I'm the King of the castle

This weeks challenge at the Stampotique Designers blog is 'All creatures great and small'. The host is Nellie van Leeuwen. I love all my critter stamps from Stampotique. It was hard to choose but today Dog by Roc Nicholas was calling (or should I say barking) to me ....

I used distress paint, prisma pencils, charcoal pencil and a white paint pen. I cut his crown out from gold gloss paper, added some jewels and typed the words on my typewriter.

I am taking part in ICAD this year but am a bit behind, this will also be for the day 2 pyramid challenge :)

Thanks for stopping by x

I made Top3 at the Stampotique Designers Challenge .. always an honour - thank you :)

Stampotique Square Challenge

This weeks challenge SDC233 at the Stampotique blog is squares. Corrie is the gorgeous hostess, and she mentions how she uses circles a lot and so she set a square challenge to get out of her comfort zone. I think I use circles and squares about the same amount, but it was fun to use just squares.

My make featuring the gorgeous Winter - her first inking, isn't she gorgeous ? I love the attitude :

For the background I used an acrylic block and distress inks :

I layered the colours, adding a purple and grey after these layers shown above.

I then used whipped spackle through a stencil with square on.

Winter was stamped onto the background in black ink and I sponged her skirt and legs in the same gray ink as the background. Then I stamped her again in black stazon and coloured her with the co-ordinating distress inks, using cut and dry nibs. I fussy cut her, but just the top half of her body, I liked the bottom being darker. Bit more dramatic :) Finally I clear embossed her and adhered her over the same stamped section.

The words 'Square peg in a round hole' were typed on my typewriter, matted onto black card stock and glued in place. Doesn't she look like a bit of a misfit ? 

Proof of Fun is from France's Barcode Text stamp, stamped in black onto white card stock.. 

Finally the front of the card was matted onto black card stock, then onto my 5" x 5" base. Because yes of course, it had to be a square card :)

I am entering this into the challenge this week, always so much inspiration over there at Stampotique, the challenge blog and the facebook group. Its a happy happy happy place to be x\

Thanks for stopping by x

2nd Anniversary ATC trade

I cant hardly believe its been 2 years since I started the ATC trade at the Stampotique facebook group. We have had so much fun and so many people have played and traded internationally. 

To celebrate this cotton anniversary we will be doing an ATC trade entitled : Two much fun. The ATC trade is also coupled with the Stampotique Designers Challenge on the blog #229. There you will find some featured ATCs from the trade, as well as a collage of all the ATC's from the traders taking part this month. In addition to the regular and totally AWESOME design team makes.
A very big celebration, and lots of love for Stampotique.

My Two Much Fun make :

My ATC features Jammin' from Stampotique, coloured in copics with an acrylic paint mixed media background. To frame the image I distressed and edged the ATC in black and gold embossing powder.

The latin words "ad nauseum" mean to do something to the point of nausea. See how green around the gills Jammin' is ? He has been having 2 much fun and is now feeling really quite nauseous. LOL

I am entering this ATC into the SDC229 challenge as well :)

Thanks for stopping by x

'Surprise' ATC

At the Stampotique facebook group, we voted for our new ATC trade theme for November/December to be 'Surprise'.

Here is the front cover of my three ATCs (two to trade, and one for me to keep) :

Lets take a closer look at the front of one :

I loved the color combo here, the teals and pink. I used my soft printing plate for the background. It was the first time, and I LOVED it. I used a couple of stencils and a tool to draw onto the plate. I randomly stamped some words and did some doodling in white gel pen. Isn't the little dog adorable.

And no black on this ATC time ... its all shades of brown. The little dog is from the dog cube. I also used the Hanging Hearts and one other Stampotique stamp ..... Hmm, wonder which one?

But wait, whats that I see, is there a flap to open ? Oh yes, I think so .... But what could be there ? 

Any ideas ?

