Happy 300th SDC!

If you have been following the SDC blog and entering our challenges, you must have noticed the HUGE celebration that has been going on in the past weeks. The Stampotique Designer Challenge is celebrating the 300th challenge! Can you believe it, already 300 challenges?! It's amazing! And we all of the DT have made a special project to share with you and today it is my turn to show you the project I have made :) 

I have made this card with my fave stamp from Stampotique Originals (and believe me it was hard to choose the one fave because there are so many wonderful ones!) which is the Unicorn by Magda. It is such a beautiful fun and whimsical design and really feels like she can make magic happen! On this card I also emphasized the whimsy as I have her "farting hearts",  LOL! These are Daniel's hearts which I have colored and cut out individually. The many Heads on the background are all the SDC friends celebrating with us, wishing the Stampotique family a happy 300th celebration. 

By the way, a little about the technique: the background is embossed with pear violet interference and water colored over it with Purple Pazzazz Diamine Shimmertastic inks. The unicorn is water colored on a separate piece of paper using Daniel Smith and Designs by Rachel watercolors. the number 300 is stenciled in using Stencil1 stencils from his book. And lastly Terri's Alphabet is used to form the sentiment. 

So head on over to the blog and make sure to comment on all the posts to be entered in the prizes that are being given away. Make sure to stay with us until the 20th when we will draw 2 people from the comments at random for the 30.00 gift certificates!!

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

Little ray of pitch black (Stampotique Originals new release)

A quickie today to show you a little card made with one of the new releases by Daniel Torrente this month over at Stampotique Originals. She is stamped on a watercolor card on which I stamped off excess ink from Kassa's flower frenzy stamps and colored her with watercolors and enhanced with colored pencil. The phrases by Terri always make me laugh and I just thought this one would go well on the card. 

Over at our Challenge blog you will find a very special post about the 300th challenge at SDC!! That is right, there have been 300SDC posts so far and there will be 2 weeks of celebrations going! Each of the DT members will have their own day on the blog to post their project and there will be prizes given away too! So head on over to the challenge blog today to find out more on how you can enter!

Thanks for stopping by and have an awesome day!

Angel Hugs (Stampotique Originals new release)

It's the first of the month so that means Stampotique Originals has new stamps up today! I'm showcasing a card made with 2 new releases, the birdie branch by Tini Lubberink and the Angels by Terri Richardson.  I've used watercolor paper and my Tombow markes for this card, added some shadows with Distress Crayons and matted onto black before adhering to the card base. The hugs sentiment is die cut from Technique Tuesday. Oh and of course to add more texture I almost always use Kate Crane's Texture cube :) 

Check out more new release stamps from the other DT members in our Facebook group. 

Thanks for stopping by and have an awesome day!

SDC298 - Black and White with a pop of colour

Today at Stampotique Originals DC blog is the second week of a fun challenge: a pop of color with the black and white. This is what I made. I just LOVE that poodle stamp and yeah I did a lot of masking for this! LOL! I really love how this one turned out and hope you will join our challenge this week. Stamps I used are all from Terri Richardson and I used Poodle Doodle, Ewe and the sentiment I made from various words from the Valentine's Day sentiments. 

Thanks for stopping by and have an awesome day!

Art Journal: Floral Queen Bee

Continuing with playing in my art journal with the new release from Stampotique Originals and this time it's Flower Frenzy designed by Kassa Hayselden. I just absolutely LOVE the flower designs she does and this is no exception! The image is embossed on watercolor paper and colored in with Jane davenport Mermaid markers. Love how the white part which is embossed resists all the color.  Bees are by Jo Capper Sandon and I've cut parts of the sentiment of Be your Own Queen to make Queen Bee. The beauty of text stamps really, is you can just rearrange stuff to your liking to form phrases you want ;)

Sharing this art journal page to the following challenges:

Art Journal Journey - Flora and Fauna

Moo Mania - Flowers 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Animal Magic 

WWC168 Feminine - Anything goes challenge  

Everybody art - 424 - Flower 

Mix it up CB #13 - Anything goes + emboss resist  

Sunny Day Crafting# 18 - Butterflies & Other Garden Critters 

HLS - Watercolor May 2018

Thanks so much for stopping by and have an awesome day!

SDC297 - only Purple

It's already time for a new challenge over at Stampotique Designer's challenge. And this fortnight the challenge is to use 'only purple' and I've made the above postcard for some inspiration. I did have a bit of a difficult time as purple is not exactly my color, but the PC did turn OK in the end. 

