A Minute Saved! by Nicky Cresswell

Hiya Stampers, Hope you're all well and dandy this fine day {she says hoping it's not raining lol}

Today I have another manly project to share in keeping with this months MAN themed Challenge

I decided on a card mainly as am having some mojo issues but I worked through it and here is the result.

I started by stamping the base card 4 times with the numbered block from the family values plate with tux black memento ink.

Then I ran some slate coloured adirondack core'dinations through my vagabond with the clock folder from the steampunk texture fades set, I lightly sanded the card & used barn door distress ink to highlight the raised sanded areas. 

I cut the paper to size then got some of the red pepper core'dinations as a backing frame, but it looked too plain so I stamped the smallest pocket watch from the time & keys plate round the edges.

I stamped the clock watching man from the men's plate onto plain white 160gms card and coloured with my copics, then mounted onto more of the red pepper clock stamped edge card.

I was about to mount the whole thing in the middle, but it just didn't look right, so I placed it half off the card and sliced the excess away, and for some reason I placed the excess piece on the card and loved the way it looked so that was a happy accident lol

To finish I stamped the next largest pocket watch from the same time and keys plate onto the back of some black TSS metal, I then used one of my basic set TSS tools to emboss the stamped watch image, turned it over, lightly sanded the areas I had raised and there you have it, one black metal watch which I finished with a bit of old chain attached to the card with a charm clip.

And that's that.

Thanks for popping by

Stay Inky

Do you believe? by Jennie

Every month, we have a challenge set by one of the Team, and this month the subject is "Something Hidden " set by Tina. I had lots of ideas for it, but came up with this idea while prepping a workshop for Christmas cards. The wooden angels are great blank canvases, and I used Terra which I smooched all over it and stamped into with a wet stamp. I used the music background, and then immediately washed the stamp clean. If you don't your stamp will harden and be ruined!



Then when it was dry, I sprayed lots of Ranger Perfect Pearl Mists over it. I love the little wire halo in the top! The card was a folded piece which I had from a set and the angel hid quite nicely in it. I covered the card in old music paper from our Vintage papers sets. I was very lucky as the song was "Believe"! Do you believe in Angels? Finally I distress inked it and added a Idea-ology Seasonal sticker and some dabbers too! A gorgeous piece of Idea-ology trimming also sprayed with Mists just finished it off.

If you feel like making something hidden then please join in our challenge and be in with a chance to win £15.00 worth of stamps.
Happy Creating!
Jennie

Box Life...By Nicky Cresswell

Well hello my fine blog land friends, it is I, the mad Minxy here today for your viewing pleasure....

First off can i just say..HOW FAB is the new team blog.. Don't know about you but i'm inspired already.

Right down to business... Seeing as our very first challenge had the theme chosen by me i thought it only right i actually make a piece for the occasion. {click HERE for full details of this months challenge}

I found a crackin little multi compartment frame in a charity shop just screaming for my alteration, how could i let it down, it was literally screaming.. honest! I just knew with the use of some stamps, ink and well a fair few trinkets I could transform it!

And here is the finished piece after the Inky Minx treatment..

I started by giving the whole piece a coat of acrylic paint {claudine hellmuths range is great}
There are a fair few elements to the piece as you can see, so i'll try and talk you through each space, hoping you don't nod off half way through..

The first 4 spaces consist of :-
1: a section of manilla tag to fit the gap, covered with vintage photo distress ink, and then some old scrabble tiles spelling OLD.
2: Stamped large cotton reel in different colour ink, mounting one in front of the other and finishing with a wooden cotton reel wrapped with some cotton.
3: A mini mdf letter, covered with croco {but distress crackle would also work}with a smidge of ink rubber over the top to show up the cracks
4: Image of young boy taken from the family values stamp, placed behind an inked grungeboard window, simply made by cutting a criss cross in the centre and folding the flaps inwards.

The next 4 spaces consist of :-
5: The gorgeous old fashioned sewing machine {from the dressmaker plate} stamped on a lightly inked background, with a small slit made round the needle so i could feed through a tiny scrap of fabric to give life to the machine, I mounted on some card to allow me to position the piece to the front of the space rather than against the back.
6: Multi layered flower, created by stamping the large and medium flowers from the flower power set onto some old dress making pattern tissue paper, then layering up several layers and securing with a brad.
7: Another mdf letter {same treatment as no.3} but with a dried flower sprig i found outside on my path.
8: Alcohol inked background over stamped with cogs, I also took a small left over bit of the same background to wrap round a tiny glass bottle filled with tiny watch parts, and placed a couple of idea-ology sprocket gears along side too.

