July's Challenge- By The Seaside

Hi to all of our blog readers

A BIG thank you to everyone who joined in June's Challenge, All of the entries were gorgeous, and we hope you will join in this month's too.
 

Our new challenge for July is By the Seaside . You can interpret this anyway you like :) as long as it has rubber stamping in it.

 
We are  looking forward to seeing all your fabulous artwork and stamped projects that you submit in relation to this theme. To join in with this challenge (and you can join in as many times as you want), is simple; all we would like you to do is, make a piece of artwork, making sure that you include the theme and some rubber stamping. Pop back here to link up using the Inklinkz at the bottom of this post, so that we can see what you've made and then, leave us a comment to let us know you have joined in with the challenge. As always, there will be candy for one randomly picked entrant - the winner will receive £15 worth of The Artistic Stamper stamps of your choice. And don't forget....if you use Artistic Stamper stamps on your entry, you will entered into the draw, twice!!!! You can also enter as many times as you like!

ALISON ( Craftytrog)

I made a Seaside Bookmark, with collage stamping from Seaside No. 1 & Beside The Seaside A6. I water coloured with Distress Inks, then laminated my bookmark, & added an eyelet, fibres & silver charms.

Shilpa 

I have created the Journal page with New Neil Walker bird stamp, Gibson Girls Plate 1 and Katy Leitch - Fly stamps. To make  the  background  texture, I've used Prima seashore paper and gauze.
I brought the colors on page with Dylusion Inks - Calypso Teal, After Midnight, Distress Paints - Tumbled glass, Salty Ocean, Peacock Feather

We hope you will join in this month's challenge and look forward to seeing you creations. Don't forget to add a comment when you have posted your entry.

 

I will be back tomorrow with the winner of June's Challenge.

Have a very creative month

{hugs}

Jennie

 

An InLinkz Link-up

June Challenge- Colour it Red

Hi to all of our blog readers

A BIG thank you to everyone who joined in May's Challenge, We loved all the entries, and Hope you will join in this month's too.
 

Our new challenge for June is Colour it Red. . You can interpret this anyway you like :) as long as it has rubber stamping in it.

 
We are  looking forward to seeing all your fabulous artwork and stamped projects that you submit in relation to this theme. To join in with this challenge (and you can join in as many times as you want), is simple; all we would like you to do is, make a piece of artwork, making sure that you include the theme and some rubber stamping. Pop back here to link up using the Inklinkz at the bottom of this post, so that we can see what you've made and then, leave us a comment to let us know you have joined in with the challenge. As always, there will be candy for one randomly picked entrant - the winner will receive £15 worth of The Artistic Stamper stamps of your choice. And don't forget....if you use Artistic Stamper stamps on your entry, you will entered into the draw, twice!!!! You can also enter as many times as you like!

Here are Mine and Astrid's take on the challenge. We hope you find inspiration from them :):

Astrid

© Astrid Maclean

Red always suggests passion to me. It's not a colour I use often, so it was quite a challenge. In the end I made a card using two of the gorgeous new stencils. I also used the beautiful rose from the Botanical 3 set and a word from the Grungy Greetings.

Jennie



© Jennie Boxall

I took the Distress ink embossing resist technique as a starter and inked up my tag with Festive Berries, and after drying it, clear embossed Katy's new stamps, and after heating and allowing to cool, added more distress ink to the tag, along with one of the Jumbo Flowers. If you ink Distress ink over embossing, it doesn't colour it, and can be wiped off easily, showing the base colour through, which was red! A couple of idea-ology pieces added focus.

We hope you will join in this month's challenge and look forward to seeing you creations. Don't forget to add a comment when you have posted your entry.

We are also looking forward to the month of June, when our new team members will be showing us their creations, Watch out for their posts later this month.

I will be back in a couple of days with the winner of May's Challenge.

Have a very creative month

{hugs}

Jennie

 

An InLinkz Link-up

May Challenge- In the Garden

Hi to all of our blog readers

A BIG thank you to everyone who joined in April's Challenge, The entries were fabulous, and I will be choosing a winner in a couple of day's time.

