Stampotique Originals Blog

While cruising the net one evening I found this picture. Couldn’t take my eyes off of it! Its so European and old and beautiful. Don’t you love the climbing roses? And see how someone has adhered gridwork right to the side of the building to encourage the ‘climbers’; the lovely arches of the window and door. And then, the sweet small panes of glass. I find this entry very appealing; very rustic and very natural.

Jacob Avila is 4 years old today. He is our 3rd born grandchild and very special indeed. Jacob has a gentle spirit, a great sense of humor and loves animals. When he was just a wee little man he would climb the jungle gym in his backyard, keeping up with his older brother. His mother and I would chuckle at his little leg muscles helping him climb the steep side, and holding our breath at the same time! Jacob is a snuggler and lover of Pooh Bear and BEN 10.
I will always remember you asking me, “Omma, got gum?” And you love having coffee with Mommy and me. Thank you for being YOU, Jacob. Grandpy and I wish you a very happy birthday and a fun filled year to come. May God bless you and keep you safe. Thank you for being a part of our lives. XXOO

Click on image to enlarge.
I should be working on our new images, and I have been, don’t get me wrong, but its tiresome and boring! Soooo, taking a break I found this photo of our booth at CHA last January/February in Anaheim. Thought you might enjoy a peek. CHA (Craft & Hobby Association) has two shows a year; end of January-beginning of February and in July. Winter CHA is always held in Anaheim, CA, right across from Disney. Its a fun few days; long hours of standing on your feet, but you get to see and meet the most incredible people, including those who order stamps from us! Its always wonderful to put a face with the name.

Last year we were situated directly across from the Ranger booth, so during slow spots I could cross the aisle and chit chat with Tim Holtz, Wendy Vecchi and Claudine Helmouth. Watching any of those 3 was such fun. They make crafting look so easy. Enjoy our colorful booth with all our crazy characters!

Hmmmmmmm? I wonder who? Maybe a big white poodle with desert dusty paws? That’s our bed and Oliver LOVES to nap on it. He likes being alone and away from the other poodles. He’ll always be ‘found out’.
So I bet you’ve been wondering where we’ve been. Just here, burning rubber and the temperatures outside have been 111, 112, 113 and 114. Not fun. Is it WINTER YET? But I’m thankful for the orders for our great rubber stamps. Keep ‘em coming. I’ll be starting on the new images from Daniel and Jill. They’ve drawn some great ones. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll have a new artist to introduce to you; my fingers are crossed. However, she is one busy lady, so I must be patient.

To help keep cool, I’ve been enjoying our backyard pond. Its always such a joy to be out there watching the fish enjoy their environment, listening to the waterfall and laughing at the dragonflies chase one another. They are SOOOOO fast!! Here’s a picture of one of our waterlilies.
Isn’t it beautiful? They come right up out of the water and burst into bloom. All the lilypads help to keep the water cool for the fish, while also providing them a shield against the harsh summer sun.
Did you know that the metabolism of fish changes from winter to summer? In the winter we feed them very little as they slow down. The lilypads are fewer too, thus the fish keep warm with the power of the sun. Come summer, however, their metabolism increases and they have to be fed daily.
They’re RAVENOUS! They actually JUMP out of the water when they see my husband coming with the food container! We have 3 koi that a friend so generously gave to us as a gift. I call them the submarines because they are so much larger than the other fish. Here they are waiting for the food.

Here is a picture of the waterfall and fish.

Here’s a pic of Jess and Phoebe-Doo (Labradoodle).  (Jess suffered a massive heart attack a few days ago; see blog post Feb. 24).  According to Janet, recovery is very slow and the possibility of Jess being put on a list for a new heart is becoming greater with each passing hour.  Again I ask for your prayers to assist both Jess and his doctors and nurses.  Give them strength and knowledge to get through this nightmare.  Janet also needs your prayers to help her be strong for Jess and have a smile on her face when he wakes up.

Last Saturday, a few of my daughter’s girlfriends and myself put on a shower for Carrie and her brand new twin girls.  What a fun day we had!  The twins were passed around from one person to the next to be fed, burped and snuggled.  They seemed to bring such happiness to whomever was holding them at the time.

