Stampotique Originals Blog

Yes, we have NEW images from Daniel and Janet.   Crow line and Moon Girl’s crow can be found by clicking on the names.  Crow line would be cute for a set of stationery, wouldn’t it?  Moon Girl’s crow was sized just for her!  Of course you can use the crow for anything you’d like, but we thought Moon Girl needed her very own crow!  After all, Spider girl has her very own furry tarantula!  Moon Girl can actually be placed right on the crow’s back for a night time flight!  Oh, and I almost forgot our very precious and well-dressed Mr. Stripes! It seems that Mr. Stripes, believe it or not, is one of our all time best sellers! 

Thinking about those Christmas cards??  Hmmmmmm. Better check out what Daniel has come up with!!!  First we have “Snowman” and a great ‘fallen’ snow person which I have named “Global Warming.”  You’ll understand when you see him.  Then we have Noelle dressed up all ‘perty’ in her winter skirt.  I happen to love her handknitted mittens.  Her friend, “O Joy” seems a bit forlorn, but I’m sure that once “Santa Baby” visits him with a gift, he’ll feel a lot better.  To add some accessories, you will find a wonderful 5-sided cube!  Yes, 5-sided. 

Bob, who’s in time out and Peggy, who loves to craft with scissors are also irresistible!  I LOVE Peggy’s pigtails and front teeth.  Bob seems a bit disgruntled, but maybe he’ll feel better once Peggy crafts something for him!

 Is this the funkiest girl you ever did see?  I LOVE HER!!! Her name is ‘Relaxin‘  by Daniel Torrente.  The artwork was sent to us by a new friend, Wilma, in Germany.  She’s done such a great job.  If you have questions on any of her artwork, please contact her at wilma.schaefer@freenet.de  Here’s another piece from Wilma (see below).  This is Daniel’s Moth Fab. Isn’t Wilma’s background paper to die for?  She makes it herself!  Email her and she will share with you.  That’s all for tonight.  I will post more of Wilma’s art in the days to come. Thank you WILMA!!!  Danke, muchos gracias, and merci beaucoup!

Where have I been?  Busy burning rubber!  We’ve been SO busy!  Its such a wonderful feeling to know that people out there love our images.  They are crazy in love with Daniel Torrente’s ‘goth’ girls.  Whether you live in the United States, Europe or Australia, you are lovin’ those girls!  Thank you so much and I’m sure that Daniel and Jill thank you too! 

Its been hot here (Phoenix) but that’s what we expect in the summer.  Our dogs have been lying on the tile floors, going outdoors just long enough to do their duties and back inside into the air conditioning.  They’ll do their running and jumping for the ball early in the morning, but that’s it.  I included a picture of Jack to share with you.  He’s our ‘cafe o’ lait’ standard poodle.  We call him that because he reminds us of coffee with LOTS of cream!  What a great breed.  We have 4 big boys; all as sweet as can be.  Sounds like alot, but they’re all couch potatoes.  I call them my ‘yard ponies’ cause they’re so big and when they chase each other in the yard they sound like a herd of mustang! We adopted both Jack and Oliver from the Arizona Poodle Rescue.

Jim and I are in the midst of gearing up for Art Unraveled, a mixed-media art retreat in Phoenix. Together we man the ‘on-site’ store for the hundreds of partitipants that come to enjoy the week.  Its a fun event and people from all over the globe join together for the love of creating art.  Have to count my bottles of Golden gel medium and gesso and make sure that I have lots of fun, new stuff that everyone HAS to have!!!

 Enjoy these photos of Daniel’s girls and Jack! Any questions, just shoot me an email at Carol@Stampotique.com

Until next time!

Here’s a fun card created by Olivia Thomas. Olivia simply covered a piece of cardboard with aluminum foil and applied some various colors of Stazon ink in smudges around the surface. She then took a dull writing instrument and wrote a little poem on the aluminum foil, highlighting the writing with Stazon ink. She cut out the words WHERE’S THE CAKE, along with some other collage pieces and applied them to the surface. She stamped our image, MARCI and colored her in with Prismacolor colored pencils, while also applying a funky birthday hat to Marci’s beautiful hairdo! Fun pieces of art don’t have to be complicated and that is one of the many things I have learned from Olivia, who is a working artist. She uses ’stuff’ that she has on hand and what she comes up with is outstanding! Many times I think we feel like we have to buy, buy, buy before being able to create something. She cut out the birthday hat instead of purchasing a sticker. Her’s has alot of character! So I don’t know folks, seems to me we should each and every one of us look through the stacks we have in our craft rooms. I’m sure there is a treasure trove right under our finger tips! Hey! and just think! We don’t have to DRIVE anywhere and can save time and more energy to use for our art! (smile) Sounds good to me, especially here in the southwest desert that is like an oven right now. I prefer to stay at home in my ‘man cave’. Until next time…….

