The last one...

Hello fellow Crafters,

With the last bird left over from my colouring session I have made a mini journal.

I coloured the page with Gelatos and blended them with a baby wipe. I sealed the surface with clear gesso. Next I used a home carved stamp and white ink for the chevrons and drew a line and some doodles around the page. I then cut out a circle with a die, shaded the edge and drew more lines with my pen. I adhered the circle to the page with the bird on top. Lastly I made the sentiment with a Dymo Labeler and again doodled around the strips. 

Thank you so much for stopping by today ! 

Hope you like it..

Thank you and a give away ...

Hello fellow Crafters,

I've been waiting for this moment for a few weeks now but it has finally happened: I got my 100th follower on my blog. That is worth a celebration but first of all I would like to thank all of you for your support and lovely comments.

To celebrate I have a little give away. To win this stuff you have to become a follower if you are not already and leave me comment below.

Apart from this card I will send you these goodies if you win. 

I will choose a random winner on Thursday the 19th of March. 

Good luck everyone ! 

Bring me sunshine

Hello fello Crafters,

and happy Wednesday to you. Over at the Stampotique blog there is a new challenge. It was set by the lovely Kaz and it is  "Bring me Sunshine". This is what she said :

'It's cold in the UK and I can't wait for it to warm up. Show me something sunny to hopefully encourage the sun to come out'.

I made an art journal with all bright sunny colours :

I kept thinking about this old song and just had to use part of the lyrics as a sentiment.

The background was made with Tim Holtz crackle medium over some Paper Artsy Fresco Paint. I then rubbed it with a brown ink so it settled in the cracks. I used a number stencil with black Archival and white pigment ink. I heat embossed the white as it wasn't white enough on it's own. 

I drew the sun as I don't have a sun stamp. I coloured it with Big Brush Markers and cut it out. I glued it onto some pattern paper and adhered the whole thing to the page.  Little 'Smile' seemed an good choice for this journal so I stamped him on the page and on white card stock. I then coloured him with Copics and cut him out. He was adhered on the page. I then decided to turn the sun into a balloon so I drew a line between 'Smile's' hand and the sun. Lastly I wrote the sentiment and highlighted the letters with a white paint pen. 

Detail of the crackle.

The sun I drew..

I only used one Stampotique stamps for this one and it is 

'Smile' 

I hope you will find the time to play along with us. There is a $30 voucher to win at the end of the month. Just remember NO digi's and only ONE entry per person ! 

Thank you for stopping by ! 

I hope you like it and got some inspiration ! 

More birds..

Hello fellow Crafters,

Today I have made another art journal with two of the birds I had left over from my colouring session yesterday.

The base of this is a gelli print. I used a letter stencil with Distress Ink and another stencil with some model paste. I stamped the Stampotique Tree on the page and coloured it with Big Brush Markers. Next I used another stencil and purple ink to put the "heart speech bubble" on. The birds were coloured and cut out yesterday (with my Polychromos Pencils) and I adhered them to the page. The last think I did was write the sentiment and put the date stamp on !

One more bird left, I will be back !

Thank you so much for stopping by !

Practising..

Hello fellow Crafters,

Today I though it was time to get my new Faber Castell Polychromos pencils out again and start practising using them. I got them from Father Christmas and he would be so disappointed if I didn't use them.  So I got out my favourite bird stamps and started colouring and it was a lot more difficult than colouring with Copics.
When I finished I cut all 6 birds out and used three of them in this art journal:

I painted the pages with gesso first and then used PaperArtsy Fresco paint in yellow and orange. I also did some stencilling with Distress Ink and gesso and did some background stamping. The birds were then adhered on the page after I put down some washi tape to ground them. The sentiment was handwritten and filled in with a paint pen. That was it... Maybe I will do another page with the remaining three birds. 

Thanks for stopping by ! 

Happy birthday

Hello fellow Crafters,

Another helping of new release Stampotique stamps for you today ! I can't stop playing with them..

I had the base of this card lying around for ages. I used model paste and Caran d'Ache Neocolors and then put it away. Today I thought it would made a great base for a birthday card.

I started with doing a bit of background stamping. Not too much as I thought it was nice as it was. I dripped some white India Ink on it and doodled around the edge. Next I stamped the girl on white card stock, coloured her and cut her out. When I put her on the card I thought it needed more so then I thought about the dog in the box. The box is part of a new stamp by Daniel Torrente. It is basically a huge pile of boxes of which I used only the bottom one. I coloured it the same way and cut it out. I then stamped the dog and coloured him too. The whole scene was assembled on top of some washi tape. Lastly I stamped the sentiment. 

