Mail Art Monday: Libélula

Today I would like to share another postcard I made with the Dragonfly hand carved stamp I created a little while ago. This one was sent to Ana in France whom suggested the name for my stamp :) It's made with Lindy's Magicals, Katzelkraft Les Rondes stamps and distress ink. The sentiment stamp is from Stampotique Originals.

In the end I also added some white spatters with gesso and it was mailed off with these other happy envies and postcards :) 

It's been such great weather lately, looks like spring jumped right into summer! Hope you all are enjoying these beautiful sunny days as well!

Entering this in the following challenges
 Let's Craft and Create #125 create your own background challenge
Paper Creator's challenge #58 - bright and bold
Simon says stamp monday challenge "we're going around in circles" 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Mini Art Journal: No More Questioning

A while back I made the above page in my mini art journal with some gorgeous stamps from Katzelkraft and I thought it was done like this. The empty space of the background, which is made with Brusho crystals and dylusions sprays, would leave room for suggestion. But after staring at the page for a while and having made this spread on the next pages (excess baggage) it inspired me to get my letter stamps set from Eline's Hand lettering line out again and stamp in a quote that felt right.

When I am in my art room creating stuff, I love to listen to music while doing so. And Katy Perry's tunes are among my fave to listen to (this Peacock mailart piece was also inspired by her music) and the lyrics from the song "Love Me" inspired me to add the following quote to the page.  

"There is no more questioning, I'll be the one defining who I'm going to be" 

Sometimes it's hard, to pave your own path, with opinions and comparisons clouding your view of yourself. It's good to remind yourself that it's OK to be you. Wherever you are, on whatever path you are on, you're in charge of your own life. And it's OK to just BE YOU and not what everyone else expects you to be or think you should be. I feel like I have grown and learned so much about myself over the past year and a half. It still fills me with so much gratitude thinking about the moment I've decided to just stop and BE ME. So I hope this weekend you will take a moment, to stop, breathe and appreciate who you are. Embrace yourself with all your complexities and troubles and tell yourself, it's OK, you're you and it's all OK. Like Dr. Seuss said "Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!" ... Hmm, that's a good quote for another spread I think :) 

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

namasté

Mailart Monday: Affectionate Seahorses

After a slight intermission of Mailart Monday's I am back with some new work to show you. Over at Stampotique challenge blog, this fortnight the theme is mailart, so of course I decided it would be fun to make something for that. I chose to make a fun sea themed postcard.

I've had these fun seahorses stamps by Stampotique Originals, Rudy and Roger, for a while now and finally decided to use it. I have stamped them on sticker paper and colored them in with letraset pro-markers. The background is made with a gelli plate stencil print which I then dabbed over with Distress ink Broken China and Memento Danube Blue with a blending tool. I stamped the circles from Katzelkraft on with Staz-on Midnight blue and Opaque green. I cut out the seahorses and adhered them to the card. That little speech bubble with heart is a stamp from Mini Punkt which I also stamped on sticker paper and adhered to the card. I found a fun border stamp which I used on the edges and stamped the phrase in French "bien affectueusement" which means "very affectionately" in English to finish off. I also covered the back of the PC this time.

I folded over the gelli print on the sturdy cardboard base I used for the PC. It didn't cover the back completely so I added a strip of sticker paper in the middle. Those sticker papers are just so handy! Then used the same techniques as on the front of the card and added some more mail art related stamps from Artemio, font from Technique Tuesday and mini envelopes from Craft and Things. I usually never cover the back like this, so this was a fun experiment to do. I'm happy how it turned out :) 

You can still join in the Stampotique August Challenge until tomorrow. Hope this inspired you to grab your stamps and tools and make some mail art :) 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

namasté

Craftorij Summer Challenge week 3

Another update on the Craftorij Summer Challenge. Oh boy, these have been so fun to make! But finding the time to do them daily has been proven yet again a challenge. Last year this was around the time I called it quits, but not this year! Maybe it also helped that I combined the challenges with some swap bot swap themes, to give me some extra incentive to make the pieces. At any rate, I'm actually quite proud I made it this far :) 

I left off with number 14 last time and continuing on from that...

CZC 15 - The Weather

Sadly an accurate description of dutch summer :( Stamps from Viva Las VegaStamps and Carabelle

CZC 16 - Monochromatic

I also entered my piece "no love for the lovelorn" for this theme, ut I had a fun Brusho Olive green background which I made with bubble plastic which I wanted to use. Then stamped the grunge background from Carmen's Veranda and the Leonardo Woman from Lost Coast Designs over it. 

CZC 17 - Boardgame

This theme got me stumped for a while... Not sure how I feel about this piece, but well, it does come together as a whole. Stamps from De Stempelwinkel and background from Carmen's Veranda. 

CZC18 - Use markers with 2 different nibs

Background is a piece left over from the Nickle Teal Time Wash which I stamped Katzelkraft rounds on. The stamps with fish on them are from Viva Las VegaStamps. I used letraset promarkers to color this and the quote from Big Fish "The biggest fish in the river gets that way by never being caught" is written with a tombow fudenosuke brush pen. I sent this piece for the swap WIYM- Handmade postcard Fish swap.

CZC 19 - (Item of) your bucket list

Something I ticked off my bucketlist earlier this year, a hot air balloon ride at sunrise over Kapadokya. Stamp is from Carmen's Veranda on a brusho background. Colored in with Tombow brush markers. 

CZC 20 - use an image of a man

Van Gogh stamp is from Carmen's Veranda and the VG quote stamp is from Magenta. Background is structure paint through a stencil, brusho effects, left over mono prints from the gelli plate, and a cityscape napkin. This piece is sent for "HMPC put a napkin on it" swap.

CZC 21 - the 7th word of the 17th page of a book

I used Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman from H. Murakami, the word is "blushed"

background is a test paper piece where I cleaned off stencils and stamps. The woman is from Viva Las VegaStamps and the text from PaperArtsy. 

That was it for week 3!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day :)

namasté 

Art Journal - Today is a gift

Recently we went to see Kung Fu Panda 3 in the cinema. I totally loved it. The movie was full with inspirational quotes, zen and mindfulness related ones that I would love to use in my projects. This quote is from one of the movies 

"Yesterday is history,
tomorrow is a mystery,
today is a gift,
that's why they call it present"
- master Oogway.

With yesterday being  Liberation Day, it is definitely a fitting quote!
 I wrote it down with a Swan fountain pen and AM turquoise Calligraphy ink on a background I had previously made. The background is a color wash with Distress Stains and glimmer mist sprays. Stamped over with Viva Las Vegas nibs and dip pen stamp. Also used impression Obsession Fountain Calligraphy pen rubber stamps. I stamped Lost Coast Designs Loopy Calligraphy background stamp with versamark on the edges and embossed with WOW violet interference. It has a nice shimmer to it!

I took a page in my art journal and decorated the edges as my Tip-in piece is smaller than the journal pages. I used Distress Stains, diluted with water and adhered with a brush on the page. Dried with heat tool and stamped with Brilliance ink, staz on and distress ink with stamps from Designs by Rynn (textures) and Katzetkraft (rounds). When I was satisfied with the look of it I adhered the qoute page on it.

This is the finished page in my art journal with a detail shot of the embossed parts. In the end I added some shadow to the lettering with a black fine liner. I love how the colors pop in the middle with the dark frame around it. 

A good reminder to treat today as a gift and enjoy the present :)

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

namasté