Sorry it's been awhile!!! Pocket Letters

Wow, it's been way too long since I've updated my blog. So sorry.... I've had so much on my plate lately and just haven't had enough time in the day. 

If you haven't already seen the new release from Stampotique and taken a trip on the blog hop, you have to check it out HERE!

There are some fabulous new stamps and a new designer too!

We have a fun ATC swap going on too at the Facebook page

If you can I would encourage you to join us.

I wanted to show you a pocket letter that I created for a swap with one of the Stampotique design team members.

I love pocket pages but haven't made one just yet. I really don't have a clue what I'm doing haha!

Funny thing is, I ended up making two of the pocket letters haha!

I used loads of new stampotique stamps and also some older ones.

Stampotique stamps I used are:

Medium Bee with Tiny bee - By Jo Capper-Sandon

Bella and Lola by new designer - Tracy Scott

Small Homes Quote - By Janet Klein

Kassa's Bloom - By Karen Hayselden

Phrase Cube and Lightening Bug - By Terri Richardson

Beach Huts - By Kate Crane

Flower Cube, Animal Cube and Agatha Flower - By Magda Polokow

Take your Time - By Daniel Torrente

Whisker Monster - By Kira Nichols

Paisley Background - By Arwen McCullen

Whew!! That's a lot of stamps!!! These pocket letters were a lot of fun to put together and I hope my partner likes them :)

Thanks for stopping by and Have a wonderful day!!!

Stampotique Challenge 236 - St. Patrick's Day

Hello and welcome back to the blog today. We are celebrating St. Patrick's Day over at Stampotique Designer's Challenge Blog this week and Jackie Payne is our hostess. Here is what Jackie says about this challenge:

"St Patrick's Day was lucky for me, I married my husband on this date, so I would like to see the luck of the Irish in your projects. Such as lucky clovers"

So let us see your best St. Patrick's Day creation!!

For this one I decided to make a tag

I used Stampotique Stamps:

Hat Cube - By Daniel Torrente

Monster News - By Kira Nichols

Barcode Text 2 - By France Papillon

I drew the little shamrock for the hat, he had to be festive!! haha! 

Come on over and join us this week at the Challenge Blog for a fun filled St Patrick's Day challenge

For more inspiration see us on

Facebook

and

Pinterest

Stampotique Challenge 208 - Animals

Hello and welcome back to the blog. It's Wednesday and that means it's time for another Stampotique Challenge. 

I get so excited when it's time for another challenge because I love working with my Stampotique Stamps.

This week Jackie Payne is our hostess and she has chosen the theme "Animals" here is what she says about this challenge

"We all love our animals... Incorporate an animal into your project this week"

I decided to make an ATC for this challenge, I love the size and simplicity of an ATC 

I used some of the newest released stamps on this one

Stampotique Stamps I used:

Approach with Caution - By Artist Kate Crane

Skunk - By Kira Nichols

Bee - By Jo Capper-Sandon

I sure hope you will join us this week for this fun challenge. You could win a 30.00 gift certificate to the online store.

CHEERS!!!

Stampotique Challenge 204 - Twinchies

Hello and welcome back to the blog today. Wednesday means another challenge over at Stampotique's Designer Challenge Blog YAY!! 

Our hostess this week is Janet Klein and her challenge is "Twinchies"

Here is what Janet has to say about this challenge:

"Twinchies are small works of art that measure 2 x 2". Create a set of twinchies using your favorite stampotique stamps"

For this particular challenge I decided to do a journal page with quite a few twinchies. 

This page reminds me of the Brady Bunch but I called them "The Crazy Bunch" haha!

I used Stampotique Stamps:

4 Dwarfy Gnomes and Goat Monster - By Kira Nichols

Blessed Skellie - By Roc Nicholas

Young Ignis - By Magda Polokow

Moth Fab - By Jill Penney and Daniel Torrente

Waltzing Fleur - By Janet Klein

This was such a fun page to create with all the Stampotique images. I hope you will come by the Designer's Blog and join us this week, you could win a 30.00 gift card for the online store.

Have a wonderful day!!

Stampotique's 200th Challenge!!! Come Join Us This Week!!

Hello all and welcome back to the blog. Today is Wednesday and that means another challenge over at Stampotique's Designers Challenge Blog

We don't have a hostess this week but we are CELEBRATING our 200th Challenge!!!

Here is what Stampotique says about this challenge.

