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

Mail Art Monday with Fiona

Hello VLVS peeps! Fiona here with you today to share a little bit of mail art with you!

I don't know how ..... but I keep making purple things lately!! I don't even LIKE purple. maybe that's the thing ...... maybe the universe is secretly trying to train my brain to think purple is cool!!!

Well regardless of what I think ..... the mail art is purple ...ish. With a sprinkling of pink and yellow. It doesn't look THAT bad. Luckily the stamps are SO cool.

I popped a layer of gesso underneath so that the watercolours I used would give a cool effect on the paper that wasn't covered by the gesso. Then i sprinkled some pigment powders over the top and sprayed with water!! I love the final effect!

Viva Las Vegastamps! used:

Writing Arrow

Banksy Line Of Punks

Banksy Einstein Protester

Thank you popping by .... I'll see you all again soon xx

Guest Designer Sandy

Today I welcome back Guest Designer Sandy!! 

Sandy has brought us a wonderful gift set, a necklace and coordinating gift box!!

She used the Fly and Einstein's Tongue from plate827 as well as Time Flies and the Wasp from plate893

Sandy says "For project #2, I used the same stamp plates as I did in project #1, but used Albert Einstein from Plate #827 to create a domino necklace in an Xmas theme and "Time flies" and flies from Plate #893 as the stamps on the accompanying pyramid gift box.  Al was stamped on a domino that had been soaked in bleach, dried and then stamped using Ranger Ink's Archival Ink in black.  Image was then dried with a heat tool to set the ink before coloring.  Red tongue and edge of domino was colored with a red permanent Sharpie marker.  A Tim Holtz eye screw was attached to the domino to thread the ball and chain also from Tim Holtz's Idea-ology parts and a little holly berry cluster was glued to Al's forehead using Ranger's "Glossy Accents" dimensional adhesive.  The pyramid box was cut from black card stock using Stampington's "Pyramid Box" template - for template and instructions, go to www.Stampington.com, scroll down to the bottom of the home page, click on "Project How-to's", next click on "Tempting Templates, and last click on "Pyramid Box."  I added four additional triangle pieces cut from green cardstock and stamped sayings and flies using Staz-On's Jet Black solvent ink to complete my gift set.  Very merry, I think"

Thanks so much for being our guest designer Sandy! We had a lot of fun seeing your projects this month♥