Oooooh, what a naughty surprise ! Someone is mooning the little pup ! How rude. LOL 

That is the Rear View Mirror stamp from Stampotique, what a cutie she is.

Thanks for stopping by, and following along with my quirky sense of humour. 

Let hope my trade partners like these :) Nikki x

At the Movies

I haven't managed to create anything for the Stampotique challenge for a while, but this week the challenge SDC222 is 'At the Movies', and Corrie is the hostess, so I thought I would join in the fun :)

Here is my make, featuring the delectable and very versatile Oliver : 

Can you guess the movie ? 

Oliver was colored with copics and Faber Castell India Ink fine black pen to add the hair and glasses detail. I added a layer of dull embossing powder. It makes the image appear just a little bit sharper.

The background was made using black cardstock, then I used molding paste and a Crafters Workshop stencil called Mini Cubist. When the paste was dry I colored the boxes with inktense pencils in green, orange, blue and red. I used inktense because they dry permanent and I wanted to go over and add some low lights with india ink.

The words were typed on my typewriter, painted with the same colors of inktense pencil as the background and glued on top. Oliver, erm I mean Neo, was popped up on the card and a thin washi ground added for him to stand on.

Here's a close up. Have you worked out the movie and who this is yet ?

This is Neo from the Matrix. One of my all time favorite movies. And I must admit .. my all time fave squeeze ... I just looooove Keanu Reeves.

As soon as I saw the challenge theme I knew I wanted to do this, I just had to get creative with what I had in my stash. I think it worked out pretty good :)

Thanks for stopping by x

Worn Out or tattered ATC

This months Stampotique challenge was 'Worn out or tattered'. This shabby chic, distressed sort of look is not my normal style, but hey, its good to go outside your comfort zone. One element of course remains : humour. My ATC :

I wanted to do a cameo but none of my Stampotique stamps had profiles - except the Old Timey Frog. So, here he is, featuring in his own cameo ATC. I included the handlebars on the bike because be looked like the Loch Ness Monster without them ! LOL. 

Lots of layers here, of pattered paper, lace, card stock etc, and it is all distressed and inked with walnut stain. I used liquid pearls around the frame and crackle glaze behind the frog. The letters are Tim Holtz letter stickers.

These ATC's are now winging their way to Australia and UK - hope my partners like them :)

Fave Stampotique Stamp

The Stampotique Designers Challenge is to use your favourite stamp. 

For me that is easy : I LOVE MOLLY.

I remember first 'meeting' Molly, one of the first Stampotique stamps I ever bought.  I was on holiday and found a craft store and excitedly went in.  Isn't it just the best to visit a new store, admire and stroke stuff!
Yes internet shopping is all well and good, but we must support our local stores so we can have this experience ! So anyway, I wander around the store .... la, de, da, de, da .... then I spot her ... our eyes met across the room and I just know that this stamp will be coming home with me ! That's where the affection began and it continues to this day, I use her at every opportunity. I don't know what it is, is it the quirkiness? Her expression? How different and unique she is ??? I just cant put my finger on it. I just know that in the last 16 Stampotique ATC trades I think Molly has been involved in about half, and I am still not bored :)

Here are my most recent Molly makes, my ATC's made for the 'Shiny or Metallic' ATC trade that is going on in the Stampotique Facebook Group :

The background is embossed tin foil, painted with acrylics and sanded down.
Using a hold punch I punched the oval that Molly is peeping through,
Molly is stamped in stazon black ink and colored with inktense pencils, the dots are silver liquid pearls then I embossed her with iridescent ice embossing powder. I don't know if it shows properly in the pic but she positively glows. I matted the atc onto black card stock and the words are typed on my typewriter :)

Thanks for stopping by, hope you can be as fond of Molly as I am :)

APC week 25

Here are my week 25 Altered Playing Cards, the backgrounds are all about alcohol inks on glossy cardstock :)

