Rapunzel Journal page by Gemma

 A couple of days off December, which is a super busy month for me as I am sure it is for lots of you, I am so behind. I wanted to take some time to play in my art journal, so I have a page to share with you all today inspired by this window stamp from The Artistic Stamper that always reminds me of Rapunzel, so I added a quote from the story 'That beautiful bird is no longer sitting in her nest, nor is she singing anymore'

After laying Gesso down I sprayed some purple sprays I had left over from a different project, while they were wet I sponged areas for texture. Once that was dry I made some marks with a black paint pen.

Then I randomly stamped over the top with a calligraphy mat. On a separate sheet of card, I stamped the window and heat embossed it with black embossing powder.

I made a pencil mark so I knew where I wanted the window to be, and then masked round the section I wanted to use on Jennies flourish stencil.  Once I had the stencil in position I applied I mixture of green paint and texture paste.

While waiting for that to dry I stamped several flowers and a butterfly onto card. After colouring them in with pencils and distress ink I cut them out and glued them into place.

Thank you for popping by

Gemma

Products from The Artistic Stamper

Architecture 1

Butterflies 2

Calligraphy Mat 4

Floral Flowers

Swirl Mask

Bring me flowers...

Salut Patouilleurs zet Patouilleuses !

I had decided that I wouldn't stamp any flower to participate in the May Challenge... it is my rebel side... though I have got my flower stamps out... and since they were out... I have stamped them !!!

In colors !!

primaries :

 and secondaries :

And when I have had enough... I have gathered all of them...
on to a  canvas :

I would be very happy if my canvas does inspire you, 

thank you so much for stopping by, 

I am looking forward to reading your comments !

Do not hesitate to ask for any help !

A tout bientôt,

Titbelsoeur 

Feeling Blue...?

Good Morning to both you and the weekend...
and hopefully a little off-duty time for some and oodles of crafty dabblings too! Sarah here with my second make of the month. Today I'm feeling rather blue and girly but all in a good painty, inky way. I make no secret of being an ATC fan, especially when they're funky and chunky!

I cut a chunk of wood from an old beam that was lurking in the shed. It's the three dimensional model of your standard ATC (2½ x 3½ inches, but 1½ inches deep). I started with a couple of coats of paint with my Cloudy Blue Dabber and then cut a cardboard frame for the front which I swiped with Snow Cap before stamping some yummy Polka Dots.

I lined the frame with Mr.Tim Ball Chain and inked up some Grungeboard Letters with pigment ink. I chose the word 'Fleur', because somehow French sounds so much nicer!

I painted some Grungepaper in Snowcap and then stamped the really great flowers and leaves from Flower Power and Flower Blooms.

I love cutting weeny things out so I had a ball with those leaves! Plus it means you can create more movement and shape with them.

I layered up the flowers, added a brass stud and made a triple one for the top finishing off with an old ceramic drawer knob!

On the back, more yummy dots, leaves and three pretty mini flowers. Just too cute! I don't often say cute, but these just are! I played around with the words from Flower Blooms by stamping them onto painted card and splitting them up. Oooh, so many places to play with...

I think chunky ATCs make great gifts because you can put so much in to them but they're just the right size too... They'll happily perch on a shelf or in a cabinet.  

Are you stamper or cardmaker wanting to venture into mixed media but feeling a bit daunted by the thought? Well, this could be the perfect project to help you make that step, whilst still taking all your other skills along.

On the sides, I kept things fairly simple but still wanted to add a little extra detail with some seam binding, vintage buttons and another flower. I don't mind seeing the lumps, bumps and cracks in the wood - all part of the natural look!  On this side some more wordplay and chain. Finally, (fanfare) the whole ATC is mounted on four metal corner thingies also painted blue!
So, that's all folks, as they say. Hope you like it and will maybe give it a go yourself. Thanks for looking and Happy Weekending! Sarah.

Some simple thinking and inking!

A big hello and a Very Happy New Year wish to you all! Sarah here with my first Guest spot at the Artistic Stamper! Firstly, I hope you've all had a fantastic time of celebrations, lounging, fine food and merriment! A whole new year of crafty discoveries lie ahead...but where, oh where, do we start? Well, I have enjoyed all the tinsel, glitter and glam stuff, but I thought some back to basics, old school inkiness might just be the tonic! Some days you just can't beat fine stamps, Distress Inks and tattered edges...

