Wednesday, 14 September 2011

Explorer's Journal. By Zuzu


Hi there. Zuzu here;
I am back for my second guest design team piece.

I have begun to alter a book. It will be an ongoing project though so today I am going to share the cover and three inside pages with you. It started as a red scruffy leather (ish) little book of Shakespeare that's been having pages torn out and used in crafty makes for over a year.The theme is based ona Darwinian type explorer. A bit of travel and a bit of flora and fauna gathering and examining. (this is not to say they are always labeled correctly ;)

As is almost always the case with me, this has been made to look very ancient and tatty scruffy and distressed. I deliberately don't stamp everything perfect and crisp as i want it to look distressed and flawed. THe Fly (known here as the Simpli-fly) is under a vintage glass optical lens and the "bird without wings" (which bears a startling resemblance to a snail), is under a microscope glass slide.
Stamps used from The Artistic Stamper:

Travelling Words found HERE
Europe map background found HERE
Goose Grease found HERE
Calligraphy Mat 13 found HERE
Butterfly words found HERE
Insects and Butterflies No. 1 # 017 found HERE
Flourish Swirls found HERE

Other supplies available from The Artistic Stamper:

Distress inks : I used antique linen, vintage photo, fired brick, aged mahogany, pine needle, dusty concord, peeled paint.
Paint dabber: I used butterscotch.
Vintage Eyeglass: scroll down near the bottom.
Bigz Die Tiny tags and tabs: I used the wee tabs
Ideaology: I used a word stick, a game spinner and two metal corners.

Monday, 12 September 2011

It's September Giveaway Time...

Goodly Morning Stampers! Here I am again with my monthly giveaway, which this month is... a Christmas tag! I have been getting sparkley and festive with some of those brand new Tim Holtz Collection Christmas stamps that have just arrived at Artistic Headquarters. To be in with a chance of winning the tag, all you need to do is leave me a comment here... and answer this very simple question... do you... make your own Christmas cards... and if you do... when do you start making them? Me? I am the worlds laziest crafter and for the past three years I have been doing the "panic-it's-December-1st-and-I-haven't-made-a-single-card-yet" thing... so this year I am ahead of the game... I have my inky mitts on the new Tim Holtz stamps...and... even better.. if it could get better... the new Christmas IDEA-OLOGY!!!


So... here's how I made the tag... and below will be a list of ingredients with links to the places on the website that they are... so you can hop over and grab some goodies :O))

First of all the tag was made using the Tag Alterations die... cutting plain white cardstock and some of the gorgeous Seasonal Paper Stash... sticking them together and then using a very washy coat of Traditional Tan to dull the pattern down a bit. Next I smooshed Distress Stains onto my craft sheet, spritzed with water, dipped the tag into the inks and then dried with a heat tool.




I made sure the tag was totally dry... then used embossing ink to stamp the greeting... gold embossing powder to emboss and then used the same for stamping and embossing the heavenly crackle background... The Rosettes were cut from more of the Seasonal Stash... and then dabbed with embossing ink... lightly embossed with more gold powder and then the crowning glory... the brand new Christmas Muse Token. I made a little postcard from more of the papers and then coated this with Rock Candy Stickles... a line of bling finished the tag as well as some Seam Binding that I dyed with more Distress Stains. As promised... here are the ingredients:

Tim Holtz Collection: Christmas Memories CMS118 (sentiment), Joyful Song CMS 119 (Crackle background)
Seasonal Paper Stash
Idea-ology - Christmas Muse Tokens, Memo Pin, Mini Safety Pin, Jump Ring
Tim Holtz Alterations: Rosette, Mini Rosettes, Tag DiesLinkDistress Stains: Stormy Sky, Fired Brick
Embossing Ink
Rock Candy Stickles
Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink
Seam Binding



So... there you have it :O)) The winner of the tag will be chosen at random and announced on October 3rd 2011.... please leave me a comment and tell me about your Xmas card making habits... I would love to hear all about it! Thanks for looking...TTFN

Hels x

Sunday, 11 September 2011

Bird Art by Sioux Jenneys

Hello everyone! It's my (Sioux) turn again and I'm here to share some Birdy art :)


1. I used one of the new light bulb chipboard bases, coloured it up with Distress spiced marmalade and peeled paint and stamped the cog Inspiration bulb on top with Archival sepia. Edged all round with a gold marker pen and added the word Art in Distress walnut stain.

2. Stamped the fabby bird from Airmail Bird Collage Elements in Archival black onto grunge board and cut out edged with a bit of Distress aged mahogany and added a bead of black enamel accents on the eye.

3. I then used one of the new flower pack chipboard bases and cut it in half for his head feathers....inked this half in Distress aged mahogany and spiced marmalade and added the "Free as a Bird" sentiment on each petal....then glossy accents added over. The remaining half of the flower I cut into two again for the feet and inked with Distress spice marmalade over stamping with the mini lattice wire background in Archival sepia.

