brusho in my journal

I have been playing ...

... with my latest toys - the brusho inks that everyone is using!  Who knew that this stock item in every primary school art cupboard could be so much fun!!

Whenever I use something new I start with my favourite colours - just lovin' that turquoise!!  Because it's an ink powder, splashing spots of water on the page and dabbing it off (one of my favourite techniques of the moment) doesn't work once the ink is dry, but I managed to catch it before it dried and got a lovely effect.  I'm happier splashing water on my pages than bleach!

I think Nina looks right at home on this double spread journal page, and Daniel's circles give lots of choice for a sun!

Stampotique stamps used

Nina  #5824  by Magda Polakow

When I grow up  #8993  from Carol's Collection

Circles cube  #6184 by Daniel Torrente

Daisy daisy  #3002  by Jo Capper-Sandon

romantic text  #10028  by France Papillon

2 nuages (Fr)  #9248  by Janet Klein

40 stars

A friend of mine is forty at the weekend so I set too to make a birthday card.

I am much more suited to art journally, splodgy tags or pages though, than cards.  This one had to have stars

i) because I got a smudge of ink on the clean white card

ii) because I smudged pritt stick on a clean white space on the card

iii) because it turns out I no longer have '40' confetti in my confetti drawer!!

There are 40 of them though ;)

Stampotique stamps used:

birthday cake cube with candles #9148  by Janet Klein

happy, happy  #9007  by Janet Klein

dreams

Just fancied making a tag featuring Midge and some stars!

Love how it came together :)

Stampotique stamps used:

Grow your Dreams  #7321  by Maria Sabina Raita

Small Moon  #3045  by Jo Capper-Sandon

Daisy, Daisy  #3082  by Jo Capper-Sandon

Midge  #9190  by Janet Klein

Barcode  #10019  by France Papillon

Row of Numbers  #7213  by Amy Wilson Wellenstein

a little flower

Really enjoyed making this little postcard :)  After using a stencil with spray inks I added colour with ink on a sponge and some background stamping.

The flowers were stamped in grey and added to the postcard (I just love that black and white contrast with colour!) before finishing it off with a suitable quote.

Stampotique stamps used:

text block #3    by Amy Wilson Wellenstein

sunflower large  by Janet Klein

sunflower medium  by  Janet Klein

living is not enough   by Carol's Collection

back to my art journal

Been playing in my journal again :)

I used some 'scratch paper' as the background for my page then played with my Stampotique stamps.

This is in my 'paperback book' sized journal which I got from Paperchase aaaaaages ago but love for it's different size.

Stampotique stamps used:

2 nuages (fr)  #9248 by Janet Klein

row of numbers  #7213  by Amy Wilson Wellenstein

numeric  #7164  by Amy Wilson Wellenstein

barcode  #10019  by France Papillon

raindrops  #5820  by Magda Polakow

dog  #2433  by Roc Nicholas

rain text  #12022   by Linda Peterson

daisy, daisy  #3002  by Jo Capper-Sandon

stencilled tag

I got some new stencils the other day and really enjoyed playing with them alongside my Stampotique stamps.

And being me, that play involved a tag.  After laying down a colourful background I went for clean and simple imagery (I just love these sunflowers and am so glad I have both, they work so well together).

I'm thinking it'll work well mounted on an art journal page made from some of the papers I made yesterday.

Stampotique stamps used:

sunflower large  #9256  by Janet Klein

sunflower medium  #9257  by Janet Klein

paris postcard  #8964  Carol's collection

Meet Cinth and say Hi!

Although she's a touch un-seasonal she's a jolly, good-natured little person who lives very happily, just the kind of person you want to be around!

Stampotique stamps used:

Dotted Line  #7107  by Amy Wilson Wellenstein

Antique Description  #7228  by Amy Wilson Wellenstein

Design Cube  #10012  by France Papillon

Hiya Cinth  #9174  by Janet Klein

Sunflower large  #9256  by Janet Klein

dreaming on a journal page

Still working in my little passport sized Moleskine journal but with only two pages left it's very nearly complete.  I switch between working in different sized journals depending on my mood, so I must be going through a small journal phase at the moment!!

This isn't want I originally intended for this image but that's the great thing about journaling, ideas flow as you work with the imagery (and I still have my original idea to work on!!).

It makes me think of the story of 'Where the wild things are' for some reason!!

Stampotique stamps used:

Dreamer  #12003  Linda Peterson

2 Nuages (Fr)  #9248  Janet Klein

Grow your dreams  #7231  Maria Sabina Raita

Sunflower medium  #9257  Janet Klein

Baroque background  #7109  Amy Wilson Wellenstein

art journaling with Stampotique

I love these little quails of Janet Klein's and use them quite a bit in my journals.

It's the busiest time of year for me at the minute, but that'll finish today when school finishes for the Summer.  So I'm sharing a journal page I made a while ago using my Stampotique stamps - I've loved this company's images for a long, long time.

I rarely write in my journals but I do enjoy using snippets from book; old books often have the most fantastic phrases.

Stampotique stamps used:

Quails cube  #9211   by Janet Klein

Daisy Daisy  #3002  by Jo Capper-Sandon 

Happy Birthday!

My little girl was 17 this week and as she's just finished a dance show Hazel dancing was the perfect image!