Join us for our 200th challenge this week by celebrating. Create with celebration, anniversary or best wishes creation. We thank you all for joining us each week at our challenges and hope you have a much fun creating with Stampotique as we do!

I decided to make a fun card for this occasion

For this card I used stamps:

Santa Baby - By artist Jill Penney and Daniel Torrente

Happy, Happy, Happy - By Daniel Torrente

Happy Head Appliances - by Danile Torrente

Philip - By Artist Magda Polokow

4 Dwarfy Gnomes - By Artist Kira Nichols

I sure hope you will come and join us over at 

 Stampotique's Designers Challenge Blog for this week's challenge, you could win a 30.00 gift certificate to the online store

As a bonus - be sure to check out Arwen McCullen's Blog for a chance to win one of her beautiful stamps

Stampotique Challenge 187 - Use Neon

Hello all and welcome back to another week and another challenge over at Stampotique's Designer Challenge Blog

I think this week's challenge is going to be tons of fun. Astrid is our host and she has picked the theme "Neon"

Here is what she says about this challenge:

"At first I was a bit afraid of these intense colors, but after using them I really love them. They give your work such a nice 'pop'. I challenge you to use at least one Neon color. Can't wait to see your eye popping work "

I love bright bold color so Neon is right up my alley...

I decided to work with an artist trading block this week. If you haven't heard of these they are all the rage and are by Sizzix and Eileen Hull, they are a lot of fun to work with

Here is a photo of all the sides, I used quite a variety of Stampotique stamps on this project

I am going to use this artist trading block as a holder for some of my smaller color sprays on my craft station

I think with the bright colors and bold design it will be great inspiration for me. 

For this ATB I used Stampotique Stamps:

4 Dwarfy Gnomes - By Kira Nichols

Feline and Artiste Block By Roc Nicholas

Agatha Star - By Magda Polakow

I sure hope you will come by the Designer's Challenge Blog and join us this week, you might even win a 30.00 gift certificate to the online store.

Altered Playing Card Challenge Week 25

Thanks so much for coming by, I owe some of you an explanation from my absence last week. I know that most of you (on Facebook) already know that I was absent last week because I fell and ended up with a concussion. Those of you who are not members of the Facebook page had no idea and I apologize about that. I didn't come online at all last week due to the fall. I took a pretty scary spill down my basement's unfinished stairs and hit the back of my head pretty good. Had a baseball sized bump and went to the ER. Thankfully everything was ok and I didn't have any internal bleeding but I had a concussion and pretty serious bruise and lump. I'm much better now and feel more up to crafting and blogging. Thanks to everyone for the well wishes last week!!!

We are now onto week 25 of this challenge

If you have missed any of the previous week's here are the links

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6 
Week 7
Week 8

Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Week 14
Week 15
Week 16
Week 17
Week 18
Week 19
Week 20
Week 21
Week 22
Week 23
Week 24

and our Facebook group

Facebook Group

and the Pinterest Board link

Pinterest Board

I figured that we would do something simple and not too tough this week
I have always loved the ideas and styles of Wendy Vecchi and this week our backgrounds are going to be inspired by her technique from last years CHA .... If you want to watch the video on how this is done click HERE she demos how to do this technique and with what supplies. 

You need some glossy paper for this technique and I used Ranger's glossy, I just cut a few pieces that were slightly larger than my playing cards

You will also need some different colors of Archival re-inkers and a bottle of alcohol or Ranger's blending solution

All you are going to do is add a few drops of the re-inkers onto your craft matt. For this one I also used Gold Mixative by Ranger and Tim Holtz

then add some alcohol or the blending solution

take a popsicle stick or paint stick and run it through the alcohol and the re-ink colors slightly

The simply run your glossy card stock through the colors

You can add more blending solution to your paper so that the colors run together even more if you want them to, just let the colors swirl together one your page, it's very pretty once it's dry

(I used the only colors I had in re-inkers LOL, I don't have many)

For the second card, I tried a different color combo and actually used silver fixative and black this time

So this one came out so cool and amazing and then I ruined it!! I had to toss it and start again and my second one didn't come out as good but I used it anyway

I then glued my pieces of colored paper onto my playing cards

and trimmed to size

First Card

second card

Playing with the first card I added some stenciling onto my background with a star stencil that I made myself
Using Archival Ink and a distress tool, I went to town
(I didn't have a start stencil that I liked, so I made my own with card stock and an exact knife lol, you should really try this one day, it's fun)

