Star Card by Gemma

I have a new messy square card to share with you all for my post today using one of my first stamps from The Artistic Stamper. It was a very loved stamp but one I had completely forgotten about, and it was lovely to come across it and love it again, but then who doesnt love a good numeral/number stamp. 

My Process

I started by cutting a piece of white card to fit my card blank and then creating a border around the card by masking off the edges with washi tape. Once that was done I gently tapped on some Color Burst ( a little really does go a long way) and sprayed it with water. I did this twice drying between layers adding a lot of water to the first layer and a little to the second. Over this I stamped the large dot stamp in ink before removing the washi tape.

Once dry I stamped over the whole piece of card with a script stamp and black ink. On a separate piece of white card, I drew a star using the star mask as a template and stamped in the center with the number stamp and black ink. After cutting the star out I glued it to the background and added some detail with black and white pens.

xx Gemma xx

Products from The Artistic Stamper

Calligraphic Mat 12

Large Dotty Background

Family Values Number stamp

Star Mask

Trying something new for the new year

 It's my first post of the new year for The Artistic Stamper Creative Team, and I wanted to try something new. So I had a play with air drying clay. 

 I shaped the skull and upper body from air drying clay. Air drying clay feels very different to normal clay and much closer to paper clay. The biggest difference I found to normal clay was that it was much harder to join pieces together and to make it nice and smooth. It was my first try so with practice I am hoping the joining and smoothing will get easier, as well as my very, very basic sculpting skills. The lower body came from my sofa which unfortunately met with an accident over the Christmas holiday ( I am all for recycling/ upcycling) 

While waiting for that to dry, I laid out several strips of masking tape onto one of my glass mats. After painting a coat of PaperArtsys French Roast over the top, I took the Randon Dots stamps and stamped randomly with Eggplant, and white paints. After that dried I decided to go over the top with the same stamp and black Archival ink.

Once the clay was dry, I painted the body and skull with base layers of eggplant, white and black paint.

I then repainted the skull and body with the same colours, before giving the girl some hair and a hat made from air drying clay.

 I then painted the hair with PaperArtsy French Roast and the hat with eggplant. I also painted white spots on the hat and top with white paint using the end of a paint brush. I used a black paint pen to make dots on the skull.

Once the masking tape was dry I glued them individually to the base using gel medium, I then stamped on the ribbon with Archival ink and the Random Dot stamp before gluing and wrapping the ribbon around the middle section.

I had fun with this, it's great to try something new. If you haven't ever entered the monthly challenge before, maybe that can be your something new for the new year. This month's theme is anything goes, I have loved looking at the entries so far 

Gemma x

Products from The Artistic Stamper

Random Dots Stamp

French Roast Paint

Black Archival Ink

Tag on my Journal page by Shilpa

Hello Everyone,

Shilpa here,

Hope you are liking our challenge theme this month- Tag. I've seen some fabulous entries already....

you still have time to join in the fun to win some exciting stamps from Artistic stamper.

I would like to share my second post for this month with tag.

I incorporated tags in my journal page.

I've used floral stamps from Botanical plate 1

Random dots background stamp and  Calligraphy Mat stamp.

To start with I adhered tag and textured papers, washi tapes, tissue papers on my page. I gave base coat of thin gesso. Next I applied acrylic paints and inks, spritzed water to allow them to spread. Dried them completely with Ranger Heat tool.

For texture, I used stencil and Prima modelling paste, at some places it took colors from background. To highlight them I used Inka Gold. I stamped texture with text and random dots.

I prepared two more tags which are stamped with Artistic Stamper flowers. I colored them with Big Brush pens.

Hope you enjoyed step out tutorial.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Products used from Artistic Stamper:

Stamps- Botanical plate 1, Random Dots, Calligraphy Mat 

 Distress Paints,

Big Brush Pens

Archival Inks

 Prima Modelling Paste

Gentle Journalling

Hello all, Alison (butterfly) here.  I've been trying to be gentle with myself in the run-up to my big journey.  It's been so busy round here that I needed the little play time I've had lately to double as mind-calming relaxation, so I just did some gentle journalling in the pages of a book.  It's only looking at it now that I realise how much of a story it's telling about my imminent adventure!

