SDC292 - Bookmarks

It's Stampotique challenge time again and it's the second week of Bookmarks. I've created this fun bookmark with Queenie, parts of a quote from Quotes 2 and the wonderful textures cube from Kate Crane. We would love it if you would join the fun and link your project on the Blog HERE OR on Facebook HERE. Every week we choose our top 3 and at the end of the month 2 from the top picks are chosen as winners of a gift certificate to the Stampotique online store. Make sure you do read all the rules before entering, one of them is that you enter no more than 4 other challenges (5 including Stampotique) and sadly this rule is often overlooked. So do keep that in mind when linking up :)
ETA: you can use ANY stamp to participate in the challenge, it doesn't have to be from Stampotique Originals exclusively :) 

On the topic of bookmarks I do have a question for you: are you a paper book reader or e-reader kind of person? I'm more of an hybrid reader myself as I love both. I have an e-reader as it's so handy to take with you on travels abroad, but I just love the feel of a "real" book in my hands and leaf through the pages. I prefer to have hard back bound copies of my fave books from my fave writers, esp. from Haruki Murakami and books on mindfulness and compassion (which this book is about). I often leave the book on my desk and read a few pages with my morning cuppa coffee. 

Sharing this desk shot with all the lovely desker's at Julia's WOYWW#455 and I thank everyone for their visit last week! I'm sorry I wasn't able to return a few visits later in the week. It was a bit hectic as the father of a dear friend of mine passed away suddenly. The service was on friday which was beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. I'm proud of my friend that she was able to stand up and recite the beautiful eulogy she had written. And I'm grateful I was able to support her when she needed me. Anyhow, I will do my best to catch up with you all this week. 

Thanks for stopping by! Hope everyone and all your loved ones are doing well. 

WIP: Left Over Art Collage clean up session

Today I wanted to share a little bit what happens behind the scenes at my creative station. Usually when I create something the left over scraps bits, trims and pieces gets piled up to the left hand side. And when it gets a little out of control (like migrating to the middle of the desk) I take my Junk Mail Art Journal and have what I like to call a "Left-Over Art Collage clean up session" and take my jar of Modge Podge, a brush and use my scraps to create some fun collage style journal pages. And yes, mostly they are supervised by my kitty Meesha :)

Usually I just continue to fill pages until I feel like the left over pile is manageable again, like so. And when I'm done with a session like this, I'm always glad that I just didn't chuck all the scraps into the bin like I am always tempted to do when that mess just gets out of control. It's a peaceful and meditative process and oh yeah, I totally get distracted by looking at the utter adorableness sleeping in that basket :) 

Close up of a spread from this session. Just randomly slapped together pages, but I do try to look for composition and color. Not sure if they are "done" I might just come back to a page, gesso all over it and completely transform the look of it. I have dome that with a few which I will share at a later time. 

What do you do with your left over scraps? Bin them right away or are you also hoarding them to use later? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. 

Sharing this post with the fellow deskers at Julia's WOYWW454 - glad to be playing along again, hope you all are doing well and will say hi to you all shortly :) 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

The impossible makes love possible

It's almost Valentine's day and I have been inspired to create some works in the theme of love this weekend. A while back I bought a bunch of mini ATC size canvases and finally used one of them for the above mixed media piece. I used a lot of layers of wonderful paints, modeling paste, pieces of vintage lace and vintage images.

The hearts and letters are die cut and the stamped text is from Dina Wakley "Love Rocks"  stamp set. It was challenging to create a mixed media piece on this smaller scale but definitely loved the process.

A close up of the yummy texture and layers paint. I've used a shattered heart stencil and modeling paste to create the background. DecoArt Media Shimmer sprays for the glittery effects.

Entering this piece in the following challenges:

Moo Mania - Love/Valentines 

Try it on Tuesdays - Love is in the air 

HLS - ATC challenge february 2018 hearts

The MMMC#45 February

Stamplorations February challenge - Paint it Red 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day. 