This month, we have as guest designer the talented and creative

Sherry Cheever from the USA joining us at The Artistic Stamper, with the first of her projects tomorrow . Don't forget to pop back to check it out!

Our new challenge for May is In the Garden. You can interpret this anyway you like :)

 We are  looking forward to seeing all your fabulous artwork and stamped projects that you submit in relation to this theme. To join in with this challenge (and you can join in as many times as you want), is simple; all we would like you to do is, make a piece of artwork, making sure that you include the theme and some rubberstamping. Pop back here to link up using the Froggy at the bottom of this post, so that we can see what you've made and then, leave us a comment to let us know you have joined in with the challenge. As always, there will be candy for one randomly picked entrant - the winner will receive £15 worth of The Artistic Stamper stamps of your choice. And don't forget....if you use Artistic Stamper stamps on your entry, you will entered into the draw, twice!!!! You can also enter as many times as you like!

For inspiration check out these gorgeous creations from some of The Creative Team :

Alison (Craftytrog)

I created a painty background on water colour card, using my brayer. Stamped the lady onto white tissue with jet black archival, & glued using glue 'n seal matte. Used my finger to add gesso to blend around the lady and edges. Stamped flowers around the edge with olive green Stazon, script with jet black archival. Stamped butterflies & 'garden' phrase onto painty scraps, cut them out, matted the phrase on black card, & used glue 'n seal to adhere. Matted my art onto black card, & attached to square white card.

The Artistic Stamper Stamps used...

Encyclopaedia Botanica 

Collage Lady Elements 

Alison (butterfly)

I'm still slightly hooked on the double stamping technique from Tim Holtz's March tags.  I played with Katy Fox's Encyclopaedia Botanica stamps and Distress Inks and Markers to make this pair.

I cut a mask and used the Distress Marker Spritzer and some Distress Markers to create the sky, and even the little butterflies perched on the ribbon are a double-stamping pair.  And I altered the Idea-ology metal plates with Distress Paints to match.

Artistic Stamper stamps used - Katy Fox - Encyclopaedia Botanica

Titbelsoeur

I wanted to do something different than flowers to illustrate this challenge... this was a good opportunity to make a tag with  Neil Walker's birds

I made the brick wall with molding paste, sprayed Distress ink with a mini mister and stamped the birds on a bristol paper and colored them with Promarker pens.

We hope you will join in this month's challenge and look forward to seeing you creations. Don't forget to add a comment when you have posted your entry.

Finally A BIG thank you to everyone who sent in their applications for joining the Creative Team.  Sadly we couldn't ask all of you , but come back later in the month when I will be introducing you to our new members :)

Have a very creative month

{hugs}

Jennie

An InLinkz Link-up

March Challenge ~ Letters, Words and Numbers

Hi to all of our blog readers

We do have to say a BIG thank you to everyone who joined in February's challenge, it was a stunning turnout!  I will be announcing the winner later in the month.
This month, we have as guest designer the very gorgeous and creative
Linda Cain joining us at The Artistic Stamper, with the first of her projects tomorrow . Don't forget to pop back to check it out!

Our new challenge for March is Letters, Words and Numbers
 We are  looking forward to seeing all your fabulous artwork and stamped projects that you submit in relation to this theme. To join in with this challenge (and you can join in as many times as you want), is simple; all we would like you to do is, make a piece of artwork, making sure that you include the theme and some rubberstamping. Pop back here to link up using the Froggy at the bottom of this post, so that we can see what you've made and then, leave us a comment to let us know you have joined in with the challenge. As always, there will be candy for one randomly picked entrant - the winner will receive £15 worth of The Artistic Stamper stamps of your choice. And don't forget....if you use Artistic Stamper stamps on your entry, you will entered into the draw, twice!!!!