I matted the card panel on some black card stock and then put the whole thing on a white card. 

I used the following stamps :

Vintage bill

Towering gifts

Dog Cube

Stalks

Happy birthday

Thank you for stopping by today ! 

Hope you like it....

Welcome to our New Release Bloghop!

Hello fellow Crafters,

Today we are so excited about the new release for Stampotique Originals!!!  We've been keeping it under wraps for weeks now, but know that some of you got a sneak at one of our new stamp artists.  

Stampotique is thrilled to add to the line-up the designs of one of our former team members and popular mixed media artist, Kate Crane (is that squealing we hear amongst you?).  We know you all won't be disappointed with the line-up of stamps from all our artists this go around.

Are you ready to see some wonderful artwork showcasing some of the new stamps?  There are 50+ new ones being released this time around, so plenty for everyone to choose from (or choose them all).

I made this art journal page :

This art journal was started with PaperArtsy Fresco paint in three shades of turquoise. I stamped and stencilled on the background and added some pattern paper (7 dots studio, Destination unknown) at the bottom which was stitched on the sewing machine. 

The barbed wire heart is a chipboard from Southern Ridge Trading Co. and was given to me by my friend Nikki. Isn't it awesome ! It was embossed with silver embossing powder and I used a black permanent marker to enhance the barbed wire bits. I lined it with some of the same pattern paper by 7 dots Studio. I stamped the sentiment before adhering the paper heart to the chipboard one. The seahorses were stamped on white card stock, coloured with Copic Markers and cut out. Capture the magic was stamped directly on the page and I coloured the letters with my Faber Castell Big Brush Markers. 

I used the following New Release Stamps:

Vintage bill, by France Papillon

Amonite, by France Papillon

Capture the Magic, by Roc Nicholas

Reggie, by Daniel Torrente

Rudy, by Daniel Torrente 

Magical Moment, by France Papillon is part of the second Barcode Texts that came out in the Autumn of last year. 

Hop along with the design team and 2 special guest bloggers leaving comments along the way.  We will choose 3 random winners from 3 selected blogs along the way to win some goodies.

We will choose our winners with our next challenge on February 25th.

You should have arrived here from Kaz Boughton. Your next stop along the way will be Kathi Rerek   If you get lost anywhere along the way you can come back to the Stampotique Designer's Challenge blog to find your way.

Here is the complete list of everybody participating today. 

Have fun hopping ! 

Janet Klein

Coby vanWilligenburg

Claudine Criner

Kim Howard

Astrid Stulemeijer

Valerie Wilson

Carol Fox

Kate Crane

Sue Davies

Kaz Boughton

YOU ARE HERE !

Kathi Rerek

Samantha Read

France Papillon

Roc Nicholas

Kristen Catalano

Nellie van Leeuwen

Arwen McCullen

Magda Polakow

Jackie Payne

Gez Butterworth

Hope you enjoy all the design team creations, 

we can't wait to hear what your favorite new stamps are!

True North

Hello fellow Crafters,

Today I have altered a box for the PaperArtsy Challenge 2015 topic 3 : paint. I love paint, any paint but the Fresco Paints by PaperArtsy are definitely very lush !

I painted the box with white gesso and then the lid with Little Black Dress and the bottom with Stone Fresco paints. I brushed the lid with Crackle glaze and then added stone over the top. I love to watch it crackle. Next I stamped all the images ( a Lynne Perella set from PaperArtsy) on tissue paper and glued them on the box with gel medium. I also put gel medium over the top. When this had all dried I used Big Brush Pitt Markers to colour everything and to shade. Next I die cut some flowers and brushed them too with gel medium and used the same Big Brush Markers to colour them too. They were adhered to the box with gel medium as was the metal embellishment in the middle.
That was it; thank you so much for stopping by today !

Hope you like it...

Happy UN-birthday

Hello fellow Crafters,

It is Wednesday and that means there is a new Challenge up over at the Stampotique Designers' Challenge blog. Today's theme was chosen by the lovely and very talented France Papillon and she this is what she said :

'We often expect cards on our birthday. How about surprising someone with an unbirthday card? With or without Alice in Wonderland inspiration, make a happy unbirthday card!'

So that is what I did ! 

