A Broken Winged Bird, by Jane.

So this months challenge is "Words".. however you want to interpret that, you cannot deny that words can be very powerful, and the tone always make a difference, ask anyone who has analysed a text to death, reading it in different tones..LOL.
This card came about by just throwing stuff on a piece of card til I liked what I saw, you can just see the fabulous arched window from the architecture stamp set in the background  then I added the bird image and finally the fabulous sentiment.

Stamp supplies used:

HOLD FAST

FREE AS A BIRD

ARCHITECTURE 3

Hope you will join in our "words" challenge

JANE

Free As A Bird

Hi Guys, JANE here again with my take on this months "Birds and Bees" challenge.

I started off with a nice easy background, using the SMALL DOTS mask... by spritzing it then turning it over onto my paper, the SEQUIN WASTE OPEN background stamp, and the A4 SWIRL MASK.
I then stamped the bird and the cage from the FREE AS A BIRD stamp set, added the sentiment...et voila!!!
I am loving seeing your entries for our challenge, and you still have time to enter to win a stamp set, hope to see you THERE. xx

The Pigeon and the Statue!!

Hi there all you Artistic Stamper Fans!!..Well the snow has gone...hopefully never to return, and it looks like spring is finally here...well there are reassuring signs when I look out of my kitchen window and see the sure signs of my plants starting to spring to life...yaaaaay!!.
Sooooo....for my first card for this months challenge, which is "Birds and Bees", I thought I would make a card that would hopefully put a little smile to your face....

.....it made me kinda chuckle when I got the idea....or maybe I'm just a bit nuts!! lol,...anyway, when I saw the statues from the ARCHITECTURE stamp set, it reminded me of every statue you ever see....full of pigeon poop!!!...

The background was super easy, I was messing around with some watercolour paints and had plenty still left on my craft mat, so I picked it up with the polystyrene base that you get from supermarket pizzas and just dabbed it on some card..

I then stamped one of the statues, cut it out and added some white paint drips on the head and shoulders..

I then stuck it on my card, added a column which is taken from the same fabulous stamp set, then I stamped out the little birds from the FREE AS A BIRD stamp set, cut them out and added them to the statue. The quote is computer generated... I think it is very apt!!!!

I look forward to seeing all your entries in our April "Birds and Bees" challenge.

JANE

Rustic Tag by Shilpa

Hello Everyone,

Shilpa here,

Today I would like to share with you a tag...which is the theme of July challenge at Artistic stamper

I've used here Bird stamp from Artistic Stamper Birds of a Feather set,  AS Calligraphy mat 13, AS Free as a bird set.

I've small step by step for this tag,

I chose thick chipboard to make this tag. To start with I applied thick layer of modelling paste and stamped on it with AS Calligraphy mat text at one corner. On other corner I used stencil and modelling paste. Let it dry completely.

For base, I applied black gesso. It looks exactly like this..somewhere you will find the texture. :)

As I wanted rustic look, I applied distress paints - Gathered Twigs, Antique Bronze, Pine needles, cracked Pistachio with dry brush.

To highlight texture, I gently applied Inka gold old silver on raised area. 

this is a close up view.

 I stamped the bird with black archival ink and colored it with watercolors.

Leaf stamp is from AS Botanical plate2, which I stamped with distress paint, fussy cut it.

 Frame is from Tim Holtz industrial stickers

Are you liking it? Do let me know !! :)

And don't forget to participate in our monthly challenge to win fabulous stamps from Artistic stamper.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I'll be here with another project in two weeks, between you can find more mixed media inspiration at my blog - Neon diary

Products used from Artistic Stamper:

Artistic Stamper Stamps: Birds Of feather set, Free As a Bird set, Botanical plate 2,

 Calligraphy mat 13

Ranger Archival Ink- Jet Black

Distress Paints - Pine Needles, Cracked Pistachio, Gathers Twigs, Antique Bronze

 Prima Modelling paste

Stencils/ Masks

Viva Decor Inka gold,

Easy to make : paintbrush cups

Hey you !
Do you sometimes feel like you could sort the various paintbrushes or pens you use on your artistic activites ? Why not make their storage containers just as nice as your other pieces of art ? And why not make these from cans, helping clean the planet at your tiny level ?
This is what today's project is aiming to...

