Earl's

Hi everyone hope you are all well, and feeling crafty!

Today I bring you a picture using the new stamps

 from Debbie Cotton.

I had this collage frame I covered the base in a cream 

acrylic paint and dried.

Next I used weathered wood, frayed burlap & pumice stone 

Distress paints

I put the three paints on a craft mat & spritzed with water & then

 I swept the cream painted board through the paint. I dried 

it and swept it through again and the spritzed

 the board with water, then dried with

a heat gun.

I grunge board with a Tim Holtz Die and painted with the 

fresco finish stone. Then I used the same distress

paints around the edges and a bit of 

aged mahogany then I blended

 it all with my finger.

I used the crafters workshop specimen stencil and put grunge paste through it. 

Once dried I painted the frame with Fresco's Finish french toast

& dried it. I then applied crackle glaze over the flat area's

 & allowed it to dry. I painted nougat over the top

 & applied white fire treasure gold.

I stamped the Earl's automotive stamp onto tissue paper.

And coloured it with mahogany distress paint.

I carefully cut out all the images

and stuck onto the sign

and canvas.

over the rest of the canvas at the bottom I used the A6 Boarders 

stamp and the cogs of the Tick Tock plate.

I fixed the sign with jump rings and fixed to the top

left hand side. All the stamps used here today are 

for sale at the Artistic Stamper. That's it from 

me today although I will be doing an extra 

post this month. Please feel free

 to leave a comment.

Dee x

Blue patina "number" plaque: By Zuzu

Today I have an altered plaque to show you. The plaque is the larger of the two you can find HERE. It's a nice cheap item to buy and alter.
I started by adding texture paste through a stencil and leaving it to dry and harden. then i painted it in a dark colour i mixed from raw umber and slate grey to look a bit like a bronze colour. I coated that with a crackle medium and then added some Indian turquoise. I think it has a nice "blue patina" look to it.  i let the crackles happen naturally and left everything to dry again.

once it was dry i sanded very lightly over the raised texture and along all the edges. i inked the edges with some vintage photo distress stains using a baby wipe to dab it on and off (i wanted it to be subtle)

Next i stamped sections of the Numerical plate by Katy Fox on to tissue paper. I sprayed the back of the tissue paper with some turquoise dylusions spray. i glued bits of the tissue in to place.

Next, I cut out some rectangles of grunge board and painted them with a mix of raw umber, slate grey and burnt sienna to try and mimic a rusty look. I sprayed some more of the grungeboard with turquoise spray and when it dried I stamped some of the numbers from the numerical plate, on to it. I cut out the numbers and glued them on to the rust painted rectangles. After that it was just a case of sticking on my rusty hook and the rusty "thingy" on the top.

thats it really...
see you in two weeks.
Z x
Edited to answer the question asked by a few people in the comments: the stencil was a "glimmer screen" and it came from the "ironworks" set. 

Through the arches... Last Guest Designer Post by Yvonne Fay

I can't believe it's almost the end of October already!  I've so enjoyed my time as Guest Designer, thank you to Emma and Jennie for giving me the opportunity, and for the great products too!  Thanks also to everyone who was kind enough to take the time to leave comments.

For my last project I thought I would do another card, something a little bit different...

London through the arches

To start, I cut the base from chipboard, the background from watercolour paper and 2 oval frames from co-ordinations paper, it then embossed the frames with a brickwork texture fade, then sanding off some of the raised areas.

Base, background and arches

sanded arches

For the background, I firstly coloured with PanPatels to create a night sky, then stamped the London scene from the London plate, masking off the top with a piece of torn paper as I didn't want a hard edge. I then stamped the fly birds from the Birds of a Feather Plate at the top.

Now, at this point I forgot to take step-by-step photos, but it's not too difficult to construct.
Score and fold the bottom of the background and stick to the base, which has been inked with distress ink and stenciled with puff paint and gilding cream.  To join the arches and background together,and to al low them to fold down to fit in an envelope I used grungeboard hinges coloured with distress ink and gelatos.

For the bunting I stamped the bunting from the London plate onto canvas with gelatos - colour the stamp with the gelatos then mist lightly with water. I cut the bunting apart, hole punched, then strung on some twine and draped around the arches.

As a wee detail, I stamped the sneakers stamp onto shrink plastic and added to the base of one of the arches along with some moss to finish off.  I hope you like my last project and I've added a few close up photos below to show some of the detail.  Thank you for looking,

Bye, Yvonne.

Tick Tock by Emma

Hi everyone!

It's time to show you my final project of November and it's been made using some more fab Distress Stains, which until the end of this month, you can find on offer, here at The Artistic Stamper.

So, time to share my creation and I hope you like it...

...and, here's how I made it!

