Altered Box

Hi everyone, Astrid here with my second project for October.

Even though it is nearly Halloween, I decided not to make another Halloween project, but to alter this box as a gift for a crafty friend.

This box started life as a rather ugly purple cardboard jewellery box (stupidly I forgot to take a "before" picture), but I liked the lining on the inside and thought it would be perfect to be altered as a little gift for a crafty friend.
I started by adding some texture to the lid with  the new 6 x 6 Chevron mask, using some Paper Artsy Grunge Paste. When dry I painted the whole box with French Roast Fresco Paint and dried with my heat gun. I then added a layer of Distress Crackle Paint in Tea Dye and when that had dried and cracked I then painted the whole box again with Bundled Sage Distress Paint, the last step was to add some Walnut Stain Distress Stain over the lid to seep into the cracks created by the crackle paint.

Here is a close up of the crackle, love how it turned out over the raised bits of the mask.

Next for some decoration of the lid.
I took a Tim Holtz Ornate Plate and altered it with the help of Salty Ocean and Bundled Sage Distress Paints

Next I stamped one of the sayings of the new Grungy Greetings stamps on a scrap of book paper and cut out just the word Love. I glued it behind the opening in the ornate plate added a couple of little brads and adhered it to the lid of my box.

Now for the content: I glued some scrapbook paper to a piece of an old cereal box and stamped the bobbin from the Katie Fox A Stitch in Time set 3 times, cut them out and inked around the edges a bit.

Next I wound some bits of Antique Lace and Seam Binding around them and fitted them in the box.

The final step was to rub some Treasure Gold in White Fire around the edges of the box and over the raised bits and that was it, gift box complete....

Hope you like it and see you next time. Thanks for visiting and have a happy stamping time!

"Thinking of you...." Tag By Zuzu.

 

Hello... Zuzu here:
Well as I got my first ever die cutting machine (BigShot) at the beginning of this month, I HAD to do something that involved cutting out with my one and only die (so far). So I have made a tag that features a large flower and leaves.

Firstly I inked a large buff tag using distress stains and inks. I used Antique linen, vintage photo, peeled paint and worn lipstick. I applied the ink randomly using a blending tool. then i stamped on the Katy Fox  "postcard" stamp in black archival ink. next i used the new  Leaf background stamp. I used peeled paint distress ink and stamped over the full tag.

I cut out my "Tattered floral" flowers out of card and used the large broad petalled flower. I inked them with worn lipstick, fired brick and vintage photo . I cut out four of them, cutting sections out of the inner layers to make them easier to fold in to a cone shape... Tim Holtz has a tutorial on his blog that shows you what to do (his example is with a different die cut but the principal is the same.) you can find his step by step HERE.  once it was assembled i sprayed over it with Heirloom Gold perfect pearls mist. I also cut out some leaves (Astrid was visiting and had brought lots of dies for me to try out) and inked them.

Next i inked some plain card using worn lipstick, fired brick and vintage photo on enough card to stamp out my words "Thinking of you" and to make a backing mat for the main image... and I also inked a piece of card with just a light touch of peeled paint and vintage photo to print out my collage lady stamp... I used my paper distresser tool on all the edges (including the tag), then assembled all the pieces. The ribbon is a bit of calico i ripped off and inked with "pesto" alcohol ink. you dont need much if you add it to a touch of blending solution in a saucer and dip the fabric in to it till it soaks it up.
See you in a couple of weeks. 
Z x

Thinking of you on Halloween

Hello everyone, this is Astrid here with a little Halloween project, - a tag in two parts:

Now I love Halloween and Halloween projects, but for some reason I don't own many Halloween stamps, so this was a bit of a challenge for me, but hey ho, nothing like being creative with what you have....

These are the stamps and products I used.

Stamps used:
Inspiration Jars
Travel Labels
Grungy Greetings
Katie Fox Leaves
Other products
Tim Holtz Embossing Folder Eiffeltower and French script
Distress Paints: Antique Linen, Weathered Wood, Bundled Sage
Distress Ink: Gathered Twigs, Vintage Linen and Bundled Sage, Rusty Hinge, Wild Honey, Aged Mahogany
Archival Ink: Potting Soil
From my stash
Prima Mixed Media tag
Sizzix Difuser
String
Brown pen
Seam Binding
Graphic 45 Happy Haunting collection
A few embellishments and some seam binding
Hole punch and eyelets

I started by cutting a Prima Mixed media tag from my stash into two parts and then ran the top part through the Tim Holtz script embossing folder with one of the diffusers to give me an un-embossed part in the middle. I then coloured it with my three chosen colours of Distress paints by adding them to my craft sheet and then swiping the tag through it until I was happy with the result. I then added some Gathered Twigs Distress Ink and Archival Ink in Potting Soil around the edges.

