Into Each Day by Jennie Atkinson

Hello Everyone! I am absolutely delighted, and excited, to be guest designer this month with the Artistic Stamper Creative Team. Thank you to Jennie and Emma, for inviting me. I hope to share with you three very different projects using a few of the great stamps produced by Jennie.

I have quite a passion for making my own flowers for my scrapbook pages, mini books and hangings.  So my first project is a hanging with a handmade flower and using this wonderful sentiment stamp - Into Each Day ..............

The hanging measures 7" x 5.5" and is made from a piece of mountboard scrounged from my local picture framer.  Unfortunately the board wouldn't take too much water, so I took a piece of smooth white card and used the Tim Holtz Wrinkle Free Distress technique rubbing Broken China and Dusty Concord Distress Inks onto my craft sheet, misting them with water and then pressing my paper into the watery ink until I was happy with the look, drying each layer with the heat tool before picking up more ink.  This is one of my favourite techniques and I am having a bit of a love affair with Broken China and Dusty Concord at the moment!

I gold embossed the large clock from the Tick Tock A5 Plate in the top left corner and balanced this with the Calligraphic Text 9 plate in the lower left.  Once I had stuck my paper to my board I blended Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the edge of the paper and used a gold calligraphy pen to give the hanging a gold edge.  I made a frame from Dusty Concord Core-dinations Cardstock and cut an aperture for the lovely Into Each Day sentiment stamp which I stamped with Black Archival ink.

My flower was made using the Flower Power A6 plate.  I stamped the largest, middle and small sized flowers lightly on smooth cream cardstock and cut out.  You need two of each.  Spritz them with water and roll and squeeze the outside petals over the handle of a small watercolour paintbrush.  When dry edge the petals with some Dusty Concord and layer them on top of each   For more details on making this flower, you can visit my blog and click on the “dahlia” tutorial. 

www.jennie-livethedream.blogspot.com

I cut two leaves from grungepaper using my Tattered Leaves die, embossed them with a Sizzix embossing folder and used Dusty Concord and Vintage Photo to give them colour.

Add a bit of lace, a couple of glass stick pins and some bendy wire and the hanging is complete.

Thanks for looking and I’ll be back with another project soon.

Jennie x

A Little Distressed by Tina Barnett

Hi Gang!

It's Tina here. I have made a card using the wonderful Mabel Lucie Attwell stamp "Natures little helper". How cute!!!



I started with an 8 inch by 8 inch card and used some beautiful swirl stamps by The Artistic Stamper . I used Tim Holtz distress inks to stamp them.

I then went over the card with .............. and I just have to say fabulous .... Distress ink dabbers It gave a beautiful background effect.


I used a darker ink dabber around the edge of the card. Where I had stamped the sentiment, which is an Artistic stamper stamp I then over stamped it used the darker ink dabber.


The main Mabel Lucie Attwell stamp has been coloured using Tim Holtz distress inks and edged in the same dark ink dabber.


I embossed some Coredinations card stock and went over that with the distress ink dabbers.

I then finished off with some ribbon from my stash.

Hope you like the results.

See you soon xx Tina xx

A light Journey! by Nicky Cresswell

Hay Stampers...

Just a humble card to share today

I have been playing with some of the new chipboard shapes that match some of the existing stamps that are available from the artistic stamper.

Namely the Inspiration lightbulb.. 

But instead of using it in it's original form I have turned it into a hot air balloon {i got this idea from Alison some months ago} by cutting it into 2 pieces and using some of the tim holtz mini game spinners as the connection between the 2.

The base for the card was created by firstly layering the entire surface of an 5¾" x 4" piece of card with script tissue tape from the hobgoblin set {which BTW is on offer this month HERE}

Next I coloured the base with mostly blue and a smidge of green distress stains to give the appearance of sky and land.

To further this idea I used some torn cor'dinations card to create some hills.

Then it was just a case of adding the bulb balloon and stamping the 'all of life' sentiment, which I did onto a mini chipboard tag. I then mounted the whole piece onto a 5"x7" card and hay hoe there you have it.

If you like my project then you'll love the projects from the other team members, why not scroll back and see what you might of missed.

Thanks for visiting

Co-reDinated...

Ah, yes, my titles still leave a lot to be desired but! I am back again with another piece made using those fabby Distress Co-reDinations card. I used the Wild Honey and Barn Door sheets to make covers for a little book I have just put together. Ooo and before I forget... Co-reDinations are on special offer for this month... so you can grab yourself a bargain HERE.




