The Birds and the Bees ~ by Dot Allan

"The Birds and the Bees"

is my 3rd DT piece for The Artistic Stamper!

Spring is in the air up North and the flowers are starting to pop out and brighten everyone's gardens up.  

Flowers, birds and bees are the first thing that come to mind 

and seemed appropriate for this card.

Like the other two projects, I have used specialty paper 

and re-inkers as my base.

My inspiration has come from the "Botanical Plate 1" 

and "Birds of a Feather" stamp sets 

from Jennie's shop...these really are gorgeous stamps!

The background has been kept fairly simple, then splattered with distress inks.  I am trying to "embrace white", 

which isn't all that easy to do when you are use to working with

lots of ink.

This lot of pics shows a step x step progression of the masking 

that I used to build up the 

base story of the card.

(sorry if the pics aren't quite focused, but it had to be stamped and photographed quickly as the light was fading fast)

To finish the card off I have added some dimension by

stamping more flowers onto scrap pieces of the background,

fussy cutting and adding using magic mount.
This just adds that little bit more depth and gives the chance to throw in some more colour to make it pop.

Some tissue tape on the edges.

And mounting the piece onto black cardstock

that has been edged with Fresco Finish Paints.

I like how they have kept their colour on the black cardstock!

I have had heaps of fun this month here at 

The Artistic Stamper  

and I would like to thank Jennie and her team for inviting

me over to play.

The Artistic Stamper Stamps ~

• Botanical Plate 1
• Birds of a Feather
• Insects and Butterflies

Other Stamps ~

• Stampers Anonymous - Urban Chic
• Stampers Anonymous - Nature Walk

Other Items ~

• Tissue tape
• Specialty paper
• Archival re-inkers
• Distress inks
• Fresco Finish Paints
• Versafine - black onyx
• gold pen

  Enjoy!

A Roman Trilogy by Dot's Dabbles

" A ROMAN TRILOGY"

is my second DT piece/s for this month at

The Artistic Stamper

I have been absolutely blown-away by all the past projects 

presented here at The Artistic Stamper. Amazing!

But, I am a card maker, so with this in mind 

I thought I would make a card...

and to take it a step further, I have created a trilogy,

which was originally inspired 
by the beautiful architecture set of stamps.

 I am calling this my "Roman Trilogy".

It is a set of three cards based on the same theme

and with a leaf that floats from card to card to bind them all together.  And then ...oplà (hey presto)

Card 1:

This stamp of "The Kiss" is one that I just couldn't resist using.  Red and green were colours chosen by my boys as they thought these were roman colours. I wasn't actually going to listen to them...but for some reason it went in this direction naturally.  This card was lots of inky fun to make!

Using re-inker I created a marbled background as a base.  Then added the stamp using Versafine ink. I made masks for the statue and leaves.

Mask the statue and randomly stamp the leaves all around - I have used archival watering can ink for this.

Then, using rubbing alcohol, very carefully remove some of the re-inker from the statue so that it stands out more.  You need to be a little careful so that it doesn't react with the ink.  I also did this around the outside of the statue to add a little glow.

After masking the leaves I added some distress inks to the outside area to add some richness to the background. 

Stamp some crackle randomly around the edge.  I also stippled around the edge with a little archival geranium ink to give it a border.

To finish this off I have stamped 2 more leaves on an inked background, cut them out and edged with gold.

This is a picture of the statue stamped onto the marbled background before adding the extra ink and leaves.

Card 2:

I like the idea of using a marbled background because it seems to suit the idea of statues.

Create a marbled background as a base...like in card 1.

Then stamp the roman statue,mask it and stamp the ivy...mask this as well and then stamp the column.

While the masks are all still in place stamp the script and splatter a little re-inker over the background.

Then, again, use the rubbing alcohol to lighten the statue.

To add some more colour and depth I have added some distress ink...then drip a little water in places to add more depth and the aged look.

Another leaf is made from the off-cuts, cut out and edged with gold to tie this card to the first one.

Again, I thought it might be interesting just to show the original masking before working up the final play with inks.

Card 3: 

I wanted to use some stamps from the gorgeous "Garden Plate"  What I liked about the background stamp here is that you can turn it upside-down the design lines up beautifully.  So you have choices on how you use it.