Next I stamped one of the jars and one of the labels onto smooth stamping card with Potting Soil Archival Ink, coloured them with my chosen colours of Distress Ink and adhered them together. I tied a bit of string and a tiny label, made with some bits and pieces from my stash around the neck of the stamped jar and then adhered it to the tag.

At this point it looked a bit dull and not very Halloween like somehow. So a little fussy cut witch image from an old Graphics 45 collection came to the rescue. The Artistic stamper does not stock this one, but you can find the fabulous Steampunk Spells one HERE.

For the bottom part of the tag I stamped a sentiment from the new Grungy Greetings set in Potting Soil Archival

Next I punched some holes, set some eyelets and attached the two parts of the tag together with some string as you can see from the photo.

A bit more colour was added by stamping two leaves from the new Katie Fox set in Potting Soil and colouring with Distress Inks. A ribbon and little button finished it all off.

Well hope you like my little Halloween project. And don't forget, if you have not entered our challenge yet, there is still plenty of time to do so!! To see the deets just click HERE

Thank you for visiting and see you next time!

Faded Glory....

Hello everyone, Astrid here with my next project. Thank you for dropping by! I love the colours of Autumn as slowly but surely the glory of the warm summer this year starts to fade around us in nature. This time I would like to share two little projects with you:

They are both cards and as you can see, the colours of Autumn are prevalent.

For the first one I  wanted to play around with some textures and paints.
I used just two stamp sets from the Artistic Stamper,
The new Leaves set and the Numerical set, both from Katie Fox. The sentiment is from the Tim Holtz Simple Sayings set.
I started by cutting a bit of mount board and adding some texture with Paper Artsy Grunge Paste.

Once that had dried I messed about with a variety of acrylic paints, including some Paper Artsy Fresco Finish paints, until I was more or less happy with the result. I

 highlighted the raised bits a bit and added some stamping from the numerical plate in Archival Jet Black ink. I stamped one of the leaves on a separate bit of thin card, cut it out and then finished my panel by adding a bit of string, the leaf and my sentiment, also stamped on a separate bit of card.

I finished the card by mounting the panel onto a folded bit of Kraftcard and that was it.

Hope you like it and I apologize for the glare on the photo but it was getting dark already when I took them.

For the second card, I used texture as an important feature again, but this time using a texture folder (one of the new Spellbinders 3D Mbossabilities). This time I just used the leaves set.

I ran my card through the folder and then coloured with various colours of Distress Inks in Autumnal colours. Mainly Rusty Hinge and Barn Door with a bit of Gathered Twigs. I also used some Adirondack Dye Inks in Cranberry and Espresso. I then stamped the leaves and sentiment, using a technique I describe on my blog here if you are interested.

I mounted them on the card base with foam tape and then matted first on white and then Kraftcard.

Thank you for visiting and don't forget, there are still a few days left to take part in our Challenge where the theme this month is Autumn too.

All My Favourite Things

Hello everyone, Astrid here with my first project for July.
There is nothing I like quite so much as playing with Distress Inks and stamps and sometimes you need a quick and easy project that can be a little bring-along gift, and this is one of those.

I also LOVE creating tags, as those of you who know me will have realized by now....
My project today is a tag and holder made from another tag.
I started with a Size 10 tag, scored it 3" from the bottom and folded it up to form a pocket. Using my Inkblending tools, I coloured it with 3 colours of Distress Inks, Antique Linen, Fired Brick and finally some Gathered Twigs around the edges. I also added some bits of Tim Holtz Tissue Tape. I then stamped a sentiment from the Tim Holtz Way with Words set in Jet Black Archival Ink and highlighted the words with a white pen. Finally I  stamped two flowers from the.Botanical Set in Black Archival on to smooth white card, cut them out, coloured them a bit with some of the Distress Inks and then added them for decoration. I glued the pocket shut and then added some faux white stitches with a white pen around the edges.

The actual tag was made with a Size 8 tag. I cut about one inch from the bottom and coloured it with Distress Inks in Antique Linen and Gathered Twigs. I added some more Tissue Tape and added some background stamping with the Speckle background stamp and one of the stamps from the Katie Fox Encyclopaedia Botanica set in Gathered Twigs. I then stamped a large flower from the Botanical Set twice on smooth white card with Black Archival, cut them out and coloured them with Fired Brick Distress Ink and a bit of Adirondack Ink in Cranberry. I layered them one slightly on top of the other to form my vocal image.  Another little flower from the Botanical Set and a butterfly from the Katie Fox Encyclopaedia Botanica set finished  it all off.

Hope you like this little project, thank you for visiting like always and see you next time!

For the love of sewing

Hello everyone, Astrid here with my second project for May. Those of you that follow my own blog know that one of the things I love doing is decorating gift bags. Well, I have a friend who loves sewing and I thought it would be nice to bring her a little gift wrapped in a bag with a sewing theme.