Materials you have to gather :
3 cans of different sizes (or not ;-)
white gesso
a phone book
a string
black Archival Ink
and of course the amazing Artistic Stamper's Birds New Stamps

How-to :

1. Start by painting the cans with white gesso and then allow it to dry.
2. Once dry, tear 3 phone book pages up to size the tour of each can.
3. Using Black Archival Ink, stamp the birds and words all along the width.
4. Glue each paper on each can.
5. Tie up the string around each can.

Et voilà !

Thank you so much for stopping by, 

I hope you like my project and tutorial and am looking forward to reading your comments !

A tout bientôt !

Titbelsoeur 

FREE AS A BIRD TAG

Hi all,
Kat here,
I'm here today with my third & final piece for the month,
the design team focus is on Tissue Tape
I got so involved with playing with the distress stains
I forgot to take any step by step pictures, so I will talk you through the proses.
Here's my tag,

I started by gluing torn bits of book page to the tag with

Matte Medium & brushing the medium randomly

over the whole tag to create a resist,

then with pale blue acrylic paint,

splodged onto my craft sheet,

I dipped the Small Cog Stamp into it & stamped it on the tag,

next I took tumbled glass & bundled sage Distress Stains

covered the whole tag & wiped off the excess straight away,

with Jet Black archival ink, I stamped the

Small Cog Stamp & free as a bird stamps onto the tag,

I added a strip of Tissue Tape near the bottom edge,

then took ten seconds studio copper metal & tools,

stamped the cogs & the phrase as shown

to make a couple of embellishments, & stuck them on.

the Tissue Tape bow was made by

pulling some off the roll & twisting it to make a strand,

I arranged it into a bow & tied it with string,

I added it to the top of the tag & glued a

vintage button to the center.

for the bird,

I die cut him, ran him through a cuttle bug

with a texture fade embossing folder,

then inked him up with vintage photo Distress Ink

added an eye with black enamel,

the wing is made with black UTEE

& rubbed over with inka gold

I gave him a crown for his head &

drew a branch for him to sit on.

That's it,

Hope you like him!

see you next month,

have a creative day,

Kat x.

Shrunken Charm! by Nicky Cresswell

Good day fellow stampers, Minxy in the house today,

 As you may know we have a bit of a Baubles and Accoutrements theme going on this month.

{by the way they're on sale so snap em up while you can}

So after racking my brain I though i'd showcase the baubles and what better way to do that than with a fetching bag charm.

***

I started by stamping 2 bird cages from the birds of a feather & free as a bird plates with black archival ink and 3 of the larger birds from the birds of a feather plate in carnation archival ink onto some lightly sanded shrink plastic, I cut them out and punched the holes I needed with my crop-a-dile and inserted the jump rings before shrinking.

Once I had shrunk all the pieces down it was a simple task of putting it all together.

I started with one of the Idea-ology swivel clasps

Then I just played about with the layout and placement of the pieces and baubles till I was happy with the look. I love the large bauble from the set as you can harvest some of the tassel chain to add more character to the other areas of the piece. You can also hang things from it using jump rings like I did with the bottom bird.

So what will you do with your Baubles and Accoutrements!

Thanks for stopping by.

Stay Inky

Free as a Bird by Alison Hall

I don't know about you, but I love using corrugated card in my artwork! It provides great texture, & best of all, it's free! (Well, mine is, as I pinch the kit kat boxes from the newsagents where I work! Lol!)



For my birdy hanger, I used the lovely 'Free as a Bird' and 'Birds of a Feather' stamp sets, and also the Bare Tree, which is such a useful little stamp.

Here's how I made my piece

1. Take a piece of corrugated card (approx. 9" x 7"), and rip off most of the covering to reveal plenty of texture. Paint this with copper paint dabber, then, when it's dry, highlight the raised area with hazlenut and terracotta paint dabbers. Distress the edges with a Tim Holtz distress tool.

2. Now take a piece of white card (approx. 7" x 5"), and colour it with crushed olive, wild honey, rusty hinge, and forest moss distress inks. Use the same inks to stamp a background with the Bare Tree and Distressed Background. Dry this with a heat gun, then stamp the tree twice, and the flock of birds (from Birds of a Feather) with versamark ink, and emboss the images with vintage photo distress embossing powder. Use the distress tool on the edges, then ink them with forest moss DI.



