Saturday 29 September 2012

Creative Inspiration by Jennie

Once a month, I pop by and try to give you a tutorial or show you a piece of my art that I have created in the past month. This month, I thought you might like to see what I did at The Big Stamp & Scrapbooking Show at the weekend. I am very lucky as I get to play with lots of products, and this time, we had some of the gorgeous gilding leaf from Crafty Notions. I do have some of this in stock in the shop, and we will be having the bigger pots in next month. I used it through The Crafter’s Workshop templates, and sponged a very small amount of the Crafty Notions glue with a piece of cut n dry on top of the mask. You only need to use a very very little of the glue to adhere the leaf. It goes a long way! I also used it with some of the Journaling word stamps. Sponge a minute amount of glue onto the stamps, and stamp normally. add lots of gilding metal to the stamps image, and rub away until the excess is gone, and you left with a gilded image. I used the normal size #8 manila tags, and beside it you can see the humungous size #12 tag!  All of it was done on top of Dylusions sprays, and added extras are lots of our background stamps!



tag detail 2

All the links for the products are at the end of the post :)
I will be at Port Sunlight today demonstrating the same technique if you are there. Do come and say hello.
Have a creative day
Hugs
Jennie

Friday 28 September 2012

Birds of a Feather by Lori!

Hello again! This is my final turn on the Creative Team here, sniff, sniff. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here, and I want to thank you for the lovely comments on my projects.
I have a few projects for you today...I couldn't decide on just one!  Here's the first:


I used the Birds of a Feather and Free As a Bird stamp sets here. The house bases were cut with the Sizzix house die, then covered with 7 Gypsies Conservatory paper. I also used the Sizzix On the Edge dies on the roofs of the houses, and the Bigz Branch Tree (one branch!) for the bird perch. Oh! And some pleated tissue tape under the roof of the big house.

And, here are some cards that I made using the Gibson Girls Small plate and Birds of a Feather set.

I used diffuser plates to allow for a flat stamping surface.  Then, some distress ink and extra embellishments for the finishing touches...simple but beautiful!

I'd like to thank the wonderful crew at the Artistic Stamper for having me during the month of September, it's been a fantastic experience!

Thursday 27 September 2012

Altered Canvas by Astrid


There is no doubt about it, collage is one of my all time favourite techniques and the Artistic Stampers stamps lend themselves so well for this.
Here is a list of the stamps I used for this project:
Postage 1
Ephemera 1
Chickenwire Background
Speckle 4 x 6
Journaling Words II
Time & Keys

I started by covering a canvas of 6 x 8 " with random bits of paper and strips of Wasi tape from my stash using Claudine Hellmuth Matte Medium. Next I covered it with a thin wash of Gesso I then stamped some images from the Ephemera 1 and Postage 1 plates on smooth white card in Black Archival Ink, coloured them with Vintage Photo Distress Inks, cut them out and also adhered them to the canvas in more or less random places. I also added a vintage photo from my stash

Next I added some texture paste through a couple of Dylusions Stencils and some background stamping with the Speckle and Chicken wire background stamps in Coffee Archival Ink. Then I  some wasi tape in carefully selected places to give a pleasing (I hope) composition to my collage. The next step was to cover the photo with a baby wipe and add a few spritzes of Perfect Pearls Mist in Patina Blue and Dylusions Spray in Melted Chocolate to add some more colour. It needed something more so I added some elements from the Time & Keys plate, stamped and cut out as before this time also adding some Broken China Distress Ink.

Now for the final step: I inked the edges with some Dark Brown chalk ink from my stash and then added some shading with a charcoal pencil to add more depth. I also added a tiny bit of white shading with a white pen on the photo to make it pop a bit more, added a charm and that was it. 


Here are some detail pictures still




Hope you enjoyed this project and will give collage a go.


Tuesday 25 September 2012

Our house... by Titbelsoeur

Coucou me revoilou !
I'm back and back again :-)

Today I am eager to show you a little piece of artwork I have made from a scrap of packaging kraft. Following a tutorial from Pascanine on a French mixed-media forum, I have folded it and then sewed lines on it with my tiny machine.