All being well, I should be en route to the States later today - yes, the passport arrived with the visa inside just in time!  I'll be in New York working on a production of Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine.  So while these pages provided a little respite in a crazy August of work and admin and preparation and packing, they also clearly have that sense of taking flight into new adventures built right into them, along with some ancient text.  (Okay, it's not ancient text I'll be working on, but it is more than four centuries old!)

I started from the idea of wanting to "preserve" some of the original book text, and I used Katy Leitch's butterfly silhouettes to do it.  They're stamped in Versamark and then clear-embossed.

Next came a wash of Chalk Fresco paint, and while that was still wet, I swept some Turquoise on too.  (Both colours are from the new Limited Edition JOFY set.)

Through all the later stages I did my best to keep them clean and clear so that the text would stay fully present.  I do like how they'll still catch the light and gleam at certain angles.

I used one of the Artistic Stamper masks to create my largest bubbles of positivity sweeping across and up the page spread.  (That seems to be the direction my art journal pages move in - look!) I sponged through the mask with Faded Jeans and Broken China Distress Inks and then did some shading and highlighting with pastel pencils.

Over that I stamped the Artistic Stamper Large Random Dots in both the Chalk and the Turquoise.  And finally I did some spattering with the inner stick of the Dylusions White Linen spray.

I seem to be a little bit obsessed with the meadow grasses from Tim's Spring Sprung stamp set at the moment, so they put in an appearance along the foot of the page.  And I used the Mini Polka Dot Background to add extra texture around the sky.

The tags had been soaked in tea and coffee, and then I stamped the beautiful Calligraphy Mat 4 in Sepia Archival Ink.

The large words from Journalling Words 2 are stamped in Sepia, as are the blots and splotches from the Katy Leitch Messy Art plate.  The big words got a bit of clear embossing for that magical extra shimmer. 

Once they were glued down, I used a couple of Inktense pencils to shade and outline them.  I really love how that makes them pop against the turquoise sky behind. And I tied some rustic twine through the tops of course.

There's a little bit of Vintage Photo and Gathered Twigs inking all the way around the edge, but that's about it.  This was just a little oasis of calm in my crazy August, and I had a lovely gentle time playing with it!

Thanks so much for stopping by.  There's still a week to enter our Anything Goes challenge this month - no need to use Artistic Stamper stamps, but if you do you get two entries to the prize draw.  Hope to see you there.

Ingredients used:

Artistic Stamper stamps: Journalling Words 2, Calligraphic Mat 4, Large Random Dots, Mini Polka Dots, Messy Art

Artistic Stamper masks: Large Dot Mask

Dylusions - White Linen

Fresco Finish Paints - Chalk and Turquoise from the new JOFY Limited Edition

Archival Inks - Olive and Sepia

Versamark embossing ink

Distress Inks - Faded Jeans, Broken China

Clear Embossing Powder

Manila Tags

From my stash: twine, book, Spring Sprung stamps, tea and coffee!

Copper birdz by Dee Adams

 

Hi everyone!, i am thrilled to have been chosen to join the Artistic Stamper Creative Design team. I would like to thank Jennie, for all the fantastic stamps I will be designing with over the coming year. I hope you all enjoy my creations and are inspired by my work to create your own interpretations. So here is my first piece for the Artistic Stamper using the Neil Walker Birdz A6 stamp plate.

I stamped the bird stamp onto a copper sheet with black archival ink (you can use any cloud metal) then I heat set it with my heat gun. I then picked up the copper with tongs and held it over the naked flame on my gas cooker, you will see a green flame it only takes a few seconds for the colour to change. BE VERY CAREFUL DON'T TOUCH UNTIL IT HAS COOLED DOWN.

Using a stamp matt, follow the stamped image with a pointed teflon tool. Once completed flip it over and puff it out using a paper stump. fill it in with polyfiller or glossy accents, once dry stick black card onto back, so that it has a flat surface to stick onto the main piece. Carefully cut it out.

Take a piece of black card, and using a bronze acrylic paint, dab it through the mini tile stencil. Cut this into rectangles, and glue one of the copper birdz onto it, repeat so all of the birdz are done.

