Fly the Flag! by Jennie

Hi, and welcome to one of my rare posts....We have such a wonderfully creative team, that I don't post very often! I have made an ATC this time, using the London Stamp set, and this is an ATC that is actually going to be given away to one of the WOYWWers ( What's on Your Workdesk? Wednesday) hosted by the lovely Julia here.

I used Ranger's ATC's in Specialty paper, and the new absolutely gorgeous Distress Spring inks. They do have a tendency to sit on top the paper, so I heat set them, and stamped the London skyline in black soot distress ink. For some reason which I have yet to fathom, the solid bit of the stamp came out blotchy, and gave a wonderful effect (at least I thought so!)
I used the Union Jack bunting on the same plate and inked it up with Fired Brick and Chipped Sapphire Distress Markers. "Huff" (i.e. breathe hard ) on the stamp when you have finished colouring them, and stamp onto a piece of Claudine's Studio sticky back canvas. I cut out the flags and folded them over to making bunting on some coloured raffia.  I loved the faded effect of the markers on the canvas.
Here is a list of the ingredients :

London Stamp Set
Specialty Paper ATC's
Distress Spring Inks
Distress Markers
Sticky back canvas

Take care and have a very creative day
Jennie

Lovely Ladies by Jennie Atkinson

Well here we are at the end of May and my last project.  Thank you all so much for your wonderful comments both here and on my own blog - you have all been so wonderfully supportive and encouraging and I have really appreciated it.

Some of you will know that I love making mini books and as I also love making collage style ATCS I was sure that the wonderful Gibson Girls plate would make a great vintage style accordian book. This is quite a long post so you may want to grab a cuppa before reading it all!

To create my series of ATCs I gathered my supplies:


Stamps:
Gibson Girls Plate
Time Plate
Calligraphy Plate
Hold Fast to Your Dreams Sentiment
Distress Inks:  Broken China and Vintage Photo
Archival Ink:  Coffee and Black
Glossy Card ATCs


I made my ATC backgrounds using the Tim Holtz Wrinkle Free Distress technique rubbing the two distress inks onto my craft sheet, misting them with water and then pressing the ATCs into the watery ink until I was happy with the look.  I love the way the glossy card picks up the ink, quite differently to smooth card.  Blending some Vintage Photo around the edges just finishes them off.

Next I made some text paper, stamping the Calligraphy Plate on a sheet of A4 white cardstock with Coffee Arcival ink.  I cut out four rectangles and blended Vintage Photo around the edges and dragged a gold calligraphy pen around the edges to create a border and give a little depth when stuck down.  I tore a couple of small pieces and again blended Vintage Photo around the edges.  The sentiment was stamped onto cream cardstock and cut up into various pieces to fit across the five ATCs and then mounted on to Kraft cardstock.

Then the wonderful ladies!  I stamped them on cream cardstock with Black Archival Ink and cut them out.  I then painted the hair and dresses with watery Vintage Photo, building up the layers until I was happy with the colours.

Then making sure I sought out supplies in the same colour palette I made my six ATCs.  I used the large clock and cogs from the Time Plate, punched a butterfly, and from my stash added some Tim Holtz tags, tape measure ribbon, magic mesh and pearl gems.  I made sure the layers were quite flat so that they would allow the book to close.

So then to the book - inspired by by friend Penny Bennington (A Penny for Your Thoughts).  I used some heavy watercolour paper which I bought from my local artshop and tore a strip 21" long and 4" wide (this is the paper they keep in the large drawers in art shops - so don't be afraid to ask!). 

I scored it from the right hand side at 4" intervals to make six panels and a 1/2" spine.  The cover is embossed using a Cuttlebug embossing folder and to get the lovely vintage look I painted the whole book, both sides, with cold tea.

Making some slots in the card I threaded around 28" seam binding ribbon (pre-dyed with Vintage Photo).   I finished the cover with another small piece of my torn text paper and a handmade flower using the Power Flower stamps and Vintage Photo Distress Ink (details are HERE on my blog).

You can click the link HERE where Penny has a detailed tutorial on how to make the book. 

I hope this project will inspire you to have a go at making a mini-book - they really are great fun to make and a great way to showcase your favourite ATCs or photographs and make lovely presents for family and friends.  ATCs also make wonderful toppers for cards and scrapbook pages and are just great fun to make.


I have had a really fantastic time sharing these projects with you and using a selection of Jennie's wonderful stamps.  My thanks to Jennie and Emma for inviting me to be here with you this month and thanks to Emma for all her help and guidance.  And and big thank you to all of you for looking at my projects and taking the time to write such lovely comments.


