The Secret Garden by Emma

Hello everyone!! For my second post of August, I thought it would be nice to hold onto Summer as long as we could...so, I decided to make this canvas featuring butterflies and flowers. As always, I've taken lots of pictures to show you all the details and I hope you love what I've created...

To begin with, I covered my 7" x 5" canvas with Tim Holtz Composer Tissue Wrap before adding the colour using Distress Paints. I chose Picked Raspberry, Salted Ocean, Bundled Sage and Antique Linen and once applied over the top of the wrap, I gave them a good spritz with water before allowing them to drip down the canvas. Once I was happy with the way it looked, I added Black Soot around the edges and applied Picket Fence onto one of the Swirls, Spots and Splats stamps from the A5 set, to add some texture.

Next, I added some small torn off strips of Sketchbook Tissue Tape onto the canvas and applied some drips of white acrylic paint, which completed the overall background to my piece.

To make the roses, I used Tim's Tattered Florals die from Sizzix and then coloured each of the die cuts with Salted Ocean and Picked Raspberry Distress Inks before making them into dimensional blooms and giving them a quick spritz with Biscotti Perfect Pearls Mists, to add a subtle shimmer.

I stamped the gorgeous large butterfly and some of the smaller butterflies from the Insects and Butterflies No.1 stamp plate onto a piece of white card and coloured them with Distress Marker pens, adding "dotty" highlights to the wings of the smaller ones, using a white pen.

I shaped the wings of each of them and added twisted wire for their antennae. I then arranged my dimensional blooms, added some die cut leaves using a die in my stash and the butterflies onto the canvas and finally, attached the Butterfly Words quote using an Idea-ology Memo Pin.

So, that's it from me today! Thank you so much for taking the time to pop by and visit and I can't wait to read all your comments. Don't forget you still have time to enter this month's challenge which is all about Postcards, Travel and Holidays and we'd love you to share all your wonderful creations with us!! All the details of the challenge are HERE.

See you all soon and hope you have a wonderful weekend full of creativity!

Emma x

Mechanical Bird by Emma

Hi everyone...

For my first post and project in April, I decided to bring a bit of brightness and colour into our lives ~ I think we all need it after this long, drab winter and I've created a tag using the Mechanical Bird stamp by Neil Walker. I hope you like it...

To begin with I've used a Size 8 Manila tag and applied Picked Raspberry, Salty Ocean and Spiced Marmalade Distress Paints over the surface. I misted the tag with water to blend the paints and then dried it with my heat tool. I added some circles using the paint from the Snow Cap Adirondack Paint dabber and applying it with the lid of the bottle and then stuck some small strips of Tissue Tape onto my tag.

Next, I stamped out the Mechanical Bird image onto the tag and used a white pen, to add colour to the birds legs. I then stamped out the bird, two more times onto white card and then coloured the image using the same colour in the Distress Ink Pads, as I'd previously used on my background and used Mowed Lawn onto the leaves. I cut out each layer of the bird but each time, cutting away part of the image to give me my decoupage pieces, which I layered on to the base image on my tag. I used the white pen to add some highlights to the image and added Glossy Accents to the eye and down the wing.

I matted my tag onto a piece of Kraft card, leaving a narrow border around the edge before, then mounting my tag onto a larger piece of black card, matted onto a backing of pearlescent off-white card. I attached the two layers together using the Tiny Attacher. Using the white pen, I drew a line around the edge of the black card.

Next, I used Tim's Tattered Florals die from Sizzix to make three small dimensional blooms, which I coloured using Dylusions Ink Sprays in Vibrant Turquoise and Bubblegum Pink. I then spritzed each of the flowers with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls Mists before adding them to my tag.

I added my flowers to my mounted tag, together with some white flowers, from my craft stash, which I sprayed in the same colours and then die cut some twigs from chipboard, painted them brown and added these to the flower arrangement. I used one of the Idea-ology Memo Pins to attach my Adage Ticket and finally, I dyed some cream seam binding, using Distress Paint in the same colours as before and threaded it through the hole in my tag. 