I have colored it with alcohol inks, but it was too dark, thus I added some yellow acrylics to lighten it.
A touch of border stamps here and there, whitened with my Posca pen, and just added punched circles from my table protective paper (just have a try, the result is stunning !)
And on the bottom, a little house garland stamped on a book page and colored with watercolor !

This piece will soon become a notebook cover... who loves it ?

Read you very soon ! 

Saturday 22 September 2012

Cards by Titbelsoeur

Salut les copines !

Today I wanted to show you some simple cards, very easy and quick to do, so why won't you do the same, eh ?
To do it, I have used a card and a piece of strong paper like Bazzill or whatever.
I have used the Ephemera stamp set and this Gibson girl I can't help but stamping it everywhere !


And with -quite - the same stamps and papers I have made - quite - the same cards :



Other stamps :

I hope you like my cards,
thanks for stopping by, 
I am looking forward to reading your comments ! 
See you again soon...
Titbelsoeur


Thursday 20 September 2012

Bedtime Stories by Candlelight...by Emma


Hi everyone! It's already time for me to share my second piece of this month and for this piece, I've created this little candle, together with a candle holder for it to stand on. As always, I hope you like it...
To begin with, I stamped the Mabel Lucie Attwell, Time For Bed image onto tissue paper and coloured it with alcohol pens. I then cut around the outside of the image and positioned it onto my candle. Wrap a piece of waxed paper around the entire candle and then very carefully, using a heat gun, melt the tissue paper image into the wax. You will be able to see through the waxed paper as to when the image is entirely transferred to the candle.

Next, I took an old CD and coloured it with Sailboat Blue and Lettuce Alcohol Inks. I then took an empty ribbon spool that I had in my stash of "things that might come in useful to craft with ~ lol" and painted it using Claudine Hellmuth paints. I then applied a layer of Rock Candy Crackle Paint over the top and allowed to dry before blending Antique Linen over to accentuate the crackles.

Finally, I dyed some neutral seam binding using Tumbled Glass Distress Stain and tied it into bows, added it to my base together with a little banner that I made and stamped with the "Imagine" stamp.
Thanks for taking the time to come and have a look at my little creation and for all your lovely comments.

Hope you have a lovely creative day and see you soon.
Emma x

Wednesday 19 September 2012

Altered Notebook by Alison

Hello Stampers!
Today I have a little 10x10cm altered notebook to share with you.
I started by painting the cover with Studio black gesso
I used a craft knife to cut an aperture out of a piece of 10x9cm card, then covered it with sticky back aluminium. I cut through the middle of the aperture, corner to corner, then folded back the excess aluminium.
I used various Ten Second Studio tools to add a design to the frame, then covered it with black acrylic paint. I wiped it off fairly quickly, to leave just black paint in the recesses, & give it an aged look.
Next, I cut a piece of card to fit inside the aperture, then sprayed it with pink bubblegum & squeezed orange Dylusion spray. I sponged picked raspberry distress ink through a Dylusion stencil, then layered the card & frame on the front of the notebook.

I stamped the Art Dictionary Words on some white card, inked it with pumice stone distress ink, cut it into pieces as shown, & glued the pieces to the notebook cover. 
I spritzed some of the pink bubblegum spray into the air above the notebook, so that some landed on the words with a nice speckled effect.
To finish, I used the sprays to colour some seam binding, then attached a couple of metal beads & tied it around the book. I'm using one end as a bookmark.
I thought this little book would be perfect to take to craft shows, to write notes in, as I watch demonstrations.
Thanks for looking,
Alison xxx 

Monday 17 September 2012

Simply alter the original.... by zuzu.


Hi again.
So here i am back with more messed up, scruffy, distressed, aged, vintage looking stuff. I dont manage clean, colourful or stylish very well lol.
Its a little canvas... I think it measures abut 4 inches across and six inches high... roughly.

