Blooming 'eck! by Nicky Cresswell

Can you rightly believe its almost the end of the month.. i know i can't! 

Still it means that spring is well and truly here, thank goodness, I was getting mighty fed up of the long dull cold nights. And speaking of spring, don't forget you still have time to get your 'Spring' themed projects in for the monthly challenge and your chance to win candy!

***

So onto my last make of the month...

I started by stamping a white tag with the Dot background stamp a couple of times, I then spritzed some gold perfect pearls powder mixed with water in a mini mister, and ran the tag through Vinny, {that's what i've named my Vagabond} with a cuttlebug 'dot' embossing folder.

Next I cut 1 set of flowers out of white card using the tattered florals die,

 I inked the largest and smallest with faded jean distress ink, and the second largest with stormy sky.

 I stamped the second largest with the numbers stamp from the family values set in faded jeans and clear embossed it. I put them together with a blingy orange brad.

***

 The vine from the nature is art stamp set was stamped onto the tag directly, then again onto grungeboard using forest moss, I inked it with peeled paint which is why you can hardly see the veining from the stamp.

I cut it out and layered it over the tag stamped image.

To finish.... I stamped the small butterfly from the tick tock butterflies set, and inked with dried marigold and again stamped the numbers in wild honey and clear embossed.

Then it was a case of just putting it all together and adding the wording which I did with a dymo and attached with brads.

***

So thats your lot from me this month.. Is anyone as excited as me that there is only 2 weeks till Ally Pally  Jennie and Hels will both be demoing.. I can't wait!

Thanks for dropping by, please leave a comment so I know you've been. 

And i'll see you again real soon x

Stay Inky

The sun has got his hat on...

Spring has arrived, and with it the days are getting longer, which for me is a big bonus, as I can make art later ( don't you hate making it by artificial light?), and I can feel the warmth of the sun this week on my face, making me feel so much happier! Today I made 2 little mini canvases, which I covered in Viva Decor Terra paint. I stamped into the Terra with a wet stamp (this is from Flower Fever). Just make sure that you wash your stamp thoroughly after using it, as dried Terra will not come off! The blue/green Canvas is the chicken wire background, and works so well, as it gives a really deep surface to paint on.



Spray the whole canvas with Adirondack Color Wash in various shades, and Perfect Pearl mists, and then add some new Crafty Notions Gleam. This is a smooth cream which glides on effortlessly, and gives a polish to your artwork :))



Finally I made uteed moulds from the meltpot. The large round face (I think he resembles a sun or moon face) is a new mould also by Crafty Notions, as is the mini butterfly on the blue canvas. Finally I added a bit of gleam with my finger to the uteed moulds.

Spring is definitely here!

Have a Creative Day

Jennie

Walkies! By Tina Barnett

Hi Crafty Peeps!

I am here with a new Mabel Lucie Attwell stamp called Walkies! This stamp can be found at The Artistic Stamper shop along with some other amazing stamps!

I have used Promarkers to colour the image. I love love love it! Such a cute stamp! I will be giving this card to my Mum for Mother's Day. But you could use it for any theme, birthday, thank you, thinking of you! Or of course for dog and cat lovers!




I have used diecuts for the shape and then Tim Holtz Distress inks which I have blended in to the layers of the card. I have then used the pink lipstick ink to stamp over the yellow layer. The stamp I have used is the Baroque stamp by The Artistic Stamper .


I then finished off with some flowers and a broach charm from my stash.

Thank you for looking and I can't wait to play again!

Tina xx

Discover Your Inner Self by Alison Hall

Hello Stampers! I've got a card to share with you today. Now, maybe it isn't quite warm enough to go swimming in the sea just yet, but it's definitely getting there!

First, I made my background, using Tim Holtz's wrinkle free distress technique. You can find this technique and many others in his Compendium of Curiosities. I used mustard seed, scattered straw, broken china & tumbled glass distress inks, with some walnut stain around the edges. Then I stamped the starfish from The Artistic Stamper Seaside no. 1 plate, in broken china.

