A Fond Farewell...

Hello lovelies, Lisa here and here's to a happy new year for 2019. Wow - 2019!!!! 
However, for me, the start of 2019 is slightly bitter sweet as I have decided to leave the team at The Artistic Stamper. 

As the saying goes, "I've got a bit too much on my plate" to continue at the moment and there just isn't enough days in the week! So after having a chat with the lovely Jennie, she asked if I would do one last 'going-out' post for the team.

I have loved every minute being on the team and I will of course miss the fabulous ladies but I am sure I will continue to check in on the amazing creations they come up with.


So here is my last creation... 

First, I stamped some pumice stone oxide and spun sugar oxide distress inks on to my craft mat, sprayed with water and smooshed white card through it. 

I then used The Artistic Stamper 3 x 3 chevron stencil and the 3 x 3 harlequin stencil with the same oxide inks to add some pattern to the background. 

I stamped two of the butterflies from The Artistic Stamper A5 insects and butterflies stamp set with grey ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder, fussy cut the butterflies and inked them with spun sugar oxide ink. 

I stamped the Butterfly Words stamp on to white card, distressed the edges and inked the edges with spun sugar oxide ink. Then mounted it on to a bigger piece of card which I again distressed the edges and inked with pumice stone oxide ink.

To finish, I matted the background on to a bigger piece of card which I had inked around the edges with the grey oxide ink. I placed the sentiment on to the card then added the butterflies, just in the centre to allow the wings to stick up. 

Thank you so much for popping by The Artistic Stamper blog today.

And hopefully, I will see you around blog land...

Lisa x 

Here is everything I used which is available on The Artistic Stamper website. 


            

The Secret Garden by Emma

Hello everyone!! For my second post of August, I thought it would be nice to hold onto Summer as long as we could...so, I decided to make this canvas featuring butterflies and flowers. As always, I've taken lots of pictures to show you all the details and I hope you love what I've created...

To begin with, I covered my 7" x 5" canvas with Tim Holtz Composer Tissue Wrap before adding the colour using Distress Paints. I chose Picked Raspberry, Salted Ocean, Bundled Sage and Antique Linen and once applied over the top of the wrap, I gave them a good spritz with water before allowing them to drip down the canvas. Once I was happy with the way it looked, I added Black Soot around the edges and applied Picket Fence onto one of the Swirls, Spots and Splats stamps from the A5 set, to add some texture.

Next, I added some small torn off strips of Sketchbook Tissue Tape onto the canvas and applied some drips of white acrylic paint, which completed the overall background to my piece.

To make the roses, I used Tim's Tattered Florals die from Sizzix and then coloured each of the die cuts with Salted Ocean and Picked Raspberry Distress Inks before making them into dimensional blooms and giving them a quick spritz with Biscotti Perfect Pearls Mists, to add a subtle shimmer.

I stamped the gorgeous large butterfly and some of the smaller butterflies from the Insects and Butterflies No.1 stamp plate onto a piece of white card and coloured them with Distress Marker pens, adding "dotty" highlights to the wings of the smaller ones, using a white pen.

I shaped the wings of each of them and added twisted wire for their antennae. I then arranged my dimensional blooms, added some die cut leaves using a die in my stash and the butterflies onto the canvas and finally, attached the Butterfly Words quote using an Idea-ology Memo Pin.

So, that's it from me today! Thank you so much for taking the time to pop by and visit and I can't wait to read all your comments. Don't forget you still have time to enter this month's challenge which is all about Postcards, Travel and Holidays and we'd love you to share all your wonderful creations with us!! All the details of the challenge are HERE.

See you all soon and hope you have a wonderful weekend full of creativity!

Emma x

A fleeting glimpse...

Hello all, Alison (butterfly) here with a pair of tiny hangings offering a fleeting glimpse of the creatures I'm sure are at least partly responsible for all the faerie mythology down the ages (though obviously there are real faeries to be found too, if you look hard enough).

I used some of the backgrounds I created a while back using Dylusions sprays and plain old rock salt and table salt.  If you want to see more about how they were made, you can find out here.

And it wasn't a massive leap of imagination to link the gorgeous images from the Insects and Butterflies plate with the two quotes - each available singly from The Artistic Stamper.

I stamped the butterfly in Olive Archival, and then clear embossed it for that magical shimmer you get when it catches the light.

I used a water brush and some paper towel to lift some of the Dylusions colour away from within the wings, just to make them stand out a little more from the background.

The quote - by Rabindranath Tagore - has long been one of my favourites.  I stamped it on a separate piece of glossy card, that I'd used to mop up some ink at some point, and which toned in rather well with the salty background.  And then I mounted it on some cream mesh to give it a bit of extra definition.

The dragonfly got the same treatment as the butterfly, though I had less luck with lifting the colour away since the webbing on his wings is so dense and intricate.

And this quote, I've just discovered, is from a beautiful sonnet called Silent Noon by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (full poem at the foot of the post - I know I don't usually do quotes other than at Words and Pictures, but this one's irresistible!).

I added some other images from Insects and Butterflies.  I love this snail - almost invisible in the undergrowth...

... and these two grasshoppers, perched and ready for action.  There's also a busy bee, going about his business.

I added little bit of Ivory Frantage embossing powder around the edges for some added sparkle and definition.

And I was happy to find some paper ribbon that matched, so I threaded that through my golden eyelets to join the panels together and to create the hanging mechanism.

Thank you so much for stopping by today.  Don't forget to come and play in our August Challenge - share your Postcards, Travel and Holiday themed projects to be in with a chance at the prize draw at the end of the month.  See you soon!

Ingredients used:
Artistic Stamper stamps: Insects and Butterflies, Butterfly Words, Dragonfly Words
Dylusions Sprays: Calypso Teal, Cut Grass, London Blue, Vibrant Turquoise, Fresh Lime, Dirty Martini
Manila ATCs
Archival Ink: Olive
Wow Embossing Powder: Clear Gloss Superfine
From stash: Frantage Ivory, Paper Ribbon, Eyelets, Salt

Silent Noon

Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass, - 
The finger-points look through like rosy blooms: 
Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms 
'Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass. 
All round our nest, far as the eye can pass, 
Are golden kingcup-fields with silver edge 
Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge. 
'Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass. 

Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-fly 
Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky: - 
So this wing'd hour is dropt to us from above. 
Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower, 
This close-companioned inarticulate hour 
When twofold silence was the song of love.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti