Strike 3 - you are out Neil........

Hi there.
Where has the time gone? June is fast drawing to a close and here I am with my last project to share....... but before that I would just like to say a HUGE thank you to Jennie and Hels for asking me, I have really enjoyed my time as a Contributing Artist here.
So, for my last project I altered a frame

I have not yet decided what photo to put in there so I did the inside too...... I like it so I may not add a picture just yet!
I started out with white paper and stamped the calligraphic mat 1 all over in sepia archival ink inking up again about every 3rd time. After that I used Forest Moss distress ink and a selection of pocket watches from the Time and keys plate to stamp all over. The last one was the small cogs which I stamped in Vintage photo distress ink. Everything then spritzed with Walnut stain and Perfect Pearls mister mix and blended.
Some gold paint was dry-brushed over.

Some of the details, and the old watch added from my collection to finish off.

Lastly I stamped the Create definition randomly in brown.
So, that's it from me folks I do hope you enjoyed sharing this part of my creative journey with me.....

One Stamp Wonder! by Nicky Cresswell

Hay Stampers, Today I thought i'd share a nice and simple tecnique to create a card using just one image as the background and the focal point. 

I started by gathering some white gloss card, 3 distress inks and ink blending tools

I started with my lightest colour first inking the card in a random fashion

I then moved on to the next colour and did the same and so on

Till I ended up with a background i was happy with.

Next I got my focal stamp, for this project I chose the large butterfly/moth from the insects and butterflies plate {A must have set especially for the summer}

I randomly stamped the image with black stazon all over the gloss card till I was happy with the look, not worrying about overstamping. I then cut it to size and mounted it onto a square card blank, using a silver pen to edge before I did.

Next I stamped the same butterfly/moth onto a blank piece of white card, and cut it out using my Tim Holtz scissors

The last thing I did was to stamp the butterfly words onto white card, cut out and silver edge, then put it all together, and voila 

A focal image and a background with just the one stamp

It works great with all sorts of images, I've used the man's head from the men's plate for this card

Why not get out a stamp and give it a try!

Leave me a comment if you do as i'd love to see your results.

Textures On Canvas by Alison Hall

Hello Stampers!

This week I have an 8" square canvas to share with you.

The Artistic Stamper Website has a fantastic selection of background stamps, and for this canvas I just used 5 of these, plus a few other supplies.

Distress stains are brilliant for colouring large areas, and I used broken china & a little vintage photo to colour my canvas. I also spritzed it with heirloom gold perfect pearls mist.

I cut nine 2" square pieces of board. To colour them, I schmooshed broken china, dusty concord & faded jeans distress inks on my craft sheet. I spritzed this with heirloom gold perfect pearls mist, then lay my little tiles in the sparkly ink, drying them with my heat gun, then adding more ink until I had a nice effect on each of them.

On four of the tiles, I stamped four different backgrounds, using broken china distress ink.

I triple embossed the remaining 5 tiles with clear ultra thick embossing enamel, stamping into the last layer with different background stamps, including one script stamp.

I rubbed gold Viva Inka Gold into the embossed texture, then rubbed most of it off, leaving gold accents in the dips of the embossing. Then, I edged each of the nine tiles with gold paint dabber, before gluing them to the canvas with Studio Matte Medium.

Finally, I used my finger to rub some Inka Gold around the edges of my canvas, then added some gold crown charms to four of the tiles.

I hope this has inspired you, & thanks for looking!

Alison x

Layer it on! By Tina Barnett

Hi Gang!

It's Tina here and I am back with another new Mabel Lucie Attwell stamp called "I'm forever blowing bubbles"! The stamp is by The Artistic Stamper .

There are a few layers in the card, starting with the base card, I took an 8 by 8 inch card and inked the edges with Tim Holtz distress ink . I then stamped over the top with a Calligraphic Matt back ground stamp from The Artistic Stamper
I used watercolour card to stamp my image on and then coloured it in the same Tim Holtz distress ink .
I then got some Tim Holtz Coredination card (have you tried this yet?! You have got to, it is brilliant!) I cut out 3 different squares and popped them through a cuttlebug with some embossing folders and then sanded off to get a wonderful effect.
Next came the layering up! When layering I added some Tim Holtz tissue tape . I then added some Tickets Buttons Grunge board and some raffier. When the card was put together I added a little Distress stickles and put some Glossy Accents on to the balloon.

Well I think that's it! Hope you liked looking.

See you next time.

Hugs

Tina xx

Accordion Tag Card by Sioux Jenneys

It's my time to share again and it's an accordion tag card.

If you like the water coloured look then these flower stamps from Botanical Plate 1 will be just up your street! :)

1. First cut a piece of heavy weight textured water colour paper 12cm by 18cm and then score at 6cm and 12cm.

...you do need to use water colour paper...nothing else cuts the mustard! LOL

2. Crease the folds and cut through all your layers at once for the angled tag top.

3. Using a mixture of the following Distress Ink colours, selectively ink up the hydrangea and lily stamps and spritz with water.

...no need to be precise it all oozes together nicely when you stamp it.

4. Using a mixture of the following Distress Inks do the same with the central daisy image.

5. Over stamp the flowers slightly with sentiment words and sayings in Archival black.

6. Use the following Distress Inks to stamp the dainty butterfly from Insects and Butterflies randomly  at the top of each panel.

...I love the flurry of butterflies must remember to do this again! LOL

7. Punch holes at the tag tops and add fibres.

...similar ones can be found here.