I stamped the woman bather on a separate piece of card, cut her out, then coloured her in, using a waterbrush & the distress inks. I also stamped the fish & the phrase, cut them out & coloured them in the same way. I layered the woman image on black card, then on a piece of card, embossed with the regal texture fade. I mounted this onto the background, added some silver buttons, then glued the fish on the right, & the phrase underneath.

I inked the edge of a square card with broken china distress ink, then mounted my artwork onto it. Finally, I added some micro beads, using glossy accents to adhere them.

Thanks for looking!

Alison x

Spritz a Mystery! - by Sioux Jenneys

Wishing you all a fabulous first day of Spring!

Don't forget the monthly challenge...there is still plenty of time to join in!

I've got a card to share today :)

1. I took an ATC piece of card and placed it in the middle of a square card which I then spritzed with Inkssentials mini misters filled with a mixture of water and Distress re-inkers (about the same voloume of water to ink) in dried marigold and antique linen.

2. Dried off the ink with a heat gun and turned the ATC sized piece over to use as a mask again (I did not want the next colour to be on the side I had just spritzed)....then spritzed again this time with a broken china mix.

3. Using the ATC sized piece......I stamped the gothic arch from the Architecture plate 1 in Archival coffee.....and the super, lovely, smashing ;) mini caligraphic mat background in Distress Ink weathered wood.

4. I then stamped the word mystery from the nudes plate in clear embossing ink and heat embossed with black sparkle......now.....this was a disaster in the making as some of the previous inks had not dried completely....but you know what?

I really, really like the extra touch of grunginess it brought to the piece :)

5. Tatter the edges with a paper distresser and ink with Distress Ink old paper before adding foam pads to attach to the card.

6. Stamp one of the coloumn tops in Archival coffee from the Architecture plate 1 in each corner and you are done!

Thanks for looking :) See you again soon!

xoxo Artyjen

And... The Winner Is...

...goodly morning! Last week I made an ATC using the new Crowded Attic papers and Flower Power stamp set... and today is the day to pick the winner of this ATC. As ever I have used Mr Random.org to pick the number for me... and yes, I still cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the picture of it onto here... maybe one day I will get a bit computer savvy LOL





So... on my own blog I had 25 comments and here we had 33 comments, adding those together and using the numbers 1 - 58 to chose one... the Random.org spat out ... NUMBER 43 which just so happens to tally with a comment from....

JUDE

Thanks everyone for all your lovely comments and messages... I will be back later in the week with another little giveaway so do check back :O)) Thanks for looking... have a FAB weekend...

Hels x

Wearable Art! by Nicky Cresswell

So following on from Alison's fab pendant yesterday i figured you'd need a nice bracelet to go with it.

And not just any kind of bracelet either.. 

Oh no this one is made from grungeboard.

 And they are really easy to make, 

All you need is a sheet of grungeboard, a hitch fastner, a hole punch {i used a crop-a-dile}

Oh and some gesso, ink and stamps. {or whatever medium you want}

You want to cut your grunge into strips, 

You should be able to get 3 thick, or 2 thick 2 thin strips, depending what you want.

This one is roughly1½ inches and the length of the grunge.

I started by giving one side a coat of gesso, when this was dry I stamped 3 butterflies, 

The large cog butterfly and the small plain one both from the Tick Tock Butterflies plate, 

I then made a mask for each butterfly using post it's, 

I covered them with there respective masks and inked over the whole thing with barn door distress ink.

I then removed the masks... I found a little of the ink had bled in under my masks, but not to worry as i was going for grungy. 

Next I got some more gesso and carefully painted inside each of the butterflies, the 2 smaller ones only had one extra coat but the large one took a couple of coats to cover the cogs.

I spritzed over the whole piece with some perfect pearls to give a bit of a shimmer, which i dabbed off a bit creating the kinda distressed blotchy look.