Craft Stamper TIMI - February Challenge Inspiration

Today I am sharing some challenge inspiration for this month's Craft Stamper Take it Make it February Challenge. As always the theme is anything goes as long as there is stamping on it and if you share your project you are in the running for a fabulous prize. This month it is sponsored by darkroomdoor. I have made the above card to inspire you and it's made with wonderful layers of paints, stamps and die cut embellishments.

I started off on layering paints on the back of packaging I had saved. With beautiful greens and blues from Decoart Media fluid acrylics. Then stamped the girl on tissue paper and applied it with Decoart napkin decoupage glue. Rolled on some more paint and stencilled some blue and magenta metallique paints from Finnabair on it. Some more stamping with background stamps from Lost Coast Designs.

I  die cut some dragonflies (by Stamplorations) from excess gelli printed paper and some parchment paper because they went to well with the quote stamp from Viva las VegaStamps. I also used a bit of Finnabair Dragon's eye sparks to give the card a bit of extra shimmer.

This is how the card looks when you shine a little spotlight over it. I definitely love how it turned out. 

Don't forget to link up your projects HERE to be in it to win it :) 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

Art Journal: Be Mine Valentine

It is the second week of the HEARTS challenge at Stampotique Designer's Challenge blog this week and I've made this little art journal page to share with you for inspiration. You can still join the challenge until next week Tuesday, so don't forget to link up your heart related projects HERE :) 

I started off on a piece of scrapbook paper on which I rolled on some muted pink and black paint from liquitex, stamped Daniel's hearts and clear embossed them before dry brushing some black paint over it. Created the border with black distress marker and spatters with liquitex INKS in white. 

Queenie and "Be Mine" from the valentine quote stamp cube were colored with promarkers, highlighted with a white gel pen then fussy cut and adhered to the page. The hearts radiating from Queenie is from a die cut and I used a little shimmery water colored piece for this. 

Entering this piece in the following challenges: 

Fab 'n Funky #380 - Valentines Say it with words 

Modsquad Have a Heart challenge 

Moo Mania - Love/Valentines 

Simon says Stamp Wednesday challenge - it must be love 

WCW156 Feminine Anything Goes 

Try it on Tuesdays - Love is in the air 

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Love is in the Air 

Stamplorations February challenge - Paint it Red 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day. 

The magic of writing (+ Process Video)

Hey everyone, I've got a fun mixed media art journal tip in page to share with you. This Mixed Media piece shows my love for art journaling and writing. It's INCOWRIMO (international Correspondence Month) and it absolutely fits with that theme.  

I love how colorful and textured this piece turned out!

I've also filmed the process so you can see exactly how I made the texture and added color in the background here:

A few close up shots:

Materials Used:

Stamps from Stampotique Originals Miss Snottie and Texture Cube; PaperArtsy Script Stamp, Share that spark quote stamp from Magenta, Distress paints, DecoArt Media interference and gold paint, Liquitex flexible Modeling paste, Artplorations Stencil,  Derwent graphix black writer, Spray ink, distress crayons, Liquitex INK, PenWorld cut outs, Modge Podge shimmer gold sealer glue.

Hope you enjoyed the process video. Please let me know what you think and if you would like to stay updated on my YT tutorials, please subscribe to my channel HERE.

Entering this piece in the following challenges:
Creative Artiste Mixed Media #35 
More Mixed Media challenge February
Stamps and Stencils: Off to collage

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

New releases Stampotique Originals - February 2018

It's the beginning of the new month and Stampotique has a few amazing new stamps releases! I've made a few cards with them and today I would like to show you a couple. First off is this birthday card. The Giant Birthday Cake by Terri Richarson is a new release this month. I've used an inky mop up page as background which I gessoed lightly and stamped some texture on it. The sentiment are word die cuts from Tim Hotz handwritten sentiments. Blackeyed is from last year's releases.

A very sweet new release this month is that really cute EWE (sheep) and the EWE sentiments cube by Terri. Super cute card for valentines day, don't you think? I cut a few hearts from Daniel's hearts collage stamp to use for different projects and added a few here too. 

Be sure to check back on monday for more new release project from me. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!