Art Journal: Autumn Memories - CSTIMI

The weather is getting colder and my fave season has almost ended. When I went for a walk on a beautiful bright autumn day a few weeks ago, I found a gorgeous leaf in beautiful vibrant colors which I decided to take home. I wanted to incorporate it in an art journal page as an ode to my fave season. The leaf is portraying so many fall colors which reminded me of my favorite Lindy’s Magicals set Autumn Leaves.

It became the starting point of this art journal page. I also wanted to use a couple of my favorite StencilGirl® Products stencils and Viva Las VegaStamp! mixed media stamps. You'll find a list of products used at the end of the post 

While I was making this page I also had the camera running so you can watch the video tutorial of it here 

Below are a few close up pictures

TIP: when you dry the modeling paste to the touch you can stamp in there to create some fun textures in the paste. Just make sure your stamp is wet (just spray on some water) so the paste doesn’t stick too much on your stamp.

Products used: 

Mediums: white gesso, white crackle paste and black modeling paste from DecoART media

Stencils from StencilGirl® Products : S288: Pretty as a peacock, S242 Diamond Dance, S433: Amsterdam

Stamps from Viva Las VegaStamps! : Row of scribble circles, rows of numbers, numbers set, punchinella / sequin waste border, Writing circles

Pigment powders & color sprays from Lindy's Gang: Lindy’s Magicals set Autumn Leaves. Moon shadow mists: Bluebeard blue violet, Buccaneer Bay blue and Smoky Sapphire And from the Industrial chic set : Shabby Turbine teal and Steampunk sepia. 

Others: Stamping ink from Staz-On, Distress crayon in chipped sapphire, skelleton leafs, hemp twine, Tim Holtz word stickers, Dina Wakley rosy paint, miniature foam roller. 

This is was an ode to my favorite season and I hope it inspired you to play along with our last Craft Stamper challenge of the year. All you have to do is link up a new project in which you have incorporated stamping. You are then in the running for fab prizes and you could even have your work featured in the magazine :) Also check out the current Art Call where reader submissions are requested for certain themed projects for the magazine. 

I'm also entering this art journal page to Art Journal Journey with the theme of My favorite season. Fantastic theme as always and I've been really enjoying playing along with the challenges this year! Looking forward to see what next year themes will be :) 

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

Little man on the moon - CSTIMI

Hey all, it's the beginning of a new month and that means the new challenge over at Craft Stamper Take it Make it blog has started. I made this cute card with The Greeting Farm stamp of the astronaut, Viva Las VegaStamps! moon and mixed media stamps and the stencil is from Stamplorations. 

The movie "First man" is out and it's inspired by it. I have yet to see the movie though - but the story is legendary. Have you seen it? Let me know what you thought of it. 

You can win a prize and possibly get your work in print too, so link up your stamped project to the blog post above to be in it to win it!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Art Journal: Diary of events

The days are getting shorter and the weather colder - what comforts me in these times besides hot drinks and snuggling on the couch with Meesha, are big bright bold colors! While cleaning up bits of my art room recently, I found a few boxes of oil pastels and decided to use them in my art journal pages. This one is another collage with vintage and modern magazine clippings and gelli prints backgrounds.

I've oil pastels marks in the same colors as the back ground and just made big bold marks with them around the collage images. I've then stamped a script stamp (Paper Artsy), row of numbers (VLVS!) and a fence stamp (Stampotique Originals) for texture.

The sentiment "diary of events" is from Tim Holtz sticker books. The juxtaposition between the black and white & grey against the bold colored background really pleases me. It reminds me that even though the day to day can be B/W & Grey - there are bold colors inside me and I can let them out any time I choose, bursting through the fences we often place ourselves behind. 

"I no longer want to fit in, I choose to be me, with bold and beautiful colors."

Hope this inspires you to play along with this month's Craft Stamper TIMI challenge. You can win a lovely prize and you'll have the chance to have your work featured in a magazine! See the full terms on the site & hope to see your entries there. 

I also would love to share this art journal page over at Art Journal Journey with the theme of Creature Comfort this month. What a great theme again and I love seeing everyone's creations!

Thank you for stopping by and hope you'll have a fantastic weekend!

Art Journal: Yes my darling, write your hopeful, beautiful and sentimental chronicles, always

Today I am sharing some inspiration for the September Take it Make it, challenge over at Craft Stamper. I've made a piece with my vintage ladies and pens clippings and started a new size journal, in my traveler's notebook. It says

"Yes my darling, write your hopeful, beautiful and sentimental chronicles, always."

and it has such a beautiful, fun whimsical feel to it. I made this page during my 30 days mini journaling project to fulfill my need for collaging. And it was good to have a bit of a break and do some journaling on a larger scale too :) Below you'll see a a few steps on how I created this spread.

Started off with collaging neutral and "old style vintage" colored papers of which I have plenty of.

Then added gesso to knock back some color, adhered my focal images with gel medium and created shadows with faber castell pitt marker in grey.

I added some darker accents with distress crayons & created a border.

Some stamping for texture. Used a few of my favorites by Viva Las VegaStamps! and Staz-On inks.

And before I added the sentiment I added some splatters to bring it all together. 

Hope this inspired you to play along with the CS TIMI challenge for this month :) 

Thanks for stopping by and have an awesome weekend!

Art Journal: Kindness - Craft Stamper Challenge August 2018

It's the first friday of the month and that means the challenge over at Craft Stamper Take it Make it blog is live. This month you can win some fun Alcohol Lift products and a winners profile post. So share your creations by linking up your projects made with a rubber stamped element. 

I'm sharing this art journal page as inspiration. I made it with StencilGirl® Diamond dance stencil, paper artsy paints, carabelle studio & indigo blue stamps and vintage magazine images. A reminder to live everyday with kindness. 