To get you in the mood  here are some gorgeous creations from some of the Creative team

Titbelsoeur
This challenge was an opportunity to dive into all my stamps with letters, words and numbers. But the most difficult was to make a choice !
After having cut my painted cardboard at the size of the card, I decided to stamp :

 Journaling Words 3 
 Tick Tock A5 and Time and Keys
 Numerical plate size A5
Calligraphic Mat 13 
Winged Wheel 

Alison (Craftytrog)

I used my brayer & Claudine Hellmuth's Studio Paints (classic teal, modern red & dash of yellow) to add bands of colour across white card. Added some strips of tissue tape (Elements), a painted, stamped (Katy Fox Numerical Plate) die-cut heart, then stamped 'Happy Birthday' (Grungy Greetings 1) & hearts (Donna's Mother & Daughter). I used a lid & modern red paint to stamp the circles.

Alison (butterfly)

I created a jumbo tag using all the stamps from the Family Values Collage stamp set.  

There are lots of Distress Inks and Distress Stains in the background, and all the stamping is done with Archival Potting Soil.  I cut hearts stamped with the two smaller stamps to create some of the embellishments, and the large stamp forms the heart of the tag.  

I added plenty of Idea-ology Findings to echo the words and themes of the collage image, using Distress Paints to alter some of them, and some dyed seam-binding to finish it off.

We hope you will join in this month's challenge and look forward to seeing you creations. Don't forget to add a comment when you have posted your entry.

Have a very creative month

{hugs}

Jennie

An InLinkz Link-up

February 2014 Challenge- Use Distress

Hi to all of our blog readers

We do have to say a BIG thank you to everyone who joined in January's challenge, and I will be announcing the winner later in the month.
This month, we have another very talented guest joining us at The Artistic Stamper, Laura Bomber and you can see the first of Laura's  posts tomorrow.

Our new challenge for February is USE DISTRESS
 The whole team are really looking forward to seeing all your fabulous artwork and stamped projects that you submit in relation to this theme. To join in with this challenge (and you can join in as many times as you want), is simple; all we would like you to do is, make a piece of artwork, making sure that you include the theme and some rubberstamping. Pop back here to link up using the Froggy at the bottom of this post, so that we can see what you've made and then, leave us a comment to let us know you have joined in with the challenge. As always, there will be candy for one randomly picked entrant - the winner will receive £15 worth of The Artistic Stamper stamps of your choice. And don't forget....if you use Artistic Stamper stamps on your entry, you will entered into the draw, twice!!!!

To get you in the mood  here are some gorgeous makes from myself and Astrid.

Astrid
 For this challenge I decided to make a so called ATB (Artist Trading Block). There has been a lot of buzz about these and there is now even a die available from Sizzix to cut them. Really they are cubes, giving you 6 sides to have fun with, and for this challenge I used lots of Distress products of course. As the die is not yet available in the UK, I just cut my own. I will post instructions of how to do this on my own blog in a few days time. Meanwhile, here you can see some of it:

I used Distress Stains, Distress Inks, lots of lovely Ideaology Findings and of course stamps: Chicken wire background, Calligraphic Mat 12 and Winged Wheel

Jennie
I have altered a mini board book with Distress paints to use as a mini journal. I put lots of Distress paint on the cover and sprayed it with water to get it to smoosh around.

 

Allow it to dry thoroughly or heat dry. I love the Distress paints as they will cover a multitude of sins, and are very opaque. Perfect for covering up. I used some of Tim's rub-ons to add detail, and used The Artistic Stamper Masks with paint too. Add the paint to a blending tool foam to get more accuracy when using a mask. Stamp the journaling stamp with Archival in various colours.

This little book is perfect for when you have the need to spend a little time journaling :)
I used Distress paints, The Artistic Stamper masks, Journaling Words #5, Archival Inks, Idea-ology Rub-ons, and chitchat stickers

We hope you will join in this month's challenge and look forward to seeing you creations. Don't forget to add a comment when you have posted your entry.

Have a very creative month

{hugs}

Jennie

November Challenge ~ Christmas

Hi everyone and welcome to The Artistic Stamper Creative Team blog and to our brand new challenge for November!!

Before telling you all about this month's exciting new challenge, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who took the time to join in with out Alter Something challenge during October. As always it's been an absolute pleasure to look at all your wonderful artwork and creative pieces. We will be announcing one very lucky winner in the next few days, so please make sure you check back to see if it's you!!