I started this card with a piece of white card stock. I used a stencil and Sand paste from the Deco Art Media Line to create the arrows.. It gives a lot of texture. Next I dusted off my Twinkling H2O's. The finished card is very shimmery. Unfortunately you can't really see that here... 

Next I stamped a few circles on the background and then It was time to stamp 'Mad Hatter' and the balloons from 'Romek'. 

They were coloured with Copic Markers and cut out. I made a little slit under Mad Hatters arm for the cords of the balloons. Next I coloured some natural twine and tied it to the balloons. They were then adhered to the card. I slipped the twine in the hole under Mad Hatters arm and then adhered him also. I used a drop of glue to secure the twine. 

The sentiment was made using the 'Happy birthday' stamp and a Dymo Labeler. I adhered it to the card on top of some strips of washi tape. 

I used the same washitape around the card base before adhering the panel on top. 

I used the following stamps:

Mad Hatter

Happy Birthday

Romek (for the balloons)

Circles cube 

Thank you so much for stopping by ! I hope I gave you some inspiration to have a go yourself. Don't forget you can win a $30 voucher at the end of the month. Just remember : NO digi's and only one entry per person ! 

Hope you like it ....

Dream Big

Hello fellow Crafters,

For my DT post over at VivaLasVegaStamps! I have made a card this time and I had so much fun making this. I hope you get inspired and dust of your rubber stamps and get creating !

Here's how I made this card :

Start with a piece of Gelli Print or some patterned paper cut into a panel that can go on the front of your card. I used a piece of Gelli Print.

Use a die or punch to cut some scalloped strips of pattern paper (I used Authentique - Be(you)tiful), ink the edges and adhere to your base panel. Ink the edges of the card panel.

Stamp the background with grey, black and orange Archival Inks and add some washi tape at three edges. (A list of stamps I used is at the bottom of this post).

Stamp the main image twice; once on your card panel and once on white card stock. I used Archival Jet Black to stamp on the panel and Memento to stamp on the white card stock as I was going to used Copic Markers to colour the image. 

I stamped the image on the panel because it is very difficult to cut out small details like the antennae on their heads. By doing it this way you can just cut them off when cutting out the main image. 

I used a silver gel pen to colour the antennae on the card panel. 

Once the image is coloured and cut out you can just adhere it on top of the one on your card base. I also stamped a sentiment on the same pattern paper as I used at the edges of the card. I inked the edges of this piece and then adhered it together with the main image on the card panel. Lastly I added some shadows around the image and sentiment with a Big Brush Marker.

Next I put some washi tape on the left side of my card base.

And here is the finished result, all put together. 

I used the following stamps :

19047 - Dream Big

19569 - Mesh texture

19566 - Bubble wrap texture

19575 - Stitching

19577 - Staple X

19410 - Whimsical kids in futuristic hats 

Thank you so much for stopping by today ! 

Hope you like it...

Blue and white art journal

Hello fellow Crafters,

For today's Lost Coast Designs DT post I have made a blue and white art journal.

I started these pages by glueing book pages on part of it (middle). I then brushed it lightly with Gesso. Next I took a stencil and mixed blue glitter with gel medium. This created the flowers. After this dried I then dripped some spray ink on the page and sprayed it with water. I dried this with my heat tool. 

After that I tool the Butterfly set and stamped two of them randomly on the pages. "Head in Hands' was stamped on Adirondack paper and cut out. I wound some bakers twine around the image and adhered her on top of part of a doily, some more book pages and a bit of Plaster bandage that I coloured with the same spray ink. That completed the page. 

Here are some detail photo's. 

If you would like some of these lovely stamps you can purchase them at :

Lost Coast Designs 

Inkadinkadutchies (Europe)

Thank you for stopping by ! 

Hope you like it....

Red

Hello fellow Crafters,

Over at the Stempelwinkel blog the challenge this month is "red". I made a tag :

I started with red paint over black and white pattern paper. Because red is translucent you can still see the print underneath. Next I took a black ink pad and rubbed it along the edge. This gives a nice distressed effect. I then stamped the fence-stamp with Versamark in and embossed it with white embossing powder. 

I cut out some different size hearts out of Vellum with a hearts die and stitched them onto my tag. Next I stamped the girl on the tag and on white card stock, I coloured her with Copic Markers and cut her out. She was then adhered on to the tag. I thought it looked a bit bare still so I punched some circles and added those, a ticket and some ribbon. 

All the stamps I used are from the Stempelwinkel.

