STAMPlorations inspiration #349

One last Tuesday inspiration post from the STAMPlorations inspiration team girls for you this year!

And my last Christmas card made with ephemera pieces. 

Here's today's card.

Christmas Backgrounds ATC 1

Christmas Sentiments die

Oh My Stars stencil

 white and gold embossing pastes

Again I picked an ATC from the package and used a stencil to add some texture to my background. "Christmas" is stamped inside.

As always, you could win yourself a $15 prize code to the store by leaving a comment on this month's inspiration posts! Check out today's post over at STAMPlorations. And if I should ever inspire you to order something from the store, I'd appreciate it if you used my STAMPGIRLMARIA discount code for an additional 20% off your order.  Have a great day!    

STAMPlorations inspiration #348

Ready for another Tuesday inspiration post from the STAMPlorations inspiration team girls?

As we roll along towards Christmas, I've been making cards with ephemera pieces. Lately I'm working with ATC backgrounds. There are lots of ephemera options in the STAMP store.

Here's today's card.

Christmas Backgrounds ATC 1

Reindeer die

Festive stamp

 Simply Graphic frame dies, watercolors

Like on my last cards, I picked an ATC from the package and let its style and colors drive my design.

Since Santa was so colorful I decided to give him a couple colorful friends. I die cut the reindeer and added splotches of watercolor to them. I opted to give Santa a couple skinny black frames, so gave the reindeer a black shadow and used the playful "Merry" outline from that wonderful stamp set for my sentiment. "Christmas" is stamped on the inside of the card.

Again, not a very traditional creation, but it was fun to challenge myself to turn this ATC into a Christmas card. 

As always, you could win yourself a $15 prize code to the store by leaving a comment on this month's inspiration posts! Check out today's post over at STAMPlorations. And if I should ever inspire you to order something from the store, I'd appreciate it if you used my STAMPGIRLMARIA discount code for an additional 20% off your order.  Have a great day!    

STAMPlorations inspiration #347

It's time for another Tuesday inspiration post from the STAMPlorations inspiration team girls. 

As we roll along towards Christmas, I've been making cards with ephemera pieces. Lately I'm working with ATC backgrounds. There are lots of ephemera options in the STAMP store.

Here's my card.

Christmas Backgrounds ATC 1

Patches stencil

Christmas Sentiments Phrase die

 Altenew inks

Like on my last card, I picked an ATC from the package and let its style and colors drive my design.

I thought the graphic style print behind the present looked like the Patches stencil so that's where my design took me. Stenciled some coral, pink and teals, then some splatters of water and called my background good. I die cut a word sentiment from inked cardstock, stacked it and voila!

I must admit I'm more of a "green and red Christmas" girl. But it was fun to challenge myself to turn this ATC into a Christmas card.

As always, you could win yourself a $15 prize code to the store by leaving a comment on this month's inspiration posts! Check out today's post over at STAMPlorations. And if I should ever inspire you to order something from the store, I'd appreciate it if you used my STAMPGIRLMARIA discount code for an additional 20% off your order.  Have a great day!    

tag a la therese for day 3 of ellen hutson christmas tags

I actually look forward to this every year - Ellen Hutson's 12 Days of Christmas Tags - though sometimes my lack of planning ahead with holiday preparations gets in the way of crafting. Like in 2021. Dang.

But two birds with one stone... Got all my Christmas cookies baked with DD. I'm gifting neighbors cookies this year. DD recently moved into a new apartment and she's decided to gift her new neighbors with cookies too. So of course I offered to make some tags for her cellophane bags.

Enter Ellen's tag event. And Therese's bold and graphic Feliz Navidad tag. And exit stage left. 

Actually, I was inspired to use my new hexagon dies. And make a layered tag. And stamp a sentiment in a foreign language. But that's where the similarities end.

Meet my tags, a la Therese but more DD's style.

A couple close ups...

Action Deutschland Hexagon die

Alexandra Renke Waldtiere 1 die

Alexandra Renke 5 Tannenbaeume die

Klartext 13 mal Frohe Weihnachten stamp

Aldi patterned paper pack

I'm hooking up over at Just Add Ink too where they're looking for Christmas Gift Card Holders or Tags as well as at Happy Little Stampers AG with Die Cuts for December.

spotlight on mass producing CAS Christmas cards

Howdy friends! In my latest Spotlight Project over at STAMPlorations I produced a batch of CAS Christmas cards, letting ephemera do the hard work for me. I just stamped a couple images and added fun sentiments. Check out the tutorial here. And below you'll find all the cards I made in the process. (I mentioned in my tutorial that I'd run out of daylight to photograph all my cards - it's a December thing around here, ya know?!?)