Added one of Tims phrases, and doodled a few squiggles with a black permanent marker.

 I coloured the inside with just a black stazon stamp pad, not worrying too much about all over coverage. 

I punched a small hole in one end for the hitch fastener, and a large hole the other end for the fastener to pop through to hold the bracelet in place.

And there you go, something cool to wear..
And it fits in with this months challenge as the theme is 'Spring'.. Details can be found HERE

Thanks for stopping by

Stay Inky

Stampbord Pendant by Alison Hall

A little jewellery piece from me today. I was going to make it into a brooch, but it became a pendant at my daughter Beth's suggestion. I had to prise it off her yesterday, so that I could photograph & blog it! Lol!

Here's how I made it...

1. Take a large stampbord domino ( approx. 6.5 x 3 cm), sponge distress inks on to colour it.
2. Stamp the image from The Artistic Stamper Garden plate, using black archival ink. It's easier to lay your stampbord onto the inked stamp, to get the part of the image that you want.
3. Edge the domino with black ink, dry with a heat gun, then punch three holes at the bottom with a cropadile.
4. Triple emboss the domino with clear UTEE.
5. Ruche up some black lace with some thread, then glue to the back of the domino with glossy accents.
6. Glue eyelets into the holes at the bottom of the domino, then attach some beads, using jump rings.
7. Attach a bale to the back of the pendant, then thread it with a bead chain.

Thanks for looking!
Alison x

A Little Steampunk for You Today

I'm back at The Artistic Stamper Creative Team blog today with a bottle full of fun for you .....all wild and creative, which is controlled by my state of mind....or some may say.....no mind at all! I had such a great time playing around with The Artistic Stamper stamps on this piece.

This may take a bit of imagination here for some of you more straight laced people (not saying any names mind you), but I started out with a coat of gesso, then colored the chipboard with Distress Inks, stamped the top part with this cool cog bg stamp, added more gesso to tone it down some, and then flicked some water here and there to get a mottled look. These stamps have been creatively used several times, and I really had to come up with something a little different, that's how this all came about. I used Artistic Stamper stamps, added some Ranger cogs, some watch parts...The Artistic Stamper have got the best little packets of them, and added the rest of the stuff from my stash, aging with Distress EP. The bottle was colored slightly with pencils, then I added Distress Stickles on top. I hope I got you to think out of the box a little today, lol....you never know where your imagination may take you. (I usually land up on the 7th floor, in a padded room, all alone...can you imagine that! lol).

Hugs, Gerrie Johnnic

Patchwork Mania

A good Sunday morning to you, and it's Jennie here again! This time I am going to share a small project I did as a workshop yesterday called Patchwork Mania.
I used lots of different techniques combined into a final piece which was stitched together using a hole punch and paper ribbon. I used a very large floor puzzle, and took 6 pieces of it, and sprayed all of them with Ranger Color Wash.

One of the Puzzle pieces was stencilled with more colour wash,stamped on with Botanical stamps 2, and I added a few mini roses.

The next piece has UTEE which I poured directly onto the puzzle piece. Don't be afraid just pour a small amount, and take your rubber stamp ( not clear) and stamp directly into it. Allow it to cool, and then lift off. Voila gorgeous deep etched stamping!



This piece was smooched with a thick layer of Terra, and then stamped into with a wet stamp. When dry spray with a contrasting Color Wash. gorgeous depth of colour appears.



The Puzzle piece below had stamping in Black archival, and some Crackle Accents highlighting the butterfly.



I used some Distress Stains on the last two pieces. These are due in this week from Ranger..Yippee! This piece was embossed with Clear embossing powder and the stain wiped over it, and then wiped away off the embossing! You get the colour of the background showing through, and still get a distressed look.



The final piece was stencilled over with Perfect Pearls Mists, and the rosette made from Tim's Lost and Found Paper stack, with added UTEE rose mould from Crafty Notions, and highlighted with a Distress Stain.