That was it ! 

Thank you for stopping by today ! 

Hope you like it...

Pip, pip, cheerio....

Hello fellow Crafters, 

I hope you are all having a great weekend. I had some crafting fun today and made this card for the Artistic Outpost challenge where 'anything goes'. 

I used a piece of white card stock that was slightly smaller than my card base. I used a stencil and model paste to create some texture. When this had dried I painted it with 2 shades of pink and white Fresco Paint. Here and there I rubbed it off again with a baby wipe to get a worn look. The background was then stamped with a background stamp from the "Paperboy" set. I also rubbed the same ink pad around the edges of the card panel. I then stamped the London Skyline (part of) on the background and the lady and sentiment on a  separate piece of card stock. I also stamped the background with one of the other stamps from this set which is called 'Loverly London'. 

I coloured the lady and glued her on the card panel together with some bits and bobs I found in my stash. 

Thank you for stopping by ! 

Hope you like it....

TGIF 13

Hello fellow Crafters,

Today we are having a  bloghop for 'Friday the 13th' ! Eeeeeek.... Anyway it is all happening over at VivaLasVegaStamps and this is my contribution :

I am not very good with creepy stuff so this is the best I could come up with ! I started off with a postcard sized piece of white card stock which I coloured with Distress Inks in 'Milled Lavender' and 'Dusty Concorde'. I then stamped the background lightly with the clock, the cemetery and the spider web which I extended down the card with a black pen. I heat embossed the cemetary to make is somewhat blacker. 

Next I stamped the skull and coloured it lightly with Copics. I cut it out,  clear embossed it and marked the spot on the card where is was going to go. I then used the same Distress Inks to shade. I then glued the skull down. 

Next I stamped the '13' which is really '31', I reversed it, and used a Dymo labeled to make the "TGIF". The last thing was adding some Tim Holtz rub ons and that was that ! 

I used the following stamps:

19468 - Clockface

19569 - Mesh Texture

2403  - Skull

18907 - Cemetery

12957 - Corner Cobweb

  18918 - 31

Why not check out the rest of the gang's work, it will be worth it.......eeeeeeeek !!! 

Viva Las VegaStamps! 

DeeDee Catron 

Corrie Herriman  You are Here

Hermine Koster 

Michele Kosciolek 

Shanna Shands 

Glenda Tkalac 

Susan M. Brown 

Mary Brockway 

Thanks for stopping by ! 

Happy Freaky Friday !! 

What a lovely postcard !

Hello fellow Crafters,

On New Years eve I was contacted by DeeDee Catron from VivaLasVegaStamps! and she asked me if she could use some of my artwork for a postcard that they send to the customers. I thought this was very flattering.
Today this fell into my letterbox, how awesome is that ???

I am so chuffed that she thought my art work was good enough to use on a postcard ! 

Thank you DeeDee & VivaLasVegaStamps!

Thank you for stopping by today.

Love

Hello fellow Crafters,

and happy Wednesday to you ! Over at the Stampotique Designers Challenge blog the theme this week is 'Love & Hearts' and was set by Kristen. This is what she said :

"February 14th is Valentines day, so why not create something that is surrounded with hearts and love..."

I made a tag :

I recently purchased this chicken stamp called 'Henny Penny' and wanted to use it.. 

I started with a Gelli Print and stamped it with 'Fax to Wolfgang' and 'Daniel's Hearts'. I coloured the hearts lightly with colour pencils. Next I stamped 'Love' and 'Henny Penny' on white card stock. Henny Penny was also reversed; I used a flat bit of rubber for this. So you stamp your image on this rubber and then use the rubber to stamp the image in reverse. The chickens and the 'love' stamp were coloured, clear embossed and cut out. I adhered them to the tag. I then doodled two lines around the tag with a fine tipped pen and lastly I coloured a chipboard heart with Copic Markers and clear embossed it before adhering it to another piece of the same gelli print which was also lightly coloured with pencils before adhering it to the tag. A little bit of ribbon finished it off...

Why not join us this week and make something too. Maybe you will win a $30 voucher ! Just remember NO digi's and only one entry per person ! 

I used the following stamps : 

Daniel's Hearts

Fax to Wolfgang

Stacked Love 

Henny Penny

Thanks for stopping by !! 

Hope you like it ......

Be an adventurer

Hello fellow Crafters,

I have made a postcard as an inspiration piece for the February Challenge over at the VivaLasVegaStamps! blog. Maybe you would like to play along with us. Great grabbags of rubber to be won ! 