For the first one I used the dog from Stampotique. The dog is stamped in stazon on mixed media paper and colored with Neocolor II's. The brick work ground created using a stencil :

 For the second I used a star stencil with versamark and clear embossing powder, and a paper airplane stamp from Penny Black. I stamped it in coffee archival ink, then stamped separately on crumb cake card stock and paper pieced some of the planes :

And both APC's together :

Photobomb ATC trade

Lots of people at the Stampotique facebook group voted for the challenge this month and the winner was 'photobomb'. I thought that would be fun, but oh my, it was so much harder than I anticipated ! I think for me it was difficult to combine whimsical with real life, it didn't look right. But you know what, I went and did it anyway ... LOL

Here are my photobombs, which is actually entitled 'An ode to Brangelina'

I normally make these elaborate mixed media backgrounds, so it was unusual this time to use a photograph. The images were stamped onto white cardstock in brown ink, clear embossed and colored with inktense pencils.

Here is Ignis taking the opportunity to look down Angelina's top :

 Twinkie is getting some red carpet and paparazzi action :

 Molly is joining in for the photoshoot :

My ATC's have gone to Oz and the UK, hope they are well received :)

Fave background ?

The stampotique challenge this week is favorite background, SDC 188. One of my favourite things to do is using molding paste and a stencil. What's so fun is that it always comes out differently depending on the paper you use, the medium you use to colorise it and the type of paste you use.

For this atc I used manilla card stock which is quite absorbant, whipped spackle and Dylusions sprays. I love how the color has bled beneath the paste in a few patches, coloring it. 

Twinkie is one of my favourite stamps by stampotique :) although you don't often see him so pumpkin like ! Lol

This atc is entitled Swaperoo. I know, we did this theme a little while ago in the Facebook Stampotique group, but Julie Cassidy chose the same title so I had to play again :

This is the other ATC I made to this theme, and with the same background technique :

The frog on the bike is so great, I wanted to humanise him a little. LOL. 'Bad idea' is right I think !

So bright tag

Agatha is feeling very bright this morning and enjoying her new angelic status :)

For the background I used a blue acrylic as a resist to the dylusions bubble gum pink I sprayed on. Its not exactly neon paint, but it sure glows and gives a similar effect.

Agatha is stamped in stazon, colored with inktense pensils and fussy cut. I stamped bee wings onto vellum and embossed them in a pearlised embossing powder and fussy cut them. The black is doodled.

I am entering this into the neon stampotique designers challenge and tag along angels challenge.

Swaperoo ... ATC trade

The title for the Facebook Stampotique ATC trade this month is 'Swaperoo'. Namely swap body parts to come up with something new ... How fun.

Here are my ATC's :

Quite a few stamped images were involved in the creation of my new beings, but pleased be assured none were injured ! LOL I used mostly images from Magda Polakow and Daniel Torrente. I loved including the star, which is in the Agatha Star stamp, one weird person looking up at it and one down. Great accompanying sentiment from France Papillon, 'Living It'. It made me LOL.

The background is gesso, Neocolor II, whipped spackle and vintage photo distress ink. 

I cant wait to see what everyone comes up with for this ATC trade, I know they are all having lots of fun. This is the most well attended trade yet, 55 players, so fun to see everyone's creativity :) These little beauties will be making their way to the UK and the US, hope my swap partners like them :)

Thanks for stopping by x

Happy UnBirthday

Stampotique challenge this week, #183 is to make an unbirthday card. Hmmmm, I have never received or given one but I put my thinking cap on and decided on something very un-Birthday-ish, perhaps a Birthday cake with Stanpotique legs instead of candles. LOL :

I used mostly stamps by Daniel Torrente.