As favors for the attendees, I made individual mini-scrapbooks.  They were done with a LAGUNA binding and covered with various papers, adhesive backed fabrics, etc. that I had in my stash.  The books came out so nice and everyone seemed to love them (how can you NOT love a tiny book?).

 

A very special thank you to my friend, Marcia, for making all the book blocks.  My job was much, much easier because of her generosity.  And a thank you to Kathy Shepherd, co-owner of the CREATIVE QUEST, for teaching me what is probably my favorite binding!

 

 

 This isn’t a stamped card, but aren’t they adorable?  Two little peas.  Kiley Rose and Lily Grace. Our daughter gave birth to these little treasures on 1-9-09. Aren’t they just the sweetest?  The photographer is wonderful. Visit her site if you have the time.  There are some incredible photos in the gallery. 

My new year’s resolution is to be better at blogging.  Hmmmm.  Today’s date is February 9.  Guess I’m not doing too well, but I’ll keep trying!

We had our BEST show ever at CHA this year. The number of exhibitors was down as well as those attending, but shop owners were buying for their stores.  It was incredible.  And really, it was kind of nice having a smaller show. 

Today it HAILED here in Phoenix!  Can you imagine?  GLOBAL WARMING?  NOT!  It was so fun to hear the pounding on the rooftop and watch the little balls accumulate in our front yard.

I feel so badly about the Australians who have lost their lives or lost their homes. And the poor wild animals that were without water and no place to run.  Hopefully the wonderful firefighters will get things under control soon.   We can only hope.

Good night sweet Kylie and Lily.  May your dreams be happy and your lives fulfilled. We’re so tickled you are a part of our family! We love you.

Jim took a really good picture of a lovely blue dragonfly hovering over the pond. They love to sit upon some of the sturdier greenery within the pond.  Isn’t ’she’ pretty? Her double wings are irridescent in the sunlight.  Some people think dragons and damsels bite, but they don’t.  So now, knowing that bit of info, maybe you will sit and enjoy their beauty!  They are fun to watch because they chase each other around and around, lighting on a leaf to bow down to take a bit of water or just catch their breath!! It seems as though they lead very busy lives!

Sarah Schwerin from Sydney, Australia, sent me some wonderful samples made using our stamps.  The first item to show you is made using our MARCI.  Sarah’s sample is an ATC (artist trading card). I love the crown on Marci’s crazy head.  She is one ugly little girl with the face only a mother could love and I think Sarah did a super duper job making Marci look CUTE.  Thank you, Sarah.

Sarah’s next sample is a darling accordion fold booklet.  SPOOKY eyes!!! On the first page is PROM QUEEN, second page holds both GOOSENECK and SPYKEE, page 3, GLIMMERING HOPE and the last page is RELAXIN’.  It appears that Sarah might have done a bit of ‘distressing’ on the pages and of course, some wonderful white pen for those SPOOKY EYES!!!!  SUPER GIRLS!!!!

I see MARCI again on the inside and TWO BARRETTES! Sorry for the not-so-good pics.  That is my fault, not Sarah’s.  She sent me great photos.  I’m not really good with transferring pics to the blog.  I apologize but at least you get to see some FUN stuff.  Thank you SO MUCH, Sarah.  We all really enjoyed your wonderful work.

Some days you just don’t feel like doing much, except maybe lounging around!  The two characters you are looking at are FLOWER and STELLA, sisters and best friends and the furfriends of my friend, Toni.  (Doesn’t Stella look like a little raccoon with those black eye patches?) Since its still hot here in the desert, we’re moving slowly, hoping that fall and winter will begin to show their faces. How does that happen in the desert southwest?  The mornings and evenings begin to cool down, instead of 95 degrees at 10 PM!  Some of you out there are enjoying the beginning of the seasonal change.  Our chance will come!

Here’s a great tag by Josie Cirincione.  The ‘tag’ is made from a TIM HOLTZ paper; bingo card images on the paper.  Josie then stamped Mr. Stripes in black ink, ‘holes border’ in red ink and then stamped Mr. Stripes again on separate paper; cutting out only his chubby body to ‘pop’up on top of the image of Mr. Stripes that she had already stamped on the tag.  Using a vintage ADMIT ONE ticket from her stash, she glued down a partial ticket and made snippets of the numbers remaining; gluing them around the tag front, in a pleasing manner.  Be sure to add some very narrow ribbon.  Cute!

 

 

 

 

 

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!