Jill Penney, one of our contributing artists, hand makes these darling little babies. Her workmanship is awesome, her dedication is beyond. Please help her win the $10K to move forward. Read about on http://ideablob.com/ideas/2538-organic-fairtrade-troglodyte-do PLEASE ENTER YOUR VOTE and help an artist AND a TROG! Jill has been making these little creatures for a few years now and they have been very well received, but like anything else, the more she sells, the more she has to make and she only has two hands. Winning the $10K would assist her in connecting with a group in Germany that could make the dolls for her, still keeping with her high standards and quality of workmanship. Good luck, Jill.

Today was a NO WORK day. Once a month I host a little ‘crafting group’ at our home. There are 5-6 of us that get together to gab, ’show and tell, and work on projects. Some of us quilt, some ‘attempt to ‘ quilt (that would be ME), hand quilt, papercraft, and rug hook. Someone wants to learn to embroider and another wants to learn punch needle. Within US, someone knows how to do each craft. Its great! I have a love for bees and through the years, have accumulated quite an array of ‘bee things’. At Christmas, instead of a “Christmas tree” I put up a ‘Bee tree.” The tree is still up and will remain up until it can stand no longer! It even has BEE lights (thanks to Lynne, who finds all)!!! So, on craft day I light the tree in honor of US coming together.

There are no EGOS involved on this day. We come together to laugh and play and enjoy each other’s company. Simple. I look forward to our monthly meetings and it makes me clean my house; at least the bathroom and front room! (wink) Any one who participates has to enjoy animals as we have our four big poodles walking around, sleeping underfoot, sniffing, begging for a pet, and all the birds are making sounds in the background that resemble a daycare center for loons. One gal is piecing together some wonderful blocks made from both her grandmother and mother. What a treasure trove she has. The gorgeous vintage fabrics and individual hand stitches gave me goosebumps. What an honor to be able to put the blocks together like piecing someone’s life. Her mom and grandma would be so proud as her ‘project’ is coming along very nicely! Another gal made the most wonderful ‘crowns’ from chicken wire and bits and pieces from her art studio. A mermaid was coming to life from some wool strips and a needle while charity quilt tops were being made by another. Handstitched table runners were also being worked on in between running out to the pond to check out the fish and into the bird room to hand feed a treat! Thanks Shari! They love you! Thank you everyone for a very lovely NO WORK day!! See you next month!

I love this little ‘peacock‘ by Maryse Carrier. Its fun to use lots of color with this bird and glitter, or just stay in a monotone.  Either way, it’ll make someone smile.  Maryse has a whole group of great rubber stamps.  You can go to the first page of Maryse Carrier in our online catalog.  Be sure to page through all her wonderful images. Maryse enjoys Prismacolor pencils and/or watercolors for her images.  When she draws, she keeps in mind the openness of the image. Her drawings have such whimsy.  I hope you enjoy this little card.

What a beautifully sunny day it was today.  The temps reached about 113 again, the sky was blue and the warm wind blew.  Yes, I think the heat has affected my thinking!  I bathed the 4 poodles and they dried in seconds outdoors.  Now they are all fluffy and clean and SMELL good too!  Oliver fought me, but he’ll settle down.  He’s not quite 6 months old.  Grooming will become part of his existence.  Ted, our 10 year old standard, just wanted to be brushed and brushed. He kept trying to butt in on Oliver’s ’salon time’. They are so funny with their individual personalities. Here’s Oliver today. 