So, I really hope you've been inspired by my tag today and thank you so much for stopping by to take a look ~ I can't wait to read all your comments!! See you all again very soon...

Emma xx

In A World Of Her Own by Emma

Hello, it's Emma here. Hope you've all had a good weekend and ready for another week full of creativity!! For my first piece of this month, I've chosen to create an inky scrapbook layout ~ I hope you like it!

To create this piece, I cut a piece of kraft card to measure 8" x 8" in size and randomly applied the Snow White Adirondack Paint Dabber to cover the central area of my card with paint. I applied black acrylic paint through a Crafter's Workshop stencil, then flicked various colours of ink over the entire piece of card and added splatters of Picket Fence Distress Stain. Next, I cut sections of white card, (this is a really good technique for all those offcuts of card that you keep and then wonder what to do with them) and added Spiced Marmalade and Fired Brick Distress Stain to two of the pieces and sprayed the third piece with Bubblegum Pink Dylusions Ink Spray.

I stamped the inked pieces of card, with three different background stamps ~ Random Dot Background,  Mini Calligraphic Mat 20 and Mini Lattice Wire. I then adhered my pieces of card to form a background to my photograph, together with some Tim Holtz Tissue Tape.

I added some Idea-ology Sprocket Gears and some Chit Chat stickers before finally completing the layout with some doodles using a white pen.

So, I hope this inspires you to create inky backgrounds for your layouts and I would love to see what you make!! This background technique is also perfect for our challenge this month ~ Splatters and Speckles, we'd love to see your work so please, come and join in!!

See you all again very soon and have a great week.

Emma x

Alice Falling by Emma

Hi everyone!

For this piece of artwork, I thought I'd get inky and create a background to showcase one of the gorgeous Mabel Lucie Attwell stamps. I hope you like it...

To begin with...

I took a piece of cream card and spritzed it all over with Dyan Reaveley's Dylusions Ink Sprays in Postbox Red. I then added some texture by applying Gesso through the Harlequin Crafters Workshop Template and then allowing it to dry and harden. Once that was done, I then stenciled random areas of my background using the Dylusions Number Jumble stencil with Fired Brick Distress Ink.

Next, I inked up the Calligraphic Mat 11 stamp and the Sequin Waste Open stamp and stamped directly onto the background. I then inked up the hearts from the Roses Are Red stamp plate with Fired Brick DI and stamped this directly onto my inky cardstock.

Using the Alice Falling stamp, I stamped the outline image onto some watercolour paper using Black Archival Ink and then coloured it with Distress Markers, drawing out the pigment and colour from the pens with a waterbrush pen, to give a softer, more vintage feel to the artwork. I blended the edges of the coloured image with Antique Linen DI and then matted it onto black card before attaching it to my background.

I added roughly torn strips of Tissue Tape from the Symphony set and then added the "Curiouser and Curiouser" wording which I typed on the computer. Finally, I distressed the edges of my artwork, tearing them and curling them to give an aged look and matted the whole piece onto some black cardstock.

Thank you for taking the time to come and look at what I've created for my final piece of May...I'll look forward to reading all your comments.

Hope you have a lovely day.

See you again soon.

Emma x

JOURNEY PLAQUE By Kat

Hi all,
Kat here, with a rather Quick project & post for you,
I don't know were the time is going lately,
one minute it's January, the next it's mid March,
the days have gotten away from me again LOL

Here is my project, I hope you like it!

As you can see it's quite a quick little project,

I used a little wooden frame as my base,

I covered it with Tissue Tape

then blended Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink

over it, & stamped the tiny diamonds over the top

in Coffee archival ink then smudged it in

a bit with my finger to fade it into the background.

On a scrap of card cut to the size of the aperture,

I stamped the Cogs & Stipple Background

in Iced Spruce & brushed Corduroy Distress Ink

& blended the same colours all over

I then stamped the wording in jet black archival ink

which is a Tim Holtz stamp,

I stamped the men the same way &

cut them out from a scrap piece of card

blended the same DI's & stuck them down with foam pads,

I added silver screw top brads to finish.

