty Impressions, coloured with Whisper pens and a gold Gel pen...all found lurking in a pencil case! Dies from Spellbinders and Lawn Fawn. Sentiment from HLS.

Do hope you can join us this month and get ahead for the silly season. Pop over to the challenge blog to see how my teamies interpreted the theme.

Altered Box Tutorial

Good afternoon all.

We've had some lovely weather this week...a little chilly at times but lots of sunshine. The house has suddenly moved on, thank goodness and is starting to look like a home. Decorating is all but finished, kitchen needs the granite on the island and there are three carpets to lay....the end is nigh!!!

My turn to share a tutorial over at ARTplorations today. I've done another altered box...Mark presented me with an empty one when he was clearing out his room pending our move and instead of adding it to my ever growing pile of stuff "ripe to alter" I set to straight away. I hope you like what you see and please pop over to the blog to see how I transformed it.