After all the festive tags and mass card production, it's nice spending some quality time with just a couple of free themed creations. I was drawn to the elegant and fine details of the flowers on The Botanical Plate 1. I created a stencil by drawing and cutting out three rectangles from a card scrap. I taped it lightly to my card and began gently sponging graduated shades of Distress Inks with a piece of Cut 'n' Dry Foam. I used Mustard Seed, Scattered Straw and Wild Honey working from light to dark. Sponge gently taking care not to drag or twist otherwise you'll get streaks and lines.

I gave it a quick dry with my heat gun and then I inked up my stamp in Plum Archival Ink by Ranger. It's a great colour and just a little different from the brown shades. I made sure I stamped off centre, between two blocks so the flower can be seen against both the white card and rich inky tones. I then stamped a Wendy Vecchi sentiment which seemed to fit perfectly with the daisy. See lots more Wendy words here! I distressed and inked the edges and layered it up onto some Graphic 45 design paper and a white card base.

For my second card I turned the stencil, slightly changing the colours by using Scattered Straw, Wild Honey and Rusty Hinge Distress Inks Take time to gently blend the colours. Don't be afraid to apply more ink to achieve the exact shade you want. Make sure your stencil has fairly wide sides otherwise you'll get ink around the card edge too!

This time I went for the Lilies (from the same plate) although they rather remind me of daffodils with these rich colours. I stamped them with using Ranger's Coffee Archival Ink. I also added a two lines of random machine stitching to my card base for a shabby look...see you don't have to be able to sew in a straight line at all! For extra interest, I also added some gold thread, ribbon and lace scraps, and an orphan button.

Once again all finished off with fine Wendy words. Coincidentally, these two wonderful floral stamps are also available to buy individually here. So if you're on a post Chrimbo budget, you can still play along!
Well, that's me all done...
Just a simple but effective idea to get you going and one you can adapt for use with many colours and stamps. Especially when you think of all those thank you cards you need to write, not to mention the faint whisper of Valentine's and Mothers Day! Thanks for calling by and happy crafting! Sarah.

Copy Cat Stamping by Nicky Cresswell

Ello Stampers, it is I, the Minx, back for another helping of inky fun.

Now i could be wrong, but am I one of the only people in the entire universe to not own a set of Wendy Vecchi stamps.. {to be honest i think Hels brought them all so there were non left for me to buy!!}

But being the crafty mare I am I knew with a bit of fiddling I would be able to copycat the look using a selection of Jennie's stash.. namely the Flower Power, Flower fever & new Flower bloom stamp sets, 

oh not forgetting a few Backgrounds too.

Add them all together with a bit of ink and this is what you get.

For the base i used an A6 book blank chipboard piece, I cut 2 of the sides with the 'brackets' on the edge die.

Next i distress inked the top with bundled sage and the bottom with brushed corduroy, i stamped both sections with the dots background in the respective ink colour.

I stamped a strip of paper with the houndstooth, inked it over with a bit of  distress ink and gave it a scalloped edge with a border punch then placed it along the centre to cover where the 2 base colours met.
 I placed a very large grungeboard flourish that had already been inked with dried marigold across the whole piece.

To make the flower i stamped the largest of the flower power and the 2 largest of the flower fever sets onto grungepaper, I roughly cut round each one, gave it some brushed corduroy ink, then stamped with a different background, I used dots & gingham, but the possibilities for these are endless. I cut each one out and curled the edges. {I did the foliage in the same way, stamp, ink, cut out.}
I added an old wooden bingo chip that used to be red, but i inked black to complete the look.

All that was left to finish up was to stamp 'create art' using the sentiment from the flower bloom set {missing out the blooming from the stamp by just inking each word at a time, you could of course cut the sentiment into 3 to give you more freedom with placement} and there you have it, my copycat Wendy Vecchi piece.
I am actually going to make this into a little journal/notebook, I've already cut the back in the same shape as the front, just need some pages and to bind it together and hay presto.. Sadly I ran out of time but i'll try and pop a pic on my blog of the finished book later in the week for you.
Right thats me signing out.
Any questions feel free to contact me, I'm alway happy to help x