Dragonfly Card

Hello to you all Wishing all of you a very Happy New year!

I hope you all had a very good Christmas and are 

looking forward to a very crafty 2015.

I was very lucky my son's bought me the distress stains for Christmas 

and this is my first play with them.

For my first post of 2015 I have created a card made from the Artistic Stamper's

 fabulous Neil Walker stamps and the dragonfly from the insects &

butterfly plate and lots of lovely embossing.

1. Distress inks in the following colours:- iced spruce, vintage photo, wild honey, fired brick & walnut stain.
2. Distress stains spray in the following colours:- wild honey, fired brick, iced spruce & tarnished brass.
3. The following Artistic Stamper Stamps:- Neil Walkers alphabet soup & boarder set + the dragonfly off the insects and butterflies. 
4. Gold & clear embossing powder. 
5. Small coloured beads and home made beads for the centre body please see my blog.
6. Ranger distress stickles in the following colours:- aqua & copper.
7. Versamark.
8. Deco art liquid glass.
9. Gold ink pad.
10. Viva Ferro, ledger stencil.

Firstly I coloured a piece of white card with distress inks blending off a craft mat.

I used wild honey, vintage photo, iced spruce and fired brick.

I sprayed water onto my fingers the flicked it across the card and mopped up with tissue

& repeated it until I was happy with the result. I then used my distress stained iced spruce 

and lightly spritzed it. I inked the Neil walker alphabet soup stamp in gold

and stamped the bottom and top right.

You can just see it faintly, next I inked up the boarder stamp with

Walnut stain distress ink and gently put gold embossing

 powder so it didn't cover the entire stamped image,

then heat set.

I cut out a square and from the piece of coloured card I then cut 

another piece off and a third and arranged it 

out on the original cut square.

I then inked up the boarder stamp with walnut stain. Without 

putting it on a block I just placed the stamp where I wanted it

 on the third piece and then covered it in clear embossing 

powder and heat set. Ferro paste was put through the date 

on the ledger stencil on the bottom left hand side.

The edges were run along the versa mark ink pad then swiped 

through gold embossing powder to finish the square off. 

For the dragonfly I inked it up with walnut stain stamped it 

onto distress coloured card which was clear embossed.

I sprayed the wings with tarnished gold, wild honey 

and fired brick spray stains. Decoart liquid glass was 

applied to the wings and allowed to dry.

.

The main body of the dragon fly is made up with a bead I made 

please see my blog. The head is again beads made up 

from sequins and from my stash also copper stickles. small seed beads

were glued around and then I a dot of aqua stickles to finish.

Wire and a bead were used for the antennae. Finally mounted onto 

black card and attached onto a white card. Well that's it for today

 I hope you have all enjoyed this post please feel free to

 leave a comment or two.

Cheers Dee x

Alison's Seaside Giveaway - Part One

Hello Stampers! As you probably know, it's the 2nd Anniversary of The Artistic Stamper's Creative Team Blog, and to mark the occasion, we have lots of giveaways this month.

Each member of the team has chosen some stamps to work with in August, and those are the stamps you could win, just by leaving a comment on our post, or on our personal blog posts. You can see my blog post HERE.

Here are the Seaside stamps that I have chosen to use...

And here is my first piece of art for August...

It started off life as an Altoid Mint tin!

To begin, I separated the lid and base, and gave them both a good two coats of Studio Black Gesso, inside and out.

I stamped the swimmer from Seaside No. 1 plate onto a Stampbord domino using Archival Black Ink, and coloured her in with Distress Inks, and a waterbrush. I used Peacock Feathers and Brushed Corduroy. I used clear UTEE to double emboss the image, & whilst the UTEE was still molten, I sprinkled some Macarena Beadazzles in the bottom left corner.

Returning to the tin lid, I used a palette knife to apply a thick layer of Viva Ferro on the top. I squished the stampbord piece into it, then set it aside to dry thoroughly.

Once dry, I applied some silver Viva Gold all over the outside of the tin to accentuate the texture. I used Glossy Accents to glue pearl beads around the image.

I made a little starfish, using gold friendly plastic in a mould, then applied some blue Viva Gold onto the texture. I used a glue gun to stick the starfish to my tin.

Thanks for looking, and don't forget to leave a comment here & on my own blog, to be in with a chance of winning the Seaside No. 1 plate.

Alison xox

Textured Frame by Alison

Hello Stampers! I've got a little textured frame to share with you today.

I used a little wooden frame, The Artistic Stamper has similar ones HERE. I started by applying Studio gesso all over the frame, as this helps the texture paste stick to it. I applied Viva Ferro through the Dylusion Diamond of a Border stencil, using a palette knife. 

Once this was dry, I painted over the whole frame. I used Cloudy Blue Paint Dabber, with a little London Blue Dylusion Ink Spray mixed in. Once the paint was dry, I lightly sponged Expresso Paint Dabber over the raised pattern, and on the edges of the frame. I was going for a distressed look, so I didn't worry too much about the paint going where it shouldn't, and I love how it picked up some of the rough wood texture too.

I stamped one of the Nudes onto glossy card, using Jet Black Archival Ink, then coloured her with Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain Distress Ink. I cut the image to fit inside the frame.

