Merry Christmas by Alison

Hello Stampers, I have my first project of the month ready to share with you, using the fabulous FREE STAMPS - Icicles Border & Snowflakes. All you need to do, is place an order in December, & one will be sent out to you.

I started off by covering a square piece of card with calendar design Tissue Tape. Next, I inked it with cloudy blue alcohol ink. I stamped the Icicles at the top, using pearl paint dabber, then stamped some Snowflakes with teal blue Stazon.

I stamped the New York scene from Tim Holtz' Rockstar plate in black archival ink along the bottom of the card, then again on some kraft card which I cut out & glued to my artwork. I stamped the Merry Christmas ticket from Tim's Odds & Ends plate onto a die cut ticket, edged it with teal blue stazon & used Tim's tiny attacher to staple it onto my artwork.

I edged my piece with the blue stazon, matted it on black card, then onto a white square card, & finished it off with some pearly stars & gems.

Thanks for looking xxx

"Holly" by Emma

Hi everyone ~ it's Emma here!

December is whizzing by and it's already time to show you my first project of the month using one of the FREE stamps that you get with any order placed at The Artistic Stamper during December.

So, time to share my decorative Christmas plaque ~ I hope you like it...

Here's how I made it and I've included lots of close up photos to show you all the detail!

To begin with I stamped the Mabel Lucie Attwell ~ Holly image onto cream textured card and coloured it in.

Next, I cut to size a 15cm square frame from white card, trimmed the edges to give a decorative effect and then cut an 8cm aperture from the centre. I blended Weathered Wood Distress Ink over the frame and then using the free snowflakes stamp, I stamped all around the edge of the frame with some more Weathered Wood Distress Ink. I then mounted my frame over the top of my stamped Mabel Lucie Attwell image and placed the completed frame onto chipboard, trimming off the excess.

Next, using Tim Holtz's Alterations dies, I die cut the Holly Branch from Grungepaper and the "25" from the Noel die from chipboard. I then blended Evergreen Bough Distress Ink over the holly leaves and Festive Berries on the berries ~ both inks are from the Winter Seasonal DI set. I then used Gathered Twigs on the branch which came in the Autumn Seasonal DI set. Next, I blended Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink over the "25" before covering each number with Picket Fence Crackle Paint.

Once the crackle paint is dry, I assembled each of the Grungepaper die cut elements onto the left hand side of my frame, slightly overlapping the edge. I then placed the "25" on top of the holly branch to give the effect of it being suspended in mid air. I squidged some Rock Candy Distress Stickles over all the die cut pieces.

Next, I punched two holes and placed some eyelets into top corners of the frame using a Crop-a-Dile. I attached some glass beads to the twine and threaded this through the holes to create a hanger. Finally, I added some seam binding as the finishing touch, to complete my decorative wall hanger.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look at what I've made and once again, for taking the time to leave comments on these posts ~ I appreciate all your kind words.

Bye for now and have fun creating.

Emma x

CREATIVE FLIGHT FRAME

Hi all Kat here,
I have my first project of the month
ready to share with you,
using the fabulous FREE STAMP SETS
Icicles Border & Snowflakes
all you have to do is place an order in December
& one will be sent out to you, how fab is that!

so here's what I have created with mine,

I have had the frame (a boot sale find)

for a couple of years & never used it,

I came across it in a frantic search for Christmas stash

& thought today's the day (lol)

It was already gold leafed so, a perfect base

as I wanted my finished piece to be,

gold, brown, silver & cream.

Here are some close ups of each section,

I will talk through what I did as we go,

I started by cutting a piece of white card to

fit the aperture, then blended

Antique linen Distress Ink all over,

then I stamped the FREE Snowflakes stamp

 with Versamark ink & heat embossed

it with clear powder.

I then blended Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink

over then wiped off the excess to reveal lovely crisp snowflakes

I cut the reindeer from the  Raindeer flight die

out of grunge board & coloured him with

Brushed Corduroy DI then added 3 little bells

& some raffia around his neck.

I glued Scrabble tiles to spell the word Xmas,

& glued a snowflake cut from gold card &

the Movers & Shapers Mini Snowflakes die & added

a metal star tree embellishment I had in my stash,

for this section I cut the card to fit the aperture

then blended Antique linen Distress Ink all over,

& stamped the Music background stamp

very lightly with the Antique Linen DI

I then blended Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink all over

I cut 2 snowflakes from gold card &

the Movers & Shapers Mini Snowflakes die

& then cut them in half & glued them as shown

above, I added a star embellishment from my

stash to finish.