Best wishes and happy crafting!
Jennie x

HOME & THRICE TAG by Kat

Hi all, Kat here,
The sun is shining & it feels like ages since I have made a tag,
& I also wanted to try out my new Spring Distress Inks
& the swirl stamp from the cover of craft stamper magazine.

So here it is,

To start I used Tim's Wrinkle free distress technique to colour the tag

with all three of the Spring Distress Inks, 

then stamped the swirl with the Shaded Lilac colour.

I then blended the edge with Gathered Twig Distress Ink.

Next I stamped in Jet Black archival ink

the houses off the Our House stamp set,

the large butterfly off the Bunting stamp set

& the sentiment off the Home Sweet Home stamp set

I cut them out then coloured them with a wet paint brush

& the same Spring Distress Inks.

After I stuck it all in place

I added the ribbon & trim from Tim Holtz Trim idea-ology range.

hope you like it!

it put a happy smile on my face anyway,

thanks for stopping by, to read this post.

Take care,

Kat x.

London Card by Alison

Hello Stampers. Here's a very simple card I made, using the new London Plate.

Here's how I made it...

I swiped Sailboat Blue Paint Dabber randomly onto a square piece of white card, then dried it with my heat gun. I then stamped the London skyline as shown, using Jet Black Archival Ink. 

I stamped the crown border on the edges in black, then the word London & just one crown from the border, using Red Pepper Paint Dabber.

I swiped the edges of my piece with Sailboat Blue Dabber, then matted it on a square kraft card to finish.

Thanks for looking,

Alison xox

Adventure In Life by Sioux Jenneys

Hello everyone! Sioux here again with a tag to share :)

1. Stamp the Gibson Girl 4 in Archival sepia onto watercolour paper for a bit of added texture then overstamp one of the large splat circles from Swirls, Splats and Dots A4 in Archival black and cut out.
(These stamps are still on special offer at the minute so don't miss out!)


2. Colour the base manilla tag with Distress Ink rusty hinge and peeled paint then stamp the Dots and the Punk Plaid background over the top in Distress Ink aged mahoganey and walnut stain.

3. Cut letters using a Sizzix Bigz alphabet die from cardboard and colour with paint dabber in sunshine yellow and over stamp with the Mini polka dots background in Archival black and edge the letters with a marker pen.

(I hope you can see in the photo how the letter e that has not been edged yet seems to blend into the background whereas the other two letters pop out better...it's a small detail but worth the extra time it takes)

4. Stamp the Journaling Mini Words 1 in Archival crimson onto paper and layer onto black card.

5. I hand drew some elongated hearts and used neo colours and overs tamped with background stamps.


6. Stick all the elements onto the tag with glossy accents.

7. Stamp the word Memories from the new Journaling Words II and finish with some fibres and a decorative metal brad through the top.

Thanks for looking today..........and it looks like this fits nicely into this months
Creative Team Challenge of Spots and Stripes
which you still have time to enter so what are you waiting for? LOL


I'll be back here for the June challenge, be there or be square ;) !

xoxo Sioux

Alice Falling by Emma

Hi everyone!

For this piece of artwork, I thought I'd get inky and create a background to showcase one of the gorgeous Mabel Lucie Attwell stamps. I hope you like it...

To begin with...

I took a piece of cream card and spritzed it all over with Dyan Reaveley's Dylusions Ink Sprays in Postbox Red. I then added some texture by applying Gesso through the Harlequin Crafters Workshop Template and then allowing it to dry and harden. Once that was done, I then stenciled random areas of my background using the Dylusions Number Jumble stencil with Fired Brick Distress Ink.

Next, I inked up the Calligraphic Mat 11 stamp and the Sequin Waste Open stamp and stamped directly onto the background. I then inked up the hearts from the Roses Are Red stamp plate with Fired Brick DI and stamped this directly onto my inky cardstock.

Using the Alice Falling stamp, I stamped the outline image onto some watercolour paper using Black Archival Ink and then coloured it with Distress Markers, drawing out the pigment and colour from the pens with a waterbrush pen, to give a softer, more vintage feel to the artwork. I blended the edges of the coloured image with Antique Linen DI and then matted it onto black card before attaching it to my background.

I added roughly torn strips of Tissue Tape from the Symphony set and then added the "Curiouser and Curiouser" wording which I typed on the computer. Finally, I distressed the edges of my artwork, tearing them and curling them to give an aged look and matted the whole piece onto some black cardstock.

