You're awesome

This was one of those got to get my Lavinia stamps out times. I'd got the idea for a card with a watercolour inked heart in the background.

I cut a stencil and dipped the heart gap into a mix of Distress Ink and water. I added the smudges of yellow round the edges for definition.

The grass stamps at the bottom are Stampin' Up, much used, much loved.

I added Glamour Dust for sparkle, and tehn for good measure made a bookmark to match.

Thanks for looking!

Bookmark cards

Following on from my little stamping session with a Unity book stamp, I made some pretty bookmarks. I'd stamped the books onto brown paper, and cut out, then matted onto various orange cards and papers. I added the quote from the stamp set too. 

I have oodles of ribbon and fibres, and so I matched up the blue in the patterned layer, otherwise it was orange overload.

I'd had plans for some more thank you cards, but the bookmarks sparked a little idea.

The patterned paper is layered onto kraft card, with some old Martha Stewart punches brought into use again. 

The library pockets are from a fab set I was brought when I left my old job- it was to make your own library. Great aren't they?

As these are cards for people who work in a library, the book theme seemed appropriate! 

Gems always finish things off!

Thanks for looking!

Anything but a card....

......that's what the Stampotique designers have challenged us to make this week. So, in the interests of multitasking, I've made a bookmark for a swap I'm taking part in.

The quote is from Edward Gorey. 

It's difficult to see from the photo, but the cat is stamped with green teeny weeny flowers.

Sorry about the photo quality, I didn't realise it was so bad, and I've posted the original off now, so I can't retake them!

Monster bookmark tutorial

I made this tutorial for a craft group I'm part of on Facebook, and thought I'd share it here as well! It's how to make a corner bookmark.

One way is to cut off an envelope corner and decorate, or, if you want to go from scratch....

Cute eh?

Ketto girls

Awwww, how sweet are these little Ketto girls? I made some ATCs and bookmarks for my crafty mates.

Scraps

Using up scraps of gorgeous backgrounds that I couldn't bear to just throw away, to make bookmarks.

Loving that little shocked looking Octopode owl.....

A butterfly bookmark

A quick little visit today to show you another bookmark for a swap I'm taking part in. This is made from a little butterfly panel I've had hanging around for aaaaaagggges. Seriously probably about 18 months...... ah well, I'm using these little bits up now, aren't I good?

Actually, I don't know why I didn't think of this before, it looks really pretty mounted up. The background is sprayed with cosmic shimmer mists, and the image itself is promarkered.

Thanks for looking!

New year's resolution for Stampotique

The challenge from the Stampotique Designers this week is to show something that involves a new year's resolution. I'm not brilliant at resolutions, it always seems to be setting myself up to fail. However...... I have decided on a couple of things. The first is to make better use of the craft stash I have already got. I know I won't stop buying new things, but I am going to try really hard to use what I've got and use up the scraps from projects instead of storing them away and never seeing them again!

To that end, here's a couple of bookmarks made with background scraps from other projects.

Ah, but Lisa, you'll say, you said you'd decided on a couple of resolutions, so what's the second one? Well....the second one isn't to do with crafting. It's to take my alloted breaks at work, so that I get some time away from the computer and don't get stressed. So....I'm back into the habit of taking my latest book to work so that I relax......and as I may have said before, all of my books have their own bookmarks. See? 2 resolutions in one.

Of course it helps that these have the keeper of the key on them.....cutest monster ever.

It's all about the beeeeeeee.....

It was smashing to have time over my Christmas break to sit down and play around with inks and get the creative juices going. I had a fine old time trying out my new Stampotique Big bee stamp. Great isn't  he?

My bookmark background is an off cut from a Dylusion sprayed background, inked through with black dotty bee stripes.

The bee is coloured with pencils for depth and shading. Glitter wings of course, wouldn't be me without a bit of sparkle!!!

New book.....new bookmark.....

Had a couple of new books for Christmas, so obvs, I need a couple of new bookmarks......