For both these sections I used one piece of card

to fit both apertures & again coloured with

Antique linen Distress Ink all over,

& this time I stamped the Stipple Background Stamp

very lightly with the Antique Linen DI

& then blended Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink

all over, again I used the

 Movers & Shapers Mini Snowflakes die

but this time I made an embellishment

& added a gem to the centre,

& for the other section I added a metal tree.

This last section is made in exactly the same

way as the  first one, but using the

free Icicles Boarder stamp,

& a padded star embellishment.

I used an Ornate Book Plate 

to finish off & added the numbers cut from

the vintage market strip die.

WOW didn't I go on, that was a bit long winded,

Sorry about that (lol)

hope you like my creation,

See you on the 15th with my next project.

Kat x.

Advent Candle for The Artistic Stamper

Seasonal Greetings and, as it is the second Advent Sunday today, I'm sharing a candle with you for another element on my Christmas dinner table :)

It's the first time I've ever altered a candle but it's super simple to do and now you won't be able to stop me!!! LOL

1. Separate the layers of a plain white paper napkin and use just a single ply.

Stamp the snowflakes using Distress Ink tumbled glass (don't over ink or it may tend to bleed the image) and then over stamp the Seasons Greetings using Archival black.
Cut out the motif leaving as little edge as possible.....but there is no need to be too accurate ;)

2. Stamp the icicles in the same way and cut out.

Don't forget that you have the choice of either of these really useful stamps totally FREE with any order placed at The Artistic Stamper this month ;)

3. Place your motifs onto your candle and heat using a heat gun......don't get too close but do keep that heat gun moving....you are only aiming to heat the wax enough to melt a very thin layer that the napkin sinks into and the edges magically just disappear...

(hence the great bit about not needing to be too accurate with the cutting out!)

Tip.....apply one motif at a time and hold in place till your wax has melted in one tiny spot....it does not have to be more than the size of a penny/one euro coin! This will stop it flying off and you can continue to melt the rest of the motif into place.

As it's the first time I've tried this I was a little apprehensive but trust me it works a treat!

4. Light your candle and celebrate Advent Sunday ;)

Ooh! Making that made me happy...I love candle light :) See you again soon!

xoxo Sioux

Winners, winners, and more winners!

Hello, it is Jennie here again this month with the winners of so many things, I am not sure where to start! So I will just jump in and announce them!
firstly, the winner of last month's challenge is

MARJIE

with her gorgeous piece of art!

Congratulations! Please email me so we can arrange for your stamps to be sent to you


Secondly the winner of Hel's Tag is

LOTTIE

 Please email Hels to claim your tag :))
Thirdly the winner of the set of Winter Distress inks is.. drum roll please

LESLEY

And finally after much consideration the winner of the stamp competition is

 LAURA LIDDELL

who sent in a wonderful drawing of converse  boots, which we will make and have in our catalogue next year! Laura please email me so we can arrange everything.

 I have to say thank you to everyone who joined in our stamp design competition, and it was extremely hard to chose a winner.
Congratulations to everyone this month, and don't forget you can join in this month's challenge which is Christmas, and if you are doing Tim's Tags, then you have 12 opportunities to join in!

Happy Creating
Jennie x

Guest Artist for December

Well hey there,

I am thrilled, honoured and well mighty chuffed to have been asked to be the guest artist for December.!! I know little me!!!?!!

Thanks so much to Jennie and Hels for the chance and hope you like what I have done!

So for my first offering I have used some fab time themed stamps from the Artistic Stamper, my favourite distress inks and some funky ideaology bits , from Tim!!ooh and some perfect pearls mist.

So here it is:

The background was made using antique linen, tea dye and walnut stain DI. The left hand side has been over stamped using Artistic Stamper marbled background stamp and then using coffee archival ink stamped with cogs and watches from tick tock plate from Artistic Stamper. The middle section has been over stamped with calligraphy mat 11, from Artistic Stamper.

The right side had the cogs stamps from plate stamped and clear embossed and then the inks applied to create a resist effect, I love this technique!!!

Once all adhered to background I spritzed with fab perfect pearls mist in heirloom gold, not sure you can see the shimmer but it is lovely!

