Sweet Stampin' ~ Anything But A Birthday

Hey there my lovely blog buddies. I am chasing my tail tonight, I popped in to check I'd put my post live for my Sweet Stampin' DT post tonight, only to realise I'd left it half way through editing the other night! Bah!! I've just had a house full of giggly 12 year olds too, so there's mess everywhere! LOL. We finally got to celebrate Georgie's birthday now that we're out of quarantine! But before I go to clean up the aftermath, let me share my DT creation with you today. We are having an 'Anything But A Birthday' challenge this week. So I'm sharing the travel journal and card I made for my gorgeous niece when she left to spend 10 months in France on a foreign exchange programme.

I watercoloured the background with my distress inks, splattered with water to add texture and lift some of the ink to create a more 'watery ocean' feel and once dried, I stamped the world map and sentiment on. Oh how I wish I had used my Hampton Arts Stamping Tool for this, as I'd liked to have double stamped to get a darker impression with the map stamp. The watercolour paper was textured so created a slight graininess, but I quite like the way the watercolours pooled slightly in the channels. Hard to capture in film, it does look better up close.

I bought my niece a lovely travel journal for her trip, which had a beautiful saying embossed on the front already. But I wanted to personalise it, so added a map stamp to the inside cover and a sentiment. The sentiment reads, 'Life takes you to unexpected places, love brings you home'. I had a sweet tiny kiwi stamp, which I thought was the perfect way to remind her where 'home' is. The map stamp, Kiwi and sentiment where embossed in fine white embossing powder.

Here's a closer look at the lovely Unity Stamps I used. The set is called 'Love Brings You Home' and includes the world map with its little heart and the sentiment I used on the inside cover. 

I won a fantastic set of stamps from Unity stamps recently, so I used a few of their lovely sayings to stamp pages randomly through the journal. I did this to remind my sweet niece of home, to encourage her to enjoy the adventure she is on and to encourage her to embrace every opportunity given.

Here's a peek at the fabulous bundle of Unity Stamps I won. I used the sentiment set in the top middle for created the little words of encouragement throughout the journal. 

So that's my 'Anything But A Birthday' post for you today and now I have to get back to the party clean up! Such a busy, full and fun night for my wee girlie. Last year before she becomes a teenager and she has such a lovely circle of friends. It was really nice to throw this wee party for her. 

Be sure to pop into the Sweet Stampin' blog to check out what my talented teamies did for this theme. It's pretty broad, so lots of scope to get creative! Just remember you need to stamp somewhere on your creation to enter. I'll catch you again really soon, until then, have an awesome weekend. I hope you fit in some crafty adventures too. Hugs, Wends xoxo

Challenge Entries:

Colour Crazy Challenge: #10 ~ Anything Goes
Crafty Calendar Challenge: March ~ Special Female (my sweet niece)