Hello Stampotique!

I LoVe this image of 'Midge' but was a bit worried that it would be hard to use differently to Dina Wakley whose work I love and who uses it so distinctively.

But I just worry too much!!  Playing around with an image, with your own collection of stamps and inks, means you end up using it in your own style!  After making a few tags recently I decide on an envelope as a base.  It may end up as a page in a newly created journal,

... or on a journal page!  I quite like it with all that white background :)

Stampotique Stamps Used

Midge

Text Stars

Upward Bound (I used the balloon string behind Midge)
Journey Collage
Tall Word Collage

Papillon postcard

Happy new year!!
I've been sorting out my craft room and came across a colour copy of the back of an old postcard so I decided to use it as the base of a tag.

There came a point in it's making when I really didn't like this tag!  I'd coloured the middle moth but re-stamping it onto plain white paper and gluing it over the top retrieved it for me.  I repeated this for the other butterfly and moth too.

 The green at the top was still a little too green but a smudge of cream paint through a stencil here and there knocked it back a little and now I like it :)

I seem to have a theme going in my journals at the moment, but I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with these brightly coloured backgrounds!  Although I do quite like this tag on there ....

a tag and an apron

Being ill just after Christmas is rubbish (I've had some kind of sickness bug) but after a couple of days reading, sleeping, perusing Pinterest and watching i-player (I don't know what I'd do without my i-pad!!!) I was well enough to sit up and play with my inks and stamps.

I used some Tim Holtz stamps from the 'mini muse' and 'purely random' sets, enjoying adding tiny bits of detail to the background of my manilla tag.

I just couldn't resist finishing it off with a scattering of hydrangeas.

Now all the presents are opened I can share some sewing I did just before Christmas for a friend of mine.  She loves 'dottie angel' so I decided to make a dottie-angel inspired apron.  It includes a little up-cycling - I found a denim shirt in my fabric collection and used the button edge to make the ties and the pocket as an extra pocket on the front.

finally started making my Christmas cards!!

I bought this little Starbird from Art from the Heart in plenty of time to make my Christmas cards but I always end up making them 'on demand' or after I've finished work for the holidays.

It's partly because I need that adrenalin rush to get my act together, and partly because I'm so busy at work at this time of year that I just don't have the energy.

I love CAS cards at Christmas, and also love to add a little bit of stitching.  The washi tape is from hobbycraft and I coloured the bird with derwent inktense pencils.  I also made myself a little tag :)

Happy Christmas everyone!!!

numbers in my art journal

Started a new journal this morning.  This one's A5 in size.

I stamped some numerals and text, sprayed through a stencil then added patches of ink with my baby wipe, and by directly spraying onto the page.

I had a scrap of paper with 'row of numbers' stamped on it so I added this to the page before piling on a variety of rub-ons and some scraps of numbers from packaging.

two

I love these little clouds by Stampotique.  I love words and numerals so had a quick play with a tag and the theme 'two'.

The balloons are from the image 'Upward Bound' and, along with the numeral '2' on the 'row of numbers' were highlighted with Diamond Glaze.

Friday girl at Stampotique

Back in September I responded to Stampotique's Design Team Call and how I've kept the secret for so long I do not know!!!!  I am thrilled to be one of seven designers who will post weekly on the Stampotique Designer's Blog - I'm the Friday girl :)  Check the post here to meet my fellow designers.

There are two teams over at Stampotique, and the other one leads the challenges.  You can meet those guys over on the Stampotique Designers Challenge blog.  So come 2014 there will be tonnes of Stampotique inspiration out there!!

I had a little play with my new stamps in celebration of the news, challenging myself to ONLY use Stampotique images :)  This is a large tag from PaperArtsy as I wanted the little rabbit to have a large area of sky in which to float!  I slightly misquoted Mark Twain to make the quote applicable:

"the air up there here in the clouds

is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious"

Mark Twain

Stamps used:

Stampotique Upward Bound

Stampotique Row of Numbers

Stampotique Abstract Foliage

Stampotique 2 Nuages (Fr)

Stampotique Journey Collage