Thank you for taking the time to come and look at what I've created for my final piece of May...I'll look forward to reading all your comments.

Hope you have a lovely day.

See you again soon.

Emma x

Welcome, welcome , welcome to our NEW Creative Team members!

Hi , it's the Chief Stamper here again, and this time with the fabulous news of our new Creative Team members! We had the most amazing response to our callout last month, and this made it the most difficult task of choosing our new members! We hummed and haaed over creative artwork, and wonderful blogs, and finally after much deliberating made our choices. A BIG thank you to everyone who applied, we are just sorry we couldn't include you all :(

We would love you to welcome to the rubbery world of The Artistic Stamper, our THREE new members of the Creative Team, complementing all the fanatstic work created by Emma, Sioux, Alison, and Kat.

 Please put your hands together for

Louise Crosbie

Tit Belsoeur

Astrid Maclean

We know that they will bring the most gorgeous artwork , and make our samples for you even more exciting.

Welcome girls, and we look forward to seeing your ART very soon :))

Hugs

Jennie

Family Photo by Alison

Hello Stampers. I have a vintage hanging to share with you today.

Here's how I made it...

I stamped the Family Values image onto white card with black versafine ink, then clear embossed it. I coloured it using antique linen & vintage photo distress inks, then distressed the edge with a paper distresser & inked them with vintage photo ink.

For the background, I took a slightly larger piece of white card, stamped the chicken wire background with vintage photo DI, then used blending foam to give it a smudged look. Again, I distressed the edges & inked them with vintage photo.

For the base, I painted a ripped piece of corrugated packaging with black Studio gesso, then rubbed a little gold Viva inka gold around the edges.

I assembled my hanging as shown, using long fasteners to attach the background to the base. I then added some ruched vintage lace, a heart charm tied with coffee-dyed fabric, and a chain to hang my artwork.

A HOUSE IS JUST A HOUSE by Kat

Hello, Hello, Hello, Kat here,
well the sun is shining (a rarity lately) but it makes me feel happy,
I'm here with another frame to share with you today,

as you can see it's in the same style as the frame

I made at the beginning of the month

I'm sorry I can't help myself,

I'm still so excited about the houses being turned into stamps

but this time I had my new bunting to go with them,

all though the bunting is designed to go with the houses,

It is a stand alone set as well

(I hope to make some samples soon to show this)

I just need more hours in the day, lol

the frame was painted with black acrylic paint

& aged with a bit of inka gold in antique silver,

the images are from my stamp sets HERE

I have my own button on the website entitled

kat's creations how cool is that

& now it has the bunting in there too!

every thing is stamped with Jet black archival ink

& coloured with a verity of Distress Inks

I used the stipple background 

to give a bit of texture to the sky.

for the bunting I stamped it onto scrap card &

left a piece at the top when I cut it out

 to fold over the wire & glue it to the back of itself

that way you can add the bunting flags to any 

wire, string, fibres etc,

as this is covered wire it was so easy to form it

into the shape I wanted & I twisted the ends around a pen

to get the twirly bits.

(I hope that makes sense)

that's about it from me today,

thanks for looking at this post,

Kat x.

Time Flies by Jennie Atkinson

Well here I am back again with another project – this month is just flying by!  Time - we never have enough of it, but I can't get enough of time based stamps and particularly the Time Clock Plate with all the wonderful clocks, cogs and words.  So I decided to use various parts of the plate to make this “Tick Tock” tag.

For the tag I used Distress Stains Wild Honey, Fired Brick, Shabby Shutters and Picket Fence and Tim Holtz’s Marbled Distress Stains technique.  Another combination of colours I love.  Once dry I edged the tag with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and stamped the words Tick and Tock on the tag and again on some vintage paper.  I also dyed some seam binding with Fired Brick Stain.

My plans for Phineas Pinchbeck didn’t quite materialise (isn’t that moustache just fantastic!). I was unfortunately losing too much of the detail against the other papers. So I decided to stamp him with Black Archival Ink on acetate and then again on white cardstock. I cut out the cardstock image concentrating only on the head, the clock and the sign (all in one piece) and then carefully stuck the paper on to the back of the acetate, making sure the text was aligned. And he just “popped” off the tag! This is a technique I use alot for detailed stamps and it is amazing what effects you can achieve by using different colours or textures on the "behind" stamping.