I then used chipboard shapes from the Artistic Stamper which are designed to go with the stamp plate time and keys, to make two 3-d watches..inked with DI, then stamped clock in coffee archival and applied good layer of glossy accents and when dry some ideaology chain.

The sentiment is from the plate and the gorgeous little man is the fab Phineas Pinchbeck from the Artistic Stamper.

Finally I added lots of cogs and spinners from Tim's ideaology range as well as some old watch parts from Artistic Stamper.

I have had a ball using these stamps and loved making this card.......

thanks again!!

see you later in the month for my next offering

have a fab inky day

hugs trace x

December Challenge - Christmas

Goodly Morning Stampers and welcome to a brand new challenge for December. Many thanks for all your wonderful entries for November, the winner of this challenge will be announced on Saturday, December 3rd. The new challenge this month is CHRISTMAS. To join in with the challenge is simple; make a piece of artwork, include the theme and some rubberstamping, pop back here to link up using the Froggy at the bottom of this post and leave us a comment to let us know you have joined in. As ever there will be candy for one randomly picked entrant - £15 worth of The Artistic Stamper stamps of your choice plus the Kling On to mount them onto. And... if you use Artistic Stamper stamps on your entry, you will be entered twice into the draw! Moving on, last month we were very lucky to have the very talented and uber creative Kaz Hall as our Guest Designer, many thanks to Kaz for her innovative & gorgeous creations! This month we are welcoming a new Guest Designer ... and this is Tracey Metcalfe and we are all really excited to see the wonderful artwork that she will bring to the team.

We do have some sad news this month... Minxy and Tina have both left the Creative Team... we will certainly miss them both very lots and wish them all the very best for the future and from all of us... a huge Thank You for all the hard work and gorgeousness they made for us.

There's much excitement at Artistic Towers this month, we have Christmas coming and with that, the 12 Tags of Christmas... and all the goodies used will be listed daily and be available on the website HERE. AND... as a thank you to all our loyal customers, each order placed will receive a pressie of one each of these fab limited edition stamps. Our team have been using them on their entries for our monthly challenge... there's a sweet little snowflake background and some cool icicles too :O))

SIOUX

Sioux made a festive place setting trio of a napkin, place card and menu holder simply stamped with Distress Ink using one of the free stamps.

KAT

Kat made a folded easel card using her favourite Santa stamp from the Christmas Mini Plate #1, Tumbled Glass and Faded Jeans Distress Ink and a bit of Stickles for some added Bling.

EMMA

Emma made this card by using the Mabel Lucie Attwell ~ Jolly Day Out stamp and combining it with the free snowflake stamp to make a wintery scene. Some die cut Mini Snowflakes from Tim Holtz's Alterations range were added, together with a couple of the gorgeous Tattered Pine Cones and an Adage Ticket. To complete the card, the die cuts were all covered with Rock Candy Distress Stickles for an icy feel.

ALISON

Alison used masking & Distress Inks, with the free snowflake stamp, the new icicles stamp, & an image from the Victorian Christmas 1 Plate.

JENNIE

Made this in the tradition of Tim's Twelve tags of Christmas, and used the mini reindeer die, and the mini holly die, with added red stickles. The tag was inked in Alcohol inks, using the Snow Cap Mixative as random dots of snow :) . The white embossed snowflakes are one of the free stamps that are on offer this month with any order from The Artistic Stamper! The reindeer were covered in Tim's District Market Tissue paper and then alcohol inked in Latte and Espresso inks.



HELS



I got all inky and messy with those fab new freebie stamps, making the icicles using SnowCap Dabber and an inky background using Distress Stains and Perfect Pearls Mists. I painted the frame with Pitch Black Dabber and sanded it back to show some wood, which was then inked over with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink. The embellishments are made using the Sizzix Alterations Holly Branch and Tattered Pine Cone. The sentiment in the middle is cut using the Sizzix Alterations Vintage Noel, cut from cream card that I then dabbered with Silver Dabber and embossed with Silver Ultra Thick Embossing Powder and then edged with Black StaZon to make the design pop. I added some bling using Picket Fence and Rock Candy Stickles. Finally, I added the fabby little reindeer from the Christmas Adornments Idea-ology pack... I coloured him with Caramel Alcohol Ink and popped him into a Memo Pin so he could sit inside the embellishment. To see more deets on how I made this, please pop over my blog :O))

That's all from me for now... thanks for looking and a very Happy Christmas to you all!!

Hels x