Enjoy! And thanks for looking. I wonder if you have a favorite?

I shared this card in the post over at STAMP...

But actually made this card in my tutorial... still using black ink but relocating the design elements.

Then I decided to change up my ink color and pick up on the yellow from the ephemera...

And then green...

And finally some Christmas red. Even filled in the berries on these. The last one is my favorite piece of ephemera - driving home for Christmas, ya know? Just makes me smile :)

STAMPlorations inspiration #346

Welcome to our Tuesday inspiration post from the STAMPlorations inspiration team girls. 

And welcome to December. Can you even believe it? I've been making Christmas cards with ephemera pieces lately if you've been watching ;) Now I'm working with another kind of ephemera from the STAMP store - ATC backgrounds. There are lots of ephemera options in the STAMP store.

Meet today's card.

Christmas Backgrounds ATC 1

Christmas Joy Laser Cut Shapes

Christmas Joy stamp

Circles All Over Texture Plate

 Altenew inks, gems, gold embossing powder, washi

Not CAS today.  I chose the bell ATC and let its style and colors drive my design.

I did some multi-color stamping of the poinsettia on the laser cut shapes, picking up on the colors on the ATC. Spritzed the inks with my mini mister to soften the image and added gems to the centers. I added washi to the ATC and heat embossed a sentiment on a die cut oval. Picking up on the ornament and bead circles on the ATC I embossed the circle texture plate onto my purple card front.

I must admit I'm more of a "green and red Christmas" girl. But it was fun to challenge myself to turn this ATC into a Christmas card.

As always, you could win yourself a $15 prize code to the store by leaving a comment on this month's inspiration posts! Check out today's post over at STAMPlorations. And if I should ever inspire you to order something from the store, I'd appreciate it if you used my STAMPGIRLMARIA discount code for an additional 20% off your order.  Have a great day!   

STAMPlorations cas cards challenge december

Welcome to the STAMPlorations December CAS Cards challenge!

As always the challenge is to create any CAS card, with an optional color twist - this month the twist is metallic plus one color.

On the slim chance that you haven't started your Christmas cards yet, here's a super easy design for you.

Comfort and Joy stickers

Merry Go Round stencil

gold embossing paste, Festive Berries distress ink 

CAS card tip: Extend your image off the edge for more interest. Include 3 or 5 of something to please the eye (I've used four pinwheels + one good sized sentiment).

I'm looking forward to your CAS card creations this month! Your project might be chosen as one of the prize winners. Check out how the DT was inspired by this month's photo here.

And don't forget about my STAMPlorations discount code STAMPGIRLMARIA for 20% off should I ever inspire you to do some shopping ;)  Thanks for stopping over today. See you in the gallery. 

STAMPlorations inspiration #345

Welcome to today's inspiration post from the STAMPlorations inspiration team girls. 

Lately I've been making Christmas cards with ephemera pieces. There are lots of ephemera options in the STAMP store. And lots you can do with them. I tend to like CAS designs.

Meet today's card. 

Christmas Ephemera 1

Comfort and Joy stickers

Oh My Stars stencil

 embossing paste, die cut stars

It's CAS that's for sure. The ephemera piece needs something to anchor it so I added some stenciled stars in the corner of my card front and added a couple gold die cut stars too to create a threesome with the ornament. Three is always a good design idea, right? 

A sticker sentiment made this card super quick.

As always, you could win yourself a $15 prize code to the store by leaving a comment on this month's inspiration posts! Check out today's post over at STAMPlorations. And if I should ever inspire you to order something from the store, I'd appreciate it if you used my STAMPGIRLMARIA discount code for an additional 20% off your order.  Have a great day!        

spotlight on easy Christmas shaker cards

Howdy peeps! Happy Thanksgiving if you're stopping by when this goes live. If it's after the fact, hope your day was great and your fridge is full of leftovers. Cuz then you can craft instead of cook!!!

I have a spotlight tutorial over at STAMPlorations for some quick and easy shaker Christmas cards. I put ephemera to work for me - ATCs to be exact. Check it out - just click on the Spotlight Projects category in the sidebar.