Finally I stitched all the pieces together using a hole punch and paper string which was from my stash. No sewing!!

I had great fun creating this workshop, and in the course of it, discovered a technique which I will blog on Monday on my own blog... keep an eye out!
Have a very Creative day!

Jennie x

Time is the key by Sioux Jenneys

Hello everyone! TGIF! :) 'cos it's my turn to be here and share a card :)

1. Visually split the white base card area into thirds and stamp the grungy ruler from Ephemera 1 plate in Distress Ink spun sugar approximately one third from the edge.

2. Emboss a piece of cartridge paper using the Sizzix Bingo folder and rip and tear the edges to a random portion lightly catching the high spots and the edges with a mixture of Distress Ink antique linen and brushed corduroy.

...I've never had an embossing/die cutting machine till recently but I love...love...love...the depth of image that these folders give :)

3. Stamp and gold emboss the watch from the Time and Keys plate onto a piece of card that has been swooshed with Distress Inks pine needles, bundled sage and a touch of both weathered wood and black soot.

...I'd love to have a watch like that with a malachite face! Now whether I could recreate the swooshed effect again is another story....but that's half the fun don't you think? ;)

4. Stamp and emboss in black the heart from the Stitchels Curly Dot plate onto the small bingo portion images from the Lost and Found paper stack.....cut out and tatter the edges and ink with Distress Ink aged mahogany.

5. Sometimes I get bogged down with looking at an image and thinking I can't make it work...the sentiment from the same plate as the watch is in an horizontal format and I desperately needed a vertical format....simple solution in the end but why it took me so long to think about it I don't know!!! HOL

...just stamp the sentiment and cut out the individual words to make those word fragments I so like....I then layered the words onto black card to give more definition and filled in the letters with a metallic pen.

6. Layer all the elements onto the base card using silicone glue for added dimension and age the edges with a touch of Distress Ink old paper.

Time flies when you are having fun :) See you again soon!

xoxo Sioux

Crowded Roses ATC Giveaway... By Hels Sheridan

Goodly Morning! Have you seen the new Crowded Attic papers yet? Wow, they are most delish indeedily and I am a lucky lass and managed to bag myself a stack the other day. I have a bit of the thing about butterflies and one of the favourite pages in the stack is the butterflies and moths page... which, hurrah and thrice, is also in the 6 x 6 version and... the little 2" square snips.. which are perfect to make medium sized roses using the Flower Power Set medium stamp.




I have made an ATC using all papers from the new stack, the ATC sized snips are fab for popping over some mountboard - I stuck it down using Claudine Hellmuth Multi Medium and then edged the piece with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I then used Antique Linen Distress Stain and splodged some dabs onto the ATC and quickly dried it with my HeatBuddy. I gave the whole piece a generous coat of Rock Candy Cracklepaint and set aside to dry and set to making the roses. Once the petal layers were cut out, I edged these with more Vintage Photo so there weren't any white cut lines left.




The sentiment is stamped onto more paper from the stack and edged with more Vintage Photo - the sentiment is from Tim's new collection of Stuff to Say stamps... the little moth was coloured with a waterbrush picking up Worn Lipstick Distress Ink. Finally, to make it blinging-tastic, I spritzed the whole lot with Pearl Perfect Pearls Mists. If you would like to own this ATC, please just leave me a comment here and I will add all the names to a hat and a winner will be chosen at random on Saturday 19th March... this ATC will also feature on my own blog too, so if you leave me a comment there too, you will be entered twice :O))

Thanks for looking... have a goodly day! TTFN

Hels x

Man of Numbers by Alison Hall

Hi! Alison here again. This time I decided to have a play with my alcohol inks & a papier mache square frame.