Hope you like it!

I'll be back with another project

at the end of the month,

I'm off now to frantically try to find

the days that have gone missing LOL.

Kat x.

Can We Keep Him? ~ by Emma

Hi everyone...Emma here!!

It's already time for my third and final post of the month and for this post, I wanted to share a freestanding easel plaque that I made using a stamp from Mabel Lucie Attwell, together with some more of those gorgeous Perfect Pearls Mists  that are still on offer at The Artistic Stamper with a 15% discount, right up until the end of January...

So, here's what I made and how I created it...

First of all, I cut a piece of chipboard, 15cm square in size. Next I took a piece of cream paper, blended it with Antique Linen Distress Ink, scrunched the paper up into a ball and then flattened it out to give a creased look to my background. I then swiped the Vintage Photo Distress Ink Pad over the top before I misted it with Biscotti Perfect Pearls Mists to give a gorgeous shimmer. Once the background paper is dry, I stuck it onto the chipboard and added die cut decorative borders down each side, overlapping the edges of the card, which were die cut using a Tim Holtz ~ On The Edge die.

Next I stamped the Mabel Lucie Attwell ~ Can We Keep Him? onto a piece of card, coloured it with alcohol pens and then distressed and aged the edges of the card with Vintage Photo and Antique Linen Distress Ink. 

I then inked up the Music background stamp with black Archival Ink, stamped it onto white card, which I then blended with some more Distress Inks to give an aged feel to the image. I then stuck both images onto my covered chipboard base.

Next, I used the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die and die cut enough petals to create a dimensional flower. I blended Victorian Velvet Distress Ink over each of the petals and misted them with more of the Biscotti Perfect Pearls Mist, then stamped them with the Music Background stamp. I then built up the flower and adhered the finished flower to the chipboard base, together with some Tattered Leaves die cuts, that I had blended with Peeled Paint Distress Ink.

I then used the Tim Holtz ~ Mover and Shapers, Mini Butterflies from my crafty stash and die cut a couple of butterflies from card which was covered with Tissue Tape and blended the die cuts with some more Victorian Velvet DI. Next, I attached these to the card base and added Adirondack Dimensional Pearls down the centre of each.

Finally, I added an Adage Ticket and attached it to the front of my artwork, using a Trinket Pin from the Idea-ology range before attaching an easel stand to the back of my chipboard base to make it freestanding.

So, that's about it from me for this month and I hope you like what I've made.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look and hope you all have a fabulous inky week.

Emma x

Shimmer by Emma

Hello everyone!!

It's already time for my second post of the month and I think it's definitely time to get inky!!

For this project, I decided to create a gift box and I've used lots of those stunning Perfect Pearls Mists that are currently on offer over at The Artistic Stamper with a huge 15% discount, right up until the end of January...

I've taken a few photos of my finished box, to try and show you all the detail and the gorgeous shimmer that you get from the Perfect Pearls Mists. I hope you can see just some of the glisten and I hope you like what I've made...

To begin with, I created an oblong box from white card and then blended Antique Linen, Vintage Photo and Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink all over the white pieces of card. I then used Picket Fence Distress Stain over the top of the inks, to blend the colours together. Next, using Viridian Archival Ink, I inked up the Calligraphic Mat 13 Background stamp and stamped over a corner section of the box, which you can just about see in the photos. I then spritzed the entire box with Biscotti Perfect Pearls Mists to give a beautiful shimmer. Once the mists have dried, I attached some Tissue Tape from the Symphony set, around the four edges of the lid and coloured with Antique Linen DI.

Next, I stamped the outline of  the largest flower from the Flower Power A6 stamp plate, onto Grungepaper, using the black Archival Ink, cut each of the outlines out and then blended Tumbled Glass DI over the blooms, and then sprayed each of them with Turquoise Perfect Pearls Mists. I repeated this to give me enough blooms to make two complete, dimensional Grungepaper flowers. Next, I stamped the image of the leaf from the Flower Power A6 stamp plate, onto some more Grungepaper and blended Peeled Paint DI over these, before spraying them with Kiwi Perfect Pearls Mists. I also added a bow, tied from twine.

