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.