My Valentine! by Nicky Cresswell

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Well hello there my fine stamping chums, nice of you to join me this fine day!

As you are all aware the big day of love is fast approaching, and if you haven't already made your cards here is a nice quickie to help you out.

All you need is a base card, i used a square kraft coloured one for this example but white or cream in any size would also work fine. 1 sheet of parchment or velum big enough to cover the front of the card.

A selection of stamps... I've used Stampers Anonymous 'Love Struck' and Artistic Stamper 'Roses are Red',

4 brads and a die cut heart... oh and several ink pads lol

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First cut the parchment to the exact size of the card, Stamp the cupid onto the parchment using stazon in the bottom left hand corner, while this is drying, cut a heart {i used my slice} but you can use anything for this, maybe the heart from Tims winged heart alterations die just so long as you have a printable surface for your valentine message.

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Stamp the 'to my valentine' with black archival onto your heart, and use vintage photo distress ink round the edges.

Place the parchment over the card and line up where you want the heart to be, then stick it in place.

Put this to one side for now.

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Next randomly stamp the strip hearts in red distress ink onto the base card paying attention to where the cupid will overlay, also stamp the word love several times in black, again paying attention not to stamp where it would be covered by the heart or cupid.

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 If you're a bit unsure at this stage and don't want to mess up your card, practice on a piece of scrap paper first to get your placement how you want it. You can overlay your parchment to check how it will look on the real card. 

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Then all thats left to do is attach the parchment to the base card with 4 brads, one in each corner.

And there you have it, a nice muted effect with all the stamping still visible. And the perfect card for your  

♥ valentine ♥

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Oh... Don't forget it's a 'Love' theme for our challenge this month so add your cards HERE and you could win the random prize candy! Woo Hoo!

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The Sunday Stamperama's

...well, I was trying to be clever there but not sure if it worked LOL Anyways, goodly morning to you all! Today is Stamperama at Stevenage and Jennie will be demo-ing UTEE with her marvellous Melt Pot and I will be demo-ing Beeswax with my magical Melt Pot. If you are going to be at Stevenage, please do pop by and see us on the Stand :O)




Today I am linking the Sunday Stamper in with my post here... I have made an ATC which is a giveaway both here and on my blog... the deets are HERE. All you have to do is simply leave me a comment on this post and I will enter your name into the draw. There is another way you can be entered too... if you hop over to my Sunday Stamper post and join in with the challenge, your name will be entered a further two times... so you will have three chances of winning not only my ATC but also some FAB candy kindly donated by Jennie - which is this FAB Time & Keys plate as well as the Kling On to mount the stamps onto.



Thanks for looking.. hope to see you today! TTFN

Hels x

The wheels on the bus....

go round and round...It kind of fits with one of the new stamps that will be available at Stamperama on Sunday and on the website on Monday! Here is a tag I made with the new stamp... lots of distress inks ( ooh cannot wait for the distress stains coming soon...:)) some torn music paper, available in our Vintage paper packs, and some idealogy!



I will be at Stamperama on Sunday in Stevenage, and if you are coming , please stop by, tap me on the shoulder (I have habit of not looking up often when demoing ) and say hi! I love putting faces to blog names. We have some new gorgeous moulds from Crafty Notions, and there are more than are on the website too!! I will be playing with UTEE and Hels will be working her magic with beeswax. Lots of offers, and the packing pixie is on Arkwright!
Hope to see you there!
Happy Creating
Jennie

The Old Days by Sioux Jenneys

Hi! All you fellow inkers ;) I thought I'd share a postcard (6x4 inch) today with you :)

1. Stamp the "For Men Only" image in Versafine and use Distress Inks brushed corduroy and bundled sage as a watercolour for the trousers and shirt and cut out around the outline of the man on the front edge.

2. Stipple Adirondack Dye Inks in wild plum and butterscotch on the base card.

3. Stamp the Stampers Anonymous clowns from the big top plate in Archival sepia and colour the middle clowns hat using Distress Ink aged mahogany as a watercolour and worn lipstick for the lips.

4. Stamp the top half of the W.J. Hawker stamp from ephemera 1 plate in Archival coffee at the side of the clowns to fill in the space at the edge and the bottom half of the stamp that says Bournemouth on the bottom edge.

(don't re-ink for a subtle second impression)

5. Stamp the T!m faux staples at the bottom in worn lipstick.

6. Mask the clowns and stamp the word Cirque in Distress Ink weathered wood.

7. Stamp the letter tiles from scrabble and tags plate onto some card printed with an image of cork and cut out.

I'm giving the cork image away as a free digital download ;) Just click here.

Just hit the blue Download button when you get there and save to a folder on your computer.