I dabbed a little Cloudy Blue Paint onto a button from Tim's Fanciful Accroutrements, cut the back loop off with my Tim Holtz Scissors, then attached it to the bottom of the frame. I punched a couple of leaves from green Co'oredinations paper, sanded them carefully with a Sanding Grip, then tucked them behind the button.

To finish, I coloured some white ribbon with Antique Linen Distress Stain, then threaded it through the 'Love' Ideaology Key, tied a bow, & added it to the top right of my frame.

Thanks for looking,

Alison xox 

Time Will Never Wait by Alison Hall

Hello Stampers, I've a little canvas board hanging to share with you today, featuring the Mabel Lucie Attwell White Rabbit.

Firstly, I stamped the large White Rabbit onto tissue, using black archival ink, then adhered it to a 7x5" canvas board, using matt medium.

Then I applied a layer of Viva Ferro around the edges. I stamped into this with watches & the word Time from the Time & Keys plate. Remember to wet your stamps when you do this, & clean them straight away after. Leave this to dry, or if you're impatient like me, use a heat gun.

I painted over the Ferro & around the rabbit with purple palette Studio paint, then with touches of sky blue. I painted over the embossed areas of the canvas with silver Viva Precious Metal paint, then edged the canvas with the sky blue paint.

I used a fine paintbrush to sketchily paint the rabbit with Studio paint.

The phrase from the Time & Keys plate is stamped onto silver Ten seconds studio metal sheet, using black Stazon. I mounted it onto black card, then edged it with a patterned wheel tool. I brushed a thin layer of sky blue Studio paint over the metal, then edged it with the same paint, before gluing to my canvas.

Finally, I punched holes at the top, added eyelets & ribbon, then embellished the canvas with a silver clock charm.

Thanks for looking,

Alison xx

Travel without Observation by Sioux Jenneys

Hello everyone! It's my turn again and I'm here to share an ATC :)

That's me Sioux by the way!

1. Stamped the the man image from the Mens Plate 001 #35......such a dapper chappie love the tash!....in archival coffee onto white card.....then used a punch the same size as my bottle top....and filled with glossy accents adding a touch of beadazzles jazz.

2. The base board was covered with Viva Decor Terra Sahara and stamped into whilst still wet using the mini lattice wire background that had been inked with walnut stain distress ink....(make sure you wash the terra off the stamp quickly ;) )

....love the texture this gives :)

3. Used my best tool (a finger!) to smudge Viva Decor Inca Gold rose in the central area and copper on the edges.

4. The wings are from T!m's Heart Wing die painted with Studio gesso then stamped with calligraphic mat 4 using pumice stone distress ink which also was used to age the edges.

5. Stamped the sentiment onto inked card and layered onto black card.

6. Used one of the fabulous little metal mini crowns.

....well actually I only used half a crown....those were the days! LOL.

.....cut the crown in half using my Tonic scissors

....Just to say that I did question the reason to buy yet another pair of scissors when instructed that these were the only things you would be allowed to take into the workshop I'm doing with T!m in February!....but honestly they are fabulous....I was having difficulty using my wire cutters but these scissors really did cut the metal like it was butter! :)



I love the dimensionality on this :) See you again soon!

xoxo Artyjen

Cogs 'n Roses...

...Morning Peeps... a quickie post from me today... just to remind you that there are still a few days left to join in with our first ever challenge... the theme is Something Old, Something New... and to see all the deets, please click here.. oh and there is candy up for grabs for one randomly picked entrant :O))



So, in keeping with the Something Old, Something New, I altered a wooden frame. I coated it with a layer of Traditional Tan paint to start off with. Once this was dry, I used some Viva Ferro, putting a generous layer in patches on the frame. I used spritzed up some background stamps with water and then stamped them into the Ferro... this gives a really cool effect - I used one of the new backgrounds and one of the older coggy ones :O)) There is my Something Old, Something New :O)) I used a heat gun to zap the Ferro - and because the layer was quite thick, it bubbled a bit in the heat... fabby effect! I then used some Terra, which is totally different to the Ferro when heated.. it goes into little bubbles... these two Viva products have to be my faves at the moment! Once this was all dried, I used some Cut & Dry and painted it all with Trad Tan again - then went over with a mix of Trad Tan and Sable Brown, then once this was dry, I highlighted the bobbles with Sable Brown... and finished with a bit of Gold Dabber. There were woodey patches still showing on the frame, so I filled these in with Rock Candy Cracklepaint... loving this effect! When the Rock Candy was crackled, I rubbed some Viva Inka Gold into the cracks to make them pop a bit.




I made some metal flowers using the large Flower Power flower, stamped onto Ten Seconds Studio metal (this one is Spiced Rum). I then used the Cog background to make a pattern over the flower... used Ten Seconds Studio's tools to add definition to the cogs and then made them into five petal flowers - to do this is the same at the first layer on a dimensional rose :O)) I hand drew some leaves, decorating with the TSS tools.. and popped these onto the frame. I added some Idea-ology to the frame to finish it. I haven't thought what to put in the middle yet... because the frame is quite decorative, I think maybe just a little photo would look nice! Anyways, thanks for looking... hoping you like this... and all of the stashy bits used on it are available from The Artistic Stamper. TTFN

Hels x