love TAGplorations blog hop - day 4

Have you seen the LOVE TAGplorations blog hop at the STAMplorations blog? Today is day 4, but you can catch up on all the fun in this post.

I have a another tag for you. And, like yesterday, a little bit more! I follow Thurston Post on IG and let myself be inspired by Rebecca's work - did you see my post yesterday? Well today I created a masculine gift wrap/gift bag.

The wrap/bag itself is made from recycled heavy paper which is used (rolled up) in the center of gift wrap rolls here in Germany! It's 11 inches in diameter with an opening up top, so this could hold anything from a gift card to a pair of boxers!

Check out the STAMplorations blog next Tuesday for my Spotlight tutorial on making this project. These are the products I used:

Hello You

Luggage Tags

Hello Word

Zen Hearts

Are you enjoying the LOVE tag hop? You can leave comments or make a LOVE tag for  the linky party to have a chance at winning some of these LOVEly new products or a GC. You can link up and leave comments until Valentine's Day! Thanks for hopping.

love TAGplorations blog hop - day 3

Have you been checking out the LOVE TAGplorations blog hop at the STAMplorations blog? Today is day 3, but you can catch up on all the fun in this post.

I have a tag for you. And a little bit more. I follow Thurston Post on IG and let myself be inspired today by Rebecca's work. It's enchanting really. If you've never visited, you must. After you peek at my creation! Here's the tag...

And this is the whole gift bag getup.  Made from recycled heavy paper which is used (rolled up) in the center of gift wrap rolls here in Germany!

It's 8 inches in diameter with an opening up top. I'm planning to use it to gift a set of handmade cards, but you could use it for so many things.

Stop by the STAMplorations blog next Tuesday for my Spotlight tutorial on making this gift bag. These are the products I used:

Pocket Blooms

Luggage Tags

Artsy Tribal Doodles

Zen Hearts

Join us won't you? Link up a LOVE Tag in the linky party. And leave comments to win a GC or some of these LOVEly new products. You can link up and leave comments until Valentine's Day! Thanks for hopping.

I'm joining these fun challenges:

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - Sweet Inspiration

Stempelkueche - Von Herzen

Artistic Stamper - Love Hearts

And on a personal note... 2017 has been quite the downer so far in my world. Won't bore you with the details but among other things my Mom (who is in MI - I am in Germany) is having health issues. Many of you probably know how difficult it is to manage this from afar. The medical personnel are telling me it's a temporary medicine-related thing, but she feels miserable. I was wondering if any of you wonderful cardmaking peeps would care to send her a card to brighten her day? If so, please tell me in the comments and I'll PM you her address :)

STAMPlorations inspiration #118

Welcome to another Tuesday inspiration from the STAMPlorations inspiration team where all the team members feature stamps from one of our talented stamp designers.

Today we're using Shirley's The Bees Knees stamps. From now until Feb 13 you can get most of Shirley's line of stamps at 10% off in the STAMPlorations store! Don't forget, with my personal discount code STAMPGIRLMARIA you can earn 20% savings on top!

Groovy Shoes

Feeling groovy I was. I warned you that February was going to be Gelli plate month here on the blog. Well I grabbed a print that had a groovy vibe and it became the background (die cut with Crazy Double Stitched Rectangles) for this heat-embossed-on-shiny-green-recycled-cardstock-ransom-style sentiment.

And the foreground for some randomly stamped blooms and clogs. I added a touch of pink Sharpie to the bloom centers to pull in the pink from the Gelli print.

Do you like this set? If you'd like to see more cards using this stamp set check here and here.

Remember, this week all of Shirley's older stamps are 10% off, HousesExtras is even 20% off. If you leave comments on the DT's inspiration posts you might win yourself a $10 GC to the store. Check out the lineup.

I'm lining up over at:
Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge - Blue

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Young at heart (you have to be to love these groovy shoes!)

CUTplorations february

image source: Huffington Post

Adios January. Hello February. Time for a new  CUTplorations challenge. This one could be graphic, romantic, Valentines...you tell me.

I went all kinds of crazy with my new dies. And out came an all occasion card.