I really love how the archival ink goes onto this glossy background, it's almost transparent

Next I created some whimsy houses with printed card stock and  Janet Klein's new stamp Stitched Houses

I also used my gel pen to draw some "twinkles" around all my stars

Then I adhered my houses
I used permanent markers like Sharpie's and Bics
to draw stems and flowers

I used another permanent black marker by Faber Castell to draw a border around my card

and lastly I added my sentiment with Kate Crane's new stamp
Peace and Love
Here is my final card

For my second card, I used a stencil and archival green ink to create a background

I taped off the parts I didn't want on my card and used a distress tool to stencil

the green in the butterfly and grass really brings out the green in my background

Here I go using washi tape again LOL
I am going to use this thin washi tape around my edges

I got all carried away and forgot to take photos of the steps... so sorry
I added my washi tape around the edges and used a sentiment from a fortune cookie fortune
The Gnome guy is a stamp from Kira Nichols called 4 Dwarfy Gnomes - there are 4 of them but I only used one here
I just colored him with copic markers and cut him out
Here is my finished card

and here are my two cards together

This week was really fun, I bet it would be more fun with more re-inker colors, I need to get some more of them. 
Have fun and enjoy this week!!!
See you all next week, only a few more to go!!

Stampotique Challenge - Happy Un-Birthday!

Thanks for stopping by the blog today. This week over at Stampotique Desinger's Challenge our lovely and oh, so talented France Papillon is our hostess. 

She has chosen the theme "Happy UnBirthday"

Here is what France says about this challenge

"We often expect cards on our birthday. How about surprising someone with an unbirthday card? With or without Alice in Wonderland inspiration, make a happy unbirthday card!"

This theme gave me a huge challenge. I had to really think on this one. I don't have many Alice in Wonderland stamps so I decided to do a postcard "just because"

The funny thing is, once I got started with this I ended up doing two instead of just one.

You have to forgive my photos this week, my light in my craft room isn't working well and since it's snowy and cold outside I can't take photos out there. Sorry

First postcard I did

I used Stampotique Stamps:

Piling Thing - By Artist Daniel Torrente

Blessed Skellie - By Artist Roc Nicholas

I also used a few stencils for the background and printed out my sentiment from Microsoft Word

I used Copic Markers to color my images

My second postcard

I used Stampotique Stamps:

Piling Thing - By artist Daniel Torrente

Whisker Monster with Sign - By Artist Kira Nichols

Here are the two together

These two postcards will go to two different people and I really like how each is unique in it's own way. 

Come by the Stampotique Designer's Challenge Blog this week and join us for this fun challenge. You could be the lucky winner of a 30.00 gift certificate to the online store. 

Cheers!

Stampotique Challenge - Oranges and Lemons

Welcome back to the blog, I'm so glad you have visited me today. Wednesday's always mark another challenge over at the Stampotique Challenge Blog

Our hostess today is Sue Davies and she has chosen the theme

"Oranges and Lemons" use citrus colors

This is what Sue says about this challenge....

"Ever since I was small I've loved the colour yellow and the rest of the citrus colors  They are just so fresh and always make me feel happy. So this week I want you to use citrus colours and spread the happiness!"

For this challenge today I did a bright and fun journal page

I used Stampotique stamps:

Carol's Flower Small - By artist Janet Klein

Give the Dog a Bone - By artist Maryse Carrier

Kitty Squad - By Artist Kira Nichols

Ignis Heart - By Artist Magda Polakow

Footprints - By Carol's Collection

I have to say, I agree with Sue, I really love the oranges and yellows together on this page. So beautiful! 

I hope you will join us for this challenge  you could have a chance to win a 30.00 gift certificate from the online store.

CHEERS!

SDC 165 - One Stamp

Hello all, welcome to another new challenge over at Stampotique Designer's Challenge Blog. 

Our hostess for this challenge is Samantha and she is challenging us to use only ONE stamp.

This one will be difficult, all the Stampotique stamps are so cool and it's tough to only use one 

For this challenge I went small and decided to make an ATC. The perfect size for one stamp.

I used Stampotique Stamp

Whisker Monster with Sign - By artist Kira Nichols

I made my background using Tim Holtz distress paints adding a few stencils and paint marks and a bit of wash tape

This monster is one of my favorites because I can write whatever I want to write inside his sign. I just love him

Thanks for coming by and enjoy your day

Cheers!