The Dragonfly by Jane

Here is another card that I have made to hopefully inspire you to join in this months challenge where the pompt is "words". I so wish you could see how vibrant this card is in real life, but as with any bling or neon colours, it is so hard to capture on a photo.

The Artistic Stamper products used:

insects and butterflies

dragonfly words

sequin waste open

tracy scott background 6

Happy crafting lovely people

JANE

Butterfly Friends by Jane

I was watching Hochanda on TV yesterday....I'm always watching Hochanda!!!!... especially when Lou Withers is on, who doesn't love a bit of Lou!!. Anyway, on her show there were some Brusho's, and some new brusho's called Sprinklit. you sprinkle this stuff on top of your brusho's and it makes them sparkle...I ordered some, my brusho's haven't seen the light of day for ages now, so I got them out, if you don't have any I would definitely recommend you do.

I started this card with some texture paste, stamped into it while it was still wet, then once dry I sprinkles the brusho powders on and squirted water on them, I love how they merge and mingle.Can't wait for my Sprinklits to arrive!!

The Artistic Stamper Stamps used:

sequin-waste-open

insects-and-butterflies

words-and-sayings

JANE

Mixed Media Magic by Jane

Mixed media...who doesn't love it!!. I love the style, I love watching people do it...actually  I spend more time watching other people doing it than I actually do it!!! So for this months challenge "Mixed Up" says mixed products and techniques, which is what I have done for my sample. I have used stamps, spray inks, stencils, gilding flakes, actually I like the effect of the gilding flakes.  I first glued up a Tracy Scott stamp and stamped the texture paste, then added the flakes, gorgeous, and I think I will be doing that technique again. I have to confess that I was making this into a journal cover, but cut it upside down so the spine was on the wrong side, so just cut the spine off, I can always cut a new journal front and glue this on the right way.

The Artistic Stamper products used;

sequin-waste-open

calligraphy-mats

tracy-scott-midi backgrounds

swirl-mask-a4

I look forward to seeing your "Mixed Up" creations.

JANE

The Sound Of Music by Jane

My favourite movie by far is The Sound Of Music!!. I have it on DVD, but I still have to watch it when it comes on TV, so as this months challenge is all about "music", then obviously I have to interpret a song from that film. Yes....I can hear you groaning, heck, she is using that stencil again!!!....but I just love it, so I'm not gonna apologise for it!!!. I have used the DOG ROSE stencil to interpret the edelweiss...yes, give me a bit of poetic licence!!!..but it also shows how versatile that stencil is!!. I have also used the SEQUIN WASTE OPEN stamp to add a bit of texture in the background by scraping a small amount of texture paste on my card and stamping the sequin waste stamp into it.

JANE

Jane's thoughts

For this months "Black and White" challenge I have decided to make a little book of thoughts, inspirational quotes, positive affirmations...stuff like that. I made the spine myself as the eileen hull spines were not long enough, this is a 6x6 book. I rounded the corners of the spine with my newest purchase, the WRMK corner chomper...I love it, my little corner rounder punch just doesn't do the job on anything thick, but these are wonderful.

The Artistic Stamper products that I have used:

Tracey Scott background 6

Sequin Waste open

Faces stamp set

Creative Art Thoughts

Hope to see your wonderful creations

Jane

All Woman!! by Jane

This month's challenge...."celebrating women". what a fabulous subject!!. however you interpret it, you cannot deny that the female of the species are pretty damn awesome....well... I know that I am!!! I am not claiming to be some kind of superwoman, but when I look back at what I have achieved, and pretty much on my own with not a lot of help from anybody else, (my hardest problem is asking for help!!).. I think I have done amazing...so there you are!!....I am going to celebrate the magic that is me, and all you fabulous females out there.

to create the background I have used :

SEQUIN WASTE BACKGROUND STAMP

CALLIGRAPHY MAT 12

for the main image I have used :

NUDES

and the little word is from the

ARCHITECTURE stamp set

JANE

Jane's Junk Journal

Hi Guys.  I am still addicted to my journal making, so I took the opportunity to do a green journal, literally and figuritively!!. I have been wanting to do a junk journal for a while now, so have been collecting used envelopes, junk mail, bits of odd paper,etc... I see plenty on pinterest, and youtube, and they all look amazing, but I have to say that mine just looks like a collection of rubbish at the moment..thank heavens for gesso!!!

Anyway, the challenge this month is "go green", and so I have done my journal cover in mainly green inks, with plenty of Artistic Stamper products.

For the background I started with the CALLIGRAPHY MAT 12 and the SEQUIN WASTE OPEN stamps. then I used the A4 SWIRL MASK with texture paste. Then the two dragonflies are from the INSECTS & BUTTERFLIES set, then finally a bit of texture from one of the stamps from the MINI BACKGROUNDS set.