During October, we also had the pleasure of having the extremely talented and very lovely, France Papillon join us as our Guest Designer and on behalf of the team, Jennie and I would like to say a big thank you to France for all her beautiful work that she shared everyone.

This month, we have another very talented guest joining us at The Artistic Stamper, Christine Dark. I'm sure you all know and love Christines's work and will already be really looking forward to seeing her first post tomorrow.

Our new challenge for November, is (and do I dare say this word already?!?! Lol) CHRISTMAS. The whole team are really looking forward to seeing all your fabulous artwork and stamped projects that you submit in relation to this theme. To join in with this challenge (and you can join in as many times as you want), is simple; all we would like you to do is, make a piece of artwork, making sure that you include the theme and some rubberstamping. Pop back here to link up using the Froggy at the bottom of this post, so that we can see what you've made and then, leave us a comment to let us know you have joined in with the challenge. As always, there will be candy for one randomly picked entrant - the winner will receive £15 worth of The Artistic Stamper stamps of your choice plus the Kling On to mount them onto. And don't forget....if you use Artistic Stamper stamps on your entry, you will entered into the draw, twice!!!!

If you do need any inspiration, then you don't need to look any further than our wonderful team's Christmas makes!!!

Titbelsoeur :

For this challenge, I have altered a pocket-size book. After glueing some Christmas stuff (ball, pineapple, mini-bag, violin, received card, stamps...) I have dragged stamped numbers, Christmas quotes and images between the pages :

The stamps I have used are :

Numerical plate

Christmas Greetings  # 1 & 2 

Mini Christmas 2

ALISON (Craftytrog)

I used various sizes of Stampbord, corrugated card, & The Artistic Stamper Christmas stamp sets, to create a little Christmassy hanging.

The stamps I have used are...

Christmas Plate 3 (for the star on the top)

Victorian Christmas 1 (for the middle layer)

and Christmas Greetings 1 (for the background layer)

Alison (butterfly)

I was lucky enough to work with the lovely Victorian Christmas plates numbers 2 and 3 - and with such traditional images, I found myself inevitably heading towards a vintage look... and with the sepias, I even gave in to a touch of traditional red and green!  The background is layered up using the new Artistic Stamper masks - great fun to play with.

Artistic Stamper ingredients used:

Victorian Christmas #2 and #3

Christmas Greetings #1

Artistic Stamper Masks: Chevron and Splats and Swirls

Emma

For my piece, this was quite a challenge as when I sat down to make my piece, I only had one set of AS Christmas stamps and one random message to work with...eek!! So, for my challenge piece ~ I made a tag using the Mini Christmas stamp set. I created the background for my tag with Distress Stains and then randomly stamped areas of the tag with the Calligraphy Mat 12 stamp. I then tore up a piece of cardboard packaging which I painted with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Inky Pool, followed by the Crackle Glaze and then a layer of Snowflake paint. I then stamped the Santa image and coloured it with Distress Marker Pens. I die cut two Tattered Poinsettias, coloured with Festive Berries Distress Ink and spritzed with Biscotti Perfect Pearls. I tied some hand dyed seam binding around the tag, added some paper string and a tag which I stamped with Merry Christmas.

We hope you will join in with this month's challenge and please, don't forget to add a comment when you post your entry.

Hope you all have a happy and very creative month.

See you soon...

Emma x

Winner of August's Challenge

Hi, WOW! hasn't September come around quick... and before you know it, it will be Christmas.. in fact for those of you who don't know there are only 16 more Saturdays before Christmas! I thought you might like that little bit of information... please don't shout at me!! LOL
Thank you to everyone who joined in last month's challenge, we had some fabulous creations entered, but sadly there can only be one winner and Mr Random.org picked no 14

so please give a round of applause to

Craftyfield

 

with this gorgeous layer card

 

 

 

Please email me , so that we can arrange your prize :)

 

This month the challenge is one of your favourites , it seems. AUTUMN, and one that can  be interpreted any which way you like :) autumnal colours, with stamps, dies, we urge you to go for it and enter... we love seeing your creative work!

Have a very creative day

Hugs

Jennie



 

September Challenge ~ Autumn

Hi everyone and welcome to The Artistic Stamper Creative Team blog and our brand new challenge for September!! Can you believe it's September already? Hasn't this year flown?

