The Rose & Cog... By Hels

Helloooooo!!! First of all I would just like to take a moment to say... THANK YOU to everyone who has left lovely comments and become followers of this new Blog... the feedback has been brilliant and of behalf of the whole team, I know I can safely say that we are all over the moon with your kind responses :O))




I have been playing with some of those gorgeous Cog Stamps, the old faithful Flower Power set and some Tim Holtz papers from the Retro Grunge stack... adding in a few Distress Inks and Idea-ology for good measure! The little roses are made with the medium size flower on the Flower Power set - stamped onto the little squares of paper in the stack... so each layer has a different pattern... the background paper for the ATC is a piece of ATC sized paper from the stack.. that Tim bloke thinks of everything you know!




I stamped the Cog background and the small set of Cogs using Shabby Shutters Distress Ink onto the paper, smudged Peeled Paint around the egdes and then sanded them... honestly, I have yet to find something wrong with those papers - they are all lush! I popped the roses onto the ATC, tied some old lace around it, added a Memo Pin with an Adage Ticket in it and then made up some of the Sproket Gears into an embellishment... the little golden arrow is from my own stash... one of those things I have had for yonks and been saving :O)) Anyways... I hope you like the ATC, it is aaaages since I made an ATC... so... I thought... if anyone would like to own this ATC... please leave me a comment and I will pick a comment at random and announce it on Thursday 12th August.. so you have a few days to comment :O)) Thanks for looking... TTFN

Hels x

Box Life...By Nicky Cresswell

Well hello my fine blog land friends, it is I, the mad Minxy here today for your viewing pleasure....

First off can i just say..HOW FAB is the new team blog.. Don't know about you but i'm inspired already.

Right down to business... Seeing as our very first challenge had the theme chosen by me i thought it only right i actually make a piece for the occasion. {click HERE for full details of this months challenge}

I found a crackin little multi compartment frame in a charity shop just screaming for my alteration, how could i let it down, it was literally screaming.. honest! I just knew with the use of some stamps, ink and well a fair few trinkets I could transform it!

And here is the finished piece after the Inky Minx treatment..

I started by giving the whole piece a coat of acrylic paint {claudine hellmuths range is great}
There are a fair few elements to the piece as you can see, so i'll try and talk you through each space, hoping you don't nod off half way through..

The first 4 spaces consist of :-
1: a section of manilla tag to fit the gap, covered with vintage photo distress ink, and then some old scrabble tiles spelling OLD.
2: Stamped large cotton reel in different colour ink, mounting one in front of the other and finishing with a wooden cotton reel wrapped with some cotton.
3: A mini mdf letter, covered with croco {but distress crackle would also work}with a smidge of ink rubber over the top to show up the cracks
4: Image of young boy taken from the family values stamp, placed behind an inked grungeboard window, simply made by cutting a criss cross in the centre and folding the flaps inwards.

The next 4 spaces consist of :-
5: The gorgeous old fashioned sewing machine {from the dressmaker plate} stamped on a lightly inked background, with a small slit made round the needle so i could feed through a tiny scrap of fabric to give life to the machine, I mounted on some card to allow me to position the piece to the front of the space rather than against the back.
6: Multi layered flower, created by stamping the large and medium flowers from the flower power set onto some old dress making pattern tissue paper, then layering up several layers and securing with a brad.
7: Another mdf letter {same treatment as no.3} but with a dried flower sprig i found outside on my path.
8: Alcohol inked background over stamped with cogs, I also took a small left over bit of the same background to wrap round a tiny glass bottle filled with tiny watch parts, and placed a couple of idea-ology sprocket gears along side too.

And the next 4 spaces :-

9: I stamped the large bingo card as the base, stamped the small bingo card, cut it out and concertinaed it in front, finished with some vintage bingo chips.

10: Stamped the top half of one of the nude in water, I then stamped the film strip onto acetate, and masked off most of it leaving the centre spaces free to ink the same nudes face in each gap. {it's not very clear on the pic.. sorry}I placed the acetate nearer the front of the space, so there is a double layer effect.

