Fishy Takeaway! by Nicky Cresswell

Good day fellow stampers.. 

I thought that instead of cards or tags i'd get a bit more technical today..

So i've made some gift boxes.

And the great thing is all you need is 1 sheet of paper and no glue!

Oh and a template which you can find HERE

***

 All you need to do is print and cut out your template..

Also punch out the 2 black dots as these are where your wire will attach.

Lay it over some nice paper, you should use a good quality paper/card stock, 

for example Tim's paper stacks work great

I have chosen to give mine an aquatic feel using stamps for the Seaside #1 plate.

I stamped directly onto the paper after scoring all the lines but before folding.

 I also stamped and cut out elements and stuck them on with foam tape to give dimention.

 Then its as easy as folding it up. 

If you use a double sided paper you have a nice inside too. You may also notice here i have added a little bit of  reinforcement to the opening flaps to stop accidental tearing when opening and closing.

The only thing left to do now is attach the wire.

To do this you will need to gather the 2 flaps inside the box at either end and using the already punched out hole as a guide go through these 2 flaps, I used my big bite for this but you could use a pokey tool.

And there you have it, the perfect little treat box for him or her!

{Oh if your wondering how i got the boat wheel without the people in, I just masked the inner part of stamp b4 inking it, then remove the mask and hay presto, no captain and his mate!}

If you give this a try i'd love to see your creations, so be sure to leave a comment x

Until then Stay Inky

ATC Giveaway Time Again...

Morning Folks... tis time for my monthly ATC giveaway again... this month I have been focussing on those deeeelicious Crowded Attic papers again ... this time combining them with some lovely Distressy goodies too. To be in with a chance of winning this ATC, all you need to do is leave a comment for me here... the winner will be chosen at random and announced on Tuesday 12th April '11. And... if you leave a comment for me over on my blog, you will be entered twice! Simples (said in the Meerkat voice again lol)



The base of the ATC is mountboard so it is nice and sturdy. I layered an ATC size piece from the Crowded Attic stack and sanded the edges. I then loaded Rock Candy Cracklepaint over the top and set aside to dry. Whilst the drying was going on, I made a little 3d paper rose... there is a "how to" on my own blog HERE on how to do the flowers. So, the layers of the roses were spritzed with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls Mists... which are my fave mists to use... they are really subtle but give a lovely sparkle to whatever they touch. The rose was made using the medium flower on the Flower Power set.



The little ticket was cut using Tim Holtz Ticket Alterations die and then coloured with Antique Linen and Vintage Photo Distress Stains.. spritzed with Heirloom Gold too... and then popped into an Idea-ology Memo Pin. The ickle butterflies are from the Papillon Set and were stamped onto Duralar and then cut out... zapped with the heatgun and curled... and then whilst still hot, spritzed with more Heirloom Gold... this gives a lovely shimmer to them.



Finally, the flower Trim at the bottom is from Idea-ology Trims set ... a few cut to length and dabbed with Antique Linen Distress Stains... then lightly dabbed with Vintage Photo Distress Stains. The ATC base was dry now, so I spritzed this with... yep, you guessed... more Heirloom Gold... and then bobbed a bit of Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the edges... ta dah! That is all finished. Thanks for looking... have a goodly day! TTFN

Hels x

Alice! by Tina Barnett

Hi!

I am here with one of the Alice in Wonderland Mabel Lucie Attwell stamps This stamp can be found at The Artistic Stamper along with some from the same set.


I started with a Background stamp also from The Artistic Stamper . I used Tim Holtz distress inks to stamp and then went around the edges to age them.

I then stamped and coloured the image with the same ink, again distressing the edges.

I used to pieces from the Tim Holtz grunge board pack, I thought they matched the Alice in Wonderland theme well.

I finished off with some gems and mounted the image on to black card.

With Easter coming up these stamps are a good alternative to the normal Easter Bunny!!

Thanks for looking xx

Tina xx

The Key to Life by Sioux Jenneys

I'm sharing an ATC today...it turned out much grungier than I had intended....let me explain! :)

1. I was sort of at a loose end as to what to do with the background so I just got an Adirondack salmon pad and randomly tapped it on the card.

2. Then I spritzed some home made mix of Distress reinker broken china in a couple of spots...heat dried and then mopped up the remainder that was left on the mat before drying again.

3. It still needed something so added a bit of Perfect Pearls Mist heirloom gold you may have to click on the picture to see the shimmer!

4. Put two of the small keys from the Time and Keys plate on my acrylic block and inked up with Distress Ink weathered wood to randomly stamp all over.

5. Stamped and heat embossed with silver the largest key on the same plate....cut out and edged with a sharpie black marker pen.

6. Stamped the sentiment from the same plate and coloured in the letters with a copic marker...cut out the words I wanted and layered them onto black card.

...It's lovely that this font has the ability to colour it any shade your choose ;)

7. At this point when I was assembling all the elements I realised the embossed key just did not pop as the background was too light! So I tattered the edges of the ATC...inked with Distress Ink walnut stain and dragged it across the whole of the ATC background.

....it totally changed the look but problem solved! ;)

8. Finally added the small key from the Ideaology keys pack.

 See you again soon:) I'll be back!

xoxo Artyjen

Spring has sprung Challenge..the winner!