I started by cutting the card to fit the covers and then embossed using Texture Fades... the retro circles have to be my fave! I used Tim's Sanding Grip and gently rubbed over the surface of the card, removing the colour on the raised bits, leaving the paler colour showing underneath.




I used Wild Honey and Barn Door Distress Stain to colour some card, stamped my words in Black Archival and then matted these onto some more of the cardstock. I used a black Dabber to whizz around the edges to close the whole design in.




Finally I decorated the book cover with some little Faux Porcelain flowers - making these is simples... fill up your Melt Pot with clear UTEE and once it is melted, carefully dip your flowers into the UTEE, allow to go hard on a craft sheet and then you can use them on all different kinds of projects. I used a couple of Idea-ology bits and bobs to decorate the book rings and that was my book finished!

Thanks for looking... TTFN

Hels x

'Sew' Far 'Sew' Good by Nicky Cresswell

Hello my stamping pals

Here I am for my last post in august and this time I want to share with you an 8" x 8" canvas.

 I was looking through my stamps and my dressmaking set just spoke to me, so out they came and the fun began.

The canvas already had some kind of primer on it so I got straight into the stamping, which I did directly onto the canvas using coffee coloured archival ink. I used one of my thin acrylic blocks behind where I was stamping to give me a more secure base to push onto.

I think I pretty much used every single stamp for the dressmakers plate, to collage the whole canvas and the sides too..

Then I coloured the canvas with a mix of antique linen and scattered straw distress stains {OMG talk about a quick and easy method to colour something in seconds}

The next thing I did was to cut a Timmy dressform in both mountboard and some wild honey core'dinations, layering it up to fashion an outfit with some added plain seam binding that I coloured with scattered straw distress stain.

 I made a focal backdrop for the dressform with a piece of the sewing paper from the crowded attic pad, I then coated the whole canvas with some studio matte medium and stuck a piece of real dress pattern over the entire surface. Once this was dry I used some more core'dinations that I had run through some of the texture fades pattern and stitch folders and finished with some vintage buttons.

I didn't have any great sewing words or sayings so I hopped online and found a quote I liked then punched it out using my dymo and cut strips of yet more of the core'dinations wild honey. This works great as you can sand the embossed letters to make them pop, and also it matches in with the project perfectly.

And there you have it.. I must admit I had an absolute blast making this {even though the day leading up to it was a mojoless nightmare!} Just goes to show even with no mojo the right stamps can truly inspire you to make something fabulous.

Thanks for stopping by.Until next time..

Stay Inky

Blue Denim Note Book by Kat

Hi all,
Kat here, with my 3rd & final project of the month,

Apologies for the rubbish post names,
I never know what to call them,
so I usually just write what I see (lol)

with core'dinations card stock as our focus
it seemed only natural to make a note book.
so here it is,

I started of with 2 pieces of grey board cut to size

I then cut the core'dinations card stock in 2 different blues

slightly larger, so if it shrank when it was embossing

it wouldn't be to small.

I then embossed with the same design,

but by turning the card pieces over

you get an embossed & debossed pattern,

I then sanded it with Tim's sanding grip

here's the difference in the patterns.

I then glued them with

Claudine Hellmuth multi matte medium

I glued a silver strip over the join

& added another sanded strip of the darker blue core card

I trimmed it all back with a craft knife,

I glued the silver paper to the inside of the covers

& trimmed it back,

then cut the holes with the bind it all machine.

for the pages I cut them a couple of mm smaller than the covers,

I didn't count them (just made a small wedge)

then with a scrap of card slightly smaller than the page

for a mask & a

blending tool I blended faded jeans Distress Ink

then added the texture with Stipple background stamp

& faded jeans Distress Ink

I added the small flower chain off the flower blooms set

coloured with a copic marker.

punched the holes with the bind it all

& put it all together with half inch 0 ring.

I made the flower from the same stamp set

(flower blooms set) stamped in Jet Black archival ink

& blended with Weatherd wood & Faded Jeans Distress Inks

I glued a button in the center & added some leaves

cut from a sizzix die & the same core'dinations card stock

& glued it to the cover.

here's the stamps I used,

& there you have it,

Jobs a good-en

Hope you like it!

have a creative day,

Kat x.