11: Again another mdf letter {same as 3&7}

12: I little art collage using several elements from the Artists #1 plate, all stamped on a square of old book page, I mounted on some card to again bring the piece forward {like no.4}

And the final 4 spaces:-
13: I stamped the ink bottle {again from the Artists #1 plate} twice onto acetate, i cut each one out and then coloured the backs with permanent markers, then just placed them in the space.
14: Another front mounted square, lightly inked and then stamped with a pocket watch from the time and keys plate, over stamped with the words Tick Tock {from the tick tock plate} in a different colour.
15: The last mdf letter to complete the word LIFE
16: And finally a silky smooth section of white tag edged with a silver pen, and scrabble tiles spelling NEW.
***
And there you have it... Well done for making it to the end, sorry it's been a long old post but i couldn't leave any details out now could i. I hope you enjoyed my art today. Come back soon to see more fab art from the rest of the team.. I'll be going all Wendy Vecchi when i return in 10 days even though i don't own any of her stamps!!! Intrigued....Then come back on the 17th to find out what i'm waffling about!

A pint a day keeps the Stamper at Play!

It's the *Boss* here ( that's Hels nickname for me!) , getting to play for the first time on what is technically the Creative Team's blog! I have been reading all your comments and am so glad everyone likes what is going on!
I thought I would have a little play with the new bottle stamp, and used a piece of mountboard as base which is actually an orangey red, so no inking there! I stamped up the dogstooth background in black archival ( I actually never use any other ink...hangs her head in shame, and slinks away.....), and taking the bottle stamp inked it in ..black archival. I used a mixture of orange and yellow distress inks to colour it up, with the minutest blue in the middle.
The words are computer generated and distress inked too.

I found these wonderful unused milk bottle tops in an antique shop, and just had to have them. I alcohol inked the top, and actually I poured the ink over it so I didn't crush it with the felt tool, mind you if you look closely , it did get crushed a little... Finally I added the drinking straw, orange , of course, and glued it all together. A smattering of rock candy crackle paint on the bottle and the words finished it off.

I also, as the Boss! lol, come bearing gifts, and if you become a follower, and add a comment to this post there is this wonderful candy for you to win! If you add this to your sidebar of your blog, you can be in with another chance, so that is THREE chances to win!

The comments will close on Monday.
Good Luck, and look out for the Minx tomorrow :)))
Happy Creating
Jennie

Bathing Belles! By Lucy Edmondson

I hope you will like this little heart shaped album in a heart shaped tin. I love having the aperture so you can see the front page of the album. I have used some gorgeous vintage double sided papers - those were the days, when you didn't have to worry about exposing too much flesh on the beach!

This is what you will need:-

Seaside Plate No 1
Gibson Girls Plate No 2
Distress Inks
White Gesso
Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint in Picket Fence
Fibres or Twill

All available from The Artistic Stamper.

You will also need a tin with an aperture - doesn't have to be heart shaped. My tin was red - which was a difficult starting point! I have also used a fish and some shell art moulds, made up with Fimo and Stickles, but you can use real shells or any seaside ephemera, to decorate the top of the tin. I used a selection of the 'On the Boardwalk' Collection of double sided 12 x 12 papers by Graphic 45, but there are such a lot of images on the Seaside Plate that you could use to make your own backgrounds.

I covered the tin with gesso then added Crackle Paint, and sponged on Distress Inks, and sprayed on some shimmer mists. I cut a front and back cover for the album from mountboard, then the pages from the ds paper, doing a bit of jigsawing so I had the images I wanted, where I wanted them. I added a selection of images from the Seaside plate and the Gibson Girls paddling, stamped in Sepia.

I set eyelets in the top left of each heart shaped piece and attached them together with a book ring and some fibres (the twill Jennie sells would work well too):-

Finally, I took one of the die cut border strips from the paper set, which had an index tab on it, and snipped the words 'On the Boardwalk - By the Beautiful Sea' from the name tab at the top of one of the papers, adhered this to the index tab, blended it in with Antique Linen, added brads, and stuck it diagonally across the front of the tin. The words 'Down the Boardwalk She Came' were positioned on the front page to show through the aperture.

Thanks for looking and your comments are greatly appreciated.

Lucy

On The Bottle...