I have inked up the background with alcohol inks using the monoprint technique.

The stamped the background stamp 4 times, side by side...and added gold pen to some of the ribbons.

The front panel is done in black and white to contrast with the bright background.  I have added gold pen to the flowers in the girls hair and watercoloured some black soot distress inks on their dresses.

Cut this image into 4 equal parts and layer onto some black cardstock and layer over the background on some magic mount.

Again, I have used off-cuts to stamp the leaves onto and add...bringing the leaf theme through to the third card.

Although this background doesn't look very fancy, it shows that random colour is just that, and only a backdrop to the gorgeous stamps.

The Artistic Stamper Stamps ~

"The Kiss"

"Leaves"

"Garden Plate"

"Architecture"

"Calligraphy Mat 2"

Other Items ~

- Archival re-inkers - forget-me-knot, watering can, dandelion, red geranium and fern green

-Archival Inks - forget-me-knot, fern green, watering can and jet black

- Alcohol Inks - metallic gold and assorted colours

- Distress Inks - vintage photo, wild honey, peeled paint, mustard seed, broken china and black soot

- Paper - Specialty paper, black/red/white cardstock

- Gold pen

- Rubbing alcohol

Other Stamps ~

Penny Black Ivy Corner

Crackle 

   Godere!   

(Enjoy!)

A Secret Wish by Dot (Dot's Dabbles)

It is such a huge thrill to be asked to be a guest designer for The Artistic Stamper this month.

Thank you Jennie for such a great opportunity!

I had to think about it long and hard of course (like, for 2 seconds)

said yes, 

then panicked! 

My first piece is Spring inspired. 

I always seem to make things from the centre and then work back...

This is how it all ended up.

When I saw this gorgeous girl stamp I knew that I was going to use her on this.

And I wanted to just let her shine somehow.

The background is created with Wendy Vecchi forget-me-not and watering can re-inkers

 using her technique from CHA 2014.

The stamp is from the "Childhood Dreams" set and is stamped using Versafine onyx black ink.

The edges are distressed and matted onto black cardstock.

The leaves are done in the same style using forget-me-not and fern green re-inkers.

The stamped leaves are from the "Leaves" set and cut out and edged with black ink.

The butterflies were stamped onto some left-over inked card 

from the main image and cut out.

The stamps are from the "Insects and Butterflies" set 

and are cut out and bent in the middle so that the wings sit up. 

I just thought I would show the background before and after pics...

It started out with some torn book pages and grunge paste

and ended with more grunge paste, a little stencilling and hessian.

Then the whole lot was gesso-ed over and brayer-ed with Fresco Finish Paint.

I really wanted to keep it rustic and still have areas of white.

This is my favourite textured piece.

The other background was made in the same way...with a little experimenting...

The colouring was done with the re-inkers and alcohol rub...

I really like how it has creeped into the cracks and crevices and captured the texture.

Other off-cuts were placed into the corners to give it balance.

This is the main panel completed and assembled.

To finish off I mounted everything onto corrugated cardboard that had been painted black and highlighted with some gold, added some hessian and placed it onto a black canvas.

Then I went over the road, gathered some twigs...and made a rustic frame to set everything off.
I wasn't too sure about this in the beginning,
but I really like how the twigs form a frame and brings the depth out of the other pieces.
Those of you who know my work, I'm not really an embellishment type of gal
- so the twig frame was a nice compromise.

It was fun to play with grunge paste and colour...and to dabble and experiment...


Enjoy!

The Artistic Stamper Stamps ~

- Childhood Dreams

- Leaves

- Insects and Butterflies

Other items ~

- Archival Inks - forget-me-not, fern green and watering can (and re-inkers), jet black

- Alcohol Ink - gold

- Versafine - onyx black, 

- Dylusion Sprays - lemon zest & pure sunshine

- Paper- Specialty Paper, black cardstock, cardboard, book pages, tissue paper

- Grunge paste, Crackle texture paste.

- Fresco Finish Paint - lake wanaka

- Gesso - white & black

- Stencils - TCW Mini Gothic Romance, Grunge Hearts

- Hessian

- Twigs

- Canvas