First of all, I painted a base coat of gesso all over the frame, then painted over that with Expresso Acrylic Dabber. When that was dry, I glued some some numbers, which were diecut, using the Sissix Vintage Market Alpha die, around the frame. Then I used strips of sticky back aluminium foil to cover the frame. I used a paper stump to burnish down the foil, & around the numbers.
Next I added a good drop of alcohol inks, pesto, oregano, red pepper & terra cotta to some felt on an applicator, then dabbed this all over the foil, until I had the effect I liked. I used a sanding tool to remove most of the ink from the numbers, to highlight them. Don't worry if you remove a little ink from around the numbers, as this adds to the distressed look of the frame.
I stamped the collaged man twice on a piece of green paper from the Retro Grunge Paper Stack. I cut around one image to fit it inside the recess of the frame, then spritzed this with Kiwi Perfect Pearls Mist. I cut around the man's head & shoulders, then added this to the dried, spritzed image using foam squares. I glued the image inside the frame, then used glossy accents to add a piece of string around it.
Finally, I stamped the collaged man again, onto some orange paper from the stack, cut a small piece that had numbers on it, then rolled it up, & inserted it into one of Tim's new glass vials. I added a small game spinner with some string, then glued the little vial inside the frame, using some matt medium.
Thanks for looking!
Alison xx

Pastel Mabel by Tina Barnett

Hello!

I have decided to go with pastels this time around. I have used Promarkers to colour this beautiful stamp by The Artistic Stamper Mabel Lucie Attwell range.

I think soft colours work really well with this image. What a wonderful stamp for birthdays, children's cards even Mothers Day!

I have added some soft tone papers and flowers from my stash to finish the card off. I think it shows how versatile the stamps can be, whether you use Promarkers, inks for a grungy feel or both! You get great results every time.

Thank you for looking and go check out the full range of Mabel Lucie Attwell Stamps Here
Bye for now!

Tina xx

And now for something completely different! by Nicky Cresswell

Now you know me, usually my work is quirky and grungy and generally Minxy, 

But today I opted for a more sophisticated look to show Jennies stamps in a different light.

***

 I started off by colouring a piece of white paper with scattered straw distress ink, I stamped over it with the chintz background in cactus green stazon, I then mat and layered onto some pale yellow card.

Next i stamped the leaf vine from the flower blooms sheet in black, and used a black marker to colour in the leaves to create a silhouette effect.

 The flower head is just a circle and scalloped circle punched from card.

I stamped the small dragonfly from the insect & butterflies plate onto heat resistant acetate and embossed in black b4 cutting it out and placing it on the flower head.

I added one of the mini phrases from a stampers anonymous plate.

To finish i wrapped a ribbon round the base of the card and added a bow, before mat and layering again, this time onto green card. I then matted the whole thing onto a kraft card, and finished up by added some hand drawn doodles here and there.

Voila ~ One Posh a la minx card, perfect from Spring!

So... What's the verdict for Posh Minxy???

I look forward to reading what you think!  

Stay Inky

World Voyage by Sioux Jenneys

Well hello there! I'm here again.....this time to share a tag :)

1. Colour the tag using Distress Ink wild honey spritzed with Perfect Pearl Mist Pearl....yummy...hope you can see a little of the gorgeous shimmer.......stamp the music background in Archival black, tatter the edges and ink with Distress Ink walnut stain and aged mahogany.

2. Stipple Distress Ink fired brick through sequin waste that has a star pattern (or you could use the star background stamp).....stamp the light bulb over it, cut out and adhere to tag.

3. Stamp the three gentlemen from the new Steam punk plate by T!m in Archival black, cut each man out separately....colour with a touch of tattered rose and rusty hinge....curl each one for a little dimension and attach with silicone glue.

4. Cut the letters using the Vintage Market Alpha die, colouring with Distress Ink dusty concord and attach.

5. Stamp the hand from the same Steam punk plate onto the printed side of some tomato tube metal using Stazon black.....cut out and outline the image with an embossing tool....turn over onto the reverse and emboss the design to puff up the image....attach with silicone glue.

