Life is short. Drink Good Coffee!

Today I have a fun card to share with all Coffee lovers out there. As soon as I saw these stamp sets from STAMPlorations, I knew I had to have a few of them!! I went for the Anywhere there's coffee stamps and die set because of the above statement. So true!! Why waste your life drinking bad/mediocre coffee, right?! So last night I made a fun, quick and easy card with the Mug and coordinating die. The little hearts are made with the Candy Hearts die from Poppy Stamps, by the way.

I used the die cuts to cut out the mug and small hearts on patterned paper. Then I glued it down to a piece of coffee stained paper of which I had several lying about. Stamped in the Tim Holtz Coffee rings and splatter stamp all over and a bit inside the mug cut out. Stamped the mug and sentence with Staz On Jet black. Gave the mug a bit of shadows and accents with Tombow markers. Matted the piece on to black card stock and gave some gold and black/white accents with washi tape. For the hearts I used an inlaid layered die cut technique I saw Jennifer Mcguire doing in one of her video's. Mine definitely didn't turn out as dimensional as hers, but that's because I have only used 2-3 layers tops to get them a little raised. I also used my red wink of Stella glitter pen and glossy accents and let the hearts dry over night. They definitely do look a lot more like Candy Hearts IRL! Loved doing this technique even though it was a pain to get all the little hearts to line up and glued together! The result was worth it though!

Here is a close up of the coffee stamp sets I have bought at STAMPlorations. You can see all the phrases on the Anywhere there's coffee stamp set and I have also gotten a Coffee Petites stamp set (of which I used the round stitched die cut here) and those are so fun to use for ATC's! Can't wait to use those next!

I also wanted to share something fun the STAMPlorations blog is doing; a new release and wishlist party bloghop!

Shery and her team are celebrating their 4th anniversary with a wishlist part where, if you link up your stamplorations whishlist, like I have, you can win some prizes from it! The generosity is just beyond measure really with over 200$ worth of prizes to be won! I am loving the new words stamps and die cut sets!! And seeing they also have a Sale going on now, I couldn't help myself and ordered a few items from my wishlist anyway ;) By the way, no affiliation here what so ever, just a happy customer gladly helping out a small business (whom offer GREAT products!!)

I would also like to enter my card to these following challenges:

Cutploration challenge June - inspired by the red color and well you need Coffee with any cake, right? ;) 

June Cas Card Challenge - masculine colors

and the Never Ending Anything goes challenge

 Thanks for stopping by and have a great cuppa coffee today :)

WIP: a nebula of sea glass (FPNL club meet edition)

So last weekend on Saturday there was a mini summer meet of our wonderfully growing Fountain pens the Netherlands facebook group. We called it mini as about 15 members attended (in contrast to last time where there was nearly 40 attending) It was a bit unsure if I was able to make it due to another appointment, but thankfully the day freed up! So I could happily chat with my fellow FPgeeks about our newest acquisitions on pens and ink and try each other's, not exactly Every day carry, but the pens they had inked up at the moment. The table shot above shows only a portion of the long table the group shared and the fun we had. The pen tray in the middle and the corner left pen pouch are mine, by the way. Oh and Janine (you can see her lovely handwriting at the right on the Tracing paper) had the brilliant idea of having a Pannenkoek for lunch (wish I had thought of that!) hence the sweet powder sugar and syrup on the table.

In preparation for the pen meet, I made a currently inked listing and made sure to include a special pen which arrived only a week before. The Edison Nouveau Premiere Spring LE Seaglass from Goulet Pens Co. You can see it on this desk shot, which I am sharing over at The Stamping ground for WOYWW #422, it's the blue and pink swirly pretty one! Let me show you a close up.

There... now ain't that a pretty one? I have inked it up with Robert Oster Cherry Blossom, as it's fitting to the pink swirls in the pen. I did have to smooth out the nib though, as it wrote quite scratchy out of the box (which was unusual because most of the time these nibs are 100% smoothed and ready to write) Fortunately I have a nib smoothing kit and it took me no time to get it tuned and ready to write :) Those swirls also really inspired me to make some mixed media goodness.

I made a little background for an art journal using a marble swirl stencil, Liquitex modeling paste and Lindy's Stamp gang magicals. So much Swirly goodness! I even took it one step further and played around with some digital overlays.

I am experimenting with some digital enhancements of my art and I really love the way this is looking :) A sea glass nebula!! Oh how i wish that pen material actually existed!! But now I think it's in need on some sparkly, shiny ink, don't you think? maybe the new Nemosine Blue Snowball Nebula sparkly ink? Or I should just "shop my stash" and find a Diamine shimmering ink for it :) 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to hop by your desk later this week. 

