Welcome to a post from my Creative Squad! Here we have a project from Maura Hibbitts, who is using my Buenos Aires Tile foam stamp, Small Circle Jumble rubber stamps, and my Actually I Can rubber stamps to create a couple of stunning bookmarks. Maura was inspired by our theme this month: Doin’ My Thing – We all have a unique artistic style and way of working with supplies. This is the time to rock it! Be yourself. Do your thing.

One of my favorite things to do throughout my life has been to read. I remember riding my bicycle into the village to visit the library as a kid, and filling my basket up with books to bring home. I always try to read every day, often early in the morning with a cup of coffee, and late at night before I go to sleep. So, I thought making some bookmarks would represent something I love to do.

I pulled out my small 6×6 gelli plate and squirted on some Titanium White, Pyrrole Red and DIarylide Yellow, then blended it somewhat with my brayer. I stamped into the plate with the Buenos Aires stamp to pick up the paint and transferred it to the black paper, and repeated the design to cover the paper.

I thought Emperor’s Gold would be a good choice for my design, and stamped the small Park Boulevard stamp onto the plate, and then stamped it where the designs came together.

When I looked at my black, red and gold design, it reminded me of some of the traditional colors in Eastern art and fabrics. I decided to add the Maiko image and stamped her in gold onto black paper, and sped up the drying time with the heat tool. Note: be sure to clean the stamp right away when using paint.

I wanted to add a bit more red to my background design, and added in some marks with the red paint and the eraser on a pencil. I dried this with the heat tool, then cut the paper into strips for the bookmarks.

I decided to add in a few highlights to Maiko’s outfit and stamped the fan onto gold paper with black ink, and the belt onto the red paper I was using. After I cut out the belt and set it in place, I decided it needed to be outlined in gold, so I used the gold pen to do this.

I layered the cut strips onto the red card stock after I edged them with the black ink. Then, I added Maiko. Next, I used a small oblong punch at the top, and finally tied on some red or gold sari ribbon along with some special red and yellow thread I purchased at a Hindu temple in India.

I love doing my own thing, and hope I can always find time each day to do a little reading. A special bookmark to hold your place makes reading extra fun.

Thank you Maura! I just love how that Maiko stamp looks in gold! You can find all of my foam stamps and rubber stamps in my online store . Here are some of the other supplies that Maura used:

Feel inspired? Working on something yourself that you’d like to share?  I love to see how you interpret our monthly themes. Email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share your projects in my next  “n*Spiration From Around the Globe“.

Nat