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!

Pens and Ink: Favorites of 2017

Even though my pens and inks post were few and far in between this year, I still have been using and enjoying my fountain pens pretty much daily and wanted to share my top 10 faves similar to what I have done last year. It was tough to narrow it down but these made the cut. You can see most of them in action on my instagram account Present and Connected and half of them are made by small business owners and are handmade. They are not placed in a particular order,  I really enjoy using them all equally! From left to right: Momiji leafs in night sky made by 18111.com, TWSBI ECO turquoise (special edition), Mojito by Woodshed PenCo, Lecai with Twsbi stub nib, Franklin Christoph model 45 in blue pink black (special edition), Herbert Pen Company Pink seaglass, Sailor Sapporo Purple Cosmos with music nib, Pelikan M625 Ruby with BB nib and the Edison Nouveau Premiere Seaglass LE of spring 2017 (a collaboration of Goulet Pens and Edison PenCo). Let's take a closer look at them.

Art Journal: Inhale the future

Last week I shared some really great news with you all and today is my first post over at the VLVS! DT inspiration blog, yay! I created a mindful journal page to ring in the new year with warmth, a hopeful message and a resolution of some sort. 

Feed your Soul. 

Inhale the future, exhale the past. 

Enlighten! 

Do all things with LOVE. 

This page was created during the first couple of days of the new year and the process was really meditative. The steps of the process you can see below and I used stamps from VLVS! plate 1475 which has wonderful stamps to incorporate in mindful, meditative art journal pages. 

I trimmed the page to fit in my new spiral bound journal with black pages. I often do very colorful work so I like the fact that the journal automatically matted the adhered page.

For a detailed descriptive process/tutorial and more pictures, please visit my post at the VLVS!DT inspiration blog. 

The materials used:Stamps from Viva Las Vega Stamps!Feed your soul 

Inhale the future 

Do All Things with LOVE 

Yoga Lotus position Silhouette 

Double Tree pose Silhouette 

Lotus Petal Design Silhouette 

Small lightbulb

Stencils:

Crealies sunburst straight 

Crafter's workshop Balzer Zia Sun mask 

Donna Downey Enlighten

Inks/spray/paint:
Distress inks: squeezed lemonade, mustard seed, spiced marmelade, fired brick

Memento tuxedo black

Stazon: jet black, black cherry, rusty brown, timber brown, mustard yellow

Ranger perfect pearl spray Kiwi, dina wakely mica sprays, dylusions lemon zest

Faber castell Pitt markers
Spectrum Noir Red Sparkle brush pen
Perfect Pearl metallic Rub on paste in gold and red

Mediums/glue:

Crafter's workshop Gold Gesso

Crafter's workshop fluffy modeling paste

Miracle tape

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

Round up of 2015

Well it has been an interesting year, to say the least. It's been a year of reflection and reconnection for me. Also finding the courage to make a major decision half way through the year has brought me closer to myself and back onto a path I would like to continue and follow through in 2016 and beyond. Being mindful every step of the way and trying to keep a healthy and balanced life.

In 2015 I also found my way back to creativity, joining an awesome design team for Lost Coast Designs and Carmen Veranda Stamps with fellow Inkadinkadutchie ladies has definitely contributed to that. And being an Ambassador for the Swap-Bot site and connecting with wonderful people there year after year is amazing. By the way, I forgot to share my Ambassador profile piece that was published on the swap-bot blog early december here.

I wanted to share the mail art pieces I made and sent over the year here as a creative round up of the year.You can flick through the album below to see what I've sent out over the year.

Wishing everyone a safe NYE and wonderful and creative 2016!

Namasté,

Tarah