To begin with I dabbed some Weathered Wood, Broken China and Antique Linen Distress Stain onto my craft mat, misted the stains with water and then applied my 20cm x 9.5cm sized tag over the stains, moving it around slightly to soak up all the colour. When you take the tag away, it leaves you with this gorgeous marbled effect on the background. I then inked up the Sequin Waste Open background stamp with the Weathered Wood Distress Stain and stamped the pattern all over the tag. Next, I inked up the clock face from the Tick Tock stamp plate with black Archival Ink and stamped around the edges, masking off the previous stamped image, each time to create an overlap of clocks as a border to my tag.

I then stamped the Mabel Lucie Attwell - Large White Rabbit image onto a square piece of white card and then stamped the same image again onto a separate piece of white card. I coloured both of the images in with alcohol pens but cut around the outline of the second White Rabbit image, which I will eventually be decoupaging over the top of the base image.

Next, I used some Grungeboard to die cut the Tim Holtz Weathered Clock and then, coloured all the die cut pieces with Weathered Wood Distress Stain. Attach the die cut clock to your base image of the White Rabbit, making sure the rabbit is in the centre of the clock and then trim away any of the excess cardstock. Take the cut out rabbit and layer this directly over the top of your first background image, using 3D foam pads for dimension. Adhere this completed section to your tag.

Using some papers from my crafty stash, I made up a rosette with the Tim Holtz, Decorative Strip Rosette Die and stuck this to the bottom section of my tag. I then stamped another of the large clock faces from the Tick Tock Stamp Sheet onto white card and cut this out. Using the hands of the clock that you've previously die cut from the Grungeboard, attach these with a brad, to the centre of your stamped clock face. I made sure that the hands weren't attached too tightly to the clock face, allowing you to move the hands around, so they will always tell the exact time that you want.

I inked up the "Tick Tock' wording from the Tick Tock stamp sheet with Black Archival Ink and stamped onto cream card, trimmed each of the edges to give a banner shape and then added it to the top of my tag.

As a finishing touch I coloured cream seam binding with some more of the Weathered Wood Distress Stain and tied it into a bow, through the hole in my tag.

So, that's about it from me for this month.

Thank you for taking the time to come and look at my creation and I'll look forward to reading your comments.

Bye for now and happy creating.

Emma x

Dance Bookmark by Alison

Hello Stampers! Today I have an inky bookmark to share with you.

I cut a piece of Grungeboard, 20 x 6 cm, then applied Distress Stains in faded jeans, dusty concord & chipped sapphire to it. The Distress Stains are still on special offer HERE, on The Artistic Stamper Website. I spritzed with water to blend the colours, then dried with a heat gun.

Next, I used Black Archival Ink to stamp the words from the Journaling Words & Creative Art Thoughts Plates repeatedly down the bookmark, then I inked the edges with the black ink. I stamped the small dancer from the Dance Plate, 3 times onto white card, using faded jeans, dusty concord & chipped sapphire Distress Inks, then cut them all out. I glued them to the bookmark, as shown in the photo, using Glossy Accents.

I smeared Rock Candy Distress Stickles all over the bookmark, then dried this with a heat gun. I used dusty concord Distress Stains to colour some seam binding, then stamped the word Dance with the black Archival Ink. I punched a hole at the top of the bookmark, added an eyelet & some of the seam binding, leaving a piece to add to the bottom edge. Finally, I added some crystal beads to the top to finish.

Thanks for looking,

Alison xx

Room for Improvement! by Nicky Cresswell

Good day fellow crafters, I hope you are well and happily creating art.

This is my last piece of the Mabel month and I saved the best for last.

I created a door plaque from a thick piece of cardboard.

I covered it with a sheet of retro grunge paper.

I then started by putting some chipboard letters onto squares of grungeboard, then covering with TSS metal, using the TSS tools to define the letters and jazz up the edges. I then smooched on some alcohol ink over the top to give a more grungy look.

I used some more chipboard letters coloured with distress ink and stamped with the 'star background' stamp, using the bubble as one of the O's, but it looked a little bare so I filled it by stamping the star inside.

I used the 'I'm forever blowing bubbles' mabel stamp coloured with my copics and then grungied up with distress inks.

 I stamped the 2 largest stars from the 'Star Plethora' plate, 1 on metal {which I embossed slightly} and one on grunge, and layered them up, and the finishing touches were a couple of retro grunge paper roses and an idea-ology hinge clip to hang it.

***

 And here is the finished door hanger perfect for any little Mabel's room

Thanks for stopping by, Until next time 

Stay Inky

Wearable Art! by Nicky Cresswell

So following on from Alison's fab pendant yesterday i figured you'd need a nice bracelet to go with it.

And not just any kind of bracelet either.. 

Oh no this one is made from grungeboard.

