If only they could talk to us!

Don't you sometimes wonder what your ancestors from old photographs would tell about their lives if they could still talk to you? I do. And today's art journal page is all about this question - showing my great granddad and his elder brother.

This time I went once again for a reduced colour scheme - using only black and white with some sprinkles of Mr. Huey's "gold". I wanted to have the main focus with the script elements and the awesome texture they provide.

I used my newly bought Tim Holtz layering stencils and some decoration paste for the background and once dry I gave the page some strokes with white gesso.

Then I stamped the Kaisercraft dictionnary and the Red Lead statement text images onto sandwich paper which I tore to pieces afterwards. I glued them to the page, creating several layers.

I partially blended the textures with DI "black soot". Then I die cut the Sizzix film strip and glued it in place after some sprinkeling my page with black and gold colour.

The image of my great granddad and his brother is a copy, which I distressed at the edges before I placed it on my page with a piece of film strip washi tape and some glue.

I die cut some letters for my "question" and combined them with some handwriting.

I often read that one should learn to love his own handwriting...but I admit it is not that easy. Actually my own handwriting wouldn't be too easy to read (even though I like how it looks ;)... so I tried to give it a calligraphic touch instead.

Some more embellishing with script candy and some Tim Holtz grunge texture stamp. Done.

I hope you like this page! Thank you all so much for your encouraging comments on my first art journal pages! They really mean a lot to me and keep me going! :)

How I love that picture! They look so brave and confident, dont't they? I really wonder how childhood was in those days....

I enter Journal Journeys Challenge #23 "Childhood" with my page.
I also enter it to Simon Says' Wednesday challenge "Anything Goes" and Art Journal Journey's "Less is More" challenge.
And last but not least I enter this to the Tim Holtz 12 tags of 2013, as I created the background with two of his awesome new stencils!



Hugs and happy crafting!

die amelie x

"Washi Tape" at Stampotique Designers Challenges

Well, I know, I know, you've seen these owls before, but first: I love them so much and second: it's one of the only two Stampotique stamps I own at the moment. So I have to be a little inventive... ;)

Their actual "Washi Tape" challenge inspired me to make my own washi tape - using Stampotique stamps. And as Halloween is near and I had no choice anyway (*lol), I used the gorgeous owl stamp to create two washi tape pieces to be able to enter their challenge once again. (Thank you, Stampotique DT, you really get my mojo flowing!).

Here are the ingredients I used for my washi tape recipe:

And it was so much fun!I used some sandwich paper and glued some double-sided

sticky tape to it. Then I cut out the strip and stamped it with jet black archival ink. To find the correct position of the owls I pressed the tape to the face up positioned stamp. Then I doodled some red borders. Done!


For the background of my tag I used some heavy black card and ran it through my Sizzix using an awesome "grunge stripes" embossing folder I bought on sale recently.

I partially heat embossed the raised areas with opaque white embossing enamel.

The top of the tag was given a coat of white acrylic colours first, then a coat of DecoArt Weathered Wood Crackle Medium and later a coat of black acrylic colour.

I stamped some owls and branches onto a piece of white fabric ribbon with black jet archival ink and added some red crackle accents using a Tim Holtz "grunge textures" stamp.












Then I covered some chipboard letters with light grey colour first, then again some Weathered Wood and some deep red for a finish.

I embellished the tag with my washi tape elements and glued the letters on top. Done!

I hope you like it and have a lot of fun too with creating your Halloween tags or some selfmade washi tape!

Hugs and happy crafting,

die amelie x


edit: my 10 year old son, who (obviously) has a good view for details and composition, said that the lower part of the tag looked a bit "empty" - and he was absolutely right! So I added a paper rosette for further embellishment. 

This is how it looked before I followed his advice:

Going Dotty (Dots or Circles) at Try It On Tuesday

Can you believe it? Another fortnight has passed again and it's time for a new challenge at Try It On Tuesday!

It is called

Going Dotty (Dots or Circles)

We want you to "go dotty", so use dots or circles with your projects. The design team over at Try It On Tuesday have prepared a whole bundle of inspiration for you - so hop over to our blog and join in the fun!

I used some self-adhesive dots (which are usually meant for bureau use) which I stamped and coloured and glued to a tag afterwards. I had used this technique on an earlier tag and was asked about the how to by the girls from TIOT. You will find more details about the technique over here.

I also applied some decorating paste through a dots stencil and stamped some additional dots onto my tag afterwards using on of the Tim Holtz grungy textures stamps. The ribbon has dots on it too ;)

I did some sewing and hand writing for further embellishment. The "art" word is heat embossed using white embossing powder.

The white embossed word "art" was stamped using the Tim Holtz "Worn Text" stamps, which can be bought at SimonSaysStamp over here.

By telling you so, I enter this tag to Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge, where they celebrate Stamptember by using products available with their on line store.


Thank you for stopping by!
Hugs and happy crafting,

Claudia x

Clean and Simple - Fun with ATCs

Welcome back, my dear crafting friends,

it's time for a new challenge over at Fun with ATCs!

This fortnight we want to see you entering

Clean And Simple

ATCs. 

CAS was the perfect occasion for me to use my newly bought Paper Artsy "Letters 4" stamps.

I hope you like them and enter your own CAS makes with our challenge soon! Of course my teamies have prepared a lot of inspirational ATCs for you too. So hop over to FunwithATCs and join in the fun!

Hugs and happy crafting! 