The base is a piece of gelli printed paper on which I stamped Sara with Staz-On jet black.  The acrylic paint acted as a bit of a resist in her dress so I made that a part of the design. In the background I stamped Kate's Texture Cube and France's Mash Up for some texture and added the quote from quote stamp block 2 I added some highlights with a white gel pen and  a lighter color purple in the back ground and around the quote. 

Hope you got inspired to play along with us. Add your projects to the Inlinks page or to the album in the facebook group. Do read all the rules before linking your project. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Art Journal: Groovy Richard Pelvis (Stampotique Originals New Releases April 2018)

Meet Richard Pelvis, a newly released stamp from Stampotique Originals designed by Daniel Torrente. Isn't he just Groovy? I definitely think so. He's placed on the second half of the gelli printed paper from Sunday's post -  that StencilGirl mask is just so gorgeous to work with! 

A short but sweet little blogpost from me today. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

SDC295 - Little Monsters

Hi all it's wednesday and it's time for some challenge inspiration for this weeks Stampotique Originals Designer's challenge. It's the second week of "little monsters" and I made this card using the following stamps: 

Whookie with little whookie 

Saying from EWE cube 

Donald which I flipped so it looks like he is picking up the little whookies. 

I also used some gelli printed paper and the back ground is made with fountain pen ink and a brick stencil to emulate a wall. 

Hope this will inspire you to play along with us this week. You can link up your projects for this theme HERE or on our facebook page in the designated album. 

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

Art Journal: Oh Jackie (Stampotique Originals New Release April 2018)

Hi all, it's the first of the month and we're sharing some new releases by Stampotique Originals today! I created a page with a gelli print made with Liquitex paints and StencilGirl Deconstructed Chrysanthemum Mask and Stencil by Traci  Bautista. The wonderful new face stamp by Daniel Torrente is called Oh, Jackie. Isn't she just wonderful? Absolutely love that hair, there is so much potential! I've also used the quote from Terri Richardson's Phrase cube 2 which I thought was fitting and added some texture with Kate's Texture Cube.

Check out our facebook group for more new release makes from my other lovely DT members and I'll be sharing a few more in the course of this month. Do check back later this week for some inspiration for our current challenge at the Stampotique Designer's Challenge blog. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful Easter Holiday!

Mail Art Monday - Thinking of you (SCD293 Mail Art)

It's been a while, but finally felt some inspiration again to make some mail art to share with you on this monday. Created a little set of mail art envie and notecard to share with you and they are all made with Stampotqiue Original Stamps. I used Spongul, the Filmstrip as an address section and Happy Mail from Terri's Salutations 2. Colored with Tombow markers and splatter effect with Distress Oxides. Also stamped the Texture Stamp from Kate for more more interest in the background.

I have made this notecard to match the envie, using the same stamps and color scheme. The background was done with stencils and DecoArtMedia spray paint in Cyan and Lindy's shimmer sprays. 

We have a new challenge running this fortnight, which is the theme of Mail Art! Next week I'll have more inspiration posted for that as well. Come and join us with the challenge and link up your mail art related posts either on the blog or on our facebook page in the designated album. We pick our top 3 fave every week and you'll also be in the running to win a 30$ gift certificate which goes to 2 people every month! So we'll hope you'll join the fun :) 

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

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. 

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. 

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!

SDC291 - Hearts!

It's Wednesday and time for a new challenge over at Stampotique Designer's Challenge blog. February is around the corner and we would like to inspire your Valentine's Day Crafts with this fortnight's theme of HEARTS. I took a little departure from my usual makes which are usually non 3D and inspired by Finnabair's mixed media products and YT channel I made these decorative heart hangers. It's the first time I actually used 3D metal embellishments in this way and I definitely did enjoy the process (though it did take quite some time to make!)

A friend of mine sent me these wooden heart hangers for Christmas, for in the tree, but we never have a tree then, so I decided to repaint them for this challenge. I sanded and gessoed the wooden hearts to start off. Then I created the grooves in the heart by scraping some flexible modeling paste over it and then stamp the texture from the texture cube in them and let it dry thoroughly. Then painted it with Liquitex Paints in deep red colors as a base coat. For the top coat I used Finnabair Metallique red which gives it a nice shine and shimmer. I dry brushed matte black paint over the raised parts to show the texture more and highlighted them with Finnabair Dragon's Eye which is a high golden spark acrylic paint which you only need a little bit of to create some amazing highlights. When that was off to dry I picked out some embellishments and colored some vintage lace with Lindy's Sprays and ripped them to add to the texture.

