Oh what a day, what a lovely day!

Over at Viva Las VegaStamps blog a new monthly challenge has begun. This time they are also pairing it with a swap hosted through their facebook group on their events page. I love trading ATC's so I definitely signed up for this one. The theme is STEAMPUNK and I let myself be inspired by words from their inspiration post like rusty, steampunk, mail art, pipes,vintage, metal,copper, gold, bronze, nickel, handles, diving, divers and more! The pictures below of the items I made is the result of the inspiration.

Stamps used Whimsical Diver from plate 1436 and the phrase "Oh what a day, what a lovely day" (from Mad Max) from plate 1473. Some really awesome stamps are all on the plate, but I wanted to put the focus on these two in my designs.

Each of my partners (and Dee from VLV store) will get a set like this.

Close up of the ATC: The background is made with distress inks Old paper, vintage photo and aged mahogany with a blending tool. Then I took this stencil from Dylusions and dabbed some more aged mahogany through it. I have masked the diver while doing this. Stamped the sentiment with Memento tuxedo black. The diver is then colored with promarkers and the piece matted on black card stock.

I then made a notecard with the same stamps. Background (yellow notecards) went through my cuttlebug with a gears and cogs embossing folder. Fter that I rubbed bronze, silver and copper pearl metallic rubs over the raised embossed parts to make it looked aged. The diver as well as the sentiment is stamped on gessoed and brusho'd kraft paper. Matted and lined with a black marker and outlined with a white gel pen. Then adhered it all with tape runners to the cards. 

I am pretty pleased with the end result! I think I might make another one to keep for myself, but hopefully my partners will like receiving this steampunk inspired set :) 

Needless to say that I am entering these for this month's challenge at VLVs Blog, so wish me luck :) You can still enter until the end of the month, so play along if you want to.

Hope this inspired you to get your steampunk hat on :)

ETA: It's totally amazing! I've been chosen as one of the July winners with this piece, huzzah!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

namasté

Shopping Highlight: Posthumus in Amsterdam

To say that this is a dangerous place for a rubberstamp aholic like me, is an understatement. Posthumus store in the centre of Amsterdam is a well known place since 1865. They are in an Ally next to the Amsterdam Museum, a tucked away little gem of a shop. As their blurb on the 'about us' page from the website says:

Set in one of the most historical parts of the city center of Amsterdam is the Royal Posthumuswinkel, a  "winkel" (shop) that has been making and selling custom-made stamps of every kind since 1865. The store is a landmark for lovers of rubber stamps and stationary.You can find not only a seemingly limitless array of stamps, but also beautiful paper, envelopes, inks of all colors and sealingwax. The store is somewhat of a museum too, with antique letters with embossed letterheads an monograms, antique engraving machine, and old photographs of the store.The time-layered ambience gives a lovely sense of nostalgia, but the diverse stock accommodates modern times.

 And true to their word, the store is packed full with gorgeous stamping and stationery materials. A few examples of their stamps on display:

Gorgeous Zenspirations stamps

And I could not leave without this stamp because of the true statement of this sentiment:

You can also follow some workshops and make and takes at the store mostly given by Miranda Degenaars. I was lucky to have done a few, which were very inspiring!

1. End result workshop roses , 2. Roses rubberstamping workshop , 3. Inspirational rubberstamping workshop at #posthumus #amsterdam result of part one, 4. Inspirational rubberstamping workshop at #posthumus #amsterdam

Hope this inspired you and when you are in the aria, don't forget to visit this wonderful shop.

Thanks for stopping by!

Namaste