Phineas Pinchbeck's shop window.

Hi there. Zuzu here...
Well here I am with my very first full post as a member of the Artistic Stamper's Creative team... Cant tell you how pleased I am as it was on my mission statement a year ago. (A mission statement I announced only to a few close craft friends and it was more fairytale imagination that expectation.) So I MADE IT... lol

Today I have an altered shadow frame. Its made from one of the "papier mache 3D frames" (I used a deep one for this project).  I covered it on the inside with old book pages. I covered the frame part, with sheet music that I had rusted, in a rusty tray with vinegar, a few days beforehand. As its a Papier mache frame, I treated the papers I was covering it with in a similar way. I wasn't too precise and i put them on in bits, just forcing it to mould into shape by getting it wet with the glue.
when it was all dry, i stamped out the crow collage stamp on to another bit of text paper and collaged him on to the background.

The next step was preparing my jars. I used the chipboard shapes to go along with the stamps. I used some antique linen distress ink on them first, as they were too white for this project. I stamped the empty jar out on to the chipboard and then again on to paper to make a mask. I cut out the centre of the mask so that I could stamp the crow in to the jar. I then coated it heavily with Ultra thick embossing powder to give it a glass jar look, by coating it in Versamark ink first... now the crows head looks a bit like a specimen steeped in some chemical fluid inside an old jar. (well sort of lol)

I treated the second jar in much the same way but without the need to create a mask. I then stamped out Phineas Pinchbeck a few times and cut him out to mount him on my verdigris patina column. I used a second image of him to just cut out the clock part to mount it in front of the column to give a 3D look.. and a third image of him, was used to make the sign at the bottom (middle) of the frame.

Next i used some distress inks to colour a piece of plain cardstock (I used rusty hinge and scattered straw). when it was dry I stamped on some sheet music in brown (so that it carried on the theme from the music paper on the frame)  and then stamped on the bunting in black. I cut it out and glued it at an angle to the top of the frame. All that was left to do was fill the frame up with clock type items and rusty bits and bobs....

Z x


Supplies Used from The Artistic Stamper:

3D frame HERE
Phineas Pinchbeck stamp and Jar stamps HERE
crow stamp HERE  (scroll down )
Bunting stamp HERE
Music stamp HERE
Jar chipboard HERE
Distress inks HERE

Life is a Journey! By Alison Hall

That's certainly true! Hi! Alison here! Thank you Jennie & Hels for giving me my first ever guest designer opportunity! And what fabulous stamps I've had to play with! For my first piece, I chose to use Jennie's wonderful new Inspiration Light Bulbs. I thought they'd make great hot air balloons. And, to carry on the steampunk theme, I used the Cogs Background, and also the Calligraphic mat and the Punk Plaid Background.




Here are the instructions for my frame

1. Paint a Shadowbox with Gesso, then spread Ferro all around the frame of it. Stamp into the wet Ferro with the Cogs Background & the Caligraphic Mat. Make sure you wet your stamps when you do this, and clean them thoroughly straight afterwards.

2. While the box is drying, make the metal inlay. This is a piece of Ten Seconds Studio silver sheet metal, embossed with the TSS Kabuka Mould 7. Age it with Pitch Black Dabber, use Ultramarine Stazon to colour it, then add highlights with Orange Inka Gold.

3. Back to the Shadowbox. Once it is dry, sponge Azure Precious Metal Paint all over it, including the cavity. Add highlights to the stamped areas with Silver PM Paint and Orange Inka Gold. Once the paint is dry,adhere the metal inlay into the cavity, using red line tape.



4. To make the 'balloons' and sentiment embellishments, make a 'tape sandwich' with silver metal, humungo tape & black card. Stamp two of the Blank Lightbulbs, the Punk Plaid Background, & the phrase 'All of Life is a Journey' onto the metal, with Black Stazon.

5. Cut out the two Lightbulbs, then stamp one with the Cogs Background, & the other with the Caligraphic Mat. Use a TSS embossing tool to highlight the detail, then the TSS Micro Diagonal wheel around the edges.



6. Cut two basket shapes from the Punk Plaid Background, then emboss them with the TSS tools. Attach the baskets to the 'balloons' with short lengths of silver wire.

7. Cut out the phrase and emboss the edges of this with the TSS wheel tool. Rub a little of the Orange Inka Gold onto all of the metal embellishments, then curve them all slightly before gluing them to the frame with silicone glue.

8. To finish the frame, add a few pieces of Tim Holtz Ideaology.

I hope you like this piece - and thank you for looking!

Alison

Proudly Presenting...

... the brand new Artistic Stamper Creative Team Blog. AND... the new Monthly Challenge, which for August has been chosen by Minxy. I am so excited... we have been working really hard recently to bring you brand new innovative stamp designs - which will be available from The Artistic Stamper to buy today.




The monthly challenge is open to everyone and one lucky randomly picked winner will win some Candy! The theme for August is Something Old, Something New. To join in is easy-peasy... first of all, become a follower of this blog... and then all you need to do is make a piece of art incorporating the theme, once you have blogged it (or if you haven't got a blog you can link to the place you are showing it; flickr/Photobucket etc) then pop back here, leave us a comment and add your link to the linky gadget at the end of the post. There is a special extra too... if you use any Artistic Stamper stamps on your entry then you will be entered in to the draw twice. The prize for this month is £15 worth of stamps of your choice from The Artistic Stamper new range of stamps... along with the Kling On to mount them onto.





For my entry I used a fabby box frame, painted it with Traditional Tan (yes, even over here I am still addicted to the stuff LOL) I used Viva Terra applied in patches which was stamped into using the new Punk Plaid stamp and the old Sequin Waste stamp *see what I did there, new and old ;O))* I then painted some Sable Brown Studio range paint over the whole piece, removing some of it with a babywipe so it left patches of the Traditional Tan showing through. I used some Viva Ferro, which I also stamped with the Punk Plaid stamp and then heat dried it all.




The places on the frame that were then not textured had a generous dollop of Rock Candy Cracklepaint applied... once this was dried I used some gold Dabber to add colour to the textured parts, added some black paint with a piece of Cut & Dry foam... this just emphasised the bobbles and pits on the texture... and finally smooshed some Inka Gold over the whole lot to make it more...erm... golden!




The centre was filled with a piece of paper from the Vintage Shabby stack, I added a mini canvas which had had the Terra treatment... and the Cog stamp pressed into it. This again was heat dried... if you heat dry Terra you get a lovely warty kind of texture to the piece. I used one of the clocks and one of the cogs from the Tick Tock plate, stamping onto metal and then popping a cookie cutter over the top and pouring in melted clear UTEE. I also used the Melt Pot to make some little hearts, adding Gold UTEE in blobs to the clear UTEE and then pouring it in a swirly manner onto the craft sheet... then popping the heart shaped cookie cutters into it. **do you see the little iron on top of the ART??? This is my really OLD part... cos it is... any old iron... ROFL... ah, just me then!!**



Finally, I added a few bits of ephemera - old watch faces etc and Idea-ology and some little Letterpress letters from my own hoard. I hope you like this piece and can't wait to see what you come up with... remember, the challenge is open for a whole month, the more times you enter, the more times you will be in with a chance of winning the candy... don't forget to click to follow this blog too...and... I would really appreciate your comments...what do you think of the new blog? What do you think of the layout etc of it and... do you like it!? :O)) TTFN

Hels x