Also sharing this with my art journaling friends over at Art Journal Journey, with the theme "count your blessings" and every day is a blessing therefore living with kindness and gratitude is so very important to me. Thanks for another inspiring monthly theme Elizabeth (bluebeard) and Susi! xo

Thanks for stopping by! Have an awesome weekend!

Craft Stamper TIMI - July Challenge (believe your best state of mind)

The title says it, today I am sharing some challenge inspiration for this month's challenge over at the Craft Stamper blog. I've made a mixed media card with lots of mediums, paints and layers. The stamps I used are from AALL and Create. In this piece I made the lines chaotic and blurry, but with bright and hopeful colors. And there is a story behind the sentiment too.

The sentiment was inspired by a story one of our CSTIMI DT members shared about her depression and how difficult it can be to get out of it. And it's something I personally am also familiar with as in the past I also had depressions and in the thick of it, it's really hard to imagine that there are going to be better days. But somehow I broke through it and it's not easy, but what helps is having a different mind set and be more loving and kind towards yourself. For me personally things turned around when I started my mindfulness practice nearly 12 years ago. There are so many stages to break through, to accept, to embrace and to let go. Super hard stuff to go through, but once you start believing in your best state of mind, the voices that tell you all the these stories that make you feel less than yourself, will eventually loose their power over you. I thank our DT member for sharing her story and for reaching out. This is really important to do, so you know you are not alone and can create a supportive network. And with this I hope to give some comfort and support to those whom are struggling with depression as well. Always believe your best state of mind.

I hope this inspired you to create along with us this month at Craft Stamper and be sure to link up your projects to be in it to win some great prizes and the winner gets a feature on the magazine and blog. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have an amazing weekend!

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!

Craft Stamper TIMI - June Challenge Inspiration

Hi everyone, today I am sharing some inspiration with your for the challenge over at Craft Stamper Magazine Take It Make It challenge for June. I've made some summer tags with beach colors and fantastic mermaid images by Brian Kessinger from Viva Las VegaStamps! I usually don't make tags, so this is a departure for me but really loved making these. A few close up shots of the tags:

Discover your treasure

Be different, love yourself

The sentiments are chit chat stickers from Tim Holtz. The back ground is made with distress oxide and splatters of picket fence and a bunch of mixed media stamps. The main images are colored with alcohol markers on sticker paper and then adhered to the tags after fussy cutting. 

Come and join the challenge at the Craft Stamper TIMI blog where you can be in the running for fabulous prizes from this month's sponsor and have a chance to get your work featured in the magazine! But you must be it it to win it, so link up your projects HERE.

Thanks 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!

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!

Craft Stamper TIMI - May Challenge Inspiration

Today I wanted to share some inspiration with you for the Craft Stamper Take It Make It May Challenge. I've created this page in my junk mail art journal and the idea of this journal is to use up my trims and excess craft waste and turn it into something new. On this page I glued down a lot of excess die cut waste in a nature and flower theme. Then used some black gesso over it and got to work with DecoArt Media metallic Lustre to highlight and shine some aria's. I also used a white posca pen to accentuate some inner lines. Stamped it up with some lush mixed media stamps from VLVS! and Stamplorations. The face stamp is a boxed lady from Dina Wakley which I colored with promarkers and paired with words from the Boxed Sentiments stamp set from Stamplorations. Lastly some white spatters to bring it all together. 

Close up shot of the page. I really enjoy this technique, it's fun and simple to do!

I've made a little video on it how you can achieve the back ground look with the DecoArt Metallic Lustre which you can view here:

Hope you found that little technique video useful. Let me know by hitting that like button :)

Thank you kindly for sending me these Metallic Lustre products to play around with
DecoArt Media crew!

Hope this also inspired you to join the challenge at the Craft Stamper blog where you can be in the running for fabulous prizes from this month's sponsor and have a chance to get your work featured in the magazine! But you must be it it to win it, so link up your projects here :)

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

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!

Craft Stamper TIMI - April Challenge Inspiration

Over at Craft Stamper Take it Make it Challenge blog, the April challenge is still under way for a few more days and I am sharing this challenge inspiration piece with you. The base is a book page on which I rolled out some Paper Artsy Fresco paints in blue greens. And I used various stamps by Carabelle Studio, Designs by Rynn and VLVS! The sentiment is a beauty by Cat Kerr and something to remind yourself of when you're stepping out of your comfort zone. By the way, I stamped the umbrella girl on tissue paper, and adhered it with decoarts napkin decoupage glue. Over it I used Dina Wakley scribble sticks to blend the image with the back ground. 

You have to be in it to win it, so play along to be in the running for fab prizes and the chance to be featured on the blog and in the magazine with your art work. Do read the rules before entering. Oh and the theme is ALWAYS anything goes, just as long you have a hand stamped image on your project. Can't wait to see what you create!

Thanks for stopping by and have an awesome day!

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!

Craft Stamper TIMI - March Challenge Inspiration

Today I am sharing some challenge inspiration for this month's Craft Stamper Take it Make it March 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 That's Crafty (stamps designed by Donna Gray). I have made the above card to inspire you and it's made with wonderful layers of water color paints, stamps and die cut embellishments.

The cup of roses stamps are from Stamplorations which I stamped and embossed with white embossing powder. The Thanks die cut is from Create A Smile and wanted it ever since I saw it at the Favorites of 2017 on Jennifer McGuire's YT channel. I just love how beautiful & elegant this layered die cut is. The card is water colored with Cloves and Honey Watercolors and all the border accents are made with washi tape. I am exploring ways how to incorporate washi tape more into my work and thought this worked well in the over all design. 

Hopefully this inspired you to participate in the current challenge at Craft Stamper blog. Do link up your projects HERE 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!