I had such fun I made four!

STAMPlorations giving thanks blog hop

 

Howdy friends. Welcome to our seventh Giving Thanks Blog Hop celebration!  Hope you have time to check it out because there are plenty of prizes to be won.

Today I have a card made with a stamp set and a design I really like. I love it as a one layer card, but decided to layer it up a little today.

STAMPlorations Leaves of Thanks stamp

STAMPlorations Succulently die

Altenew and Distress Oxide inks, Heidi Swapp gold spray ink, gold embossing powder

Since I was layering, no masking was needed. I just stamped the various leaves in various fall colors around the area my sentiment was going to go. Added some splatters. Then I die cut and heat embossed the sentiment. Inked the die cut with oxide ink to match the orange leaves and gold embossed the edges too.

Hope you'll celebrate thankfulness with us.  Each morning when I wake I tell myself what I'm grateful to be able to do this day! I'm grateful for the opportunity to play with STAMPlorations fun products and hope that I'm able to inspire you to create too.

I mentioned prizes. There are $10 prizes up for grabs just for leaving comments on the stops on the hop. And there are generous prizes to be awarded randomly to three people who make a card and link it up to the linky party. Plus, Shery is always so generous there'll probably be other surprises too. The party ends December 8th. Hope you'll join us!

To see what the other gals have created check out this post. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

STAMPlorations inspiration #344

Welcome to today's inspiration post from the STAMPlorations inspiration team girls. 

Lately I'm making Christmas cards with ephemera pieces. There are lots of ephemera options in the STAMP store.

Meet today's card. 

Christmas Ephemera 1

Festive stamp

Merry Go Round stencil

 embossing paste, glitter, washi

This card was not necessarily quick and easy, but I love the design elements. That VW bus is just the cutest darn thing. Picking up on the light green color I randomly stamped my background. Picking up on the hood ornament I chose my stencil. Masked off all but two of the "candies" and applied embossing paste, sprinkling glitter on them while they were still wet. A little strip of washi along the bottom upped the fun factor don't ya think?

As always, you could win yourself a $15 prize code to the store by leaving a comment on this month's inspiration posts! Check out today's post over at STAMPlorations. And if I should ever inspire you to order something from the store, I'd appreciate it if you used my STAMPGIRLMARIA discount code for an additional 20% off your order.  Have a great day!       

STAMPlorations inspiration #343

Welcome to another Tuesday inspiration post from the STAMPlorations inspiration team girls. 

As we head towards Christmas, I'm making Christmas cards with ephemera pieces. I'm using the Christmas in the Air Kit #1 but any holiday ephemera will do. There are lots of ephemera options in the STAMP store.

Here's today's card. 

Christmas Ephemera 1

Festive stamp

Crazy Double Running Stitch rectangle die

 washi

This was quick and easy too. The toughest part was choosing a red and white PP. I went with large stripes to compliment the stripes on birdie's hat and the present.

Heat embossed my sentiment and added a couple strips of washi. "Christmas" is stamped on the inside of the card to complete the sentiment!

As always, you could win yourself a $15 prize code to the store by leaving a comment on this month's inspiration posts! Check out today's post over at STAMPlorations. And if I should ever inspire you to order something from the store, I'd appreciate it if you used my STAMPGIRLMARIA discount code for an additional 20% off your order.  Have a great day!      

altenew november inspiration - take 6

Today I have two more cards that were born as a result of the current November Altenew Inspiration Challenge. 

I still had some die cut leaves left from yesterday's cards, so I pulled out a paper/sticker pack from Action (my dollar store) and let it inspire this sweet card.

Altenew Sketchy Floral stamp

Altenew Virginia Rose 3D die

chipboard, embossing powder

I adhered a piece of notebook paper /that I'd cleaned a stencil off on) to my cardbase. Added the leaves down the edge, added the sweet fox and a strip of CS along the bottom edge and then chose a sentiment that would fit on another scrap - the little circle.

And then a chipboard balloon fell out of the pack and I decided to make myself make another card before putting the pack away. No Altenew here. And I'm done with the November challenge, BTW. Also bummed cuz the hook up doesn't seem to be working over at Altenew :(

It's sure been fun to be creating again. And using up some pieces laying around my craft room. I'm actually starting to dream about moving out of the basement and into DD's empty bedroom... We'll see if that ever happens. 