We’ve obviously all been playing with our UTEE this last month – first Frankie giving us some fantastic triple embossing techniques and then Alison’s wonderful Steampunk Canvas.  I was also playing with mine!  I coloured a piece of chipboard with Wild Honey Distress Ink and using the triple embossing technique embossed three layers of UTEE.  On the final layer whilst the UTEE was still hot I inked the small clock with Black Archival Ink and stamped it into the UTEE.   Once it had cooled I was able to cut around the shape with some sharp scissors.  I created the cog and the base in the same way but kept the base smooth without any stamping. The three layers create a very sturdy embellishment.

 The large clock on the upper part of the tag was stamped on Grungepaper with Coffee Archival Ink and coloured with Wild Honey Distress Ink.  Just goes to show how versatile these clocks and cogs are.

I got quite carried away with the UTEE and made an ATC encapsulating some Tissue Tape and stamped cogs and clocks under the triple layer of UTEE. I stamped the words Tick Tock into the hot UTEE at the end using Black Archival Ink.

I had great fun creating this tag and ATC using the Time Plate.   I hope you all have a great week and find time to have some fun too.  Thank you for looking and I look forward to bringing you my last project at the end of the month.

Love Jennie

Beside the Seaside by Sioux Jenneys

Hello everyone! It's a tag from me today :)

1. Using stamps from the new Beside the Seaside plate stamp one of the fish in Archival black and three of the shells in Archival coffee and sepia onto watercolour paper and cut out.

2. Colour the fish with the fabby new Distress markers (I used spiced marigold, chipped sapphire and  fired brick)

3. Colour over the shells in Distress Ink scattered straw using a cut and dry nib.

4. I inked the base tag using Distress Inks in scattered straw, weathered wood, faded jeans and bundled sage then did the spritz and flick effect that works so well with watery themes ;)

5. I then used the large and small wavy stamps from the Borders A5 and A6 plates to create a bit of seaweed using Distress Ink bundled sage and some air bubbles using the one of the smaller borders from the A6 plate in Archival  aquamarine

6. Stamp the sentiment from the Beside the Seaside plate in Archival black and attach the fish and shells before adding some pearls and some ribbon.

Beside the sea is a wonderful place to be :) See you again soon!

xoxo Sioux

London's Calling by Emma

Hi everyone.

I hope that May had been good to you all, so far and isn't it going so fast? I can't believe it's already time for me to share my next post with you all and today, I thought I'd do something a little different to share with you all and here it is, my inky scrapbook layout.

The layout started life as a piece of white 12" x 12" which I spritzed with Dyan Reaveley's Dylusions Ink Sprays in Lime and Vibrant Turquoise. I then added strips of Symphony Tissue Tape onto the background before using the Harlequin Crafter's Workshop Template and inked areas of my cardstock with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink, before then adding some Gesso through the template and some splats of Shabby Shutters Distress stain, straight from the bottle.

I then used the Grid Background stamp and stamped onto the background paper with black Archival Ink. Next, I used a Manilla tag and applied some Shabby Shutters and Broken China Distress Stain onto my craft mat, before dragging the tag through it to give a good inky coverage. I then used the Circle Grid Crafter's Workshop Template and applied more Broken China Distress Ink through it. I inked up one of the stamps from the Borders A6 #2 stamp plate and stamped directly onto the tag with black Archival Ink. I then stamped London from the London stamp plate, onto the tag and added the word "calling" which I typed on the computer. I then attached the tag, together with my photo onto my spritzed background and added some twine and a Tim holtz Idea-ology piece.

I made the flower using Tim Holtz's Tattered Florals die, spritzed with some more of the Dylusions Lime Green Ink Spray and added a button in the centre. I finally stamped "Memories" from the Journaling Words II and added a Tim Holtz Muse Token and used some Alphaparts Newsprint for "2009".

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at my scrapbook layout and I really hope you liked it!

See you all again soon and don't forget that we still have the Spots and Stripes Challenge running until the end of this month and we'd love to see your creations!!

Bye for now!

Emma x

Moon Woman by Alison

Hello Stampers. Today I have an art doll pendant to share with you.

Here's how I made her...

Moon Woman's body is made from a Chipboard Jar. I painted both sides with Black Acrylic Paint, then embossed the front with 3 layers of black ultra thick embossing enamel. I inked the Karantha Spiral Texture Stamp with Versamark embossing ink, then stamped into the last layer of black UTEE whilst it was still molten. I rubbed Lava Green Inka Gold onto the raised texture to highlight the design.