Have a wonderful day!

Reduce, reuse, recycle - clean up ATC's!

A few weeks ago I showed you a corner of my messy desk where I was busy using up scraps from left over projects on ATC's. Today I am showing you the results.

These were made for a swap on Swap-Bot (clean up ATC's) which was hosted by Trinette and the objective was to create some artfully designed ATC's using scraps only. And yes, I have used scraps only to make these 6 cards, but instead of cleaning up my desk, the craps looked to multiply, LOL!

I tried to make a triptych of each set, with a motivational saying/sentence on each card. Some of them kinda resulted in "Engrish fortune cookie wishes", ha, but it was fun to put them all together.

Like I said, I used scraps from various projects, the Frida image is a mask I used for this project for example and I am pleasantly surprised the composition of each individual card came together like this. I also found that I like rounding off my cards with a corner punch, so it looks more like a collectible playing card.

So hanging on to your little craps can definitely be of some use! Trinette is also hosting the swap over at her instagram (though it's on summer break for now) and on Swap-Bot so check it out over in the fall if you are interested :)

I would like to enter these in the following challenges:
Try it on Tuesday - Letters, numbers or both


Happy Little Stampers ATC challenge June - Flowers
 (3 of the ATC's here have partial flowers in them)
Also super exciting HLS is hosting an ATC challenge!
Not many of them are out there!

ATC around the world challenge #30 - Flowers

Mix It Up - anything goes plus option stamping

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Mail Art Monday: Received Swaps Feature VLVS!

Hey friends, on today's Mail Art Monday, I wanted to do something different. You have seen me reveal all the swaps I sent, but I am sure you are also wondering about the swaps I receive. Well I thought it would be fun to periodically show some fun envies I get in the mail from talented artists out there. Today I am featuring some envies I got in the mail from our Viva Las VegasGroupies swap on facebook from last month. It was a color these with grey and blue and you could only use VLVS! images.

This lovely envelope was made by my fellow DT member Shanna Shands.  I love the gorgeous airy feel it has and the quote stamp from Banksy is just fantastic! By the way, the fountain pen on this envelope which I used to cover my address is the Sailor Pro Gear Slim Four Seasons Haruzora Sky Blue.

This envelope is sent to me by Michele Kosciolek (also our swap host of the group) and I love the circular theme she used and that vintage image on the top left corner is beautifully placed. I actually ordered this stamp as well as it's such a great image. The fountain pen I used to cover my address here is the Edison Nouveau Premier Spring edition 2017 Seaglass from Goulet Pens Co. 

Thanks so much ladies fro your wonderful swaps :) Also be sure to check out our Mail Art Monday posts over at Viva Las VegaStamps! to see tutorials and join our groupies FB page to be notified for monthly swaps! 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Art Journal: Enlighten we are on a spiritual journey

Today I would like to show you an experiment in my art journal using heat embossing over modeling paste. I've used the enlighten stencil from Donna Downey Studio's as my focal point in combination with this amazing Journey Collage stamp from Stampotique Originals.

I started off by prepping an A5 page with black and gold gesso from The Crafter's Workshop. Then I took my pallet knife and scraped some light and fluffy modeling paste (also from TCW)  through the stencil. I let this dry really well.

To add some color I sprayed some Dylusions sprays in yellow and red over it and some perfect pearl glimmer mist too. It gives the gesso's background also a really beautiful shimmery shine.

Sadly I don't have a in between photo of the embossed parts, because I had to work quickly but patiently not to over heat anything. I first stamped Carabelle Studio effervescence stamp and the Journey Collage stamp by Stampotique Originals with versamark and interference violet  WOW embossing powder over it. I heat set everything with my heating tool in parts making sure things didn't bubble up.  Then I took the effervescence stamp and stamped with versamark again on the corners and embossed with Opaque white embossing powder. I did the same thing with the words "we are on a spiritual journey" to emphasize that sentiment. When everything was heat set I spayed more sunshine yellow dylusions spray on the bulb and added neocolor in back for outline and shading. The word enlighten is outlines with a black posca marker. It's a gorgeous shimmery page in real life and I just love this mindful art journal page. 

I would love to enter this art journal page in the following challenges: 

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #37 - A year of choices

Combining #32 and #36 of this past year's challenges

WOW Embossing June Challenge

Stampotique Designer's Challenge "Stencil It"

And my last entry for the Stamps and Stencils' Challenge Words with meaning

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