Claudia x

Autumnal Tag

As autumn is my favourite season of the year I always enjoy its approach - even though I love late summer too ;)

But no other season of the year is as meaningful as autumn is. And has as wonderful colours and clear daylight....

The Wienerwald ("Vienna Woods") is so wonderful to hike during this time of the year, having mist, fallen leaves in all colours and all those tiny creatures on the ground, looking for winter homes.

When I found the lovely paper napkins with the mushrooms on them, I knew I had to use them for (at least one) project!

So I applied the image to a cut out tag using Art Podge and stamped on some insects images after it had dried.

LOVE the 7Gypsies "Bugs Life" stamps!!!!

I also added some more red dots to the design by using one of the Tim Holtz "Ultimate Grunge" texture stamps and "Barn Door" distress ink.

Alongside that I stamped two leaves from the Tim Holtz "Fallen Leaves" stamp set  to the "ground".














After that my beloved all time stampin' stars - my HeroArts alphabet stamps had their moment!

I cut out the words and glued them to the tag. Then I outlined them using a black Indian Ink pen.
For a finishing touch I added a dotty red ribbon. Done!

I am happy that you stopped by! Thanks for visiting!

I enter this tag to The Artistic Stamper's "Autumn" challenge. 

Hugs and happy crafting,
die amelie x

A quick Stampotique Designers Challenge Tag

Hi there!

Just a quick share today of a tag I made for SDC's "Birthday Theme" challenge. The idea just hit my mind when I went to bed yesterday, so today I couldn't wait to get to my craft desk and try to catch it! I hope you like it!

I just imagined our "friend" at a birthday party... jumping with joy and excitement...or so...*lol. So here he comes ...and he even has some confetti, a present and some garlands on offer. So let's party....y...yay..... ;)

The background was made with Distress paints and later stamped on with black jet archival ink for a nice border and some confetti. The garland is made from the Tim Holtz barb wire stamp and some doodling with black and white gel pens.

I hope you like it! :)

Hugs and happy crafting!

die amelie x

Art Journal Cover

Well, finally I made it and dived into art journalling! It took me quite a while to find the appropriate approach for me without feeling that this is not "me" but "art journalling as it is done". I admire so many art journal artists, who do a lot of colourful painting and drawing and doodleing... but "my style" is different and it took some time to unravel it from all my impressions found in blogland.

But now that I feel confident with what I do, I dared buy an art journal to work in!!! And today I created the cover to turn this wonderful empty piece of card art into my piece of art. (And by doing so I understood my pupils' fear of plain, white paper for the first time *lol).

Yes, you are right - it's the awesome art journal from finnabair's collection! And it is such a well thought-out design - with all its pockets, the manila and card pages, the envelopes and bags! Just brilliant!

I went for a rather reduced colour scheme and covered the cover with a thick layer of white Gesso for a start. I also coated some metal embellishments with white Gesso for later use.

I used a scrap from a journal page that I had overdone and therefore cut to scraps for use with a different project. Sometimes these cut out pieces look so much better than the whole page you cut it from!

I glued it to the cover after some heavy spritzing and playing with some Mr. Huey's and Chalk mists and also some diluted acrylic colours.

The wire stamp is from BoBunny (love it!). It is from the "Distressed Textures" clear stamps set and also available at SimonSaysStamp over here.

Why do I tell you this? Because by doing so I can enter their actual Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where "Stamp-tember" is celebrated with a group blog-hop!

The "inspire" quote was applied through one of my new awesome Red Lead stencils!

I just love their stencils as they are perfect for art journalling!

I also rubbed some DecoArt Metallic Lustre "Gold rush" onto some areas of the gessoed cover, creating kind of stripes with my finger.


The washi tape is from a sale at a home decorations store.

I also applied some white and gold decorating paste through a stencil for more texture.

To add some more texture I stamped a border onto the cover's edge, using the lovely leaf stamp from 3rd Eye!

I also enter this cover to Artful Times' challenge "Scrap Art" as the center piece of my creation is a scrap from a journal page that I messed up and cut to pieces.

Did I mention that I love to use scraps from messed up paintings or pages? ;)

Thank you for staying with me this far and I hope you enjoyed your visit!

Hugs and happy crafting/journalling/... !

die amelie x

Another Art Journal Page

All that playing around with stencils, Gesso and acrylic colours with my autumnal art journal page was so much fun that it made me give another one a try.

Here comes:

Again I used a lot of 3rdEye stamps for creating texture for an interesting
background. Along with them I stamped the raven and some feathers from my awesome Crafty Individuals stamp set (I had almost forgotten about).

The quotes are some cut outs from a Red Lead stamp I recently bought and which I love simply because of the encouraging feel it gives.

I diluted some of the acrylic colours
to very light washes and sprinkled and splotted them onto my page randomly.



 I blotted off some excess using an old cotton towel.

For painting the bright orange outlining of the raven's image I used DecoArt multi - surface Satins "orange sherbet" and a thin brush.











The leaves border on top, the branches, the script and the brick wall are all 3rdEye and were stamped with black jet archival ink and painted over afterwards.

The brown dots were made by applying acrylic colour through a stencil using a bristel brush and very thick colour.

The black frames around the quotes were drawn using a black indian ink pen.

I also added a little texture by brushing on some white Gesso through a stencil.

 I enter The Artistic Stamper 's september challenge "Autumn" with this page. And as I stamped mainly onto acrylic colours and Gesso, I also enter it to SSS's Monday challenge "Stamping on Anything but Plain Paper!".

Thank you for visiting and have a wonderful crafty week!

Hugs,
die amelie x