And the next 4 spaces :-

9: I stamped the large bingo card as the base, stamped the small bingo card, cut it out and concertinaed it in front, finished with some vintage bingo chips.

10: Stamped the top half of one of the nude in water, I then stamped the film strip onto acetate, and masked off most of it leaving the centre spaces free to ink the same nudes face in each gap. {it's not very clear on the pic.. sorry}I placed the acetate nearer the front of the space, so there is a double layer effect.

11: Again another mdf letter {same as 3&7}

12: I little art collage using several elements from the Artists #1 plate, all stamped on a square of old book page, I mounted on some card to again bring the piece forward {like no.4}

And the final 4 spaces:-
13: I stamped the ink bottle {again from the Artists #1 plate} twice onto acetate, i cut each one out and then coloured the backs with permanent markers, then just placed them in the space.
14: Another front mounted square, lightly inked and then stamped with a pocket watch from the time and keys plate, over stamped with the words Tick Tock {from the tick tock plate} in a different colour.
15: The last mdf letter to complete the word LIFE
16: And finally a silky smooth section of white tag edged with a silver pen, and scrabble tiles spelling NEW.
***
And there you have it... Well done for making it to the end, sorry it's been a long old post but i couldn't leave any details out now could i. I hope you enjoyed my art today. Come back soon to see more fab art from the rest of the team.. I'll be going all Wendy Vecchi when i return in 10 days even though i don't own any of her stamps!!! Intrigued....Then come back on the 17th to find out what i'm waffling about!

Proudly Presenting...

... the brand new Artistic Stamper Creative Team Blog. AND... the new Monthly Challenge, which for August has been chosen by Minxy. I am so excited... we have been working really hard recently to bring you brand new innovative stamp designs - which will be available from The Artistic Stamper to buy today.




The monthly challenge is open to everyone and one lucky randomly picked winner will win some Candy! The theme for August is Something Old, Something New. To join in is easy-peasy... first of all, become a follower of this blog... and then all you need to do is make a piece of art incorporating the theme, once you have blogged it (or if you haven't got a blog you can link to the place you are showing it; flickr/Photobucket etc) then pop back here, leave us a comment and add your link to the linky gadget at the end of the post. There is a special extra too... if you use any Artistic Stamper stamps on your entry then you will be entered in to the draw twice. The prize for this month is £15 worth of stamps of your choice from The Artistic Stamper new range of stamps... along with the Kling On to mount them onto.





For my entry I used a fabby box frame, painted it with Traditional Tan (yes, even over here I am still addicted to the stuff LOL) I used Viva Terra applied in patches which was stamped into using the new Punk Plaid stamp and the old Sequin Waste stamp *see what I did there, new and old ;O))* I then painted some Sable Brown Studio range paint over the whole piece, removing some of it with a babywipe so it left patches of the Traditional Tan showing through. I used some Viva Ferro, which I also stamped with the Punk Plaid stamp and then heat dried it all.




The places on the frame that were then not textured had a generous dollop of Rock Candy Cracklepaint applied... once this was dried I used some gold Dabber to add colour to the textured parts, added some black paint with a piece of Cut & Dry foam... this just emphasised the bobbles and pits on the texture... and finally smooshed some Inka Gold over the whole lot to make it more...erm... golden!




The centre was filled with a piece of paper from the Vintage Shabby stack, I added a mini canvas which had had the Terra treatment... and the Cog stamp pressed into it. This again was heat dried... if you heat dry Terra you get a lovely warty kind of texture to the piece. I used one of the clocks and one of the cogs from the Tick Tock plate, stamping onto metal and then popping a cookie cutter over the top and pouring in melted clear UTEE. I also used the Melt Pot to make some little hearts, adding Gold UTEE in blobs to the clear UTEE and then pouring it in a swirly manner onto the craft sheet... then popping the heart shaped cookie cutters into it. **do you see the little iron on top of the ART??? This is my really OLD part... cos it is... any old iron... ROFL... ah, just me then!!**



Finally, I added a few bits of ephemera - old watch faces etc and Idea-ology and some little Letterpress letters from my own hoard. I hope you like this piece and can't wait to see what you come up with... remember, the challenge is open for a whole month, the more times you enter, the more times you will be in with a chance of winning the candy... don't forget to click to follow this blog too...and... I would really appreciate your comments...what do you think of the new blog? What do you think of the layout etc of it and... do you like it!? :O)) TTFN

Hels x