Using grey board, I stencilled grunge paste through the leaf and swirl border stencil and dried.  I then applied haystack and honey dew fresco finish acrylic, Using cut and dry foam (or your fingers if you wish!). I followed theses colours with smoked paprika, pumpkin soup, and a small amount of south pacific. Once dried i applied blood orange to the artistic stamper random dot stamp, and stamped it randomly, followed by south pacific and pumpkin soup. I distressed the sides and sponged spiced marmalade around the edges.

I didn't like the colours so i went over with a thin coat of fired brick distress paint. 

White fire treasure gold was applied around the grunge leaf pattern. Then everything was mounted to black card.

I hope you have all enjoyed my first piece, I look forward to reading any comments (be kind!!)

Les Fleurs

Hi all, Alison (butterfly) here, with a pair of tags for you today.  It will come as no surprise to regulars that they use Katy Fox's beautiful botanical stamps... I seem to be obsessed with them!  (Remember, you can click on the photos if you need a closer look.)

So I started with a couple of plain manila tags, and inked them up with Tim's wrinkle-free distress technique and some spritzing and flicking.  I layered in some stencilling, rays and letters with Broken China and Vintage Photo Distress Inks.

Then I added some background stamping with the Artistic Stamper Large Random Dots.  They're stamped in Picket Fence Distress Paint, and then I used a white pen to add a little dimensional shading.  I also stamped the Sequin Waste in Peacock Feathers - which you can see in a later photo.

The main stamp for the first tag is from Encyclopaedia Botanica, from Katy's first release.

And the second tag uses the large flower from Botanical 2.  On each of them, I've used a very light wash of Mermaid Fresco paint to just highlight the flower heads a little.

 

The adorable little Les Fleurs label is also from that second set.

It's simply stamped on card in Black Archival and then torn and inked, and positioned to complement the flower stamping.

Regulars at Words and Pictures will see that I've created some new glass pebbles for this project.  Rather than sticking my glass pebbles onto book pages, as I've done previously, this time I created some musical embellishments!

I spritzed some colour onto some card (Dylusions and Perfect Pearls Mists), and then stamped the Music Background over the top in Jet Black Archival.  

Then you just glue on the pebbles (the sort you use to fill vases and so on) using gel medium - I use gloss, but I think any would do - wait until dry and then cut around the pebbles.  I do love how they catch the light!

I've also been having another little play with the beeswax (loved my first go on some journalling pages also using Artistic Stamper stamps and stencils).  I painted melted beeswax onto some book pages, and tore and inked them.  

You get a lovely translucence from the beeswax, and I really like the look of ancient parchment that it gives the paper.

As you can see, I also added some Idea-ology cogs and gears - somehow the composition just needed them - and then I simply couldn't resist the urge to mount the tags onto corrugated cardboard (another obsession).

This time it's had a rough coat of a couple of paint colours that complemented the tags, and then a good bit of inking with Gathered Twigs around the roughened edges.  (And here's that Sequin Waste stamping - such a cool background texture stamp!)

A little bit of crinkle ribbon, dyed with Distress Stains and Paints - the paints give it that lovely opaque look - and tied with paper string to top the whole thing off.

You can probably tell from these tags that I'm longing for Spring.  

Again, I caught one of those odd pockets of sunshine to take some of these photos, but I hope you are all keeping safe and dry in these storms in the UK, and not too cold in the US, and generally happy, safe and sound wherever you are in the world.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and if you've been using Distress products then come and play along in this month's challenge here at The Artistic Stamper where that's all you need to do: Use Distress.  Hope to see you there!

Ingredients used:
Artistic Stamper stamps: Katy Fox - Encyclopaedia Botanica and Botanical #2; Backgrounds - Music Background, Large Random Dots, Sequin Waste
Tim Holtz Layering Stencils
Melt Art Natural Beeswax
Distress Inks - Broken China, Vintage Photo, Peacock Feathers
Distress Paints - Picket Fence
Distress Stains - Peeled Paint, Broken China
Archival Inks - Jet Black, Sepia
Fresco Paints - Mermaid
Dylusions - Dirty Martini, Cut Grass
Perfect Pearls Mists - Turquoise
Inkssentials White Pen
Idea-ology Findings - Sprocket Gears
From my stash: book pages, corrugated cardboard, Idea-ology paper string