That's the last piece from me this month so see you for the new monthly challenge in July!

There is still plenty of time though to join in this months colour challenge...why not give it a go?

xoxo Sioux

All Mapped Out... **Giveaway!**

Goodly Morning... tis a fine day indeed for a giveaway... namely, this ATC that I have made plus a few goodies too... more of that later :O)) The ATC base is made from mountboard that was cut using the Alterations ATC & Corners die, which is such a useful die because I love to use mountboard for my ATC bases... no more cutting with a Stanley Knife! I stamped the Europe Map background onto the base using Claudine Hellmuth Studio Traditional Tan paint to create a resist. Once this was dry, I used Peeled Paint and Faded Jeans Distress Stains, dabbing them over the map, the green for the land and blue for the sea. I spritzed with water, dabbed with a paper towel to take off the excess and gave it a zap with the heatgun.




I used three of the new Crowns, lined them up on the acrylic block and stamped using black Archival Ink. I then popped a gorgeous Idea-ology Crown, from the Regal Adornments set, over the top of the bottom stamped crown. The sentiment was stamped onto cardstock that had been stamped with the Map background and Faded Jeans Distress Stains - this gives a lovely subtle smudgey image. The sentiment was popped behind a little bookplate and attached with brads.



Finally, I used White Dabber to cover the Philosophy Tag so it went into the recesses, then removed the excess with a paper towel. This was attached by Jump Ring to a Hinge Clip. I used the black Archival inkpad to swish around the edge of the ATC to bring the whole design in together.



Now, onto the giveaway! Here's the prize... This ATC, along with the Crowning Glory Stamp Set, the Europe Map Background Stamp, Round The World Stamp and the new Travelling Words Set... plus the Kling On to mount the stamps onto. Here are the stamps:






To be in with a chance of winning, all you need to do is leave me a comment on this post and one name will be drawn at random and announced on Sunday 3rd July 2011. Thanks for looking... have a fab weekend!! TTFN

Hels x

Grungy Man by Alison Hall

Morning Stampers. For my post this week, I created a grungy hanging featuring the man from the Collage Art 1 plate.

First, I cut a piece of recycled corrugated card, & then tore the top fairly straight, & the bottom at an angle. I ripped most of the top layer of paper off, leaving somewhere I could stamp at the bottom right.

I sponged the card with gesso, spritzed with red perfect pearls mist, then inked with walnut stain distress ink. I wasn't completely happy with the colour, so I spritzed with gold perfect pearls to get the depth of colour & effect I wanted.

Putting my corrugated base aside, I took a couple of pieces of patterned paper from the Retro Grunge stack, both roughly the same size (4.5 x 3.5 "). I painted a thin layer of gesso onto one piece, dried it, then stamped the Collaged Man using coffee archival ink. I set the ink with a heat gun, then tore around the image, roughly 1/2". I inked the edges with distress ink, then layered the image on the other piece of patterned paper. I distressed the edges of this with my Tonic paper distresser tool, inked it with DI, then stapled it to the corrugated base, using Tim's tiny attacher.

I stamped the word 'Man' from the Collage Art 1 plate, using black pigment ink, then embossed with clear embossing powder.

Next, I took three mini cog die-cuts, & embossed them with one layer of platinum UTEE. I spritzed them with Crafty Notions black matte spray, for a distressed look, then attached them with pewter brads. I used my Tim Holtz texture hammer to distress the brads.

I inked the bottom edge of the corrugated base with embossing ink, then embossed it with one layer of platinum UTEE.

Finally, I attached a piece of lace chain, using a couple of pewter brads, to hang my piece.

Thanks for looking!

Alison x

My second Project- Neil Walker

Good morning everyone;
Yes I'm back for part two of my time here......
Today I'm sharing a project that I really enjoyed doing. It's an album that I will either be showcasing some of my ATC collection or possibly turning into a photo album. Haven't quite decided yet.
So firstly let's take a look at the front cover

 I started by covering two pieces of chipboard with a paper that I made (Won't bore you with the details here but there is a tutorial on my blog) I then stamped some small images into any spaces from the Butterflies and insects plate and the Imagine stamp.

 Using brown stazon I stamped the moth and two butterflies onto clear shrink plastic and remembering to punch a hole before heating to shrink I created some little charms which I attached to some chain and then onto the D ring.

 Inside there are 8 dividers all stamped and inked with various stamps. I used all different colours Distress inks and perfect pearls in turquoise, sunflower sparkle, blush and heirloom gold.

I've cut some acetate sheets to go between them to which I've attached some of my ATC's and later possibly photo's as I really like the way the dividers came out and did not want to cover them, Sad hey!
So, here are just some of the pages, the colours and shimmer are better in real life but hopefully you'll get an idea....

This page is the front and I stamped the Family values 62 plate in sepia as well as the calligraphic mat 9 and used distress stains and perfect pearls to colour.

This is the music background with blues and purples.

This set of stamps I love! It's the Ephemera 1 #48 set and I arranged then randomly onto a large block and stamped so some are upside down sideways etc but I love the look you can achieve. They are really useful for creating fab vintage backgrounds!

This last page is done using the letters and numbers ATC size stamp from the Family Values plate. The first stamped image was masked off and I then stamped around randomly.

Well, I do hope you've enjoyed taking a peek. The pics really don't do it justice but do take your distress inks, perfect pearls and these fab stamps and have a go at smooshing inks around, You'll soon see how great they are!