The Artistic Stamper Creative Team Blog: November Monthly Challenge

Morning Stampers and a pinch n a punch to you all :O)) Today is the first of the month, so that can mean only one thing... time for a brand new monthly challenge theme. Thank you to everyone who joined in with last months challenge... the winner of the candy will be announced by Jennie on Wednesday - drawn randomly by Mr. Random.org :O)) On with the theme for this months challenge... chosen by Tina, our Colouring Artist Extraordaire, the theme is SOMETHING HIDDEN. To join in, all you need to do is make a piece of art, be it a card, ATC, tag, altered art - that is entirely up to you... include the theme and some rubberstamping. If you use Artistic Stamper stamps, your name will be entered into the draw twice... the prize is £15 worth of Artistic Stamper stamps of your choice, plus the KlingOn to mount them onto. Leave us a comment here and add your link (to be added shortly by the blog technician cos I am toooo thick to know how to do it ROFL) when you have entered ...oh and you can enter more than once... please just remember to use rubber stamping on your design.

So, for my entry I have used a little papier mache book - any kind of papier mache item will work with this technique though. I painted a layer of watered down Traditional Tan paint and dried it quickly with a heat gun. Then I added some Cloudy Blue Dabber - again watered down slightly and applied with a paint brush... and dried again - finally a stipple brush of Sable Brown paint... dragged over the surface to make it patchy... and then a dab of Copper Dabber... again dried immediately. I have found to my cost - leaving the painted surface to dry naturally warps and buckles the papier mache... and normal thickness paint bubbles too much under the heat - hence the watered down versions :O)) I made a little card insert for the inside... colouring with DI's and stamping with Tim Holtz collection stamps.

I made some Grungepaper roses using the large and medium flowers from the Flower Power sets, painted the Grungepaper with Copper Dabber and then assembled the large rose on the front of the book with a couple of Grungepaper Leaves, cut from the Tattered Leaves Alterations Die, embossed with a Texture Fade and then coloured with Crushed Olive and Brushed Corduroy Distress Inks. I added some Idea-ology Baubles, Memo Pins & Book Plate for decoration and made a little mouse using Fimo - he has Idea-ology Ball & Chain for his tail... I think he is quite cute and mouses like being in a nice cosy cubby hole... so that's why he is hiding in the book :O)) Anyways... that is my entry... what are you going to make?? The idea's are endless; secret compartments, little flipflaps to open up to read a message, words hidden in sketches... go on, have some inky fun! Thanks for looking... TTFN

Hels x

Just add your challenge artwork with a direct link to your post and follow the instructions :) Please add a comment so we know you have entered