Art Journal: I think I just Threw up in my mouth (Stampotique New Release day!)

It's the 1st of the new month and that means it's New Release day at Stampotique Originals!! There are 6 new images out and I'll be showcasing them for you this coming week. I'm starting off with a design by Daniel Torrente and he is called Blackeyed. I think he's wonderfully morose looking and I have paired him up with a phrase from Terri Ridchardson from last month's release. I just love the sarcasm and witty humor the cube phrases have. Normally this phrase would be used in a negative setting, ie when someone dislikes something, but I used it in another way, like how excited are you for the new stamp releases? Yep, so excited I think I just threw up in my mouth ;)

Blackeyed was colored with alcohol letraset markers and fussy cut and adhered to the background. Which I made on a Distress Oxide base and stamped on with Kate's Texture Cube with my Kalaeida colors ink pad in fall colors. By the way, you can read here how I made the backgrounds with Distress Oxides.

Hope you are excited for the new releases as we are :) Come check out our facebook page where we share more images of the new releases and also check out our challenges at the Challenge blog. This fortnight's challenge is "backgrounds" and next week I'll share an inspiration for that too (but hopefully this also inspired you to make some fun backgrounds with our fun textures stamps and oxides :) 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

WIP: More watercolor play

Last night I had a bit of a play with my now complete travel kit watercolor palette! It's filled with some traditional new old stock Schminke, Pfeiffer Arts Watercolors (gifted to me by a lovely friend) and Cloves and Honey Shimmering watercolors and I am loving this palette. It is a joy to use them and I do love the Princeton brush to work with so I might just tuck it in my pen pouch as an add on to my traveling kuretake water brush which is also coming with me.

The bee I colored in is part of a contest organized by Tori Weyers at Drawriot and she shared her lovely bee drawing with us and if you color it in and repost in Instagram, you´re in the running to win a 1/2 pan of Portland Pink Shimmering watercolor by Cloves and Honey. They are partnering up for this amazing City and Sea class and if I didn't have so much else going on, I would have signed up. But I do desire the Portland pink color so much, and this little bee is so cute I decided to have a go and join the fun contest. 

But gosh it was a pain to have it printed on watercolor paper though! My printer just wouldn't have it but in the end, it did work out! Also I am pleased to see that my inkjet printer ink seemed to be water and smudge proof! Hurrah for that test coming through well!

Talking about giveaways, if you haven't seen it, I am also hosting a giveaway and added a lot of my fave goodies to share, including one of the watercolor pans from Cloves and Honey, which was an exclusive in one of her sets. This giveaway package is an accumulation of stuff I have set aside over the year and it turned out it was nearly a 1,5 kg box full of stuff! Time to actually give it away to someone!! I have met so many wonderful creative people in my creative journey and this is just a small way to say thank you to everyone whom have been so supportive an encouraging. So hop on over to that post if you are interested in entering it. 

Sharing this desk shot with my friends over at Julia's Blog for WOYWW this week. Finally another artsy desk shot to share. Share yours if you would like to join in the conversation and fun with other wonderful creative people. 

Thank you for stopping by and have an awesome day!

#MTepicgiveaway (CLOSED!)

Hey everyone! Like I have announced over on my social hang outs, I have been working on an epic giveaway for you guys as gratitude for your support in my creative journey. I have gathered so many wonderful goodies for you which includes a TON of my favorite products which you can see below.

This giveaway package will include:

Dina Wakley white Gesso

Liquitex Muted collection heavy body paint in Rose

Cloves and Honey LE Dr. Girlfriend shimmering watercolor

Cuttlebug embossing folders

3 Andy Skinner Mixed Media Stencils

Dovecraft rubbertamp pigment ink cacao

Dovecraft alphabet stamp set

Aurelie tulip clear stamp set

Joy crafts poppy clear stamp

Steadtler micron drawing pens

Sakura Gelly roll sampler pack

Tombow Dual Brush Pens sampler

Caran 'd ache Suracolor Discovery set

and more...

Some close up pictures

YES! ONE lucky person will receive all of this yummy goodness!

What do you need to do to enter this giveaway?

1) Follow @MissThundercat on instagram

2) Repost the giveaway picture

3) Make sure to use hashtag #MTepicgiveaway AND have an open account but no giveaway accounts! (yes it is open Internationally!)

Steps 4 and 5 are for additional entries

4) Follow my Facebook page and my blog and comment on both giveaway posts

5) Repost the giveaway picture on Facebook/Twitter and comment here with the link to the repost (tagging me on twitter is also an option)

The giveaway is open until September 8th midnight CET and the winner will be chosen at random via Random.org, will be announced in the weekend after the giveaway is closed 

The winnings will be shipped shortly after. 

Disclaimer: This giveaway is in no way sponsored or administrated by blogger/instagram/facebook or twitter. These are items I have purchased myself and are new or only used for review purposes.

Good luck Thank you all again for your support in my creative journey! 

Art Journal: There is no place like home

Today I am sharing a journal page I have made a while back on the theme "what is home?"

I've moved from Amsterdam to Leiden now I think 12 years ago and it took me a while to call this city my home, but I do love it here now. I tried to convey my feelings for this city in this art journal spread. It is going to be a picture heavy post of details of this spread, so you'll see more after the cut.

It's ok to just breathe

Today I am sharing the make of a card of which a similar one was published earlier this year in the in May. It's a bit of a personal story why I made this card and this is what I shared with the Craft Stamper's New Beginnings section of the magazine back in May:

What triggered me with this theme is the fact that to me every day is a new

beginning. With every day you can start a new and it's okay if you did "No Thing" and

just breathe. This card is designed to send someone comfort in difficult times, Like

when someone is suffering from a Burn-Out. The traditional "get well soon card" just

isn't what someone needs in that position and I am speaking from experience. The

sentiment "Just breathe, you are here" is so much kinder. It helps one to re-frame

one’s mind and begin again.

When you have suffered from a Burn-Out (like I have now 2 1/2 years ago) it is not in your healing process to receive cards like "hope you'll be your old-self soon" and "get well soon" because it actually works counter productive. Every one of us takes their own time to heal.  So I am sharing the make of this card so that in case you wanted to make something similar to someone who needs to hear this message.

I started off with covering a gelli printed ghost print with disstress inks and blended them with a blending tool. The colors I chose were pickled raspberry, wild honey and shabby shutters. I thought they made a nice blend together.

Then I did some stamping with Indigo Blue Ledger & splats, coffee rings from Tim Holtz and spatter drops by Marianne Crafts stamps with Staz-On Royal Purple.

As my focal point I chose Marsha from Stampotique Originals because I like her and she will be pointing towards the sentiment. She is stamped in black so that when I cut her out and adhere her, the details like shoe laces will be there.

I colored her in with letraset promarkers (alcohol markers) on sticker paper.

Fussy cut her out and adhered to the page.

Grounded her with washi tape and the "you are here" is also a washi tape.

I added a few more Tim Holtz texture stamps in blue and green colors in the background for more interest and then added the beautiful sentiment from Viva Las VegaStamps!

"sometimes it's okay if the only thing you did today was breathe"

As a final touch I added some color with distress crayons in the similar colors as the inks I used. 

It was a pleasure to combine stamps as focal point by my 2 fave companies I have the honor to work with, Stampotique Originals and Viva las VegaStamps! 

I really loved making this card design, it was such a calming and healing process. I hope this will also be the case for you and that you can send a card like this to someone whom needs to hear just this message. 

Have a wonderful day and thank you so much for stopping by!