 Loving the glittery icing, yum, wish it was real, I could eat it to celebrate my unbirthday today. LOL

Thanks for stopping by x

Gnarly Dude

The Mixed Media ATC trade this month was entitled Tags, so an ATC with a tag. I thought I would double tag it - a tag on a tag, get it ? LOL  I used Twinkie from Stampotique for this project, because he is after all, one Gnarly Dude !  Although he is a little bit naughty to be doing graffiti ! LOL

First I painted the background messily (is that a word ? LOL) in a few colors :

Then I colored molding paste with brown acrylic paint and used a brick stencil, adding glass glitter when it was wet. Twinkie was stamped, colored with copics and fussy cut. The Gnarly tag took me ages, I was googling graffiti tags, its harder to do that it looks you know ! LOL But it turned out ok. The Dude are die cut letters from the same painted card stock as above.

Have a gnarly day x

Funny / Punny make

The 179th Stampotique Designers Challenge this week, set by Kathi Rerek is punny and/or funny projects. I thought I would join in as I had this gorgeous little monster, Unicorn's Cousin, all raring to go : 

 

  I thought I would couple this very thought provoking quote with this cute little monster, with those enlarged googly eyes pointing in opposite directions :) 

I got to play with my new Neocolor II crayons - gosh, gasp, fun, AWESOME !

Background is Dylusions, a star stencil and washi tape.

Thanks for stopping by x

'Nursery Rhymes' ATC

For this months ATC title of 'Nursery Rhymes' at the Stampotique facebook page, I thought I would do a little recycling, of egg shells : Here is poor Humpty Dumpty : 

 The background is made with acrylic paints, then I stamped the cracked image (from a Stampers Anonymous Ultimate Grunge stamp set) at the back and on Humptys (aka Ignis from Stampotique) head in victorian velvet distress ink and clear embossed. The wall was from the same Stampers Anonymous set, and I used the bar code from France Papillon (Stampotique) for the top of the wall.  It was stamped in brown archival ink and clear embossed. The discombobulated (from Stampotique) was stamped onto tissue paper in permanent ink, then torn apart and added with gel medium.

Here is poor Humpty, a little distressed from his fall and I do believe that "All the Kings horses and all the Kings men couldn't put Humpty back together again" :) The egg white and yolk is made from colored thick gloss gel medium. Ignis is colored with copics :)

This ATC trade is so much fun, Stampotique images are so versatile. Its a monthly highlight to create for this trade and see what everyone else comes up with.

Don't worry. Be happy ....

I made this cute tag using Whisker Monster with Sign by Stampotique : 

 The background is painted with acrylics and I also used Lindys Stamp Gang Moon Shadow Ink. The blue spots are embossed. The gorgeous little monster is stamped in Stazon ink, painted with acrylic paint and then using a stamp-a-ma-jig, he is stamped again to add the detail back in :) I used a white gel pen for his eyes and teeth. Close up of him : 

The "Don't worry, be happy" is his New Years resolution, and as such am entering this into the Stampotique Designers challenge #177, set by the super talented and lovely Claudine. I am VERY happy, and honoured to be chosen amongst the top 3 for this challenge - Yay.

If you notice my little monster is standing on a washi tape. I used washi tape for grounding things quite a lot, stops the illusion of them floating in space. So I am also entering this into the Tag Along Challenge #71.

Thanks for stopping by x

Altered Playing Card Week 15

Week 15, this week was fun, out came my unusual, interesting and fun characters :)

The first APC uses one of the awesome gals from Doodles Dolls 1 Set :

Here is a close up of her and you can more clearly see the background :

The playing card was lightly gesso'd and I intentionally missed a few areas. Then I used crackle paste and a stencil, then dylusions inks in blue and spiced marmalade. The girl was stamped in mulberry momento ink and colored with copics, white and black gel pen. I used this cool new rotary stamp from Stampin' Up! for the words. I liked this APC, its groovy :)

For the second APC I used Tree Topper from Stampotique :

This background was fun, its gesso'd, then I used black gesso for the hearts. When that was dry I used pink dylusions, when it was dry I ghosted it with the heart stencil and a fine mist of water. Left it for a few seconds and removed the ink from the ghosted areas. Then I sprayed red. Let that dry and white over the top. Look how it all ran into each other - Loved that marbelled look.