Love, love, love this BIG bee. It's a new acquisition, stamped on an old background off cut, so I guess it qualifies for the Stampotique Designers Challenge, which is Out with the old, in with the new. Sparkly wings too.....

Plus I've been doing a bit of doodling, as ever, so I made this one into a paperback sized bookmark. Cool eh?

Studio 12......a competition

OOoh, first of the month. that means a competition over at the studio12 blog.

Here's my DT project to help celebrate! I think I've said before that I'm a bit weird about bookmarks (actually I think I could have stopped at I'm a bit weird, ha ha ha.....). I have a new one for pretty much every book I buy and it stays in the book, like a little flat friend.

Soooooo, new book. Actually several new books. Which means new bookmarks......

I love the signpost on the Picknix CD, just looked like it was pointing out my page......

Lots of doodling, sort of reminded me of layers of soil and rock under the ground. The background is a scrap left over from another project, and it's sprayed with cosmic shimmer mists. I used watercolour pencils on the sign and black and white pens to doodle.

Right, so off you pop to the Studio12 blog, check out what the rest of my team mates have been doing and see what the competition is..... it's my first one, so I have no idea how it all works!!!

Black and white? Toadstools obviously.

I've always been an Octopode Factory fan, but lately I'm even more drawn toward these quirky little pretties. The current Octopode Factory Friday challenge is black and white, so out came my doodling pens and my little Octopode toadstools and I made this.

Each of my books has its own bookmarks, so I make quite a few! This one has stamped toadstools at the bottom and a doodled sun and border.

I've added a bit of shine with some dots of glossy accents.

Ooh, that one sun ray looks like a tentacle. 

You don't have to use Octopode images to enter the challenge, but they keep calling to me! Off to put it in my new book.

Little people bookmark

Ooh the things you can do with your scraps.......

Scraps of spray inked card, lots of Stampotique people, glaze pens and doodling. Bookmark done!

Stitch it at the Stamp Man

The new challenge over at The Stamp Man is to show us some stitching. We want to see real or fake stitches on your projects.

It was my wedding anniversary last week (and my birthday!) and my OH loves to read, so I made him a  bookmark to go with his present. I used my favourite Tim Holtz stamp- the gorgeous elephant. the background are sprayed inks and layered sections ripped from a book page.

My stitching is chenille thread. I made a few holes with my pokey tool and threaded it through in a blanket stitch.

I'm still busy making ATCs for the Docrafts Luffy meet in a week's time, so everything I make, I make an ATC as well! It's working quite well, I've got lots of swapsies :)

Ok, over to you, show us your stitching and you could win the prize!

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

Allsorts- Free and easy

Simon Says stamp and show- anything goes

More skull balloons. Or I love Stampotique again. Either way, it's a card.

I'm in the middle of THE most difficult time at work EVER. No apologies for the capital shouting, it really is very stressful- my department is being restructured, so I'm in the middle of applying for jobs that will replace my current job. Yeah, like I said, difficult times....... so Sunday afternoon, I took a break from stressing and made this.

As you might imagine, I wasn't really in the mood for any thing cutesy and sweet. This new Stampotique boy and some Dylusions inks hit the spot perfectly.

The background is made from a Flake easter egg box (it was the perfect colour brown), stencilled with DIs and my new fab wall stencil thingy.  Lookee.....

So it's pretty well perfect for the Stampotique designers challenge, which is to recycle. I didn't want to waste any so I made this tag as well.....

.....but now I think it might be more of a bookmark, and I've got a recipient in mind as well, hurray!

I'm also entering this into One Stitch at a Time and Stamp Something, who both have an Anything Goes challenge on at the moment. Double hurray!

Right, better get back to my interview prep.........

Bookmarks.... I'm not mentioning the obsession this time.....

Regular readers will already know about my bookmark obsession, so I'm not mentioning it in this post...... However, I have made a couple of new bookmarks, woohoo!! One is a gift, the other I'm not sure whether to keep or not as yet.

The challenge over at Tuesday Taggers is Vintage bookmark, so with that in mind, I came up with this.....

