The little clock of horrors: Macabre clock... by Zuzu

Well, after a very long winter of discontent in the Zuzu household, with all my belongings being packed away and a desperate search for a new place to stay, all is well and back to crafty normal.
So here I am with my first proper "Artistic stamper" project since November...

Remember this anyone?

It was one of my first project back when i first joined the team. well that was ages ago and i am tired of it now so decided to strip it back and give it a makeover (you can, of course, just start with a new frame). you can find the frames HERE.

So, firstly i removed all the bits i had added for the last project from the frame and completely covered it in white studio gesso. Then i stamped some images in black ink, onto white tissue paper and glued them on to the frame at random. it doesn't matter too much as you will only see sections of the images after i have added embellishments.

the stamps I used were
the gentleman from the collage set and some ephemera from the bicycle set HERE
the Slow and Fast speed gauge.

i glued on embellishments and the main four numbers (3, 6, 9 & 12) and when the glue was dry i covered them in gesso too. you can find various metal embellishments like those i have used HERE, and the numbers are from HERE. you can get cogs and gears from HERE.

Next i sprayed the whole project all over with various perfect pearls sprays, ( i used sour apple, heirloom gold, mandarin & turquoise).

Once all that was done it was just a matter of adding curios. the skeleton parts are left over from Halloween. I added some other numbers; I used salvage stickers amongst other things.

I also added two little feet at the back where the frame juts out so it doesnt have to be hung up. it stands freely on a table or bedside table. although i doubt i could tell the time on it when half asleep. The final touch was to make a hole and add the clock movement ( i stole a battery from the TV remote to make sure it worked).... and there you have the little clock of horrors.

Flower Card by Sioux Jenneys

It's great to be back for my second post this month here and I'm sharing a card :)

1. I started by stamping the largest of the butterflies from Encyclopaedia Botanica in three different colours of ink using Distress Ink in scattered straw, wild honey and rusty hinge. These were then masked.

2. I then stamped the text block from the same plate over the top of these in Distress weathered wood. This was them masked and the hessian background was stamped over this in Distress old paper.

3. The masks were removed and at this point it looked like this and I could have stopped there, added a sentiment and some shading and been very happy....but....but.... I decided to go a step further!

4. I decided to stamp the large flower from the same plate directly over the top in Archival coffee and I admit at this point I said to myself "Yikes that's a step too far - it looks rubbish!"
Or words to that effect!!! ROFL

5. However, I persevered and added colouring in Distress Inks over the flowers in Victorian velvet, aged mahogany and peeled paint. I think I managed to rescue it!!! ROFL

6. I added the sentiment from the same plate in Archival black, tattered the edges and aged with brushed corduroy and black soot before attaching it to the card base. 

When things go wrong, sometimes you just have to keep going to overcome it :)
See you again soon!

xoxo Sioux

Up Up & Away Again! By Anita Houston

I'm back! Sounds a little scary, huh? The Artful Maven, Anita Houston here again, and I am thrilled to be back to show you my second installment using these amazing stamps from The Artistic Stamper!

I hope you caught a glimpse of my first project, but if not check out my Project #1, so you will see the theme I have going on here for Project #2. 

This is another 8x10 inch canvas, and I used eight stamps as well for this one. I've had so much fun making these inspirational canvases, and this is the first time I've ever made a family of canvas pieces, that would not only look well together but also apart. I really love how these stamped images can easily go together.

I began by stamping the European Map Background in Sepia Archival Ink and then heat embossing it in Ranger's Clear Powder. I also did the same with the clock that I stamped in Jet Black, and I used Snow Cap Paint Dabber to stamp the swirls. Both of these are from the Tick Tock plate.

I stamped both the Cogs Background and Small Cogs onto tissue paper using all three of the metallic Paint Dabbers.

I played around with some Dylusions Ink Sprays and came up with a nice looking rusty background for the cogs and gears using first Melted Chocolate, then Pure Sunshine, then bits of Black Marble.