While I was gluing everything down with 3D gel from Finnabair, which holds strong when dried but is flexible when wet, I added some glitter elements over a few glued aria's for some extra interest.

All these metal embellishments I received from a friend in a swap and I recently found them in a box I kept all these interesting brads and findings in. It felt good to actually use them in this project! Now I wonder if I can find those mini Dragonfly brads for sale somewhere as they are so gorgeous!

These heart hangers are now ready to be hung on the wall as art!

Items used: 

Stampotique stamps: Kate's Texture cube (in the modeling paste over the heart) and When your heart speaks quote stamp Finnabair mixed media: Metallique red,  Sparks Dragon's Eye, 3D Matte gel Liquitex: White Gesso, flexible molding paste, primary red, muted pink, matte black paints; Lindy's sprays, vintage lace, 3d metal embellishments, hemp twine and wooden beads

Hope this inspires you to get your valentines day crafts on and make projects with hearts in them. Please read the rules on the blog HERE and you'll find the linky page to link your project to. 

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

SDC289 - Swapperoo!

It's the second week of the challenge "swapperoo" at our Stampotique Designer's challenge blog and I love the theme and it's always fun to make some quirky images with swapping bits and bobs off other stamps. So I've made the above ATC to inspire you and a reminder I've put on the fridge to altert certain people I need my coffee first, LOL :D

I've used Harry Heart's body, a part of Blackeyed face and Cocoa Bird's coffee mug. And the saying "I'll Love you more after Coffee" is from this phrases cube. The background is a gelli print and so is the paper the text is stamped on. 

Why don't you join our challenge? Some prizes are to be won at every end of the month and maybe you could be one of the winners for a gift certificate for the Stampotique Store :) (Do read the rules before adding your link!)

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Tree Swing (Stampotique new release january 2018)

Today I have another fun new release from Stampotique Originals to show you and that is this wonderful design by Jill Penney called Tree Swing. Isn't he adorable? I've also used another quote from this great new Quote stamp block as well as my fave texture stamp from Kate Crane and the gorgeous Hive Flowers by Arwen McCullen.

I have to say that I really enjoy working in my home made "watercoloring" book! The Moleskine pocket water color book is such a wonderful size for a daily "coloring fix" and the paper is quite forgiving too! Here I experimented on a page I have already worked on as a test with masking fluid, which failed sadly, but I worked over it with more color and it gave the background a nice texture. Without warping or damaging the paper. So it can really take a lot of wet medium! 

I also absolutely LOVE how pigmented Jane Davenport Brights set are (which I mainly used for this and added accents with Prima Shimmering Lights) and how boldly they pop off the page! Glad a got the sets last year :) 

Anyhow, check out the new releases this month HERE, our new challenge is online HERE and you can link up for that HERE (please do read the rules before linking up!) 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Friends are like stars (Stampotique New releases January 2018)

First of all wishing you all a wonderful creative and fantastic 2018! Hope you all had a fantastic NYE celebration! Made this above card for the Stampotique Originals Facebook Group and thought I'd share it here too :) January 1st also means new release day at Stampotique and I've got a fun project to share with you with a few of the new release stamps.

I've created a galaxy night sky with my watercolors in my watercoloring book with these super fun Cactus row stamp by Kira Nichols. And the quote is a wonderful one too which is from this quote #2 stamps set.

"Good friends are like stars, you might not always see them, but you know they are always there. " 

That is absolutely true, wouldn't you agree? Check out more of Stampotique's new releases this month HERE and visit our Designer's Challenge blog tomorrow where a new challenge will be announced! 

I'll be showcasing more new release stamps this week, so stay tuned for that! 

As always, thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful start of the new year!

SDC288 - Christmas

Hi everyone, it's only a few weeks before Christmas and this is also the theme of the last challenge of the year at Stampotique Designer's Challenge blog. And we would like to inspire you with Christmas themed projects. 

I've made the above journal page to inspire you for this challenge. I have used india ink over a pine tree stencil, let that dry and then used magenta and green ecoline inks for the background color. Then traced the stencil back over it with a white marker. Then created the scene using the following Stampotique Stamps:

Cecil

Front door Shrubbery

Terri's Alphabet

Kate's Texture cube

Flower cube

You can link up your christmas inspired makes HERE (please read the rules carefully before entering) and the challenge runs until january 2nd. We'll be back then with a new challenge theme and also some great new releases! Hope to see you playing along in the challenges in 2018 as well :) For now we wish you all a wonderful holiday season and a great start of the new year!

Also linking this up to MooMania's Christmas theme :)

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!