The background is Distress Inked and Cosmic Shimmered and then stamped with lots and lots of vintage images. I wasn't keen on it after the first round of stamping, so I just kept going until I was! There was also a bit of inking through sequin waste and dusting with Perfect Pearls in Copper.

The main image is from a Paperartsy plate, and the other images are Paperartsy and another clear vintage set of Kay's (I was at Kay's when I did the stamping!). The very slightly rude lady has a layer of brown netting totally failing to cover her modesty, lol. I finished off with some ribbon, lace and a little vintage-y charm.

Ingredients

Stamps- Paperartsy Vintage Nudes 1, Clocks 5, Mini 61; Vintage set of unknown origin
Inks- Distress Inks in Fired Brick, Barn Door, Walnut Stain; Impress inks in Fawn and Autumn Leaf
Stash- Cream ribbon, cream lace, brown netting, charm, eyelet
Cosmic Shimmer mister in Lava red



I'm entering this into-
Tuesday Taggers Vintage bookmark challenge
Challenge Up Your Life vintage challenge

My second bookmark is a much prettier affair. Believe it or not, the background was made from swooshing my blank white card on the remnants of the inks and cosmic shimmer from the vintage bookmark above! It all came out very pale pink.

I stamped the dragon fly in a soft pink ink, and the leaf stem and dragonfly definition in bundled sage Distress ink. I also inked the edges in the Distress Ink. The dragonfly is a gorgeous stamp of Kay's (I'll ask her where it's from), and I stamped it again onto green vellum and cut it out, then stamped the words (I think they're Paperartsy) onto pink vellum and ripped them out.

An eyelet and some ribbon and it's done!

Ingredients

Inks- Stazon Black, Distress Ink Bundled Sage and Fired Brick, Memories Soft Pink
Cosmic Shimmer Mist- Lava red
Stamps- Stampin Up Watercolour Vine, Paperartsy Petals 3, Lost Coast definition, Dragonfly source not known
Stash- Cream ribbon, vellum in pale green and pink

Bookmark obsession......

Did I tell you that I'm a librarian? No? Well guess, what, I'm a librarian, I love books, read loads and yet this is the first bookmark I've ever made. Plus, there's even more of an admission on it's way - I've got a bit of a bookmark collection- I know, what a geek!!!! Most of the books I own have their own bookmark. I've got them from all over the place, pretty much everywhere I've visited, and yet I've never felt the urge to make one before......how odd. Oh wow, that makes me sound soooooo weird- my friends at work already think I'm odd because I can't walk on the white lines of the pedestrian crossing on the carpark, and I have to count things in 2s........right I think I'll stop with the confessions now and show you my creation.....yes, good idea.

The background is my beloved smacking acetate technique with some swirls stamped over in pink. The image is Promarkered as usual, and it's a lovely Lili of the Valley stamp that reminded me of my Little Legs and her best friend. Hold on for the close up.....

Woo, extreme close up. Can't recommend a touch of white gel pen enough to make it pop and to cover up any mistakes (ahem, not that I ever make any....cough, cough). I stamped the quotation onto tissue paper first to get the layout right, as I was a bit tight on space, but it all fit in eventually!

Ingredients

Stamps- Lili of the Valley's Little Girls Story Time
Studio G alphabet
Basic Grey swirls

Promarkers- Apple, Meadow Green, Marsh Green, Amethyst, Pastel Pink, Vintage Pink, Vanilla, Blossom, Cool Grey 1, Cocoa, Canary, Tulip Yellow, Saffron, Orchid, Cinnamon, Spice, Terracotta

Distress Inkpads (background)- Bundled Sage, Lipstick Pink, Dusty Concord, Victorian Velvet

Inkpads- Brilliance Pearlescent Ivy, Versafine Vintage Sepia

Other- Sheer pink ribbon, eyelet

I'm entering this into

the One Stitch at a Time challenge where the challenge is to use something new (stamp)
Passion for Promarkers where the challenge is to include a book