3. Stamp the bird box and wren from Birds of a Feather, and the birdcage and phrase from Free as a Bird, onto book pages with black ink. I used pages from a book on birds to keep up the theme, but any will do. Tear around the phrase, and ink the edges with black. Cut out the other images.



4. Assemble the backgrounds and images as shown, then add copper coloured eyelets to the top, and thread with copper bead chain.

Hope you like my little piece of art, and thanks for looking!

Free as a Bird - by Sioux Jenneys

Hello everyone! It's my turn (Sioux) again and I'm here to share an ATC :)

1. Created the background on watercolour paper by swooshing Distress Ink Tattered Rose and Scattered Straw

2. Stamped the Gibson Girl 4 in Adirondack Archival Jet Black and coloured with Distress Inks Worn Lipstick for the lips, Tattered Rose for the face and Rusty Hinge for the hair 'cos she looks like a red head to me! LOL. Cut and Dry Nibs make this really easy as you can pick out the finest detail.

3. Stamped the bird cage from the Free as a Bird plate and embossed in gold and the sentiment in Adirondack Archival Jet Black

4. The corner detail was, in effect, a free stamp!! It was on one of my Artistic Stamper plates that obviously had been left behind as part of the manufacturing process...not saying yours will have one for sure but you never know!! Just inked up the area I needed :)

5. Tattered the edges and inked up with Distress Ink Brushed Corduroy to finish off.

6. Could not stop myself and did what I do a lot with ATC's and made it into a card
....adding a T!m corner scroll (Ooh! I do love that stamp!) in Distress Ink Pumice Stone (second stamping) and sentiment in Adirondack Archival Coffee

See you soon!

xoxo Artyjen

Sing A Rainbow... A New Challenge!

Morning Peeps... wow, what a first month we had and I would like to say a HUGE thank you for all your lovely comments, entries to the challenge and support! The winner for the August challenge will be announced on Friday (Sept 3rd) so please be sure to check back. In the meantime, I have a brand new theme for September's challenge... which is ... RAINBOWS. So, you can use rainbow images or colours... to enter, all you have to do is make a piece of art, add in the theme and if you use Artistic Stamper stamps on your piece, your name is automatically entered twice into the draw... which means you could win £15 worth of Artistic Stamper stamps plus Kling-On to mount them onto.

For my entry I made a couple of cards using Alcohol Inks and Glossy Cardstock.

Card 1


Using the colours of the rainbow in Alcohol Inks - I always remember the order with the old saying... Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain... so I used Red Pepper, Sunset Orange, Sunshine Yellow, Clover Green, Sail Boat Blue, Cool Peri and Purple Twilight Alcohol Inks. I started by drawing a line of ink onto the applicator tool felt, going through the spectrum so I had a pad full of lines - make sure not to get the lines touching each other too much otherwise the colours will muddy - then I dragged the tool across the glossy card in a sweeping movement, so the lines transferred to the card, repeating this until the card was covered in stripes, then I turned the card around and did the same again so I made a plaid effect background.




I then made some more coloured glossy card, this time by dropping ... erm, drops of ink onto the card, then blasting the inkspots with air from an aircan - you know the type that you can get to clean out nooks and crannies on your keyboard? Well, these are FAB for giving an inksplat look. Once this card was covered, I stamped the birdcage - from the Free As A Bird set onto it in Black Archival ink. A tip when using Archival on glossy card - heat dry it otherwise fingers smudge the image :O)) I cut out the birdcage and then made a collage on the plaid background using more of the birdy stamps.I added a piece of ribbon and stamped the little wren onto more of the splatty card, cutting him out and popping him onto silicone glue so he stands proud. The finishing touch was adding a little Idea-ology birdy on a jump ring.



CARD 2



Is a diddy card... using the same principal of making a stripey background, but this time keeping it stripey... I stamped a mini sentiment from Tim Holtz collection and then added a border - with more Tim stamping on it... again in Archival ink.I stamped two of the Flower Blooms flowers onto offcuts of the stripey card and layered them together with a Prima gem in the middle.



The birdies in the background are from the Birds of a Feather set and are stamped again in Archival and then I just dragged the inkpad around the edge of the card to finish it all off.

So, if you fancy a challenge and want to join in, please add your name and pic to the linky below - the challenge will be open until September 30th - and the winner announced shortly afterwards. Also, please can you leave a comment when you add your linky entry please? That way I can make sure I don't miss visiting you :O)) Thanks for looking... have a goodly day...

Hels x