STAMPOTIQUE DESIGNERS' CHALLENGE 153: ANNIVERSARY/LOVE THEME

Kim Howard, the Stampotique Design Team Coordinator, is our hostess this week on the Stampotique Designers' Challenge.  It remains true today in the U.S. that most marriages take place during the month of June.  It is not then surprising that one might need an anniversary card (or two) at this time of year.  Kim asks us to think about creating art around an anniversary or love theme.  

Happy Wednesday!  It's Kim and I'm excited to be hosting this weeks challenge.  June here in the states is often a time of many anniversaries and weddings and so I challenge you to create with an Anniversary, Wedding or Love theme.  
While you all are busy creating, I'll be celebrating with the love of my life our 18th anniversary so can't wait to see what you all come up with.  Have fun and hope you love every minute creating :-)

I created a clean and simple anniversary card for Kim's challenge.  

I used these Stampotique stamps:

Wedding Day #2

Daisy, Daisy

Happy Anniversary!

I hope you will find some artsy time this week to create and submit something for this fun challenge.  Details and rules for submission can be found here.  At the end of the month, two winners will be randomly drawn from all submissions to receive a $30 gift certificate from Stampotique Originals for anything in their online store.

Thanks for coming by and for taking the time to leave a comment.  I do appreciate both!

Cheers!

STAMPOTIQUE DESIGNERS' CHALLENGE 152: SENTIMENTAL WORDS AND PHRASES

Hello, and thank you for stopping by again today!  Yes, it is Wednesday and that means the Stampotique Designers' Challenge is up!  Sweet Gez Butterworth is our lovely hostess, and she is tugging at our heartstrings and wants to see sentimental words and phrases in our art today.  Here are her own words:

Hi Gez here, I am delighted to be your hostess for this challenge.. I love sentiments and sayings, they really say it all to me!  They make a piece finished!  I'd like you to share some of your favourite words with us this week!  They can be a main focal point or an embellishment, it's your choice!  Say it with words...

A few weeks ago, I finally caved and bought the (relatively) new Finnabair Vintage Vanity Art Journal (by Prima) and am loving it!  I rarely work directly in my journals anymore, so it's easy to create on my craft table, then move the work into my journal. For me, it's much less threatening to work this way.  If I make a mistake or really am not happy with what I have created, well, it's just paper and I can reuse pieces and parts of my project or just recycle it. If I am working directly on a journal page, that's a different story altogether!

So here's what I have created for today's challenge.  For me, this deals with being sentimental about nature, but also about how I spend my time.  I want to remember to take time to breathe!

I used these Stampotique Originals' stamps in this project:

Glimmering Hope

Forget not that the earth delights...

Vintage Script

Thanks for stopping by today, and for your supportive comments!  I hope you will get crafty and create something for this great challenge!  You can find the details and submit your artwork here.  Why not grab a chance to win one of the two $30 gift certificates for Stampotique products given away at the end of each month?  

Cheers!

STAMPOTIQUE DESIGNERS' CHALLENGE 151: BOXES

It's Wednesday, so the Stampotique Designers' Challenge is up, but, this is a challenge that you will not complete in 15 minutes, that's for sure.  More than once, my back complained about my lack of good posture at my crafting table!  You could have heard me asking (more than once, too), "Arwen!  How could you do this to me?!"  However, in the end, I have a box that is not only beautiful, but functional.  But, first, here's Arwen's challenge all the way from Germany:

What could be better than to give a loved one something?
To present a gift effectively, I make nice boxes to do so.
Be it for jewelry, candy, books, etc. - for all you can make great boxes.
But the box itself is a wonderful gift idea.
Show me your boxes!
As "given away" for something or as preserves things?
I'm curious about your boxes.

I bought a box sold by graphic45 as a "Book Box" at the Eclectic Paperie in Exeter, NH. Covering this box was a tedious procedure, even though I was doing so with paper that I love called "Secret Diary" (Cold Country Series) by 7 Dots Studio.  I didn't want to use stark black ink to edge both my box and the paper edges, so I used Wendy Vecchi's "Watering Can," which is a deep, strong gray.

