The thing I made in Portugal

 I can finally show you all the finished (not quite) piece that I made in the workshop I just took with Michael DeMeng in Estoril in Portugal. First I want to say that Michael is a great teacher.......a very funny man with the patience of a saint......and I would take another workshop from him ANY day!!

 On the front of my book is a metal shrine with a small glass bowl in the bottom of it that I bought in the flea market in Lisbon.......I also bought the porcelain doll whose head now sits in the glass bowl and the small light bulbs in the flea market.

 ......loved the little light bulbs.........

 The clock parts I took from home.................

 the inside of the book with niche.........

 ....large plastic doll hand and small plastic doll sitting on it......................

 ......on the inside of the cover..........

 .......the edges of the pages...............

 the spine made from curtain header tape...........with screws as attachments and as decoration.......

and finally two extra doll pieces!
The larger green one came to be known over the week as frog face or frog boy.....can't think why! Originally he was going inside the book but it turned out he was too big and the cover wouldn't close! So I have him for another something!!

New Stampotique

Have you been chomping at the bit waiting for Stampotique Originals to release some more of your favorite stamps?  Well, you have stopped in at the right place today!  We are thrilled to announce our newest releases featuring many of your favorite designers. 

We've got new images from Jo Capper-Sandon, Maryse Carrier, Janet Klein and Daniel Torrente and Jill Penney.  There's a great mix of Halloween images, nature images, some winter images and some cute kid images.  There's an image for everyone to ink up and you are sure to find more than one that you will have to have.

Are you drooling yet?  Are you wanting to see some of these creepy, crawly, cute and furry friends?  Then join the design team and our special guest for our new release blog hop today starting here.  Make sure to leave a comments along the way and a randomly chosen commented will win some of these new stamps.

If you arrived here from DUTCHSTAMPTRAMP then you are in the right place.    From here you will want to visit VALERIE

Below is a complete list in case you go off the beaten path and need some redirection.

• Stampotique Designer's Challenge
• Gez Butterworth
• Jane Wetzel
• Joanne Wardle
• Karen (Kaz) Boughton
• Kate Crane
• Kim Howard
• Maria Sabina Raita
• Monique Verbeek
• Nellie vanLeeuwen
• Sue Roddis
• Valerie Wilson
• Vicki Garrett
• Willy Anderson
• Jo Capper-Sandon

Let us know what you think of the new stamps and which ones that you have seen are your favorite.

And the next day..............

 Here is my book in pieces, I spent a lot of time today putting it together......the inside pages with a niche.......the front and back covers..........

 ....here it is put together with orange, yes orange duct tape!

 Don't worry.....it's not staying orange!

This is the spine........can you work out what it's made from?

 Chopped off baby hand......................

with a gruesome little baby (I LOVE making these!) sitting in it, and placed in the niche in the book. Still lots of work to do!!!

Portugal progress report

 I thought I'd share some pics of the fun here in Portugal!
Here is Mr DeMeng wearing very fetching googles chopping my doll head in half...........

 .....the head in two pieces..........

 ......with her eyes poked out........

 .....Mr DeMeng again, this time demonstrating his creepy baby paint technique.....

 

......ooohhhhh creepy!!!!!

 This is my book cover with a metal shrine and doll head I bought at the flea market in Lisbon.......

 .......shrine in place.......little light bulbs added and moulding paste as texture...................

 ......little doll head with eyes from the half head added with with washers......................

 ......the 2 doll heads after several paint applications................

 .....book cover with lots of paint...............even more added after the pic was taken!!

OK, more later as the book progresses!

Bookmarks

It's STAMPOTIQUE CHALLENGE time again! This time KATE CRANE chose the theme and it's to make a bookmark. I LOVE bookmarks......I got carried away and ended up making 4!

I used JEEPERS 6082, JILL 6083, MISS SNOTTIE 6085 and CLOVER 6086

STAMPOTIQUE stamps are available in the UK from THE STAMP ATTIC

Tomorrow

I am heading to Portugal! I am going to Art Paradise in Estoril and I'm going to take a 30 hour workshop given by Michael DeMeng called THE NAVIGATORS JOURNAL.........I am so looking forward to it.
I am taking my computer so watch this space for pics during the week :)

Puzzled owl?

 I've not joined in
THE OCTOPODE FACTORY FRIDAY CHALLENGE for quite a while now so thought I would this week! I made a tag.......not done that for a while.....it was fun :)

 The theme is BIRDS OF A FEATHER......I used one of the owl rubber stamps

 Detail of the top............

 

and the bottom ..........

....and a fun way to stand a tag up.......a bulldog clip!

Frustrating.......

Have you ever spent time trying and trying to get something to work and it just won't come out how you want? Well that's what I've been doing for the last hour or so..............I now have 2 journal pages......one that is completely gessoed over ready to try again and another done but no use for what I needed it for! Aaarrgghhhhhh!
So, I decided I needed something I was happy with otherwise the time would feel completely wasted. Sitting on the side was a few pages from a dictionary and some new stamps.......................

 so, stuck two dictionary pages in a journal.......no colouring cos that was the bit that for some reason was not working...........................

 Stamped the hares (from 100Proof Press) onto card and coloured and cut out....................

 stamped the circles (100 Proof Press) and then added the words....................DONE!

What's black, white

 and "red" all over? A newspaper of course!
That is all I could think about when I saw the theme on CRAZY AMIGOS this week.....it's black, white and red!

 So with the newspaper thing in mind I used a piece of book paper across the centre of the card to represent it, I also stamped the pumpkins onto book pages and then cut them out.

 The alphabet is ALPHABITTIES by STAMPOTIQUE and the pumpkins are rubber stamps from THE OCTOPODE FACTORY.

 Sooooooo did you know that Hallowe'en is coming?????

Roses are red

Altered Alice challenge time again!! This time we are sponsored by CREATIVE INSPIRATIONS.......each DT member was given a pot of garnet paint.....a lovely bright sparkling red. So, to go with the paint what else could we use as inspiration but the chapter of the book where the playing cards are painting the white roses red!

 I used the red paint to stencil roses across the pages before adding small playing cards.

 The hand guiltily dripping red paint is from THE OCTOPODE FACTORY

You might wonder why I have the numbers 2,5 and 7 on the page......if you read the chapter in the book these are the numbers of the cards that are painting the roses and arguing between themselves!