6. Colour a metal label holder with Alcohol Inks espresso, raisin and gold mixative and attach with brads.....insert the word voyage stamped onto a piece of Lost and Found paper.

7. Add an Ideaology muse token with a brad and a watch part to the top with an hinge clip.

Thanks for looking....see you soon!

xoxo Artyjen

Love Winner!

Jennie here again! I love being the Boss, as I get to pick winners and give away goodies, and this month I am very pleased to pick the winner of our February Love challenge. We had some gorgeous entries, and Mr Random.org picked a very worthy winner :)).. so please step up to the podium

DEBS

with this gorgeous piece, and which also had an Artistic Stamper stamp on it!

Congratulations! and if you would like to email me, then you can pick your stamps :))

This month's challenge is Spring has Sprung, and you can find it here with all the gorgeous artwork from our illustrious Creative Team!

Have a creative day!

Jennie

Mabel Lucie Loves Springtime

I'm Gerrie Johnnic, more commonly known as The Queen of Grunge and I'm honored to be the Guest Artist this month at The Artistic Stamper. For my first piece this month, I thought that Mabel Lucie should come out and play in the Spring has Sprung challenge right here.

....and all those showers will surely bring Spring flowers! I paper pieced her yellow slicker and umbrella with a piece from my stash, and popped her up on cardstock that I colored with Distress Inks, making the clouds. The rest were colored with pencils and markers that I found atop my messy workspace. The flowers are a die. The background blue is a piece of Tim's paper, put thru one of his embossing folders and I used the Cuttlebug highlight tech on it. I'll see you again soon with a new post. hugz....

March Challenge - Spring Has Sprung

Good Morning Stampers... a pinch and a punch as it is the first of the month... ooh and Happy St Davids Day to all our Welsh readers too! Today see's the launch of a brand new challenge theme... first of all though, I would just like to say a HUGE thank you to each and everyone who joined in with February's challenge... there was plenty of lurve out there I can say! Jennie will be announcing the winner of last month's challenge on Thursday, so please do check back :O)) This month the challenge is Spring. 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 will be chosen using Random.org and announced on April 3rd '11.

We have a new Guest Designer joining us this month... I would like to welcome Gerrie Johnnic to the team! Also, I would like to say a HUGE thank you to Sue Roddis for her amazing arty contributions to the team this month - to see more of Sue and Gerrie's art, just click on their names.

Here are the Creative Team's entries for your inspiration :O))

Minxy - went all green on us and recycled some packaging from Tim's Idea-ology (which is a fab idea for using acetate!), an old wooden frame, Distressed Stripes Background which was stamped onto Retro Grunge paperstack, the Birds of a Feather and Free as a Bird sets, Claudine Hellmuth Stickyback Canvas and Shrink Plastic.

Sioux used those mightily fine Studio 490 stamps to make a collage hanging piece which was cut using an Alterations On The Edge Ornate Die. The papers used are from the Lost & Found paperstack... and how clever, Sioux has circled the 21st - which is the first day of Spring :O)

Alison has made these beautiful earrings... using the Insects & Butterflies plate with some Shrink Plastic - I love these colours, sooo pretty and Springlike

Hels... I made a tag for my entry using Antique Linen Distress Stains to colour the base of the tag, then colouring over the top with Wild Honey and Crushed Olive - the Antique Linen underneath is then revealed with the spritz of water I sploshed over the top. The stamping is done with Forest Moss Distress Stain so it is smudgey and then Peeled Paint Distress Inkpad so the fronds are crisper. I used the Insects & Butterflies plate to add little butterflies. I added some little cloth flowers I handmade which were finished with Idea-ology Accoutrements. The title was made using the ChipBlock Alterations Die. Finally, the tag was edged with Walnut Stain Distress Ink to close it in.



All of the goodies used on the artwork is available from The Artistic Stamper. Thanks for looking... have a lovely inky month! TTFN

Hels x