I coloured the card with Distress Inks and a blending tool. I used post-it tape to mask off the lines. I then took it to the sewing machine and zig zagged over the areas where the colours meet. Next I distressed the edges of the card with my scissors and went around with a black Archival ink pad. I made a tear in the yellow bit. 

I then stamped it randomly using black Archival and Versamark. (A list of all the stamps I used will be at the bottom of this post).  I white embossed some of the stamped images because I thought it needed lightening. 

I stamped the diver next and then the sentiment. The diver was lightly coloured with Copic Markers and cut out, the sentiment stamped with Versamark and white embossed on black card stock. I matted the sentiment on white card stock and attached it to the card with staples. The diver was glued abover the sentiment. 

The last things I did were splattering white ink and matting the whole card on black card stock. 

I used the following element of the inspiration board (see below): 

Rainbow, distressed, torn, stitches, staples.

I used the following stamps (all VLVS!)

19354 - Whimsical diver

19180 - One way, small

19173 - Be an adventurer

19569 - Mesh texture

19568 - Double coffee ring 

Here is the inspiration board for February's challenge:

And these are the words to go with this board : rainbows, ROYGBIV, diecuts, distressed, rip, torn, mended, stitches, staples, repairs, circles, watercolor, color guide, color wheel, fine arts, painterly, hues and more.

Thank you for stopping by !

Hope you like it and I gave you some inspiration....

Dance...

Hello fellow Crafters,

Over at the Lost Coast Designs Blog the challenge for this month is 'Girls, Girls, Girls'. As an inspiration piece for you I have made this tag :

For this tag I used a piece of gelli print which I cut into a tag shape. Next I adhered the circles. These are finger painted circles that I made a while ago. I then randomly stamped the background. I also took my black Archival ink pad and rubbed it around the edges of the tag. Next  I stamped the ballerina's on tissue paper and clear embossed them. I did that because I used Versafine ink to stamp and this ink takes an age to dry. Impatient....lol

I adhered the tissue paper to the tag with gel medium and added a few bits of washi tape. 

The sentiment was made with a Dymo labeler and the last thing I did was add some ribbon through the hole. 

I used the following stamps

Two ballerinas

Perspective floor

Magic Dictionary

If you would like some of these great stamps you can get them here:

www.Inkadinkadutchies.nl

www.lost-coast-designs.com

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope I gave you some inspiration to play along with us this month. There is a $10 voucher to win but only if there are 10 or more participants. So what are you waiting for ! 

Serenity

Hello fellow Crafters,

Here's another helping of Lost Coast Designs.. I made a card this time:

As a base I used a gelli print. I used white ink, a stencil and a blending tool to add the white dots. The stamp is called "Serenity Diva" and she was stamped on the gelliprint and on a separate piece of card stock. I coloured the image on the white card and cut out everything apart from the wiggly lines next to the head. I then adhered the cut out image on top of the one on the cardpanel. I added some sequens and some seed beads and then matted the panel on some black card stock after which I glued the whole thing on a white card base. 

If you would like some of these lovely stamps you can purchase them at :

Lost Coast Designs

Inkadinkadutchies

I will enter this card into the Craft Stamper Challenge for February : Stencilling.

Thanks for stopping by ! 

Hope you like it....

Discover

Hello fellow Crafters,

My good friend and former Stampotique teamie Kay Wallace is hosting this weeks challenge over at the Tag Along Blog. She wants us to use to rethink gesso. I made this:

I have really struggled with this photo as it is not as garish in real life.  I just can't seem to get it right. Anyway, I put gesso on the tag through a stencil. I used a Prima Finnabair stencil called 'netting' for this. When the gesso had dried I sprayed Lindys Stamp Gang sprays on it. I love these. I used the two Flat Fabios, which basically means there is no sparkle in them. The colours I used were: Tilt-a-wheel teal and Merry-go-round green. 

I dried those with the heat tool and after they dried I lightly stamped the background with a script stamp and inked the edges the tag with a blue Archival Ink. The little bird, from the Tim Holtz Bird Crazy set, was stamped on white card stock and coloured with Copic Markers, cut out and adhered to the tag. I had a bit of plaster bandage lying around which was sprayed with the same colours and I used this as a base for my sentiment which came from a PaperArtsy Set ESN04. A piece of blue ribbon finished it off. 

Thanks for stopping by ! 

Hope you like it...