 And they are really easy to make, 

All you need is a sheet of grungeboard, a hitch fastner, a hole punch {i used a crop-a-dile}

Oh and some gesso, ink and stamps. {or whatever medium you want}

You want to cut your grunge into strips, 

You should be able to get 3 thick, or 2 thick 2 thin strips, depending what you want.

This one is roughly1½ inches and the length of the grunge.

I started by giving one side a coat of gesso, when this was dry I stamped 3 butterflies, 

The large cog butterfly and the small plain one both from the Tick Tock Butterflies plate, 

I then made a mask for each butterfly using post it's, 

I covered them with there respective masks and inked over the whole thing with barn door distress ink.

I then removed the masks... I found a little of the ink had bled in under my masks, but not to worry as i was going for grungy. 

Next I got some more gesso and carefully painted inside each of the butterflies, the 2 smaller ones only had one extra coat but the large one took a couple of coats to cover the cogs.

I spritzed over the whole piece with some perfect pearls to give a bit of a shimmer, which i dabbed off a bit creating the kinda distressed blotchy look.

Added one of Tims phrases, and doodled a few squiggles with a black permanent marker.

 I coloured the inside with just a black stazon stamp pad, not worrying too much about all over coverage. 

I punched a small hole in one end for the hitch fastener, and a large hole the other end for the fastener to pop through to hold the bracelet in place.

And there you go, something cool to wear..
And it fits in with this months challenge as the theme is 'Spring'.. Details can be found HERE

Thanks for stopping by

Stay Inky

Mabel Lucie Attwell by Tina Barnett

Hi Crafty People!

I am back with one of my favourite stamps from The Artistic Stamper range of Mabel Lucie Attwell stamps.

I have gone all grungy again lol! This time I have stamped using Tim Holtz spiced marmalade distress ink.

I have only used this colour when shading the image and stamping the background. The grunge swirls are of course also Lord Tim of Holtz and also coloured with the same ink. Back to the background stamp, this wonderful stamp is the Baroque Background from The Artistic Stamper . It is a fabulous background! I can't stop using it!
I have aged the edges of the matts and the main card and sentiment. The matts and the sentiment have been paper pieced to give a different look.
The sentiment is brilliant! This is also from The Artistic Stamper in their sentiment range.

I have finished off with a few gems, ribbon and flowers to add and aged but bling finish! I have so much fun just using one colour! Give it a go and come back and leave me a comment so I can come and look.

Bye for now !!

Tina xxxxxxxxxx

Hels Tag of Christmas - #3

Goodly Morning... as promised, I am back with Hels' Tags of Christmas Tag #3 to giveaway... another one totally inspired by all those amazing ones by the Duke of Distress... oh and while I think about tags... did you know that Jennie is running a Tag Withdrawal competition??? Deets are all HERE and the linky-thingy is in the sidebar :O))



On with my tag and how I made it... it is up for grabs to one randomly chosen comment :O)) The winner will be announced on Thursday 30th December 2010. Anyways, how I made this... firstly, I smooshed Frayed Burlap DI onto the craft sheet and spritzed with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearl Mists and dipped the tag into the inkyness, drying with a heatgun and re-dipping until I had the look I wanted. Next, I added a few drops of Fired Brick Re-Inker to a Mini Mister of water and lightly spritzed the tag. I popped a generous layer of Fired Brick Cracklepaint and allowed this to dry. Once dried, I stamped the music score in Walnut Stain DI and wiped off the excess from the Cracklepainted bit. (this is a nice look as the smudged DI goes into the crackles making it look a bit... erm... like me... old that is ROFL) I made a paper rosette using the Seasonal Paper Stash and the Rosette Alterations Die and popped an Idea-ology Crown into the centre. Behind the rosette is some mini tinsel from my own stash and... some dyed elasticated Idea-ology Trim - this was coloured with the Fired Brick Re-Inker mix and then dried on a radiator... drying with a heat gunmakes it shrivel up!!!



Along the bottom of the tag I added some of the flowery Trim, which had been coloured with the Fired Brick Re-Inker mist I had made. I popped a bit of tinsel behind this for a bit of extra bling. Next I made a little postcard using a Seasonal Sticker, mounted onto mountboard, sanded, edged with Walnut Stain and then stuck into a Memo Pin. The Facet at the top of the tag was stuck onto some Seasonal Stash paper using Glossy Accents and then fastened with a Jump Ring. Finally, I used some White UTEE on Grungeboard numbers, heating it til it bubbled and then adding smidges of Black Dabber to age it.




So, would you like to own this tag??? I hope you like it and... I just need to take this opportunity to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has joined in with the monthly Challenge this month - WOWZERS we have had a seriously huge amount of entries so if I haven't got around to yours yet, please bear with, I am on my way LOL Thanks for looking and have a grand day! TTFN

Hels x