My Gelli plate got taken for a ride again. With acrylic paints. February is gonna be Gelli plate month on my blog. Don't say I didn't warn ya ;)

This card was actually pretty simple to make. I used negatives from Uppercase Alphabet Plate and Lowercase Alphabet Plate as masks on my Gelli plate when pulling a print and then used a portion of that print for my BG here. Used my handy dandy frame cut from a cereal box to decide which section of the print I wanted to use.

I adhered a bit of vellum to tone done the bottom half of the card. Then glued one of the masks on top of that and finished it up with the Awesome Word die cut from woodgrain CS and backed with fun foam. And the "U R"? That little blue square was a mask from a different Gelli plate print!

I sure hope you'll join us for some die cutting fun this month over at CUTplorations. Just make a project using die cuts based on our inspiration graphic. Be sure to use at least one STAMPlorations product and hook up to the gallery. Winners will be chosen by the DT. Here's the link.

Don't forget about my STAMPlorations discount code in the sidebar if you're in a hurry to get your hands on some new goodies ;)

I'm taking this card over to Danipeuss Kartenchallenge - Explosion of Color and Mixed Media Monthly Challenge.

STAMPlorations january release - day 5

It's Day 5 with the STAMPlorations Inspiration DT. Ready for the dies in action? If you want, you can check out the whole blog hop lineup in this post.

Until February 10, all 4 stamps and 3 plate dies from the January release are 5% off. (Plus you can use the 20% discount code in my sidebar on top ;)

The dies are the stars of today's post. Meet Lowercase Alphabet Plate, Uppercase Alphabet Plate and Numbers Plate. Talk about versatile - get individual positive characters in one fell swoop, or use the negative for layering or dry embossing a BG or stenciling, or combine both like I did in my last card today. But first things first.

You'll have to excuse me for these next two cards - my mind was totally besieged by "the media" craziness of the past few weeks and these two designs happened using the "leftovers" of the alpha dies, Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle dies and Sketchy Alphabet stamps.

"I'd like to thank"  La La Land and my Zig clean color brushes for the watercolory goodness in the supporting role. And my white gel pen. Used Lowercase Alphabet Plate letters.

You probably know who gave me the fodder for this "great" card. Thanks go out to the Donald and my Copics, with Scribbly Splattery Grunge and a strip of vellum making up the Cabinet. Used Uppercase Alphabet Plate letters.

Still keepin' it cheeky, I did this with the Numbers Plate.

Gettin' a Dr. Seuss vibe? Used the balloons from A Snarky Birthday to You for a background. Then I laid on the numbers and filled the "5" and "0" with gold foil positives. Over the top of that I added some stacked Alphas leftovers on vellum.

See the other die cut ideas from the DT in this post.  There are prizes up for grabs for comments on our blogs, and the STAMP facebook and Instagram pages! Leave a comment by the 7th and check back on the 10th on the STAMplorations blog to see if you are a winner.

STAMPlorations january release - day 4

Welcome back to Day 4 of the STAMPlorations January release blog hop. You can start here if you missed some stops.

Today's stamp set is A Snarky Birthday to You from Becca. Snarky? Yep.

My card design looks so harmless, doesn't it? Til you read the sentiment! And this is one of the milder ones ;)

A very simple design, using various stamps from the set and flowing from navy in lower right corner to red, to orange heat embossing for the sentiment and on to yellow up top.

You can check out the DT makes with this stamp set in this post.  There are prizes up for grabs for comments on our blogs, and the STAMP facebook and Instagram pages! And the release products are 5% off in the shop - plus you can get 20% more with my discount code in the sidebar.

Happy hopping!

STAMPlorations january release - day 3

It's Day 3 with the STAMPlorations Inspiration DT. Ready for more new stamps and dies in action? Pull up a seat. You can check out the whole blog hop lineup in this post.

Until February 10, all 4 stamps and 3 plate dies from the January release are 5% off automatically. (Plus you can use the 20% discount code in my sidebar ;)

The star of today's post is Dee's Just Because.

I saw a card of Nicole H.'s that I really liked so made my own variation of it with Deepti's new set. Doesn't that little bend in the one leaf really lends itself to "wafting"?

The sentiment (great for all occasion cards) is heat embossed onto a strip of navy CS and then wrapped at the right end with a layer of red and yellow crepe paper! Why? Why not?

You can check out what the rest of the DT made here. And there are prizes up for grabs for comments on our blogs, and the STAMP facebook and Instagram pages!