I cut out some of the cogs and adhered them to the center of the sun. I stamped some of the words on the Journaling Words 2 set in Jet Black for the sentiment and heat embossed them as well. Then using a few pieces of scrap to mask off some of the canvas, I began misting with Dylusions, and my painted and embossed parts resisted the ink of course...love that!

Using silver cardstock and more metallic paint, I stamped the lightbulbs from the Inspiration Light Bulb set, the diamond border from Borders A5 #1, and the key from Time & Keys, and I cut them all out.

I added more cut out cogs to the lightbulb, some Distress Ink, and metal bits and gears.

Using the Sizzix Layered Wings Die, I die cut silver cardstock and white tissue paper for lots of layers.

When I was in London, I purchased these wonderful paperclips at Liberty of London. I colored them with Alcohol Ink to give a little foliage look.

 

 

 

 

 

I'll be back in a few weeks with the last of my canvases. Thank you for looking, and for all the wonderful comments!

A Box with a story

Hi everyone and welcome. Astrid here with my first project for the merry month of June...

I altered a little pencil box that started life as an empty Panpastels box. But before I talk you through how I made it, I better tell you the story behind it that will explain the elements used on and in the box. You see, I am not the only arty one in the family, my husband loves sketching, particularly little town scapes.  He is very good at perspective, something that I am hopeless at. Anyway, whenever we travel and visit a town somewhere, rather than walk round together, he settles down somewhere to sketch, while I do the shops.... (he hates shopping...)We then arrange a time to meet up again, and  inevitably I am  late.... So, to make up for that, I decided to make him a box to keep his pencils in and to say thank you for rarely being cross with me about it.

So here's how I made it:

I started by painting the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Paint. I then covered both the in and the outside with papers from the Tim Holtz Crowded Attic paper collection and Distressed everything with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink .

Next I stamped the clock, key and sentiment from the Time and Keys set, cut them out inked them and adhered them to the box. I then covered the clock with Crackle Accents and the key with Glossy Accents

I decorated the top still with one of the elements from the papers and a pen nib.

 I love how with the glossy accents the key has come out looking so dimensional.

 Same with the clock and the Crackle Accents

For the inside I created a little book out of Kraft card and covered it with more of the papers. The book is made out of just one A 4 sheet, here is a link to a tutorial on how to do this.

The spine was made with an embossed bit of metal from an empty tomato paste tube that a friend gave me.

When I found the "Perfect Attendance Certificate" as one of the elements in the paper stash I just had to stick it on the inside of the lid, and the Painter ephemera bit was perfect for the cover of the book, further enhanced with another pen nib. DH can use the little book to stick some of his favourite sketches in

Th book closes with a ribbon and to finish it I just made a label still with the Scrabble and Tags set.

Oh an just a little reminder, if you haven't entered our Makes for Men challenge yet, there is still plenty of time. Just click on the image in the side bar to see all the deets!

Well, hope you like this little gift set, I had fun making it, thank you for visiting today!

Money Bird by Emma

Hi everyone, Emma here and it's time for me to share my first piece of this month. For this piece I decided to work on wood and and use the gorgeous Money Bird stamp from Neil Walker. As always, I really hope you love what I made and I've taken lots of photos to show all the detail...

...and here's what I used and how I created this piece. To begin with I chose to use a block of wood, approximately 10 x 21cm in size. I primed the wood with Gesso and then added some texture onto the wood using a stencil that I have in my stash and some Paperartsy Grunge Paste. Once the paste was dry, I added the colour using Adirondack Paint Dabbers and then highlighted the paste with some Treasure Gold Gilding Wax. 

A quick blast with the heat gun to dry everything super quick because I'm very impatient and can't wait before I then added some Tissue Tape all around the sides of the block of wood. Once that is all finished, I'm then ready to add my layers of stamping.

I used the Dots Background stamp and stamped this directly onto the wood with white acrylic paint and used the Calligraphic Mat 11 and stamped the script using black Archival Ink. Another blast of heat and then I'm ready to stamp the Money Bird.

First, I stamped the image of the bird onto the painted wood with black Archival Ink. I then stamped three separate images of the bird onto watercolour card and coloured these using Distress Marker Pens.