Hi, it's Jennie here again at the beginning of another month, which is filled with so much going on.. Ally Pally, Easter,  a royal Wedding! and the winner of last month's challenge! I loved what everyone did, and again I used Mr. Random.org to pick the winner! So without much further ado.. as Mr Shakespeare said.. please step up to the podium

LISA SOMERVILLE!

Congratulations to you Lisa, and please email me, so you can claim your prize of £15.00 worth of The Artistic Stamper stamps!
Thank you to everyone who joined in , and this month Hels has set a great Layers challenge.. so get your thinking caps on, and join in..
Have a very Creative Day
Jennie

Mirror, Mirror By Kat Fullman

Hello to all, Kat here, AKA Kat's craft creations I am absolutely thrilled & privileged to be invited to be the GUEST DESIGNER for the month of April here on the Artistic Stamper Creative Team.

May I take this time to say a big thank you to Hels & Jennie
for the opportunity to show my craft creations here.

My first piece I would like to shaer with you is a Mirror that I have altered.

I have placed a piece of paper over the mirror

(so you don't get me in the reflection)

I have taken some step by step pics

to show how I made it and some of the things I used are also in the pics,

(so there will be less writing to read)

That's always good in my book.

I used

stamps from the the artistic stamper range pictured below;

Here's the mirror before I altered it;

I made a template using white card

With Antique Linen distress ink & blending tool

distress white card as shown,

Then use the same ink & this Calligraphic Mat 13 stamp

(love the size of this stamp)

& stamp all over as shown,

With these 3 stamp sets,

Botanical plate 1 , Architecture plate 1 & Insects & Butterflies no1

I stamped ramdomly using Sepia Archival Ink

Using Vintage Photo Distress Ink

blend inner & outer edges as shown,

Then glue this to the mirror,

Next is the embelishment part,

Using Flower Power & Dots background stamps,

& Peeled Paint, Faded Jeans & Rusty Hinge Distress inks,

Wendy Vecchi studio 490 Leaf stamps ,

Tim Holtz Tatterd Rose Die & Grunge Paper

Make a selection of flowers as shown in pic above,

remember to shape them for extra dimention, then glue together,

I added a touch of rock candy distress stickles for that extra touch of sparkle

Hels has a fab tutorial on her blog

for the rose if your not sure how to make them.

Add some sparkly bits or gems,

I have used old & broken bits of jewellry for this one,

some silver buttons & 2 decorative stick pins from my stash

all stuck with silicone glue.

I think I have rememberd everything,

I will be back on the 14th with my second project

see you then, Have a crafty day,

Kat.

April Challenge - Build It Up

Good Morning Stampers and welcome to a brand new monthly challenge here at The Artistic Stamper Creative Team. First of all a big thank you for all your entries last month... Jennie will be using Mr Random.Org to pick a winner which will be announced on Sunday 3rd April so please do check back to see if you have won! This month the challenge is called Build It Up which means that we want to see lots of LAYERS on your artwork. To join in with the challenge, all you need to do is make a piece of artwork - it can be anything that takes your fancy, add in the theme and some rubberstamping and then leave your link on the Frog Link below... oh and please do leave us a comment so I can hop on over to see your entry! As usual, there is a prize on offer for one randomly picked entrant. The prize this month is £15 worth of Artistic Stamper rubberstamps plus the KlingOn to mount them onto. The winner of the challenge will be announced on Tuesday May 4th 2011.We have a new Guest Designer this month, I would like to say a huge welcome to Kat Fullman to the team. I would also like to say a big thank you to Gerrie Johnnic for her lovely contributions for us during March. To see more of Kat and Gerrie's art, please just click on their names.
The team have been busy this month with their entries for the challenge... here are their interpretations for your inspirations...


Sioux

Sioux made light work of cutting this tag using her Vagabond machine and the Tag & Bookplate Alterations Die ... making an aperture in the tag for her cheeky nude lady. The dashing young chap is from the Collage Art set and the butler is from The Mens Plate #01

Minxy

Minxy went flower crazy and made her beautiful layered papier mache frame using Retro Grunge papers and flower stamps from Flower Power, Flower Blooms, Flower Fever and the open butterfly from the Tick Tock Butterflies set.

Alison

Alison mixed her media and combined paper, inks and metal for her striking card. She used the Time & Keys plate to make her fabulous metal embellished card, turning a clock into an individual petal and layering them up. Distress Inks were used to colour the card and the focal image is from the Dressmaking plate.



Hels

I got inky with some of the new Distress Stains, colouring my tag background by scribbling the Stains direct to the tag, spritzing with water then dipping into inkyness on the craft sheet. That was 2 layers for the base... adding a third by using a Blending Tool to add Distress Inks to the tag. Stamping was done using Distress Inks and Calligraphic Mat #4 and Dotty Background stamps. The flower is made from Grungepaper stamped with Flower Power, Flower Fever and Flower Blooms stamps, then these were layered again with more background stamps. A little bit of Idea-ology Trim dyed with Distress Stains was added to the base of the tag and finally a raised sentiment from the new Tim Holtz Stuff to Say stamp set.
All of the products used by the team are available from THE ARTISTIC STAMPER. Do pop back tomorrow to see Kat's first project for us... it is beautiful and you will love it!! Thanks for looking ... have a inkilicious month!Hels x