Stampotique Originals Blog

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…….

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………

This gal’s name is MothFab and isn’t she a beauty?  Hand drawn by artist, Daniel Torrente.  Card design by Josie Cirincione.  Josie loves to use scrapbook papers as backgrounds and also enjoys stamping onto them.  She used two different hand punches for the flowers and our honeycomb stamp done in red.  Mothfab is colored in with a bit of watercolor pencils and don’t forget a bit of stitching with the sewing machine.  Its a great card with lots of texture and color.  Be sure to take a peek at Josie’s NEW book; her second now, BENT, BOUND and STITCHED.  It is published by Northlight and can be found in any bookstore and on Amazon.

    Josie Cirincione made these two cards and one tag using shrink plastic, Stazon ink, crafting chalks and rubber stamps from our line of rubber stamps.  When using shrink plastic, be sure to use a good quality product like POLYSHRINK, which is artists’ grade.  Your images will shrink equally in all directions. If you would like directions for this project, please email me at Carol@Stampotique.com and I will be happy to send them to you.  In the near future we will have these items listed in our projects category with detailed instructions, but in the meantime, feel free to email me. Also, Josie’s new book is on the shelves of bookstores and of course, Amazon.  The title is BENT, BOUND and STITCHED.  Its very cool; full of detailed, up close pictures and how to’s.

List of stamps used in the above samples are: altered laugh, altered hello, altered XOXO, scratches, in stitches, dots, torn, vintage script, altered, 1/2, #5, alphabet, honeycomb, large love definition.

Here’s a sweet square card by Josie Cirincione.  I love square cards, even if they do cost more to mail?  There is just something special about them.  This card has three layers. The first is simply folded cardstock which Josie stamped on.  I see she used her vintage script rubber stamp as part of the background.  The second layer is a piece of Basic Grey’s paper, which again, she overstamped to give it some dimension.  Instead of gluing this layer, she stitched it using her sewing machine.  Nice texture, huh? The piece de resistance is the little booklet in the very center. Josie used her folded tags stamp, stamping on each section with one of our large alphabet to spell out  H E L L O.  Then she scored and folded the tag itself into a little accordion and tied with a pretty ribbon; gluing securely.  The recipient would untie the ribbon upon receipt and VOILA! the sentiment will unfold!  Good going, Josie!!!  YOU ROCK!

  Rella sent this to me.  What a surprise when I saw it in the post office box!  It is SO bright and colorful, done with watercolors on watercolor paper, which also makes for a sturdy postcard.  Rella did a bit of hand drawing to fill in the imaginary garden.  On the ‘postcard’ side of the artwork is written ‘ you can find her in someone’s garden every morning, not always a wecome guest!”  Remember that if you are going to do some watercolor using your rubber stamps, be sure to stamp with Stazon ink. This is our image called The Crafter by artist, Daniel Torrente. This type of mail sure beats receiving bills!  Thank you, Rella!