I stamped and embossed the circles and swirl with pearl embossing powder and added the words, which are from a set by Waltzing Mouse Stamps (WMS), Frame It. WMS have awesome sentiment sets, I often find just what I am looking for there. Tree Topper is colored with copics and white gel pen. I added crystal effect to the heart.

And thats it, another week of APC's completed. Loving this weekly challenge, its so much fun. 

A final view of both of week 15's APC's :

Christmas atc trade

The final Stampotique atc of 2014 is Christmas :) The requirement for this trade is that you must include a Merry Christmas message to the recipient. My atc's :

The inspiration for this came from the knitwear patterned paper. I thought how cool it would be for Oliver to have a selection of ugly Christmas sweaters. Both in burgundy and multi colored. I like this Oliver image, he always looks so miserable, so thought I would cheer him up. I hope he gets some success in his endeavours for kisses, he should do as he looks so snazzy. LOL

The background was made with distress paint, which acted as a sort of resist when I applied the distress stain. At first I was going to do mistletoe, but I saw someone else in the trade had done that so swiftly moved on ... to sweaters, kisses, hearts, giving etc ... yes, my imagination runs amok sometimes !

 I laughed and laughed when I found this stamp in my stash: "The season of giving" and knew what I had to do was add a free kisses sign. The sentiment is in a set from Clear & Simple Stamps called O'Tree. The heart embellishment is punched out with a small heart punch, hand written and multiple layers of UTEE added. His hat was hand cut from silver paper. Oliver is colored with copics, other than his sweater is paper pieced from Trim the tree designer series paper by Stampin' Up!

So here is a close up of Oliver in burgundy and Oliver in green :) Which do you prefer ?

 I used my illuminate ink pad to stamp some shiny snowflakes in the background, to make it a bit more festive. The atc actually opens up like a card and there is a personalised message inside. 

 So off the little atc's go in the mail, to France and the UK. Hope the girls like them x

Stampotique 'Halloween' atc trade

Oh my, did I have fun with this one .... I really am not a Halloween fan, but that's what everyone else over in the Stampotique facebook group wanted, and heck, I only facilitate the trade, I don't choose the topics .... But I was so so happy we chose this, I had a great time :

So here is the front door, you can just see Molly peeking out of the window there.

 But what happens when you open the door, see the hinges on the left side, and there is magnet holding the door closed on the right. Its Molly in all her glory .... With 'Boo' on the inside of the door.

Here is a close up of the added effect of 'Boo'. Yes, Molly has a bobble head ... LOL. She also has layered wings. All these little details make all the difference I think ... Mollys head is embossed with multiple layers of UTEE, its pretty thick and robust, probably like her real life persona :)

Here she is showcased in all her beauty. The background is acrylic pain, with texture added when the paint was wet. Molly was stamped on pale green cardstock. embossed and fussy cut. I added some darker green detailing to her body and arms with a green artist pitt pen. The spiders web you can just see behind Molly was stamped in Versamark and interference purple perfect pearls added, it has a lovely sheen :) The spiders are from a Halloween set by Stampin' Up! The bat is a dollar store plastic embellishment. Mollys face was stamped and embossed in black onto pale ivory cardstock.Some orange artist pitt pen added, then the UTEE as previously mentioned.

 The back is pretty plain, just used small sections of the web stamp and couple of spiders. You can see the Basic Grey magnet there, its pretty strong and I am hoping my atc's make it to their destinations and don't magnetise to too much stuff on their way to USA and UK. I hope my swap partners like them, I enjoyed the process and spent AGES on them.

And so endeth another totally awesome atc trade with a group of uber talented. motivated and supportive artists with the wonderful Stampotique images :)

Thanks for stopping by x