To make the face, I melted black UTEE in my Melt Pot, then poured it into the Karantha large Round Face Mould. Once it was set, I popped it out, then painted it with Watermelon Paint Dabber. When the paint was dry, I highlighted the design by rubbing the Lava Green Inka Gold on it. I glued the face to a large Ideaology Timepiece, then glued this to the top of the jar body.

I took 2 medium & 1 small Chipboard flowers, painted them with Watermelon Dabber, then stamped a Script Background with Black Archival Ink. I triple embossed the flowers with Clear UTEE, then stamped with the Karantha Spiral Texture stamp whilst the last layer was still molten. Again, I highlighted the texture with the Inka Gold. To make the 'wings', I cut 3 petals off the medium flowers, & glued the flowers to the back of the jar body. I layered the small flower with a Sprocket Gear & a pink gem brad, then glued it to the front of the body.

I punched 2 holes at the bottom of the body, with a Cropadile, then glued 2 large eyelets into them. I dabbed Watermelon Paint onto the Ideaology Word Sticks, rubbed most of it off, leaving the paint inside the words, then attached the 'legs' with Jump Rings.

I attached a bale to the back of Moon Woman, & added some Link Chain & a large Swivel Clasp. I coloured a Pearl Bauble with Watermelon Alcohol Ink, & attached it to the end of the chain as a finishing touch.

I hope you like my Moon Woman Art Doll, & it inspires you to make one of your own. It was great fun to make!

Thanks for looking,

Alison xox

Winner of the Challenge... and news

Hi, it's the Boss here again, a little late this month with lots of news, and the winner of last month's Creative Team challenge!
I loved all the entries for last month's challenge Ribbons and Lace , they were all such great interpretations. Thank you to everyone who joined in.
Now onto the best part... choosing a winner! Mr Random.org did his bit, and picked

Jacqueline with this gorgeous journal page. ...

Congratulations, and please email me so you can get your prize :)
Now onto all the news for this month! We have lots!! To start, The Artistic Stamper has designed the free stamp on the front cover of Craft Stamper (June issue), and there are lots of gorgeous makes inside, some by yours truly, and some gorgeous artwork by Trish Latimer, our muse for next month!

To go with the swirls, we have a great offer for you this month - 25% discount on the Swirls, and Border stamps here. To add to these we now have great new bunting stamps from Kat, and a lovely new journaling set of words!

 Now, if you fancy getting gorgeously inky with the new Spring Distress Inks from Ranger, we have them here , with all the re-inkers to go with them:))
Keep a watch out for lots of related offers this month from The Artistic Stamper!
I think that is all from me this week, but watch this space for news of our new Creative team members.... we are making our choices this week, and will be back later this month to tell you all the news!
Don't forget our new challenge is Spots & Stripes. We love seeing what you create :))
Have a very creative and inky week
Hugs
Jennie

VINTAGE HOUSE BY KAT

Hi all Kat here.
I'm still playing with my House stamps,
today I would like to share a little hanging frame I made
in vintage colours.

here's a list of the things I used,

Mini hanging frame

tissue tape

Distress Inks

 Kat's creations House stamps

archival inks, jet black & coffee

stipple background stamp

& scraps of white card.

Here are some close ups

I decided to make each frame almost the same

& just position the items differently.

Hope you like it!

I'm off to cut out my new bunting set of stamps

that arrived in the post today (exciting)

they are so hot off the press, they are steaming, LOL

Just before I go,

I would like to say a big thank you

for all your support & wonderful comments,

Kat x.

London by night by Sioux Jenneys

Hello everyone! I've made an ATC for a change today
using the lovely new London A6 stamp set :)

1. I made an inky background using Distress Ink dusty concord and rusty hinge that had been made into spray inks in a mini mister with some Perfect Pearl Mist in pearl added on top for a hint of twinkliness ;)

2. Stamped the London skyline in Archival black onto this and added the hand writing with a white pen.

3. I used the new Distress Markers in fired brick and chipped sapphire to colour the union jack flag and stamped it onto a white ATC blank then added a bit of colour on the background with dusty concord re-inker and a Cut and Dry nib.

4. The word London was stamped in Archival again onto a spare piece of the same coloured card I used for the skyline and attached to a piece of black card before being stuck down with glossy accents.

5. The skyline was then attached in the same way and some Distress walnut stain added to the edges to age a little.


London is a very magical place don't you think? :) See you again soon!

xoxo Sioux