In August, we had the pleasure of having the extremely talented and very lovely, Linda Ledbetter join us as our Guest Designer and on behalf of the team, Jennie and I would like to say a big thank you to Linda for all her hard work and the wonderful artwork that she shared with us all.

This month, we have another very talented guest joining us here at The Artistic Stamper, Sue Carrington. I'm sure you all know and love Sue's work and will already be really looking forward to seeing her first post tomorrow.

Before telling you all about this month's new challenge, I just wanted to say a huge thank you for all your fab entries in our Postcards, Travel and Holidays Challenge during August, as always it's been such a pleasure seeing all your wonderful artwork and creative pieces. We will be announcing one very lucky winner in the next few days, so make sure you check back to see if it's you!!

The new challenge for September is all about AUTUMN and the whole team are looking forward to seeing all your fabulous artwork and stamped projects that you submit in relation to this theme. It's simple to join in with this challenge (and you can join in as many times as you want); all we would like you to do is, make a piece of artwork, making sure that you include the theme and some rubberstamping. Pop back here to link up using the Froggy at the bottom of this post, so that we can see what you've made and then, leave us a comment to let us know you have joined in with the challenge. As always, there will be candy for one randomly picked entrant - the winner will receive £15 worth of The Artistic Stamper stamps of your choice plus the Kling On to mount them onto. And don't forget....if you use Artistic Stamper stamps on your entry, you will entered into the draw, twice!!!!

If you do need any inspiration, then you don't need to look any further than our Creative Team's stunning creations for this month's challenge.

Titbelsoeur : Thinking of Autumn made me associate some ideas... autumn... harvest... vineyard... cellar... cellar door... hanger on the cellar door... and here it is :

 

The structure is made with a piece of cardboard and I glued on it some bottle labels, french poststamps and corks, a piece of burlap, a rugby polo label, PLUS the "traditional" Titbelsoeur's sardine can and tea bag !

The stamp I used in the can comes from the Men's plate in the Stamps for men area

And on the tea bag on the right, I stamped the door key from the Time and Keys plate in the Time stamps area.

Mr Titbelsoeur was very very happy with that challenge ;-)

Have a creative month!

ALISON

I'm really looking forward to heading in to my second season of autumnal crafting.  It really took me by surprise last year how much I loved working with the colours of Autumn, though - as a huge tree fan - I suppose I shouldn't have been so taken aback!

I've had to give you two pictures of my tag for this challenge, as it's really hard to capture it in a photograph (so do come and visit to see some more!).

There are layers and layers of wrinkle-free distress inkiness, stencilling, stamping and blending, and then the whole thing has a layer of Rock Candy crackle paint (which is what makes it so hard to take a photo of).

I added the Keats quote, stamped on leftover salty Dylusions backgrounds - the bright brilliant leaves landing in the earthy mulch of the forest floor - and added some of my rusted bits and pieces, and a rustic topping.

EMMA

For my piece, I used the clock face from the Tick Tock A5 Stamp Set and based my piece around that. I created the look of a clock by using the Sizzix Bigz Cameo Frame die, which I painted with Distress Paints and then cut a round aperture in the centre. I stamped the clock with black Archival Ink onto a piece of card which I aged with Old Paper Distress Ink and then added some Idea-Ology in the centre. The leaves are created using the Tattered Leaves die and I blended the surface of each leaf using various colours of Distress Inks to give that Autumnal look. I then spritzed them with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls mists before adding them to my piece, together with the metal Umbrella Man die cut which I embossed with a Texture Fade from my stash and then applied Alcohol Inks over the top. I finally added a Corked Vial, with a Chit Chat sticker attached and mounted the entire piece on some corrugated card painted with Distress Paints.

ALISON (Craftytrog)

I used Katy Fox's Encyclopaedia Botanica Plate, some Stamper's Anonymous images, & Distress Pens & Inks, to create an Autumn-themed card. The background is red color core paper, stamped with Katy's dictionary script, then embossed, sanded & inked.

We hope you will join in with this month's challenge and please, don't forget to add a comment when you post your entry.