Once happy with the shading, I cut each of the layers out but cutting away sections so that I could decoupage the bird onto my wood. I layered each of the sections using silicone glue and added highlights onto the tail feathers and plume, using a white gel pen. I also used the gel pen to colour in the flowers onto the image that I stamped onto the wood.

Next, I made some handmade paper flowers using the Sizzix/Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die for the roses and also I used some paper flowers in my stash to create the other flower. I sprayed all the separate flower pieces with Dylusions Ink Sprays in Vibrant Turquoise and Fresh Lime and then made them into dimensional blooms. I spritzed each of the blooms with the Perfect Copper Perfect Pearls mist.

Once the flowers were completely dry, I added them to my wooded block together with some seam binding that I dyed using Distress Stains. 

To complete my piece, I added an Idea-ology Word Band, some Film Strip Ribbon and some pins and wooden embellishments that I had in my stash. Finally, I used some cotton reel spools, which I painted using the same colours as I used on my wooden block and added these as feet.

So, that's it from me for today and thank you so much for taking the time to visit to see what I've created. I'm really looking forward to reading all your comments.

I'll be back later this month with another piece and don't forget we have a fabulous challenge throughout June and we would love you to join in. The challenge is all about Makes For Men and just click HERE for all the details.

See you all again soon...bye for now!

Emma x

Inevitable Dusk

Hello all.  Alison (butterfly) here, with something that - for me - is a little different.  In fact, when I saw the new texture stamps, I wasn't sure that they were for me - very geometric - but I thought I should stretch myself.

I'm not entirely sure about the end result but, I have to say, I had huge fun layering them up to create the background textures in these pages.  You'll find all the ingredients at the foot of the post.  (Don't forget you can click the pictures for a larger view.)

There are some things I'm really pleased with about this, and some that I might do differently another time...  I really like the texture on the main brother and sister image.  

I mixed some drops of Chipped Sapphire and Salty Ocean re-inkers into texture paste on my craft mat, and then smeared it through Andy Skinner's brilliant Children mask.  I'm also really pleased with the highlighting, done with white acrylic paint, and some pencilling.  And I made sure to give them some solid "ground" to stand on.

I started out by gessoing some pages in my Concise Encyclopaedia (same book as my previous layout) and used Dylusions sprays to lay down the first layer of colour.

I started to layer in the texture stamps using Archival inks, Distress Inks, Distress Paints and Picket Fence Distress Stain.

It was at this point that I forgot to take any more process photos - sorry! - but I'm really pleased with the effects of layering the products.  

You get some resist effects from the paints, so there are areas of translucence and great textures.  

Obviously there's some inking for definition of the resist and shading at the edges of the pages, as well as to create the twilight path for the siblings.  The quote is by Susan Scarf Merrell.  

It's stamped onto watercolour paper and inked with Chipped Sapphire.  

Certain words got a touch of Salty Ocean too to highlight them. 

As with some of the background chevrons, I used a white pencil to add some texture and help embed the words into the page.  

I'm also really happy with the twilit path leading to the smaller sibling pair, travelling off to who-knows-where... 

... though I'm not sure I didn't go a layer too far with the pair themselves.  I liked them better one step earlier - but I haven't got a photo of that, so you'll just never know!

So there you have it... To me it feels as though it has a different flavour from normal, but I don't know.  Is it typically "butterfly" after all?  I'm curious to know what you think!

Don't forget that the June challenge - Makes for Men - is up and running... why not come and play along?  Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by, and I'll see you soon.

Ingredients used:

Artistic Stamper stamps: 

Chevron, Linen, Random, Chevron Elements, Calligraphic Mat 4

Andy Skinner's Children mask set

Grunge Paste

Dylusions Sprays - Dirty Martini, Cut Grass, Fresh Lime, Pure Sunshine

Distress Inks - Chipped Sapphire, Broken China, Peeled Paint

Distress Re-inkers - Chipped Sapphire, Salty Ocean

Distress Paints - Picket Fence, Peeled Paint, Broken China

Distress Stains - Picket Fence

Archival Ink - Olive, Cobalt

White pencil and alphabet stamps from my stash