I have been obsessed with tearing bits of paper out and revealing text or something underneath for about 6 years.. i really must move on LOL. but i do like it. it reminds me of peeling old wallpaper that shows the last tenants wallpaper underneath.

i have used the man from the collage stamp set as the centre piece.
I covered the canvas in book pages first, then layered some scrapbook paper over the top (tearing some peeled wallpaper type tears as i went). the next step is sort of inspired by two folks; one is Trish Latimer who made a gorgeous layout a few weeks back and the other is Ali Ferguson, a textile artist who i did a class with in the summer. inspired by, but looking nothing like .. lol... i didnt have soft enough colours in my box of sprays or my scrapbook papers, so mine is yet again dark and dingy.
I glued on lace and fabric and embellishments and once they were dry a slapped a load of gesso over everything. when the gesso was dry i sprayed some spray mists over the whole thing (before adding my stamped image).
my finishing touches were added by using brown ink and gold gilt paste around the edges to add that vintage look.

AS Supplies Used:

collage stamp HERE

embellishments HERE
multi medium and gesso HERE
Chit chat stickers HERE

Sunday 16 September 2012

Carpe Tag by Sioux Jenneys

Hope you are having a lovely Sunday doing things you love or just taking it easy.
I'm here again to share a tag :)



1. Stamp the crown from Crowning Glory in Archival sepia and mask, then stamp the fish from Beside the Seaside in Archival black and mask that and colour the background with Distress Inks tumbled glass and faded jeans.

2. Stamp some of the small circles from Borders A6#2 in Distress Ink bundled sage and some of the small cogs from the same set in faded jeans haphazardly over the top....stamp the ruler from Ephemera 1 in Archival red


3. Keeping the masks in place, stamp some of the larger circles from Borders A5#2 all around the edges in Distress Ink vintage photo and the fronds from Borders A6#1 in peeled paint...add the words Carpe from Journaling words 3 and Art from Creative Art Thoughts in Archival black before removing the masks.

4. Colour the fish with Distress Inks in scattered straw, wild honey and bundled sage using a Cut & Dry nib....adding a shadow of faded jeans all around the fish and the crown for definition.
5. Tatter the edges and age with walnut stain.

6. I added some fibres and a couple of seafaring type metal embellishments to finish.



Hope you liked this whimsical combo of stamps :) See you again soon!
xoxo Sioux

Friday 14 September 2012

It's A GEAR-eat Canvas by Lori!

Hello! Here I am again, with my second project for the team!
And by the way, I have to credit my friend Michael for that title!

Being as how I really love Steampunk and more specifically...gears, I chose to create an 8 x 10 inch canvas for this project.  Here's the stamp sets I used:
Slow and Fast
Phineas Pinchbeck
Cogs Background
Tick Tock Flowers

And here we go:



Here's some close ups of the various areas, I used mini canvases on top of the big background canvas.
Here you can see I mounted the Slow and Fast stamped on manilla card onto a rosette painted with metallic paint, then aged with some black paint. You can also see the black UTEE, that I stamped the Cogs Background into while warm.  I inked the stamp with copper pigment ink first.
Phineas looks pretty grand on top of the rosette, doesn't he?  I just happened to have a gear that fit round the clock perfectly, and then I filled it with Glossy Accents.

I used the Tick Tock Flowers set to create the flower. I painted some card with Viva Ferro paint, then stamped the flowers and heat embossed with black embossing powder.  A vintage button tops off the center!

The initial canvases were treated with Ver Day paint and solution to give that rusty, old metal look.  I used the Gadget Gears die to cut A LOT of gears from chip, and treated them with the metal Crackle paints. When they were dry and cracked, I swiped over them with some black paint.
Thanks for stopping by...I hope I was able to inspire you to....get geared up and make some art with your favorite products from The Artistic Stamper!

Thursday 13 September 2012

Simple Book card

Hello everyone, this is Astrid here with my first project for September. A quick and simple card that has a spine so you have space to add embellishments inside.

