Lilacs for Sunday

Brought out some of the Fleur de Girls to play with.  Here's Lilac -- I stamped her with black Versafine on watercolor paper.  I painted her with a combination of children's watercolors and Peerless. 

I used a black liquid stylist pen to add the quote.  And it needed something.

I guess I must have been day dreaming because I got caught up in doodling and my XS Pitt pen wound up traveling all over the surface. 

If you are not familiar with the collection over at Stampotique there is an entire garden of whimsical "fleur" girls with quotes, backgrounds and accents.  Perfect for spring. Or anytime.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Something old, something new

The Fleur de Girl image is the very first stamp I designed for Stampotique.  She's still one of my favorite images and her essence still appears in some of my current designs.

The medium sunflower is one of my newest images for Stampotique. The combination of old and new work well together in this whimsical scene.

After stamping and coloring the old and new images with Copics, I clear embossed them to stand against a muted collage from scraps.

I stamped bushes on patterned paper to add some depth to the composition.

I hope it inspires you to take out an early stamp and combine it with a new image!

Story behind the stamps; The Fleur de Girl Collection

The Fleur de Girls have their roots back in 2001 when Carol and Jim, owners of Stampotique had begun producing art rubber stamps.  I was an art educator in the public schools and taught at the Stampotique shop every once in a while.  Carol suggested I try drawing some images for their new rubber business.

School kept me fairly busy.  I was also teaching art education classes at the university.  Then my husband found himself victim of downsizing. 

My response to this was the original "Fleur de Girl" in the upper right of this photo of ATC's.  While she doesn't appear very happy she is undefeated.  I began drawing girls that looked like and named for flowers.  Strongly influenced by artist Paul Klee, all my work seemed to have letters and numbers mixed in, so I thought it was natural to add type and various text within my patterns.  I wasn't sure if I was on to anything.  When I showed my husband my drawings he smiled, immediately naming them "The Fleur de Girls."

I don't think I knew to scan images back then, so I sent the hard copies images to Carol in a large illustrated envelope.  Carol's response was, "Are these mine?"

Fortunately my husband was back to work in no time and the Fleur de Girls collection grew. 

These ATCs are cropped images from the collection. They are paper pieced and colored with Prismacolor pencils.  The garden themed collection includes sentiments, flowering shoes and handbags that should grow in every girls garden.