{Special Post} STAMPlorations 5th Birthday Hop feat. STAMPgirl Shery Russ

Hey, STAMPlorations friends! I'm starting off the special posts wherein each STAMPgirl and her projects get to be in the spotlight. We picked 3 of our favorite projects and then created one new project (or a few!).

What's special about these posts is that not only will you get to see the wide range of artistic cardmaking/papercrafting styles in the STAMPlorations design team, you can also use our projects as a creative springboard -- CASE us and link up your creations for a chance at a $50 gift certificate to the STAMPlorations store! There will 5 lucky crafters :o)

For those of you who aren't sure about what CASEing is, we loosely take it to mean that you copy something from our projects in order to create your own. It can be the color combination, the layout, a particular element. If your creation is inspired by what you see in any of the posts we publish this month, we'd love to see it in the gallery and hope you'll link up! Okay?

I'll start off with 3 of my favorite previous makes. (Well, I have several top 3 favorites, as I will be posting a few more times throughout the month). Here are my Top 3 Monochrome/B&W One Layer Cards :o)

And here's my new card:

Ingredients:
Butterfly Cover Plate Die | Choose Happy - Say It Big

Not really meaning to CASE myself...but CASE myself I did, mainly because monochromatic one layer cards are always quick to make...especially with a gel press plate and black acrylic paint. Plus large dies (like our cover plates!) are easy to use as stencils for creating one layer cards. Plus monoprinting will let you achieve that grungy effect without really trying :o) The print on this card is the second print I pulled after I removed the diecut-cum-stencil from my gel press plate. (Second prints are often rather more artsy and way cooler than first prints, in my experience!)

Here's a close-up:

So how about CASEing one of my cards? The most obvious feature is the monochromatic (or black and white) color scheme. Or you can do butterflies...or grunge...or one layer :o) If you've been at all inspired by my cards, do link up your creations in our Birthday Linky Party aka CASE the STAMPgirls Challenge. The linky is found at the end of the post HERE. Five lucky players will win a $50 gift certificate to the store -- one of them could be you! :o)

For a chance to win a $25 gift certificate, leave a comment on this post.

For a chance to win up to $25 worth of STAMPlorations products, create and link up your wishlist here.

PS: Check out our $5 Birthday Bash Surprise Bags in the store :o)