You are the one

Like many of you I have a paper addiction.  I enjoy finding random items in my collage box and making something out of them. That's  how this background came together.

I had drawn this car for Stampotique's Toto and  Jill Penny to ride in.  This reminded me of when I brought my puppy home for the first time.  I had seen a small handful of puppies before finding Phoebe. We had an elderly dog and I wanted to make sure I found a puppy with the right personality to get along with my ailing little guy.  Phoebe was indeed the one. 

I have such happy memories of leaving work to pick up our pup for her forever home. She was wide-eyed like the Toto image as she rode beside me in the car for the first time.  On our drive home I looked forward to hitting red lights so I could gaze at her adorableness.  Do you know the feeling?

Look through your stamps and create a collage memory. 

Until next week -
Janet

What does the fox say?

Ylvis's hit "What does the fox say" motivated me to make these animal sound ATC's.  I began with repurposing my over spray papers that I cut into 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" cards. I looked through my Stampotique images for animal images, stamped, colored, added scraps, some washi tape, and scribbled.

Unfortunately I was multitasking at the time and I'm not so pleased with the set. But I think it is still a super cute idea and I offer it to you to give a try.

My Stampotique images used in this ATC collection are all cropped. They are from the following stamps:

Barnyard cube 9106
Chicks cube 9098
Crow line 9210
Cat family  9251

Look through your Stampotique stamps with the kid's and have them identify animal sounds. Make your own set of animal sound cards for a fun activity with your littles!

Thanks for taking a look!

Story behind the stamp

"Courting" is a Stampotique image from my family photo collection.  This image is very special and I'd like to share a story about the couple.

Irv and Leah Klein were young and in love in the nineteen-thirties. They would marry, and as most young couples, longed for a family.  After years of trying they turned to the Margaret Sanger fertility clinic in NYC.  With fertility technology still in its early stages, there was no guarantee that the couple would become pregnant. Meanwhile, there were two young medical students who found themselves with child.  Due to their conflicting religious faiths, they could not marry. The clinic asked Irv and Leah if they would like to adopt this baby.  Of course they said yes to a beautiful baby boy.  Nine months later, Leah gave birth to her second son.

The family of four lived a nice life.  Irv worked hard as a custom home builder, building his business to the point that he now had weekends off with his boys. He had built a home for themselves and one for his sister and her family a few houses down. Leah was athletic and also into the arts. She had the boys busy with many wonderful activities and opportunities. The two boys were doted on by their very loving parents.

One rainy December evening two couples were returning home from the city.  A drunken driver hit them head on, taking the lives of Leah and her brother-in-law, and leaving Irv and his sister in critical condition.  Leah was only forty years old.  It makes you wonder how these things happen.  The mother who wanted so desperately to have children was torn away from their young lives.

I never had the good fortune to meet Irv. He had passed away from cancer before I met his son Jess.  I had been widowed and was now forty years old. Shortly after our engagement Jess and I were looking through his family photographs. There was a picture of him and his brother next to his mother's headstone.  After looking at the date I noticed that Leah and I had the same birthday.  After closer examination, Jess noted her date of passing was date we had met in December.  These things make you wonder too.

I made this tag with Faber-Caswell Gelatos and a watered-down layer of gesso.  I colored circle border (also Stampotique) with a Gelato and spritzed with water to stamp.  Prismacolor pencils were  scribbled softly to further distress the tag.

Thanks for stopping by.

Repurposing first aid tape

I was organizing our linen closet and came across several rolls of first aid tape.  It certainly seemed like an excellent opportunity to stop what I was doing and go into my studio and make some washi tape! 

I placed a foot of tape and taped it to a sheet of freezer paper. I selected two hues of acrylic paint to create a pattern with a flat brush.  Memento Tuxedo Black ink was used to stamp the images -- Stampotique's mini city cube and tiny hand helds.  The tiny images were loosely painted with a small brush tip.   I used an XS Pitt pen to clean up the image as needed as well as drawing thin lines to define the edges of the color.  I used post-it notes to mask the tape and stamped text with my Stampotique collage definition stamp. 

I used one piece of my first aid washi tape around the bottom of a of a tool caddy that I've yet to complete.  Another piece went into my mini journal a reminder to make more!

Hope you'll try making some.  The tiny images are great for this project!