Next, I stamped the "Keep Calm and Carry On Stamping" stamp onto cream card using Fired Brick Distress Ink, trimmed the edges and mounted it onto black card. I then added this to the top of my box, together with my grungepaper roses and leaves.

Finally, a tied a piece of twine around the box.

Thank you so much for taking the time to come and have a look at what I made and for all your lovely comments.

See you soon and hope you have a lovely inky day!

Emma x

Merry Christmas by Alison

Hello Stampers, I have my first project of the month ready to share with you, using the fabulous FREE STAMPS - Icicles Border & Snowflakes. All you need to do, is place an order in December, & one will be sent out to you.

I started off by covering a square piece of card with calendar design Tissue Tape. Next, I inked it with cloudy blue alcohol ink. I stamped the Icicles at the top, using pearl paint dabber, then stamped some Snowflakes with teal blue Stazon.

I stamped the New York scene from Tim Holtz' Rockstar plate in black archival ink along the bottom of the card, then again on some kraft card which I cut out & glued to my artwork. I stamped the Merry Christmas ticket from Tim's Odds & Ends plate onto a die cut ticket, edged it with teal blue stazon & used Tim's tiny attacher to staple it onto my artwork.

I edged my piece with the blue stazon, matted it on black card, then onto a white square card, & finished it off with some pearly stars & gems.

Thanks for looking xxx

Creative Art Thoughts by Tina Barnett

Hi !!

I have tried something different this time. The stamp called Pen and Ink from the Mabel Lucie Attwell range was perfect!



I started by cutting some card stock to size, using slightly bigger pieces for the covers. I then inked the pages using Rusty Hinge distress inks

I then went to town! You must go and have a look at all the new stamps in the store at The Artistic Stamper

I love the journal stamp! I used it on each page along with the different sized Splatter stamp! So cool!!!!

The back of each page I used different background stamps .

I then aged each page with distress ink . The little lightblub Chipboard piece was great for my theme.

For the back page I have used another new stamp, I love this sentiment!

The Pen and Ink stamp from the range was stamped and shaded in the same colour distress ink.

I finished off the front by mounting the stamp on to other card stock which had been cut with dies, distressed and stamped with background stamps. I embossed them too.
I gave the book a spine of Tissue tape along with wire and a bauble

Lastly I popped on my favourite distress stickles LOVE THEM!

I had so much fun with all of these stamps!

Thank you for looking, see you again soon.

Hugs Tina xx

FREE AS A BIRD TAG

Hi all,
Kat here,
I'm here today with my third & final piece for the month,
the design team focus is on Tissue Tape
I got so involved with playing with the distress stains
I forgot to take any step by step pictures, so I will talk you through the proses.
Here's my tag,

I started by gluing torn bits of book page to the tag with

Matte Medium & brushing the medium randomly

over the whole tag to create a resist,

then with pale blue acrylic paint,

splodged onto my craft sheet,

I dipped the Small Cog Stamp into it & stamped it on the tag,

next I took tumbled glass & bundled sage Distress Stains

covered the whole tag & wiped off the excess straight away,

with Jet Black archival ink, I stamped the

Small Cog Stamp & free as a bird stamps onto the tag,

I added a strip of Tissue Tape near the bottom edge,

then took ten seconds studio copper metal & tools,

stamped the cogs & the phrase as shown

to make a couple of embellishments, & stuck them on.

the Tissue Tape bow was made by

pulling some off the roll & twisting it to make a strand,

I arranged it into a bow & tied it with string,

I added it to the top of the tag & glued a

vintage button to the center.

for the bird,

I die cut him, ran him through a cuttle bug

with a texture fade embossing folder,

then inked him up with vintage photo Distress Ink

added an eye with black enamel,

the wing is made with black UTEE

& rubbed over with inka gold

I gave him a crown for his head &

drew a branch for him to sit on.

That's it,

Hope you like him!

see you next month,

have a creative day,

Kat x.