The Artistic Stampers stamps are great for making your own back grounds, but on this occasion I decided to use some stamps for focal images and use some paper from my stash as backgrounds to them.
Here is a list of the stamps I used:
Gibson Girls Plate 1
Girl with Clock
Journaling words 11
Traveling Words
Watches background
Labels
Calligraphic Mat 12
Other products available at the Artistic Stamper:
Distress Inks Brushed Corduroy, Antique Linen
Archival Ink
Inkblending tools
From my stash: Scrapbook paper, Kraft card, little roses, Spellbinder dies, seam binding
Here is how I made it:
1. Cut a piece of Kraft card to 81/4 x 5" and scored it at 4" from each side along the 81/4" side. This gave me a 1/4" spine in the middle
2. Fold along the score line, ink the edges with Brushed Corduroy, you now have a kind of book shape.
3. Cut 4 pieces of your chosen paper to 3 3/4 by 4 3/4",  distress and then ink the edges with Brushed Corduroy and glue to both the outside and the inside of  your little book card. For the back cover make sure you glue on a piece of ribbon underneath the cover paper first.
4. For the front of the card, cut a piece of stamping card to 3 1/4 by 4 1/4  stamp one of the Gibson Girls in Archival black and then mask. Overstamp the Watches Background with Brushed Corduroy and then colour the girl with coloured pencil and blend Brushed Corduroy ink around the image. Distress and ink the edges If you add some shadow around you main stamped image it will make it pop.
5.  Glue a second piece of ribbon to the font of your little book, taking care it is at the same height as the back and then glue your stamped panel over it.
6. Time to embellish the front: Stamp a second stamping of the Calligraphic Mat on to white card, then stamp the word Dream from the Journaling Words ll plate over it. Cut a strip around the word and then ink and distress and curl the edges. Adhere to the front together with some little die cuts and roses as shown in the picture.


7. For the inside, stamp the girl with clock on some paper in black archival, cut out and colour with coloured pencils. glue to the side and embellish as shown.
8. For the other side stamp the traveling words onto a square piece of paper and ink the edges. Add glue around 3 sides and stick down to form a little pocket. Next stamp the label from the labels plate, cut out and ink the edges. Embellish with a little rose and some ribbon and tuck inside the pocket. The back of the tag can be used to add a personal message.
I still added some "pearls" with a pearl pen and a little diecut to finish it all off. Tie your little book card with the ribbon and you are done.

Monday 10 September 2012

In A World Of Her Own by Emma


Hello, it's Emma here. Hope you've all had a good weekend and ready for another week full of creativity!! For my first piece of this month, I've chosen to create an inky scrapbook layout ~ I hope you like it!
To create this piece, I cut a piece of kraft card to measure 8" x 8" in size and randomly applied the Snow White Adirondack Paint Dabber to cover the central area of my card with paint. I applied black acrylic paint through a Crafter's Workshop stencil, then flicked various colours of ink over the entire piece of card and added splatters of Picket Fence Distress Stain. Next, I cut sections of white card, (this is a really good technique for all those offcuts of card that you keep and then wonder what to do with them) and added Spiced Marmalade and Fired Brick Distress Stain to two of the pieces and sprayed the third piece with Bubblegum Pink Dylusions Ink Spray.
I stamped the inked pieces of card, with three different background stamps ~ Random Dot Background,  Mini Calligraphic Mat 20 and Mini Lattice Wire. I then adhered my pieces of card to form a background to my photograph, together with some Tim Holtz Tissue Tape.
I added some Idea-ology Sprocket Gears and some Chit Chat stickers before finally completing the layout with some doodles using a white pen.
So, I hope this inspires you to create inky backgrounds for your layouts and I would love to see what you make!! This background technique is also perfect for our challenge this month ~ Splatters and Speckles, we'd love to see your work so please, come and join in!!
See you all again very soon and have a great week.
Emma x