To decorate the bag I used a large Manila #10 tag I inked it with three colours of Distress Inks, Weathered Wood, Stormy Sky and Victorian Velvet. Next I cut a piece of Manila Paper with one of my dies, coloured it with the same three Distress Inks, stamped the Calligraphic Mat 12 stamp over it in Stormy Sky and added it to the top of the tag. Next I stamped the postcard stamp from the Katie Fox Carte Postale set on a bit of scrapbook paper with Cobalt Blue Archival Ink, distressed the edges and adhered it to the tag. Now for the sewing elements, they came from the Katie Fox A Stitch in Time set and the Tim Holtz Attic Treasures set. All elements were stamped in Cobalt Blue Archival Ink again on various bits of scrapbook paper, cut out and adhered to the tag as shown with some flowers, cheesecloth and a bit of lace..

 The little buttons at the top came from my stash, but you can find very similar once here

After doing the front, and adhering it to the bag, I decided to do another tag for the back, using the same stamp sets:

The little banner was created with the help of the great Scrabble and Tags set and everything was finished with another button, some ribbon and a little rose.

Here you can see both sides together:

I inked around the edges  of the bag with some Vintage Photo, punched holes at the top for some string and the gift bag was complete.

Hope you liked it and have found some inspiration, and if you have not done so yet there is still a chance to play in our challenge. All you need to do is use words somewhere on your project.

Inspired by Nature and a bonus give away!!

Hello everyone, lovely to see you here and this is Astrid sharing my first little project for the lovely month of May.
Have I told you before that I love little books? Well I do and this time I decided to make an accordion book, inspired by nature as the title of this post would suggest, but also inspired by some of the wonderful nature themed stamps the Artistic Stamper stocks.

I used some sturdy Kraft card from my stash for the base of the book. Each of the panels is 9 cm wide and 13 cm high, this was dictated by the size of the stamps I wanted to use. To make 6 panels like this you will need two sheets of strong A 4 card and cut it along the long side to 13 cm (9") height and then score accordion style every 9 cm (3.5").

The little end bit you will have left after scoring the first bit of card is used to attach the second bit of card as you can see in the photo above.

Now for the fun of creating the panels: Cut 6 bits of Manila paper to 8 cm (3.25") by 12 cm (5"). Each of my panels was more or less done in the same way, and these are the products I used:

Ranger Distress Paints, in a variety of colours including the new Metalics.

Ranger Dylusion Sprays, I love how the colours seem to blend so well with the paints.

Ranger Distress Inks and two colours of Archival Ink, Jet Black and Library Green.

For this panel I blended purple and pink tones of paints, sprays and inks. The stamps I used were from the new Katie Fox Encyclopaedia Botanica collection. For the background, stamped in Picket Fence Distress Paint I also used the Tim Holtz Papillon set. I stamped the flowers and butterflies twice in Jet Black archival, once straight onto the background and once onto smooth stamping card. I then fussy cut the flowers only, and layered them on top of the first impression and the same with the butterflies. They were all coloured with Distress Inks.

Like I said,  all panels were done in similar ways. Here blues, greens and yellows were used, the background was stamped in Library Green Archival (I don't have any dark green Distress Paint yet) and the butterflies from the Papillon set were layered.

To be honest, this one is my least favourite. As you can see, I die cut an arch. The little girl is from the Garden plate 1, I also used a little stamp from the  Botanical 3 for the background and the Calligraphic Mat 12 to add some highlight to the arch. It was decorated with some punched flowers and die cuts from my stash.

The Hydrangea is from the Botanical 3 Plate, I also added some Tissue Tape from my stash. As you may have noticed, on several of these I added some shading around the stamped image with a charcoal pencil and a blending stump. I love doing this, as I think it makes the stamped images almost look three dimensional and adds depth.

Here I used the Dragon Fly from the Tim Holtz Classics No 1 and more tissue tape 

And here finally another flower from the Encyclopaedia Brittanica set by Katie Fox.

Now if you have ever made an accordion book, you will know there is a front and a back side. I decorated the back of my book simply with left over papers I had from the wonderful Graphics 45 French Country 8 x 8 collection.

The front and back panels were layered with bits and pieces from the collection and I used some ribbons and a little Tim Holtz clasp and some other bits and pieces to decorate and tie it shut.

Well, are you still with me??? 

Now to the give away: 

If like me you are slowly collecting  various colours of Distress Paints, here is a chance to add some more to your collection: I have three to give away, Weathered Wood, Salty Ocean and Wild Honey. They were sent to me in error and Jennie the Artistic Stamper very kindly said I could offer them as a give away!! All you need to do is leave a comment here and on my personal blog, and on Sunday the 19th I will pick a winner and announce it here on the blog.

Well, hope you like my project and thank you so much for visiting. Have a creative week!!