I used one of my new stamps 'Baroque background' for the grass, and Janet's lovely clouds cover up all the black smudges I can't help but add to my cards!!!

A few sparkles in the daisies and I was happy with my card.  Sorry for the short post, it's sheer madness at work at the moment!

Stampotique Stamps Used:

Dance  #12024  by Linda Peterson

Baroque Background  #7109  by Amy Wilson Wellenstein

Daisy, Daisy  #3002  by Jo Capper-Sandon

2 Nuages (Fr)  #9248  by Janet Klein

simple pleasures

I'm back at work after my op and this is a majorly busy time in school so just a quick card from me today!!

The bicycle and bikeride text are both from Janet Klein's new collection.  Aren't they gorgeous?!

I added extra flowers to the basket (I hope Janet doesn't mind!) by stamping them on more card and cutting them out.  There's some sparkles in there too!

Stampotique stamps used:

Bicycle  #9254 by Janet Klein

Bikeride Text  #9255 by Janet Klein

what if this isn't me?

I've been doing a lot of 'rummaging around' on the internet recently, watching you tube videos, visiting lots of blogs, and I kept seeing clouds!  

So I decided to use Janet's wonderful '2 nuages' for this week's project for Stampotique.

I started with a glassine envelope and decided I'd like a dark blue tag tucked inside to give the impression of a blue sky.

I LoVe AA Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories and knew I'd find a cloud quote there as Pooh pretends to be a cloud in an attempt to get some honey from up a tree.  If you don't know the story I can highly recommend it; you can read it here, although the very best way (in my opinion) is to listen to the wonderful Alan Bennett read it to you.  I have it on cassette so am very pleased to discover it's now available on itunes!!

But whilst googling the quote I came across another one from a different Pooh bear story which just made me smile, and since I have a rabbit stamp...!

Stampotique Stamps used:

2 nuages by Janet Klein  #9248

Upward Bound by Maria Sabina Raita  #7310

Thanks for visiting!

Stampotique blog hop celebrating the new releases

Welcome to the Stampotique blog hop!  Thispost will remain at the top of my blog whilst the hop is live.

Kim kicked it all of on the Stampotique Designers' Challenge blog so if you didn't arrive here from 

Kaz Boughton's blog 'Slightly Wonky Crafts' 

then please head over here to start the hop (after you've finished visiting me of course ;).  

We are celebrating the launch of the new images released today, which, if you are a fan of our Facebook page you may already have got a sneak peek!  There are lots of images from our favourite stamp designers and we welcome our newest designer, Magda Polakow, who is also a very talented member of our design team.  I've used her raindrops on my altered envelope :)

new release Stampotique stamps used:

raindrops   #5820 Magda Polakow

sunflower lge  #9256 Janet Klein

sunflower medium  #9257 Janet Klein

french journal page  #10015 France Papillon

bike text  #9255 Janet Klein

....and I can see the french journal page being a new favourite!  I have to say though, it was very difficult, choosing which stamps to use to make a project for the hop, there are so many lovely new ones!!  I've already added some more to my wishlist.

Don't forget to leave comments on each of the blogs for your chance to win some goodies - we will be randomly drawing two winners for a $30 gift certificate for Stampotique stamps at the Stampotique online store.  The new stamps are available over there now. There's also an extra chance to win over at your final destination, the Stampotique Designers' bloghttp://stampotiqueoriginals.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/call-for-stampotique-creations.html, where there is also a special announcement.

Thanks for visiting!  The next blog to hop to is 

'Made by Chook' 

where you'll meet the very talented Corrie Herriman.   Blog hop winners will be announced on the Stampotique Designers' blog when the next challenge is announced, on April 23, 2014. 

new release stampotique stamps used:

Gucio walking  #5821 Madga Polakow

barcode  #10019 France Papillon

Barcode text  #10020 France Papillon

french journal page  #10015 France Papillon

a touch of art journaling

 I hope you've enjoyed the Stampotique blog hop; it's still open for another few days if you've not had chance to join in yet.  I've continued to enjoy playing with the new stamps and this time decided to make a journal page.

One of France's new stamps says

so I decided to use this as a challenge for a page.  I can't say I pushed myself out of my comfort zone with my colour choices, but I did by

- stamping the words and phrases 'cockeyed' rather than vertical or horizontal

- adding doodled marks

- using different inks which blotched and didn't blend in, and leaving them on the page rather than trying to blend them in

I wasn't sure about this page at first but it's growing on me ;)  What would you do to move outside your comfort zone in the projects you make?  I'd love to know.

Stampotique stamps used:

comfort zone text  #10021 France Papillon

french journal page  #10015 France Papillon

barcode text  #10020 France Papillon

barcode  #10019 France Papillon

bike text  #9255 Janet Klein

calendar squares cube  #6094 Daniel Torrente

Stampotique Scraplings

I just discovered scraplings!!  They seem to have been around a long time but they'd passed me by until now.  I'm sharing them over on the Stampotique Designers' blog today.

If you've not come across them either, they are the by-product of turning an A5 card into a square.  I love working 'small' so these were right up my street, especially since I added some pages using pamphlet stitch and turned them into mini books :)

Stampotique Stamps used

Carrot

Happy, happy

Abstract foliage

If you head on over to the Stampotique blog you'll find an extra scrapling on that post!!  Here's a sneek peak!

Are scraplings new to you too or am I the only one who missed them?