  It was 113 degrees today!  That’s hot, any way you look at it.  Thank goodness for air conditioning.  What would we ever do without it?  How would we survive?  A friend who grew up here told me that at night her mother would soak the sheets, wring them out and put them over the children as they went to bed.  That’s how they kept cool.  Of course, the nights probably weren’t nearly as warm then as they are now simply because there is more concrete and asphalt now; both retain the heat from the day. There was no air conditioning (you have to remember that my friends and I are old!).  Some families were fortunate enough to have evaporative cooling, which helps, but is NOTHING like air conditioning.  We desert dwellers stay inside during the hottest part of the day, just as we used to stay indoors when the New England temperatures were below zero when living in Connecticut.  You adjust to whatever comes your way.  I’m posting some Halloween cards tonight cause they make me think of cooler days, cooler nights, spooky nights……jack o’lanterns…a full moon….oh, yes, and big tumbleweeds!  (That’s for YOU, Carrie!!)

Josie Cirincione made both these cards for me.  In the card labeled TRICKS, Josie used Amy Wilson Wellenstein’s image called torn, Janet Klein’s holes border, Jill Penney’s alphabet, Daniel Torrente’s framed, in prison and devil-ish. Josie used her own stamp, vintage script, and scratches. She also used sewing snaps, ribbon, eyelets and paper clips, black ink, brown ink, black embossing powder, and the Versamark pad!  Super card!!

SPOOKY used Jill Penney’s alphabet, and Daniel Torrente’s three in a round.  There’s a bit of cutting out and around the goofy headed creatures and some smudging of the ink pad onto paper.  4 star brads. Another WILD card from Josie!!

Today is my mom’s birthday, June 21, 2008.  She was born the eldest of 7 girls and today she turns 87.  Still sharp as ever. Maybe because of all those crossword puzzles you did?  With an INK pen and not a pencil?   Here’s a picture of her and me on my third  birthday.  Is that a Christmas card in front of the cake?  Someone actually sent me a Christmas card in lieu of a birthday card? My parents always dedicated my birthday to me, even though it was so close to Christmas.  They made my birthdays very special. Thanks Mom.  After Dad passed, she loved to iron and listen to the song below.  She has seen so much change in her lifetime.  Happy Birthday, Mom.  I hope today is full of happiness for you.  I love you.

Jean, Jean, roses are red
All the leaves have gone green
And the clouds are so low
You can touch them, and so
Come out to the meadow, Jean.

Jean, Jean, you’re young and alive
Come out of your half-dreamed dream
And run, if you will, to the top of the hill
Open your arms, bonnie Jean Till the sheep in the valley come home my way
Till the stars fall around me and find me alone
When the sun comes a-singin’ I’ll still be waitin’For Jean, Jean, roses are red
And all of the leaves have gone green
While the hills are ablaze with the moon’s yellow haze
Come into my arms, bonnie JeanJean, you’re young and alive!!
Come out of your half-dreamed dream
And run, if you will to the top of the hill
Come into my arms, bonnie Jean
        Lyrics by Rod McKuen

Its been sooooo hot here in Phoenix the last few days.  UGH.  I thought this picture might cool us off for a bit.  We are fortunate to have a beautiful pond in our backyard, filled with lilypads, papyrus, cat o’nine tails, and water hyacinth.  There’s also some greenery that looks just like nasturtium, but I can’t remember its name.  We have 3 koi that remind me of JAWS as they swim so slowly in and around the smaller fish, and those ’smaller’ fish are giant goldfish that have simply grown to their environment. Our grandkiddos love to sit on the boulders and dangle their feet in the water (yes, its filtered….to keep the dirt from dirty little toes away from the FISH!!!) while the fishies nibble at the toes!! The pond and waterfall beckons to gorgeous dragonflies; both iridescent blue and a lovely orange-red.  They love to lite on the tip of a cat o’nine tail and position themselves so perfectly you think they are a part of the plant. Hummingbirds seem to stay with us through the summer months, even through the heat, and I feel because of the pond.  They know they have a safe haven with the trees, bushes, flowers and running water 24/7.  We even had Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal this spring.  I think they scoped out the pond area and thought it would be a lovely place to start a family. The nest was high atop one of our trees and I thought, on a windy day, how wonderful it must feel to be naturally swayed back and forth by the wind.  Looking at this picture, can’t you just imagine a pretty fairy or sprite sunning herself while floating on a lilypad?  Ponds are wonderful for daydreaming.  Until tomorrow………