Hope you all have a happy and very creative month.

See you soon...

Emma x

July Challenge ~ Ladies Day

Hi everyone and welcome to a new month, (can you believe it's July already?? Where does time go?) and a new challenge here on The Artistic Stamper Creative Team blog.

In June, we had the pleasure of having the very lovely and extremely talented Anita Houston join us as our Guest Designer and on behalf of the team, Jennie and I would like to say a big thank you to Anita, for all her hard work, wonderful ideas and for the stunning artwork that she shared with us all.

This month, I am very excited to let you all know that we have Mark Gould joining us here on the blog. Mark's work is absolutely fabulous and I'm sure you're all looking forward and can't wait to see his first post, tomorrow.

Before I introduce this month's new challenge, I just wanted to say a huge thank you for all your wonderful entries in our Makes For Men Challenge during June. We were overwhelmed with all the entries and we had so many wonderful creative pieces from you all ~ it's been such a pleasure seeing them. We will be announcing one very lucky winner in the next few days, so make sure you check back to see if it's you!!

The new challenge for July is called LADIES DAY. We want to see all your fabulous artwork and stamped projects, featuring gorgeous ladies and lovely girls. The whole team are really looking forward to seeing all the wonderful and varied creations that you submit. To join in with this challenge (and you can join in as many times as you want), is simple; all we would like you to do is, make a piece of artwork, making sure that you include the theme and some rubberstamping. Pop back here to link up using the Froggy at the bottom of this post, so that we can see what you've made and then, leave us a comment to let us know you have joined in with the challenge. As always, there will be candy for one randomly picked entrant - the winner will receive £15 worth of The Artistic Stamper stamps of your choice plus the Kling On to mount them onto. And don't forget....if you use Artistic Stamper stamps on your entry, you will entered into the draw, twice!!!!

If you do need any inspiration, then you don't need to look any further than our Creative Team's stunning creations for this month's challenge.

 TITBELSOEUR:

Do you remember my November jelly jar ? Today I have just used the cap ! And two bottle caps as well. I have used these to host these so lovely Gibson Girls I do not often use. Aren't they lovely in these little frames ?

I have used one bottle cap as it was and crushed the other one with a hammer. The jar cap was used as it was too. The Ladies were stamped on a drawing paper and punched. 

I then darkened their edges with a brown ink. Added a zip and glued the images on the bottom.

 Always recycling !!

ALISON (Butterfly):

This tag was inspired by the wonderful women of the Faces #2 Plate and a quote by Virginia Woolf - one of my favourite writers and thinkers.  I started with book pages, wrinkle-free distress technique using Distress Stains and Inks as well as some Perfect Pearls powder.  I added more words with some stamping of a Calligraphy Mat #4 as well as some texture paste through the Roman Letters template.

The women were stamped on Specialty Stamping Paper, giving great clarity to the images, and dyed seam binding, paper string and some eyelets complete the look.

Alison (Craftytrog)

I decided to make a pendant for 'Ladies Day', using a Calligraphy Mat background, & part of an image from Garden Plate1. The images were coloured with distress inks. I added some crochet lace & a chitchat sticker, then filled the bezel with glossy accents.

EMMA

This month, I wanted to create an Edwardian feel for my piece and decided to make a framed print using one of the gorgeous images from the Gibson Girls Plate #1. I started with a piece of mountboard which I covered with Gesso, the painted with Distress Paints. I then stamped and embossed the entire background with the Lace Background stamp. I used some more mountboard to die cut a frame using the Sizzix Bigz Cameo Frame and embossed it through a Tim Holtz Texture Fade in my stash. I framed the stamped image, that was coloured with Distress Marker Pens and then using the Tattered Florals die, I made the huge flowers and added them to my frame. To finish with I popped an easel onto the back, then added some embellishments, an Idea-ology Word Band and some Treasure Gold to highlight the edges and the embossing.

We hope you will join in with this month's challenge and we're really looking forward to seeing your interpretation of our theme and all your amazing creations and artwork. Please, don't forget to add a comment when you post your entry.

I hope you all have a happy and very creative month.

See you soon...

Emma x