Seasons Greetings by Emma

Hello everyone!

Today, is my turn to share here at The Artistic Stamper and for my piece, I've created a hanging ornament. As an alternative to the traditional Christmas colours, I thought it would be nice to have something a little bit different and because I love the look of chalkboard, that's what came to mind and here it is, my hanging chalkboard ornament ~ hope you like it!

To create this, I gave an MDF bauble two coats of Black Soot Distress Paint, allowing it to dry between coats each time. Next, and using the Seasons Greetings and Holly bough stamp from the Mini Christmas 1 stamp plate, I stamped directly onto the painted bauble with Versamark ink and applied white embossing powder over the top, then heat embossed, until it was molten and shiny.

I used a piece of chalk to create the chalkboard effect onto the black paint and then added some Snowflake Fresco Finish paint around the edges before sealing the whole bauble with a coat of Mod Podge. 

 I created my poinsettia with Tim Holtz's Tattered Poinsettia die from Sizzix and added some glass glitter into the centre. I used some die cut foliage which I coloured with Iced Spruce Distress Ink and then sprinkled with Rock Candy Distress Glitter. To complete the bauble, I added some rusty wire and distressed some seam binding, which I added with some twine to create the hanger.

So, that's it from me for today and I'll see you again later in the month.

Thank you so much for stopping by and I'm looking forward to reading your comments.

Love Emma x

Autumnal Gatherings by Emma

Hello everyone...

Hope you're all had a fabulous week and that you're looking forward to the weekend. Today, is my turn to share my latest creation with you all and I decided to make an autumnal wallhanging by using and recycling some old coasters that were in need of a makeover!

As always, I hope you love what I've made...

To begin with I applied a good covering of Gesso to all three coasters and allowed them to dry. I then used one of the fab new Artistic Stamper masks, Large Dot and applied GrungePaste through the mask onto my 1st and 3rd coasters. I also added some Grungepaste around the edges of all three coasters and stippled it to give a rough texture.

Once the paste was dry, I painted all the coasters with a mix of Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Mustard Seed and Gathered Twigs Distress Paints, blending the paints together until I was happy with the colour. I then added some splashes of white paint and touches of Treasure Gold around the edge to highlight the raised areas where I had added the paste.

I randomly stamped leaves over the painted coasters using stamps from Katy Fox's Leaves stamp plate using Wendy Vecchi's Potting Soil Archival Ink and also used my favourite all time stamp, the Calligraphy 12 plate to stamp areas of the painted coasters.

The message was also from the Katy Fox Leaves stamp plate and stamped in black Archival onto a piece of torn cardboard packaging which I also tore around the edges to show the corrugation and painted with Roast Coffee Fresco Finish Paint. I then added a thin layer Fresco Crackle paint and then a covering of Snowflake over the top to reveal the crackle. I then added small amounts of Treasure Gold around the edges.

I added some Remnant Rubs Words onto the raised circles that I created with the masks....

...and then made small arrangements of foliage using the Autumn Gatherings die by Tim Holtz from my own crafty stash, die cutting them from kraft card and colouring each individual piece with Distress Inks in various autumnal shades.

Finally, I attached all three coasters using Idea-ology Jump Rings and added a bamboo stick, which I threaded through the top jump rings. I then platted some thick twine and tied it onto the bamboo stick.

So, that's it from me for today and thank you so much for stopping by to say hello and for leaving all your lovely comments...I can't wait to read them!

Hope you all have a lovely, creative weekend and see you soon!

Emma x