How will you interpret our challenge for this month?...I look forward to seeing your creations.

JANE

If friends were flowers....

Hi there you lovely crafty people. Please forgive me for my lateness in posting my work to this blog today, when I tell you why I am late, you will all understand why!!...you see...I was cleaning...and very painfully de-cluttering my craft room, well...as you all know, it is like Christmas again as I discovered things that I totally forgot I had ever had, oh the joy, mind you, the de-cluttering is not going very well....a couple of scraps of paper have gone in the bin...and taken back out again...twice!!..before I got my brutal head on and reminded myself....IT IS JUST PAPER!! Anyway I have had a fabulous day.

Now onto my card that I have made for this months "Anything goes" challenge.

I did the background with the A4 SWIRL  and the SEQUIN WASTE OPEN background stamp.

I actually did the flower on another project by stenciling the DOG ROSE with modelling paste, but hated it on the background, so I cut it out and stuck it onto this project, then finished off with the from the BOTANICAL 3 stamp set.

Happy crafting to you all, hope to see you in the Anything Goes challenge.

JANE

The Leaf and the Ladybird!!

Hello all you fabulous crafters!!. JANE here to give my take on this months "Anything Goes" challenge. But even tho it is an anything goes theme...hmmmmm...I have trouble when there is just too much choice and too many gorgeous stamps to play with!!

My piece today started off life as a gesso stamped image of a leaf from the SKELETON LEAVES stamp set, with inks sprayed on and a bit of  SEQUIN WASTE stamping, 

but... I just couldn't get along with it, so I cut out the leaf, crumpled it up a bit, stamped out the little ladybird from the INSECTS AND BUTTERFLIES stamp set, added some glossy accents to it then once dry, cut it out and glued it to the leaf.

I then made a new, nicer background with some inks and the CALLIGRAPHY MAT 12 stamp, then added the leaf....result, happier me!!

Hope you can all join in this months ANYTHING GOES CHALLENGE

Lepidopterist???

My hand is in the air..."Hello, my name is Jane and I have a butterfly stamp addiction!!"....so that makes me a environmentally friendly lepidopterist, I dont collect the real ones, and put them in glass cases, I just have an obsession for the rubber sort!!....along with other tiny obsessions of cardboard, circles, stencils..etc..lol. Anyway, This months challenge title is backgrounds, and as I have said previously, I have a huuuuge pile of them, but do I go to them when I need one...oh no...I go and make another pile!!!

I  started off this piece by stamping the SEQUIN WASTE BACKGROUND stamp, then put clear embossing paste through the A4 SWIRL MASK, left it to dry, spritzed with spray inks, then stamped the fabulous CALLIGRAPHY MAT 12 stamp, and to finish off, I stamped and fussy cut the butterflies from the INSECTS AND BUTTERFLIES stamp set.

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

Big Red Flowerby Jane France

Hi Guys, JANE here again.  Well... I wonder how many of you had a nice Valentines Day!!!.. I got my usual bottle of champagne from my other half, I tell him not to get me flowers....I hate cut flowers, much prefer to see them growing in soil or a pot, anyway....I would much rather receive a bottle of bubbly, a bit of luxury now and then.....yummmm. 

We are still on with the "Roses are Red" challenge, so I was inspired to make this card using one of the huuuuuge flowers from the DOG ROSE A4 stencil. 

 I started by making a background using the GRID BACKGROUND, SEQUIN WASTE, and CALLIGRAPHY MAT 12 stamps, then spritzed with a few inks. I then  thickly applied some red paint through the large flower on one half of the A4 stencil, then heating it up with my heat gun til it bubbled to achieve some texture. The centre of the flower is done by using my newest addition to my craft stash... some pebeo vittrail and fantasy moon paints....oh my word...I'm in heaven playing with these beauts!!!. I then added a sentiment before matting and layering. 

There is still time to join in this fabulous challenge, so I look forward to seeing your own interpretations. 

JANE

The Brighter Side of Journalling

Hello all, Alison (butterfly) here with you again... and with some more art journalling.  But rather than the wintry pages over at Words and Pictures, this is an altogether lighter and brighter bit of journalling!

It does make me smile though to see how similar elements seem to have bobbed up on this very different page.

I'm definitely having a thing with circles at the moment - and here there are two layers of them.  First, some Distress Spray spritzed large circles using the Large Sequin Waste mask, and over that I spread a very thin layer of the Viva Decor Croco Crackling Colour through the Large Dot mask and left it to get on with cracking while I went off to do something else.

When the large dots were dry, I did some stamping with Distress Inks in my Jan/Feb colours of vivid blues and greens.  There's the Sequin Waste background stamp in Mowed Lawn and the Mini Polka Dots in Broken China and Peacock Feathers.

