Monochrome Canvas by Debs

Hi Everyone

Here is my latest project for this months challenge a monochrome canvas

On an 8x8 canvas and using assorted Artistic Stamper masks i added paste through to create some texture

Then covered the whole lot with black gesso and using some cogs and some bits from the Jamboree bags and event some gauze.  a tattered floral mad using just card and the Tim Holtz Die, can you spot the cardboard photo frame.

Once everything was glued in place, i painted the whole thing in green mica powder and spritzed with water adding more to some areas and leaving some areas black

I am enjoying seeing all of your lovely entries both on here and the challenge Facebook page.

Keep them coming

Debs

One day I'll fly away...

Hello everyone, Alison (butterfly) here with some journalling pages created in a small hardback book.  (Remember you can always click on a photo for a close-up.)

If you've come from my Words and Pictures sneak peek, you'll already know it's not a happy love story being told here.  If you're all loved up for Valentine's Day, you might want to skip it!  I might as well issue a long post warning too while I'm at it.  Cups of tea (or maybe shots of whisky) at the ready...

I've used stamps from the Birds of a Feather plate to express the need of this woman to break out of the relationship which is keeping her caged up.

All she wants is to be set free, to be allowed to fly high and alone.

There are little hearts all around the page, but if you look closely you'll see that many are actually slightly broken, cracked hearts (a touch of Crackle Accents over the Grunge Paste).

And although the cage is a beautiful one it's still a prison...

I started with some torn strips torn from the Tim Holtz Kraft Resist Paper Stash, stuck down with medium.

I started playing with the elements I wanted to include, the stamped and fussy cut bird and cage, and the little vintage photo.

Next I swept some paint over them, working from the spine outwards.  I used Grunge Paste to add the tiny hearts through a stencil, and finally added some splatters of Espresso Color Wash.

But I wanted some blue to add a melancholy feel - so I dabbled and spritzed Stormy Sky Distress Stain across the pages.

I added some extra stamping - the words from Katy Fox's Carte Postale set and some postmarks from the same set.

And having worked out the positions with the fussy cut versions, I now stamped the birds direct to the page using Sepia Archival ink.

I outlined some of the hearts with a PITT pen, and later added Crackle Accents to those ones.

Some Vintage Photo Distress Ink swiped over the whole page warms the tone of the papers again and highlights textures, including the little hearts.

I just had to use my new Spring Greenery die to add the ivy trailing across the pages - I hope it will be amongst Jennie's new CHA stock soon!  It's cut from Kraft Core in the 12 x 2.5 inch size - exactly right for cutting Decorative Strip Dies.

I sanded it and then inked over with Stormy Sky and Vintage Photo Distress Stains to give it the weathered look.

And I added one of the Idea-ology Compass Coins, dabbed with Stormy Sky... which way will she go once she is free?

Both she and the bird cage are layered over some torn book pages, edged with Distress Ink.

And the little bird has had a touch of penwork just to bring him into focus.

And the final touch was to add a couple of woodcut meadow grasses, inked with Stormy Sky Distress Stain... no more wandering in the meadows with her lover for this woman.

These mementos will now lie, forgotten, between the pages of a book.

So there are my pages for you - a walk on the darker side of love in the run-up to Valentine's Day.

What can I say?  Not everyone enjoys the 14th February...

Thank you so much for stopping by.  Come and play along with our February challenge - all you have to do is Use Distress.  But you don't have to be distressed to do it, and I wish those that celebrate it a very happy Valentine's Day!

The only whole heart is a broken one, because it lets the light in.
David J. Wolpe

Ingredients used:
Artistic Stamper stamps: Birds of a Feather, Carte Postale
Idea-ology Compass Coins
Idea-ology Kraft Resist Paper Stash
Core-dinations 12 x 2.5
Grunge Paste
DecoArt paint: Titanium White
Fresco paint: Stone
Distress Stains: Stormy Sky, Vintage Photo
Distress Inks: Gathered Twigs, Vintage Photo
Adirondack Color Wash Spray: Espresso
Archival Inks: Sepia, Coffee
Crackle Accents
PITT pens

Let it Snow...

Hello everyone, Astrid here with my second project for November.

I seem to have fallen in love with the colours blue and brown, not exactly traditional for Christmas projects, but for some reason I can't seem to get away from them.....
For my second project this month  I decided to make a piece of Christmas wall art.
I used the following stamps for my project:
Mini Christmas 1
Christmas Greetings 1 and
Music# 011
I started by taking a piece of 5.5 by 4" smooth white card and coloured it by putting some Distress Stains in Tarnished Brass, Bundles Sage and Picket Fence on my craft sheet and swiping my card stock through it several times. I then coloured it further  with some  Distress Inks in Chipped Sapphire, Vintage Photo and Scattered Straw. I  crumpled it all up, roughly flattened it again and then dried it with my heatgun. I then ran it through an embossing folder from my stash and darkened the embossed bits some more.

The next step was to colour a small canvas board with Pains Grey acrylic paint, it's called grey but is actually blue. I'm pretty sure you would get a very similar effect with Sapphire Blue Distress Stains, but I don't have that one. Before it had dried I dabbed it with a piece of kitchen towel to get a textured effect and when it was dry I  stamped some of the little snowflakes from the Christmas Greetings 1 plate in white by using the Picket Fence Distress Marker. Love how they slowly start to appear against the dark background. I embellished the background with a strip of canvas tape, stamped with the music stamp and some lace.