Seems like blogs don't get much attention these days. Thanks for visiting.

  

STAMPlorations inspiration #342

Welcome to another Tuesday inspiration post from the STAMPlorations inspiration team girls. 

As we head towards Christmas, I'm making Christmas cards with ephemera pieces. I'm using the Christmas in the Air Kit #1 but any holiday ephemera will do. There are lots of ephemera options in the STAMP store.

Here's today's card. 

Christmas Ephemera 1

Merry Everything stickers

 washi

This was quick and easy but only cuz my craft room is so messy! That green die cut scrap was staring me in the face and I thought "ephemera piece needs a backdrop". Ta da. A pine forest it became ;) Cutting the Christmas tree is one of my favorite Christmas memories. Do you cut a real tree? We still do.

Added the sticker sentiment to red cardstock and a couple little washi strips. I chose kraft to continue the woodsy feel.

As always, you could win yourself a $15 prize code to the store by leaving a comment on this month's inspiration posts! Check out today's post over at STAMPlorations. And if I should ever inspire you to order something from the store, I'd appreciate it if you used my STAMPGIRLMARIA discount code for an additional 20% off your order.  Have a great day!     

altenew november inspiration - take 4 and 5

Today I have two more makes for the current November Altenew Inspiration Challenge. 

This was yesterday's card inspired by the challenge...

Along with the scrap paper I had left after watercoloring those bloom layers...

Well I added a bit more distress oxide to the mess and got to die cutting. These two cards happened.

Altenew Super Script stamp

Altenew Virginia Rose 3D die

Altenew 36 pan watercolor

oval die, gold paint, patterned paper

Altenew Peony Bouquet

Altenew Beautiful Day

Altenew Virginia Rose 3D die

Altenew inks, copper embossing powder, copper cardstock

Did you notice the little dots on some of the leaves? That's where the temporary adhesive runner was, holding my bloom layers in place as I watercolored! It acts like a mask for the watercolor/ink. When i rubbed the adhesive off, there were dots! Fun, eh? I'm just so happy I didn't throw that scrap paper away!

 

altenew november inspiration - take 3

Yesterday I shared my first two makes for the current Altenew challenge. 

It's a beauty and has me totally inspired to create. November Altenew Inspiration Challenge. 

I mentioned my cousin had given me a few panels dry embossed with 3D designs. One of them she'd actually gussied up a bit.

She didn't like it. I LOVED it. And I love it even more now....

Altenew Alocasia embossing folder

Altenew Virginia Rose 3D die

Altenew 36 pan watercolor

So much that I couldn't bear to put a sentiment on it and cover up any of that grungy goodness!

Now I don't even know exactly what my cousin had done to the panel. Dry embossing, come ink swiping, a little heat embossing? SUCH goodness.

Well I decided to pull out my Altenew watercolors and color this wonderful layered die cut bloom. It took a while. I have such a hard time keeping a light hand. And trusting the process! But I 'm crushing on the result. (Magenta was my favorite color in the Crayola box of 64;)

I'm not done yet. The ideas just kept on coming. Especially when I had this sheet of scrap paper left after the watercoloring...

 

altenew november inspiration - take 1 and 2

Sooo. I came back to Germany with some new craft goodies and some fun 3D embossed panels my cousin was kind enough to share with me when we got together for a cardmaking date.

It just so happens they were Altenew 3D folders.

And it just so happens that the November Altenew Inspiration Challenge is a beauty. 

Those colors! Those leaves! I was off to create...

My first thought was to use a dry embossed panel with some of my new distress oxides in yellow, pink and purple.

Altenew Flowers and Leaves embossing folder

Altenew Virginia Rose 3D die

distress oxides, Maggie Holmes chipboard

And then I decided to use the same oxide colors on a card for a friend who lost her mom a month ago. I went with "thinking of you" instead of "sympathy" since it's been a little while. Doesn't that layered bloom pair well with the lovely outline stamp? I'm hooking this one up at SSS Wednesday Challenge - Thinking of you.

Altenew Delicate Bouquet stamp

Garden Picks 3D die

distress oxides

I'm not done yet. The ideas just kept on coming.

And I totally love Autumn. Here's a peek of what I get to enjoy in my yard this time of year. No filters added ;) Hope you're having a lovely weekend.