I hadn't decided a purpose for the box, but was drawn to the following Stampotique Orignals' stamps for this project:

Relaxin' (by Jill Penney & Daniel Torrente)

Peggy (by Jill Penney & Daniel Torrente)

The Crafter (by Jill Penney & Daniel Torrente)

Glimmering Hope (by Jill Penney & Daniel Torrente)

Typewriter Alpha (by France Papillon)

I had recently purchased but not yet used France Papillon's Typewriter Alphabet and, as I tore open the plastic bag containing the small wooden cubes to stamp out the word "art" in several places on the box, I realized I had no idea how I was going to store this alpha set!  It didn't take me long at all to find a purpose for this box!!

I hope you will find some artsy time this week to create and submit something for this fun challenge.  Details and rules for submission can be found here.  At the end of the month, two winners will be randomly drawn from all submissions to receive a $30 gift certificate from Stampotique Originals for anything in their online store.

Thanks for coming by and for taking the time to leave a comment.  I do appreciate both!

Cheers!

STAMPOTIQUE DESIGNERS' CHALLENGE 150: RECOGNITION OF SDC BLOG CHALLENGES TO DATE

Today's challenge is #150 for the Stampotique Designers' Challenge (SDC)!  That calls for a celebration and a bit of history.  The first Stampotique Designers' Challenge called for a "love-themed card," and aired on Wednesday, February 10, 2010.  Perhaps not a long time ago in some circles, but just imagine the amount of art that has been created on the SDC blog since that date!  If the first response from followers submitting projects, and that was 35, is any indication of what followed over the years--well, do the math!  That's 5,250 pieces of art and does not include those projects created by the Design Team! 

Kim Howard, the Design Team Coordinator, is our hostess for this event, and she's asking us all to create art to help us

C E L E B R A T E !

Here's what Kim has to say:

Today we have a super fun challenge for you.   

We are excited at Stampotique that our fans have helped us grow so much and that our stamps, challenges and Facebook page have become such a big hit.  In honor of our excitement, and our 150th challenge, our theme is CELEBRATION.  We want you to create with celebration in mind, whether it's celebrating a birthday, anniversary, wedding, graduation or new baby...let's celebrate! 

Not to put a damper on our celebration, but our team is bidding a few of our members farewell. Maria has been with the team and has shown us how talented she is not only as an artist but as a stamp designer. Tanja has only been with us a short while but we have enjoyed seeing her creations each week.  We celebrate the opportunity we had to have them on our design team and wish them the best. 

We will NOT be having a new call for designers as our current designers will all be remaining for another term.  We are happy to say we are looking for 4 new guest designers and so along with this fun challenge, we will pick some of our guest designers from those who are participating in our 150th challenge. Along with the chance to be a guest designer, we'll also be picking a random winner for a $30 gift certificate for Stampotique stamps. 

Can't wait to see how you celebrate this week!

In keeping with the theme of the first challenge, I have chosen a love theme for my card.  But, mine is not about romantic love, but about the bond among women who share the same passion for creativity and art.  It is about the bond that we on the Design Team share.  It is about the bond we each create with our Facebook friends and other bloggers when we post our art there.  It is about the bond we share with all artful friends, both face-to-face in our home towns and others all over the world. 

I have used the following Stampotique Originals' stamps in my project today:

Art Angels (Janet Klein)

So, faith, hope...Corinthians (Carol's Collection)
Daniel's Hearts (Daniel Torrente)

I would like to take a moment here to congratulate and to thank Carol and Jim Ramsey, the owners of Stampotique Originals, as well as Kim Howard and Valerie Wilson, who do a lot of behind-the-scenes work on the Stampotique Designers' Challenge blog! My hat is off to you, Folks!  Happy (150 posts) Anniversary!

Thank you for your visit today and for your kind comments which I value.  I hope you will take some time this week to create celebratory art for this challenge.  You will find all the rules and how to submit your art here.  Why not take a chance on winning one of two $30 gift certificates randomly awarded at the end of the month from Stampotique Originals!

Cheers!