Birthday blog celebration candy!

Hello, and a very creative day to you. Because today is my birthday and because I am the Chief Stamper here at The Artistic Stamper, I have decreed that today is a

blog candy day!

There is lots of candy, stamps from The Artistic Stamper, a sheet of Kling-On, a set of Winter distress inks, a non stick mat, stiudio multi medium matte, idea-ology lace chain, Perfect pearl mist, a set of 20 Manila tags, and  a hanging wooden frame :)))

 To win the candy all you have to do is comment, and, if you wish , for another go at it, you can comment on my own blog, and for another chance please add it to your sidebar of your blog.

I shall post all over the world, and shall pick the winner next Saturday!

Happy Birthday to everyone who shares today as their birthday, and have a very creative day

Jennie

Time for a winner or two....

Hi, its the chief stamper here again and this time with the winner of the Christmas challenge, and the winner of Hel's tag from last month. We had a brilliant number of entries to last month's challenge (85), and thank you all so much for joining in. Many apologies if we didn't get round to everyone to say thank you for joining in.
Now I know that you just really would like to know who has won the £15.00 worth of The Artistic Stamper stamps, so without much ado..

GLITTERY KATIE

is the winner. Please email me so I can send you your prize.
Hels has picked her winner, and

FATMONICA

has won her gorgeous tag. Please email Hels so she can arrange to send it to you :)

Don't forget that this month's challenge is Vintage, and we love seeing your creations...
Have a very creative day
Jennie x

TIME WON'T WAIT

Hi All,
Kat here with my first project of the month,
Christmas is over & we are on to the new year,
so I have done a time themed page in my board book,
the focus this month is on perfect pearl mist on offer
in the shop for this month only HERE

I have taken the same picture 4 times at slightly different angles,

trying to get the perfect pearls to show up on camera,

who knew it would be so hard LOL.

I started by covering the page in Tattered Rose Distress Ink

with a blending tool,

then I sprayed Forever Violet perfect pearl mist

through a cogs mask,

I then stamped some cogs from the Tick Tock stamp plate

 all over the background with

 archival inks in Plum & Sepia

& used the stipple background stamp to age it a bit

then I went round the edge of the page with

Gathered Twig Distress Ink

I stamped some clocks & the sentiment

onto scrap paper off the

Time & Keys stamp plate & then cut them out

I used the same Distress Ink on theses as above,

lastly I dug out some copper coloured border peel offs

& used them as a watch chain to hang the watches from.

Hope you like it!

you can see a little sneak peek

for my next page in the pic above,

don't tell anyone LOL.

see you on the 15th,

Kat x.

Love Card by Sioux Jenneys

Happy New Year everyone! It's a card from me today :)

1. First off I'll give you the measurements I used to make the card and the score lines.
Basically cut an A4 piece of card in two lengthways so that the larger piece is A5 size in height then cut this to 19 cm wide.
Using the long thin strip of card cut two pieces measuring 9.8cm and 10cm...
...mark 2.5 cm up on one edge, draw a diagonal line to the opposite top edge and cut.
Score the fold lines on both the card and diagonal pieces at 5.4cm and 3.2cm.

2. You can see the diagonal cuts below...
...now is the time to do any stamping on the base card.

I chose to add a pattern using the Baroque Background to both long edges of the card and the two outer edges of the diagonal pieces in Distress Ink bundled sage. The sentiment was stamped in Archival black.

Don't worry about the pattern not covering the main card right to the bottom as the diagonal part gets attached there and will cover it. :)

3. Die cut a couple of borders and stamp with the Mini Polka Dot background in Distress Ink spiced marmalade.

4. Attach to the top edge of the diagonal pieces....trim the ends...
...and edge with a gold marker pen before attaching to the base card.

5. I'm so glad the Perfect Pearls Mist show up on the flower from Botanical Plate 1 stamped in a mixture of Distress Ink aged mahoganey, spiced marmalade and bundled sage onto some watercolour paper then liberally sprayed with the pearl version of the mists.
Don't forget they are on special offer this month :)

6. Stamp the word love from Journaling Words 1 in Archival black onto some watercolour card that has already been sprayed with the pearl mist and left to dry, then cut out and attach along with the flower.

:) See you again soon!

xoxo Sioux

Some simple thinking and inking!

A big hello and a Very Happy New Year wish to you all! Sarah here with my first Guest spot at the Artistic Stamper! Firstly, I hope you've all had a fantastic time of celebrations, lounging, fine food and merriment! A whole new year of crafty discoveries lie ahead...but where, oh where, do we start? Well, I have enjoyed all the tinsel, glitter and glam stuff, but I thought some back to basics, old school inkiness might just be the tonic! Some days you just can't beat fine stamps, Distress Inks and tattered edges...

After all the festive tags and mass card production, it's nice spending some quality time with just a couple of free themed creations. I was drawn to the elegant and fine details of the flowers on The Botanical Plate 1. I created a stencil by drawing and cutting out three rectangles from a card scrap. I taped it lightly to my card and began gently sponging graduated shades of Distress Inks with a piece of Cut 'n' Dry Foam. I used Mustard Seed, Scattered Straw and Wild Honey working from light to dark. Sponge gently taking care not to drag or twist otherwise you'll get streaks and lines.

I gave it a quick dry with my heat gun and then I inked up my stamp in Plum Archival Ink by Ranger. It's a great colour and just a little different from the brown shades. I made sure I stamped off centre, between two blocks so the flower can be seen against both the white card and rich inky tones. I then stamped a Wendy Vecchi sentiment which seemed to fit perfectly with the daisy. See lots more Wendy words here! I distressed and inked the edges and layered it up onto some Graphic 45 design paper and a white card base.