The final steps were to stamp some of the Christmas stamps from the two plates I used on smooth card, cutting them out and colouring them with the same colours of Distress Inks. Next I cut theTim Holtz Decorative Snowflake Rosette Die, slightly inked and glittered with some Diamond Stickles. I ran the topper through a little snowflake embossing folder in my stash to give it some more texture and then I put it all together as you can see on the photo.

Thank you for dropping by, - I hope you liked my project and feel inspired to use some of the wonderful Artistic Stamper Christmas stamps for your own Christmas projects.

TWINKLE TWINKLE BIG GOLD STAR

Hi all, Kat here,
on this chilly December morning,
I thought I would shear with you a Christmas decoration
I made to hang in my window this year,

Don't forget if you make a purchase in the shop
this month you will be sent out a free stamp
click HERE for the details.

I started with a gold star I got from a pound shop

& decorated it with the following :-

the Santa off mini Christmas plate

stamped with black archival ink

cut out & glittered round the edge,

& stuck with foam pads onto a gold nest ability shape,

I then cut 2 lengths of patterned paper from the

Rosette Decorative strip die & stuck them together

to make a bigger rosette, edged with a Gold acrylic paint dabber

I then stuck some foliage bits cut from

brown glittery & antique gold paper using

Tattered pine cone die & Festive Greenery strip die

between the layers,

then I added some gold bells on ribbon (to hang down)

& a bell/bow embellishment to finish.

Here are some close ups.

Hope you like it!

well this is my last piece, this side of Christmas,

so I would like to take this opportunity to say

a big thank you to all you lovely people that

leave me such wonderful comments each time

I post something, they are so appreciated.

& to wish you all an amazing Christmas, 

& a very creative new year.

Also a big thank you to Jennie,

for having me on her design team.

Big Hugs, Kat x.

CREATIVE FLIGHT FRAME

Hi all Kat here,
I have my first project of the month
ready to share with you,
using the fabulous FREE STAMP SETS
Icicles Border & Snowflakes
all you have to do is place an order in December
& one will be sent out to you, how fab is that!

so here's what I have created with mine,

I have had the frame (a boot sale find)

for a couple of years & never used it,

I came across it in a frantic search for Christmas stash

& thought today's the day (lol)

It was already gold leafed so, a perfect base

as I wanted my finished piece to be,

gold, brown, silver & cream.

Here are some close ups of each section,

I will talk through what I did as we go,

I started by cutting a piece of white card to

fit the aperture, then blended

Antique linen Distress Ink all over,

then I stamped the FREE Snowflakes stamp

 with Versamark ink & heat embossed

it with clear powder.

I then blended Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink

over then wiped off the excess to reveal lovely crisp snowflakes

I cut the reindeer from the  Raindeer flight die

out of grunge board & coloured him with

Brushed Corduroy DI then added 3 little bells

& some raffia around his neck.

I glued Scrabble tiles to spell the word Xmas,

& glued a snowflake cut from gold card &

the Movers & Shapers Mini Snowflakes die & added

a metal star tree embellishment I had in my stash,

for this section I cut the card to fit the aperture

then blended Antique linen Distress Ink all over,

& stamped the Music background stamp

very lightly with the Antique Linen DI

I then blended Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink all over

I cut 2 snowflakes from gold card &

the Movers & Shapers Mini Snowflakes die

& then cut them in half & glued them as shown

above, I added a star embellishment from my

stash to finish.

For both these sections I used one piece of card

to fit both apertures & again coloured with

Antique linen Distress Ink all over,

& this time I stamped the Stipple Background Stamp

very lightly with the Antique Linen DI

& then blended Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink

all over, again I used the

 Movers & Shapers Mini Snowflakes die

but this time I made an embellishment

& added a gem to the centre,

& for the other section I added a metal tree.

This last section is made in exactly the same

way as the  first one, but using the

free Icicles Boarder stamp,

& a padded star embellishment.

I used an Ornate Book Plate 

to finish off & added the numbers cut from

the vintage market strip die.

WOW didn't I go on, that was a bit long winded,

Sorry about that (lol)

hope you like my creation,

See you on the 15th with my next project.

Kat x.

Red red red .... by Tina Barnett

Hi !

It's Tina here and I am back with another Mabel Lucie Attwell stamp called "Time for bed".

I have used red distress inks to colour the image and for shading.

I started with an 8 inch by 8 inch card and used the same colour distress ink to blend in to the base card. I then over stamped with the same ink again, using the Baroque background stamp by The Artistic Stamper .
I then cut a piece of Coredinations card and over stamped with a butterfly stamp. I used the same stamp on a separate piece on card and cut out the stamps to give me two butterfly's. I added some bauble baubles to the butterflys along with some liquid pearls Using a different colour Coredinations card I used a Tim Holtz die and then distressed the pieces, adding them to the card.

I then finished off the card with some buttons.

Well that's me for now!
Take care, until next time!
Hugs
Tina xx

Me and My Bear! by Nicky Cresswell

Hello Stampers

Happy weekend to you all

Continuing along with the Mabels this month I have used the large Ah! There you are! image

and made a mini canvas

I stamped my chosen mabel onto some pre-primed canvas using black archival ink, Then I coloured her with distress inks and a koi water brush.

To frame her I used an art part that I stamped with the Stipple background to give it a textured look.

After adding a little wooden tree I finished by stamping one of the phrases from the Travelling words plate onto a Tim Holtz tattered banners diecut.

And there you have it, A sweet little gift to give any Mabel Lucie Attwell fan.

I'll be back on the 17th with another Mabellishious project.