4. The legs are two of the tags from scrabble and tags plate stamped onto some grungeboard that had a covering of tissue tape. These were attached to the body with pewter style screw top brads Then glossy accents used to attach the feet from the previous step and also on top.

5. The wings from the dance plate are again stamped onto tissue tape over grungeboard but this time I used Alcohol inks in purple twilight  and sailboat blue to colour and additionally some gold mixative around the edges.

6. All the parts were assembled using glossy accents as the glue.

Don't forget to grab some of that fab tissue tape on offer this month here.



Thanks for looking :) See you again soon!
xoxo Sioux

Friday, 9 September 2011

Out and About by Alison Hall

Hello Stampers. Carrying on the current Monthly Challenge theme of Lucky Numbers, here is a card for you. I've also used lots of tissue tape, which is on special offer at The Artistic Stamperwebsite HERE.


To begin, I spritzed a square piece of white card with Crafty Notions Kingfisherliscious colour spray. Next, using a Sissix Elegant Flourish die-cut as a mask, I spritzed over the top with some diluted vintage photo reinker. I stamped the quote from The Open Road Stamp sheet all over the background, using coffee archival ink. I laid the inked flourish aside, to use as an embellishment.

I stamped the cycling ad from The Open Road stamp sheet onto card, using coffee archival ink, then coloured it with broken china distress ink, then cut it out. Then I used black archival ink to stamp a couple of the tickets from the stamp sheet, one onto a ticket die-cut, & one onto some Tim Holtz Kraft Glassine paper. I stamped & cut out the words 'out and about', then used walnut stain distress ink to add colour to these pieces.

I covered a couple of random 'lucky' grungeboard numbers with tissue tape, & inked the edges with walnut stain DI.

To put my card together, I stuck some torn tissue tape to my background, added a metal corner to the top left, then glued the image, tickets, words & numbers in place. I added the flourish to the bottom right, then stapled a small piece of film strip ribbon to it, using a tiny attacher. I attached a philosophy tag to the top right, using a long fastener, then glued my artwork to a square card blank.

Thanks for looking! xx

Thursday, 8 September 2011

Black & White by Tina Barnett

Hello!

This is Tina and I am here with a Mabel Lucie Attwell Stamp called "Coming up Daisies". The stamps are by The Artistic Stamper .

I used a Grand nestabilities for the shape of the card. The Image is shaded with black ink.
The Chipboard flower" is also from The Artistic Stamper . I have used Tissue Tape to wrap around the flower.
I used more nesties to mount on to the shaped card and to mount the image.
I then added some gems and a hint of red gems to bring out the red in the tissue tape.
A very simple card, but I love back and white.

Thank you for looking.

Hugs Tina xx

Wednesday, 7 September 2011

A light Journey! by Nicky Cresswell

Hay Stampers...
Just a humble card to share today
I have been playing with some of the new chipboard shapes that match some of the existing stamps that are available from the artistic stamper.
Namely the Inspiration lightbulb.. 
But instead of using it in it's original form I have turned it into a hot air balloon {i got this idea from Alison some months ago} by cutting it into 2 pieces and using some of the tim holtz mini game spinners as the connection between the 2.
The base for the card was created by firstly layering the entire surface of an 5¾" x 4" piece of card with script tissue tape from the hobgoblin set {which BTW is on offer this month HERE}
Next I coloured the base with mostly blue and a smidge of green distress stains to give the appearance of sky and land.
To further this idea I used some torn cor'dinations card to create some hills.
Then it was just a case of adding the bulb balloon and stamping the 'all of life' sentiment, which I did onto a mini chipboard tag. I then mounted the whole piece onto a 5"x7" card and hay hoe there you have it.
If you like my project then you'll love the projects from the other team members, why not scroll back and see what you might of missed.
Thanks for visiting

Monday, 5 September 2011

SPICE UP YOUR CRAFT ROOM

Hi all,
Kat here, AKA Kat's craft creations

This months focus for the design team is on tissue tape,
you can grab some Here at a great price.

I found an old spice rack in a charity shop
& thought I could alter that for my distress stains
& this is what I came up with.


The spice rack was already painted in a glossy green paint
(that wouldn't cover so I went with it)
I started by stamping the words randomly all over
from the creative art thoughts stamp set


Then stuck the Tissue Tape to all the edges of the spice rack,

I embellished it with flowers made from


in wild honey & tumbled glass
the leaves are cut from a sizzix die
& coloured with peeled paint Distress Stains


I added sparkly gems to the centers
& some stick pins,
I arranged & glued it with
super glue & silicone glue


& there you have it!
Easy Peezy lemon sqweezy (lol)

Here's a picture of some other things
that can fit in my spice rack
(I am definitely going to look out for more
spice racks to alter & house all my bottles & jars in them)


Hope you liked it!

Just before I go I would just like to say a big
Thank you for all the lovely comments
I have recieved on the projects I have shown so far
they are so much apreciated,

I will be back on the 15th with my second project,
hope to see you there!
Have a creative day
Kat x.