For my second card I turned the stencil, slightly changing the colours by using Scattered Straw, Wild Honey and Rusty Hinge Distress Inks Take time to gently blend the colours. Don't be afraid to apply more ink to achieve the exact shade you want. Make sure your stencil has fairly wide sides otherwise you'll get ink around the card edge too!

This time I went for the Lilies (from the same plate) although they rather remind me of daffodils with these rich colours. I stamped them with using Ranger's Coffee Archival Ink. I also added a two lines of random machine stitching to my card base for a shabby look...see you don't have to be able to sew in a straight line at all! For extra interest, I also added some gold thread, ribbon and lace scraps, and an orphan button.

Once again all finished off with fine Wendy words. Coincidentally, these two wonderful floral stamps are also available to buy individually here. So if you're on a post Chrimbo budget, you can still play along!
Well, that's me all done...
Just a simple but effective idea to get you going and one you can adapt for use with many colours and stamps. Especially when you think of all those thank you cards you need to write, not to mention the faint whisper of Valentine's and Mothers Day! Thanks for calling by and happy crafting! Sarah.

January Challenge- Vintage

Hello, and welcome to 2012 and I cannot think of a better way than to kick start the New Year than with a brand new challenge!
Many thanks for all your wonderful entries for December, we had a stunning 86 entries! The winner of this challenge will be announced on Friday January 6th.

The new challenge this month is VINTAGE. 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!
Last month we were very lucky to have the very creative Tracey Metcalfe as our Guest Designer, many thanks to Tracey for her innovative and gorgeous creations! This month we are welcoming a new Guest Designer ... and this is Sarah Engels-Greer and we cannot wait to see what gorgeous creations she will create for us.
Just as an aside, we have a massive sale on the website, and this month's Special offer is Perfect Pearl Mists with 15% OFF! Grab yourself a bargain this week !


Here are the Creative Team's absolutely fabulous creations for this month's challenge

JENNIE

Jennie made this with a tag, using distress inks in Spun Sugar, and then stamped over the top with Family Values in Vintage Photo. Stamp the boy and man in Walnut Stain again, and layered them on top. Add some black photo corners to the tag, and layer it onto a piece of Seasonal Paper Stash. Add a little bit of Glossy Accents on the Family Value words, and some letters and numbers from Alphaparts Newsprint

EMMA

Using the size 8 Manila Tag, Emma blended Tumbled Glass and Vintage Photo Distress Ink over the tag and then stamped the background with the Music Background stamp. She then inked up the "Keep Calm and Carry On Stamping" stamp with Fired Brick Distress Ink, stamped onto a piece of cream card, distressed the edges and attached it to the tag. The handmade flowers are made using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Die and the edges blended with Vintage Photo DI. She then attached these to the tag, together with the Mini Branch and Leaf Movers and Shapers die cuts. Finally, she added a butterfly die cut from card covered in Tissue Tape and a bow tied from seam binding and coloured with Antique Linen Distress Stain.

KAT

Kat has used a Mini hanging frame for her creation, along with Distress Inks

Brushed Corduroy, Iced Spruce & Gathered Twig, Archival ink Coffee, and some Tissue Tape,

& veriety of brass charms along with the following stamps, backgrounds

Watches, Music, Stipple & Harlequin, Stamp Plate Tick Tock A5, & Tim Holtz Steampunk set.

SIOUX

Sioux made an ATC using stamps from Ephemera 1 plate , Crowning Glory, Swirls, Splats and Dots A5 and Insects and Butterflies 1.

ALISON

Alison made a card, using Victorian Velvet & Walnut Stain Distress Ink, Biscotti Perfect Pearls Mist, & The Artistic Stamper Regency Background. She die cut a large Sizzix Rosette from vintage music sheet & a Ticket from kraft card, stamped with a sentiment from The Artistic Stamper Greetings & Words Plate. She added a border of gold embossing, gold Stickles, a pearl hat pin, & flower Trimmings to finish.

We look forward to seeing your gorgeous entries this month, and thank you for looking.

Happy New Year!

Jennie

Time for goodbyes, and welcome to 2012!

I hate goodbyes, (au revoir is so much nicer) so, as 2011 draws to a close, The Artistic Stamper Creative Team is saying au revoir to Hels.
 I first encountered Hels about 4 years ago when I joined a forum, and came across her work on her blog. This inspired me to start my own blog ( who'd have thought that blogging would become so big !) , and I in turn asked her to create some artwork for us here at The Artistic Stamper. The rest they say is history!
 Hels has been my Creative Co-ordinator for the past 4 years, and I will miss her , not only for her creative artwork, inspiration and ideas, but for her "behind the scenes" help, whenever I have needed it. She has organised all the Creativity that you see on the blog ,  even designing her own stamps..namely Stitchels, as well as creating her own artwork for her blog.  Thank you for the past four years, it has been fun. We wish you all the best for the future.

 We also said au revoir to Nicky ( aka Minxy) who has always made me smile with her innovative artwork. Nicky has been with The Artistic Stamper for about 3 years , and will be missed for her gorgeous innovative artwork, and her inspiration using our stamps.

Finally Tina has decided to leave the team, and her artwork using Mabel Lucie Attwell has never failed to inspire!

We wish you the best for the coming year, may 2012 be bright, and fun filled, and full of Creativity!

Happy New Year! See you in 2012!
Jennie