Hurra for 17. mai!

May 17th is Norway's National Day and also my mom's birthday. I made this card for her in the colors of the Norwegian flag, plus spring green. The black poodle looks like mine and the tan one like my mom's. 

Balloons: My Heart Stamps For You, Sentiment: Stampinavia/Kreativ Hobby, Ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon

Both poodle stamps are from RubberHedgehog Rubber Stamps. They have an awesome selection of dog breed stamps (as I mentioned in my previous post), and lots, lots more. Love that company! I'm not affiliated in any way, just a big fan :-)

Gratulerer med dagen to my Norwegian readers! (It means Congratulations with the day, literally translated). I am very grateful for living in a country where we take peace and freedom for granted. I am proud of my country - the best country in the world, according to some rankings:

"For yet another year, Norway tops rankings of global wealth and well-being. In the latest ranking by the London-based Prosperity Index, Norway remains the most prosperous country in the world for the third year straight. Norway also tops the UNDP Human Development Index for 2013 - a score that effectively awards it the title of ‘The world’s best country to live in’ for the fifth year in a row." (Read more here)


Of course there is always room for improvement, won't there always be, but compared to most people on this planet, we Norwegians are extremely lucky. Let us remember that today, and let us never, ever forget the less fortunate. Share your wealth, do something good.

We can all make a change that really matters to someone. 

Thank you for stopping by!

Modern Grid Technique

These two cards were inspired by a project by Holly at Quietfire Design's blog, which you can find here (with instructions): http://quietfirecreations.blogspot.no/2013/04/modern-grid-god-grant-me.html
Robyn also made a card using the same technique -  click here to see it.


This is the first card I made. I had first stamped the maple leaf (Nature's Print Shop) with red ink, then added some yellow and green ink with a waterpen. I wanted the leaf to pop out more, so I drew the black outline with a pen. After the card was finished, I adhered three buttons in a tic tac toe fashion :-)

I thought this was such a fun technique, I had to make another one!

The poodle playing in the pile of leaves is a stamp from RubberHedgehog Rubber Stamps, known for their great selection of dog breed stamps (and much more). The calligraphy stamps are from Quietfire Design. The leaves and the weed stamp (inside the hearts) are all from my own company, Nature's Print Shop. 

This card turned out so big, I will use it in my dog scrapbook.

If you have been to my blog before, you may know that I have a black standard poodle. I didn't think black would look good on this autumn-ish card, so I colored it brown instead.

Thank you so much for the inspiration, Holly! I will certainly make more cards with this fun technique! :-)


:-) Bibi

www.naturesprintshop.com

Happy Spring Holidays!

My beautiful dog Ulrikke and I
wish you all a very Happy Easter / Pesach / Påske!
Isn't she the cutest? :-)

If you have set aside time to stamp this weekend, maybe you want to try the technique I used for my guest designer project for Quietfire Design the other day. It's so much fun!!

http://quietfirecreations.blogspot.ca/2013/03/landscape-architecturing-with-inks.html

Enjoy!

:-) Bibi

Reminder: Sale ends today!

tick-tock-tick-tock ...
LAST CHANCE TODAY!

Clock stamped with leaves from Nature's Print Shop.
(See it in person at Altered Art & Scrap Playground, Rapid City, SD)

Take 15 % off your order of rubber stamps from my etsy store
by using coupon code: OFF15YAY (typed in at checkout before payment)

https://www.etsy.com/shop/NatureRubberStamps


Happy Easter and Happy Stamping! :-)


XOX,
Bibi

SALE - SALE- SALE!

You heard right: SALE!

this week only:

take 15% off your order
of rubber stamps from my etsy store

by using coupon code:
OFF15YAY

offer good from march 20. - 27.

on orders placed trough my etsy store:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/NatureRubberStamps

Happy stamping! :-)


XOX,

Bibi from Nature's Print Shop

Check it out!

I have been invited to guest design over at Quietfire Design's blog, and today my first post was published: http://quietfirecreations.blogspot.no/2013/03/spot-difference.html

I have been a big fan of Quietfire for many years, and their calligraphy stamps are just awesome. They're like potato chips... you can't have just one! Nor two...nor three.... oh, yeah - I keep adding those beauties to my stamp collection.

Check the stamps out here: http://www.quietfiredesign.ca
And my projects here: http://quietfirecreations.blogspot.no/2013/03/spot-difference.html

Here's how I store my Quietfire stamps (this is but a few of them).
This way, they're easy to find when I need them (which is Quite often!)

Here's one of my cards, published in Scrap & Stamp Arts magazine.
Hibiscus stamp from Nature's Print Shop,
and, of course, calligraphy stamp from Quietfire Design.

Thanks for stamping by!

http://quietfirecreations.blogspot.no/2013/03/spot-difference.html

:-) Bibi

Quote in Journal

A year in the Life of an Art Journal put out a new challenge on February 15th, and the prompt this time was to journal about our favorite quote. I have so many favorites, and the one I chose is actually not among my top 5 .... but it is a quote that spoke to me; and I need to listen to it.....

- Write the book you want to read -

The letters and images are colored in using watercolor pencils and a waterpen. The yellow and orange areas are colored with pastel chalks.

I had measured the watercolor paper incorrectly, so it turned out to be too big to fit in my art journal - but maybe it was meant to be hanging on my wall as a reminder, over the desk where I write instead of hiding inside my art journal.

I used several rubber stamps this time. There are quite a few from Cherry Pie Art Stamps (Shakespeare, pens, old typewriter, ink bottle, ink splatter, the hand holding a pen). The eyes, the scribble text, and the small ink bottle with feather, are all stamps from my first stamp company, Stampinavia, and the rest are stamps I cannot remember where came from. That's the drawback with unmounted stamps, isn't it? For the past few years I have written the company name on the back of the rubber when I buy new stamps, but these ones are old ... from long before I began marking them.

People often ask me if I regret selling Stampinavia back in 2005, and (thankfully) I can say that I don't. I had gone back to college and was swamped with work, and I didn't think it was fair to my stamps that they just sat there while I took a sabbatical, one I didn't even know how long would last while I studied. The company that bought mine (Kreativ Hobby in Larvika, Norway), takes such good care of my line of stamps, and it's always a thrill to see "my" stamps for sale in stores all around :-) I will always be proud of my first line, and I'm especially fond of the Norwegian Santa (fjøsnisse) and petroglyphs (helleristninger), plus the eyes I used in my journal page above (I drew that stamp image, looking at a photo of k.d. lang, so if you're reading this, k.d. (fat chance!), thanks for lending me your glance! :-D)

I'm digressing - let's go back to the art journal prompt for a moment, and some of my favorite quotes:

• Never look back unless you are planning to go that way. (Touché!)
• To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.
• Leave room in your garden for the faeries to dance.

The latter quote is available as a calligraphy stamp at Quietfire Design, and I want to do a journal page using that quote, too, so stay tuned! 

Thanks for stamping by!

www.etsy.com/shop/NatureRubberStamps