Once stamped, I gave them a spritz of water to let the Distress Ink do its magic wicking thing, softening the look.

And I used Distress Stains to add some colour to the large dots, wiping away the excess so that the crackle is highlighted.

So, like the winter pages, there's lots of crackle too.

For my focal point, I chose the word from Journaling Words #5 (oh, for the missing L!  Ah well, the Americans will like it).  I stamped it in the matching Distress Ink colours and clear embossed it on a whitewashed book page.

It's layered up over some wire mesh, tea-dyed tissue paper (transparent - so you can see the stamping and the text through it - love it!) and another book page.

I had great fun with my metal pieces.  The Idea-ology flower is altered with Distress Paint, while the skeleton leaves have had a dose of my Ten Seconds Verday Paint (weathered patinas, until now only really used on dollshouse work).

I used a combination of the Verday Copper finish as well as some Distress Paint in Mowed Lawn and Salty Ocean to get the finished effect, and I love it.

And I edged the page with Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain to pick up the rusty colours of the central layers, so we also have - at heart - the blues and browns of my winter pages, but transformed to a brighter version.

So having set out to do something completely different from the recent art journalling shared over at Words and Pictures, I have got something different, but somehow very closely related!

Thanks so much for stopping by today - it's always lovely to hear what you think.  And do come and play along in our New Beginnings challenge for a chance to win a gift voucher here at The Artistic Stamper - hope to see you there!

Ingredients used:
Artistic Stamper stamps: Journaling Words #5, Mini Polka Dots, Sequin Waste Open
Artistic Stamper masks: Large Sequin Waste, Large Dot
Distress Spray Stains: Broken China, Peacock Feathers
Distress Inks: Mowed Lawn, Broken China, Peacock Feathers, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain
Distress Paints: Salty Ocean, Mowed Lawn
Distress Stains: Mowed Lawn, Broken China, Peacock Feathers
Clear Embossing Powder
Viva Croco Crackling Colour - White
From my stash - gesso, wire mesh, tissue paper, book pages, metal flower and skeleton leaves, tea(!)

Step by step card by Titbelsoeur

Hello happy card-makers !
Are you ready ? 
I receive a lot of thank-you cards from charities. And I don't send a lot of cards. And would I send such cards, my friends would think I don't care a lot about them, otherwise I would send them my own home made cards...
And I hate to waste things...
Hence this tutorial !

I started gessoeing the cards with a rough brush to create structure, I have completed with a small cap on the left card and a credit card on the right one :

I then sprayed the cards with inks and let the ink drip

and wiped the remaining with a kitchen roll

I wanted to have a try on a technique...

 ... but it didn't work as I wanted to... so I spread the paint on the whole of the cards

and sprayed ink again...

 I made circles with white and turquoise-blue acrylics on the circle dots Mask :

and used another mask from my stash to make small dots in white :

Some blue paint on the Dots stamp in the Backgrounds

 and Cobalt archival ink on the Sequin one

 Plum Archival ink on a Chevrons Element, and charcoal pencil around the circles to underline :

Some drops of white here and there, then I coloured the edges with the remaining of my blue melange, applied with an umbrella brush for a random effect :

 Here it is !

Now it lacks of a bit of sentiment, doesn't it ? I stamped these Grungy greetings on to a background :

and... do you remember ? I showed you this technique some time ago, here :

Background stamps part II by Titbelsoeur

I stamped the Neil Walker's Franswar on to this page :

  

and here he is :

I have taken the opportunity of a quick sunshine to take the pictures of the finished cards in my backyard :

And... last but not least... don't throw your paper towels away ! I will show you how to make recycled cards with it... stay tuned !

Thank you so much for stopping by, I am always looking forward to reading your comments below...

 

A tout bientôt !

Titbelsoeur 

Coz I luv U...

Hello messarounders, this is Titbelsoeur here showing you my very last card, with lots of love !
 

This love quote, stamped on a paper mat, should disconcert you... yes, you are not used to see me doing shabby things with lace and wet-eyed kitten pictures...
But I love to mix styles that don't fit together...
that is why I have first stamped backgrounds on a leftover page, for a grunge look :

Sequin Waste open and Dots Background :
 

 Dance Dictionary Background

And I have added this mat, stamped with lots of love from the Grungy Greetings #1 plate

But my card looked quite nude with only this stamped mat... then I stamped the spring flowers from the Encyclopaedia Botanica  plate on to a book page, I cut it out and colored it lightly with watercolor chalks :

And tadammmm, here is my love card for Spring :

I would be very happy if my card does inspire you, 

thank you so much for stopping by, 

I am looking forward to reading your comments !

A tout bientôt,

Titbelsoeur  

 

And if you want to remind of the 70's luv songs, just pop up to my blog... ;-)