Tick Tock by Alison Hall

Hello Stampers! I'm back with my final piece for August. I had a lot of fun with this card, I can tell you! It has a bit of a manly theme going on, so it fits nicely with the August Challenge of Macho Men. There's still a few more days to join in! I also used Core'dinations paper, which is on special offer this month HERE.

Here's how I made my card...

Using a deckle-edged metal ruler, I tore a 5.5 inch square of peeled painted Distress Core'dinations paper. Next, I thinned down some Claudine Helmuth traditional tan Studio paint with a spritz of water, & applied a wash across my paper. I sanded over the edges with a sanding grip to give a distressed look.

I used vintage photo distress ink to stamp the Winged Wheel over my background. I stamped Phineas Pinchbeck on the left, using archival black ink, then, using the same ink, carefully stamped the empty Inspiration Jar over the top of Phineas. I coloured this in, using peeled paint & vintage photo distress inks, dried it with my heat tool, then covered the jar with a layer of glossy accents.

Whilst the glossy accents was drying, I stamped some pocket watches from the Time & Keys plate onto the clear side of some frosted shrink plastic, cut them out, then shrank them with my heat tool. Next I stamped the words Tick Tock onto white card, using the large & small scrabble tiles from the Scrabble & Tags plate. I cut out the words, then inked them with vintage photo distress ink.

Going back to my now dry background, I smeared bead gel around the edges, using my fingers. You can use a palette knife if you wish! Once this had dried, I applied lava green Inka Gold to highlight the little beads. Told you I had fun!

Finally, I glued the words & watches to my background, attached it to a square card blank, then inked the edges of the card with more vintage photo distress ink.

Thanks for looking!

Alison xx

Tear in the landscape by Sioux Jenneys

Happy Sunday! Are you putting your feet up and relaxing today?

I'm here to share a really simple card utilising the tear able qualities of Core'dinations :)

1. Roughly sketch where you would like your rocks, sea, sand and distant mountains on a spare piece of paper the same size as your finished area will be.

(Mine is a 6 inch by 4 inch postcard size)

2. Staaaaaaaart tearing!!! LOL Follow the sketch you have done and tear by eye or if you are feeling a bit unsure lay your sketch on top of the Core'inations and tear through both pieces. ;)

Do you remember back in the day when tearing paper was the new big thing? I could not bring myself to do it for ages! LOL Then I read a little tip somewhere (I wish I could give credit but it is so long ago I have not a clue!!) to save some of the envelopes your junk mail comes in.....'cos a lot of them have coloured or patterned interiors....and use these to practise your tearing ;)........It helped me overcome the hesitation :)

3. Using a blending tool and foam colour the sky area with colours used in your landscape....I used Distress Ink spiced marmalade and worn lipstick as well as a little Adirondack stream.

4. Spritz a piece of paper with some Distress Ink broken china, stamp the Round the World with peeled paint and cut out edging it with a black marker.

5. Attach the torn layers to the card.....sanding some of the rocks in the foreground and slip the world behind the last layer as you stick it down.

6. Stamp the lovely new sentiment "Into each day" in Archival black and layer onto a piece of Core'dinations...edge both with a black marker and attach with dimensional pads.

7. Finally mat the postcard sized piece onto another Core'dinations mat and attach to the card.

Have fun with your tearing and remember that the Core'dinations are on special offer this month right here ;)

xoxo Sioux

Fun & Laughter by Alison Hall

Hello Stampers! I've a very simple little hanging for you today, using layers of Core'dinations paper, which just happens to be on special offer here.

To begin, I tore 3 rough rectangles of Core'dinations paper. I sanded all three pieces, the larger two on the textured side, the smallest rectangle, on the smoother side.

I stamped the new 'Into each day' phrase onto the smallest piece of paper (lake mist, from theAdirondak stack), then I stamped the tiny butterfly from the Insects & Butterflies plate, using grey ink, in the corners. I then matted this onto the slightly larger 'rectangle' of card (tattered rose from the distress stack).

I wrapped a piece of grey vintage ribbon in a bow around the bottom of my artwork, gluing it in place with wonder tape, then attached a butterfly charm, using chain & a jump ring. I found this charm, whilst on my paper round recently! Lol!

Next, I matted my artwork onto the largest 'rectangle' (stormy sky from the distress stack), added a couple of grey eyelets, then threaded some grey vintage ribbon, to hang my artwork from.

I think this would make a nice gift for a friend, & it cost very little to make.

Thanks for looking!

Alison xx