Stitches! SDC190

Coby is our design hostess this week at the Stampotique Designers Challenge #190 and the call is for stitches. 

I love to use a sewing machine for stitching my cards but I also like creating a faux stitch with my Pitt pens.  For this challenge I had taken some watercolor waste scraps that were trimmed on the paper cutter and machine stitched for my background.

My newest stamps, crowd and birch tree were arranged on top of the staggered stitched scraps.  The quote was printed from the computer and a Pitt pen boarder added.  BIC wite-out was dotted to create a sense of falling snow.  A tag from my husband's dry-cleaning seemed to display cool temperatures that many are wanting to warm up.

You have a chance to win a $30.00 credit for stamps from Stampotique so why not hop over and join us and start stitching!

New Images from Background Stamps

 

I was playing with some dry wash and paper mask techniques for my young students and decided to use it as a springboard to respond to Sam Read's Stampotique Designer's Challenge #90; Song Inspiration.  "Good Day Sunshine” (Beatles) uses three Stampotique  images; Love Definition , Vintage Script,  and Flower Girl. 

I cut a circle mask for the sun and tore out a curved shape to create a hill.  Pebbles Pearlescent chalks, Copics, and a little glitter pen scribble was applied after laying down  the paper masks.  Flower Girl's dress is paper pieced.

 The next images use all background stamps with paper masks and a little line work. 

I created three random mask shapes for the trees by cutting into a post-it note and tearing desired shapes.   A dry wash of chalk was applied prior to stamping background stamps. For the house I cut out the rectangle and triangle on separate masks and applied the Baroque Background with colored dye inks.

Scrap paper completes the house door.

 

 

 

 

A Neutral Morning

It's not going to be one of those bright and sunny days here in Arizona.  A good morning to wake-up and grab a cup of coffee and head to my studio. 

I have several projects on my table in various stages.  The new challenge at CASual  Fridays;  CFC36: Create a Clean And Simple Project that is only black and white, certainly seemed like a easy place for me to start.  This is an honor to “penguins everywhere”…loved “Chilly Willy” as a kid, so I am going for this.  

The graphic quality of the sharp contrast of black and white has always appealed to me.  That’s how I see when I design my stamp images, it is always more of a challenge to use my stamps the way they are meant to be used.

In this submission I am using my Stampotique images Bella and I Love You Flowers.  That’s it.  Black on white, cropped, layered with b/w papers ribbon scrap.  Easy?  Yes.  One more thing, had to add a dash of Diamond Sticklers, just had to!

As I am moving things about I come across a box of scraps (actually, I have lots of boxes of scraps, but I am attempting to appear more organized).   I have projects that didn’t work out, color practice, etc.  So I decided to repurpose items and put them together to make a card.  This is a similar way I have my students work in their collages.  I supply them with boxes at each team table and let them go to town. 

One approach I take is grabbing colors in a limited color palette and trying to make them work.  I try to balance the textures and give the article a little “pop.” 

The image is Fleur Gril #3 from my Fleur de Girl collection for Stampotique.   She is cropped from the entire image and placed in a scrap frame.  The “hello” is from my own hand. The corner needed a touch of black to balance it and I thought “hello” would fit the bill.

Now I’m off to a busy day ahead. 
You don’t mind if I leave my studio a little, well, let’s say, messy?