Life is Beautiful by Fran Chalmers

Hi everyone!

Today I've made a card  to say that Life is Beautiful! I hope you  like it.

I made the background  by smooshing distress inks in Peacock Feathers, Dried Marigold and Spiced Marmalade on a piece of card.  I dried between each layer so the colours didn't go too muddy.

 I then used a gold glitter pen to draw around some of the shapes that the ink had made.

I used a mask with musical notes on, with distress ink in Lucky Clover.

I stamped out the main image and cut it out.  I did try colouring the whole image, but it didn't really work and got a bit lost in the background, so I decided to keep her monochrome apart from a red lip.

I stamed the sentiment and decided to cut it up so I could place it differently on the card.

Lastly, I drew round the edges with a fine black liner, then layered the card onto black card, and then onto cream card.

Hope you enjoyed this card.  See you next time!

Stamps Used:

Banksy Life is Beautiful 20292

Banksy Wall Singer 20303

Other Items Used:

Distress Inks : Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade, Peacock Feathers, Lucky Clover

Versafine Clair ink in Nocturn

Black fine liner

Red Copic Pen

Gold Glitter Pen

Stencil of musical notes

Black backing card

Bookmarks and Notebook - Gift Ideas | Sue Plumb

Hi everyone!

It's Sue Plumb here to share my latest design team project with you. As we head into the festive season, I thought it would be a good time to share a couple of simple appreciation gift ideas with you. There are always people in our lives that deserve a small token of our thanks - whether that be teachers, neighbours, friends, the mailman, or even the staff at the local store. So I decided to whip up some simple stamped bookmarks and notebooks featuring some of my fave Banksy stamps to give out.

For the notebook, I started with a plain, kraft cover notebook (purchased from Kmart). I used Dina Wakley acrylic paints, applied with a brayer and layered randomly to add some colour. I then took the recently released Victorian Flower Background and used it to stamp a border around 3 sides of the cover.

Next, I chose the fabulous Banksy Wall Singer for my feature image on the cover, before I also stamped the Banksy Life is Beautiful as the accompanying text. I love how it turned out! I paired it with a pen before wrapping it up.

After I created the notebook, I decided to re-visit a project I have created previously and shared here - bookmarks. (You can find my original watercolour bookmark post HERE) This time however, I wanted to use a more minimalist style to showcase some cool Banksy stamps. 

I started by cutting some smooth white cardstock into strips measuring 2x8.5". I then stamped a focal Banksy image onto each one, and an accompanying quote as well. 

Here is a list of all the stamps I used on the bookmarks (as shown from left to right above):

- Banksy Man on Bicycle and You Only Live Once

- Banksy Frida Kahlo and Banksy Just Because

- Banksy Spray Can Cop and The Unicorns Made Me

- Banksy Einstein Protestor and Banksy Love is the Answer

- Banksy Girl Floating with Balloons and She Was a Dreamer

- Banksy Ladder Painter and Banksy Life is Beautiful

- Banksy Gas Mask Flower Girl and Where is My Mind?

- Banksy Child Sitting and I Hope You Know

- Banksy Swing Girl and She Spread Her Wings

I also stamped the back of each bookmark with the Banksy stamp.

Once they were all stamped, I used Faber-Castell gelatos to add a splash of colour to each one. I wanted to keep them simple, so I only used a single colour on each one and left the focal images uncoloured.

I then took all the bookmarks and laminated them, trimming off the excess laminate with a trimmer.

I then punched a hole into each bookmark and added a variety of twine, tassels and a metal charm to decorate them.

I am so happy with how these turned out and cannot wait to gift them to their new owners! Thanks so much for stopping by so I could share this with you. I hope I have inspired you to create some special handmade appreciation gifts for the people in your lives too. 

Stamps used:
- Victorian Flower Background
- Banksy Wall Singer 
- Banksy Life is Beautiful
- Banksy Man on Bicycle 
- You Only Live Once
- Banksy Frida Kahlo 
- Banksy Just Because
- Banksy Spray Can Cop 
- The Unicorns Made Me
- Banksy Einstein Protestor 
- Banksy Love is the Answer
- Banksy Girl Floating with Balloons 
- She Was a Dreamer
- Banksy Ladder Painter
- Banksy Gas Mask Flower Girl 
- Where is My Mind?
- Banksy Child Sitting 
- I Hope You Know
- Banksy Swing Girl 
- She Spread Her Wings
- Banksy

Other materials:
- Plain notebook
- White cardstock
- Tsukineko StazOn ink
- Faber-Castell Gelatos
- Dina Wakley acrylic paints
- Laminating sheets
- Assorted twines, tassels and charm