It is sized at approx. 9.5cm square...a small image especially for stamping the scrabble tiles on (or any other words for that matter). You can obviously enlarge this in your own software if you desire...but not too much or the cork starts to look like crazy paving slabs!!! LOL
Have fun :)

I know the clowns freak some of you out...but it's healthy to be freaked once in a while :)

See you again soon!

xoxo Artyjen

Challenge Winner for January!

Hi, it's the boss here again, this time with the WINNER of our January challenge "Things with Wings"
What a wonderful amount of entries this month! Thank you to everyone who joined in, it has been a pleasure seeing them all :) I have to admit not getting around to everyone's place this month as I have been very busy , but I promise to do better this month.
The winner of the £15 worth of The Artistic Stamper stamps is

FLISS!

Congratulations on winning and please email me to arrange to get your prize.
February's Challenge is All Things Love, so if you haven't entered , you have until midnight on 28th February to post .
Happy Creating!
Jennie

Moths to a flame

Hi all,
I'm SUE RODDIS AKA JABBERWOCKY and it's time for my stint as guest designer here on the CREATIVE TEAM blog.

My first piece is a double page journal spread made in my A5 Moleskine journal.

I used one of my very fav techniques to colour the pages......apply gesso and let dry. Rub over with Distress ink pads.....I used Rusty Hinge, Olive and Black Soot......spray with water to mingle the colours. Let dry or help long with a heat gun.

Stamp fragments of the lace background around the edges, add cogs stamped over the top.

Stamp the open lightbulb image over some old book pages, cut them out. Stamp the cogs lightbulb over plain paper and cut out. Arrange the bulbs acros the pages and draw in hanging wires.
Stamp the small butterfly over book pages and cut out, arrange them among the bulbs.

Add some extra colour to the plain lightbulbs and butterflies using Distress inks and a water brush.

Ok that's me for now.......I'll be back later in the month with another project.

February Challenge - Love Is In The Air

Good morning and Happy February to you all! Today sees the launch of our brand new challenge... and the theme, in keeping with the Saints day this month is LOVE. To join in, all you need to do is make a piece of art, include the theme and some stamping and pop back to leave us a link to the place you are showing your entry, oh and please do leave us a comment too! As ever there is a lovely candy prize up for grabs; £15 worth of your choice of Artistic Stamper designs rubberstamps plus the Kling-On to mount them onto. The challenge will remain open until February 28th. The winner of last months challenge will be announced here on Feb 3rd.

We have some exciting things going on this month; our new Guest Designer is Sue Roddis who has some amazing art to show you. The free cover stamp on March Issue Craft Stamper is designed by Jennie and there are several pieces of art in the magazine by Jennie and Hels. Also, there is a cool reader offer too! To see the details, please click here. As well as the magazine excitement, The Artistic Stamper will also be at Stamperama, Stevenage on Sunday February 6th 2011 so if you are going along, do pop by to see Jennie and her magic Melt Pot demo-ing UTEE and Hels with her marvellous Melt Pot demo-ing Beeswax.

We would just like to take this opportunity to say a HUGE thank you to our Guest Designer for January, Tracy Evans, for the gorgeous projects she has made for us. To see more of Tracy's work, click on her name and you will be whizzed off to her blog :O))

On with the challenge for this month: Here are the entries from the Team!

Hels altered a mini canvas using Tim Holtz papers, stamped with a Music Score background and then added a heap of Idea-ology and a UTEE heart to it.




Tina got hot with her Melt Pot and made this beautiful necklace using Memory Frames placed onto a background stamp then filled with UTEE for the pendants. The wings are made from Grungepaper overstamped with script.

Minxy altered a Papier Mache frame and turned it into a gorgeous "configuration" using Ten Seconds Studios metals, Fragments and Tim's Seasonal Paper Stash and Idea-ology. Check out the teensy details by clicking on the pic.

Alison made this lovely colourful card using Ten Seconds Studios metal, embossed in a Texture Fade and then altered with Alcohol Inks. The main embellishment is Duralar cut using the Heart Alterations Die, stamped and then heated gently to give it some dimension.




Sioux made this glamourous postcard using a mixture of Distress and Archival inks along with one of the girlies from the Nudes Plate and a collage of background stamps behind. Check out the sentiment... how cool!

Jennie got bright and spritzy making this little altered cloth bag using Ranger Colourwashes and Claudine Hellmuth Studio Range stash. This little bag is also part of a charity auction to help the Children of Haiti on eBay... to see the deets, please click HERE.

As ever, all of the stashy bit used by the team on their entries are all available from THE ARTISTIC STAMPER. All that is left for me to say is... can't wait to see your entries!!! Thanks for looking...

Hels and the Team x