... I got my new stamps this morning so had to have a little play with them... the bottle stamp is just FAB isn't it? It comes plain and SteamPunky too :O))




I altered a wooden frame, painting it with Traditional Tan paint, covering this with Rock Candy Cracklepaint and then using Mini Misters with Perfect Pearls and Re-inkers mixed with water, to make a colouration for the background... The bottle was stamped onto a piece of mountboard, coloured with Tumbled Glass and then painted with Rock Candy Crackle. Once this had dried, I smudged some Inka Gold over the top of the crackles to make them look...erm.. more crackled!




The flowers are made from Flower Power, Flower Fever and the new Flower Blooms plates, stamped onto Grungepaper and coloured with Distress Inks, then I used some backgrounds to overstamp a pattern onto them. They were then all curled up and stuck together with some little strips of Grungepaper behind them to make stems.. then popped into the bottle.




The centre was made using card, Distress Inks and a couple of Tim Holtz collection stamps... and then I added some Glossy Accents to highlight words... finally, I added a little golden chain (from a Jamboree Bag) and stamped some of Tim's butterflies onto Grungepaper, added Enamel Accents for the bodies and popped them onto the frame. Oh and then colour I used for the butterflies is Broken China. Thanks for looking... have you had chance to play at the Something Old, Something New challenge yet??? It is open til August 31st and there is some delish Candy up for grabs too! TTFN

Hels x

Changing Seasons Canvas By Sid Haselden

I was honoured to be asked to be Guest Contributing Artist for the month of August in the new Artistic Stamper Creative Team Blog. This is the first of my pieces inspired by two of my favourite colours plum and lime. This canvas is mounted on a board back but you could use any canvas or the Claudine Helmuth sticky backed canvas and make your own. I will always provide an ingredient list with links to the Artistic Stamper online store where you can get the goodies needed to make the canvas or one of your own.

Ingredients:

1. Canvas (7 x 9.5 ins)

2. Adirondack Dye inks (Wild Plum and Lettuce)

4. Adirondack Dimensional Pearls Paint (Wild Plum and Lettuce)

5. Martha Stuart punch

6. Glossy Accents

7. Metal plate embellishment

8. White Card

9. Clear UTEE

10. Versamark inkpad

Stamps:

1. Florals plate

2. Dots Background

I started by preparing the canvas which had already had a coat of white gesso. Don't know whether you know that the Adirondack Dimensional Pearls can be thinned with water and used as a pearlescent paint. I squirted an almond sized blob of wild plum into a saucer and added a little water so the paint was quite thin and applied a liberal coat with a 1.5 ins wide brush, allowing to puddle in places. Whilst still wet I did the same with the lettuce and then dried with the heat gun. The finish is subtle and also has retained a super pearlescent sheen.

I then took the dots background stamp and again applied neat dimensional pearls to the stamp with the brush and stamped randomly in both the wild plum and lettuce, drying once again with the heat gun. Remember to wash the brush and the stamp thoroughly between colours and after use as the dried paint can be a devil to remove from the stamp ! That was the background completed.

Next I took the florals stamps and stamped two of the large plain edged flower, four of the medium line- edged flower & four of the small line-edged flower with Adirondack wild plum ink onto white card. I then used a waterbrush and drew in the wild plum dye ink from the outside of the flowers into the petals and once dry cut them out. I then used the Adirondack lettuce ink as paint and applied some to the inside of the lid of the inkpad and used the waterbrush to complete the insides of each flower.

Next five of the closed leaf and five of the open leaf were stamped onto white card with lettuce Adirondack dye ink, the large leaves being further stamped with a hessian texture stamp. These were then trimmed out.

All the finished flower elements and leaves were then coated with Versamark and heat embossed with one coat of clear UTEE to add a nice shine to them. The flower layers were then assembled with Glossy Accents.

The top and bottom borders were cut with a Martha Stewart punch from card that I had painted unevenly with a narrow brush with a wash made from the wild plum and lettuce inkpads by rubbing them onto a craft sheet and spritzing with water. The background was built up until it looked good before drying and punching.

The borders were trimmed to size and applied top and bottom with Glossy Accents. The flowers and leaves were arranged on the canvas and finally stuck in place with more Glossy Accents. The centres of the flowers were finished with some blobs of the undiluted Dimensional Pearls and the changing seasons metal plate was applied as shown.

I only literally used 2 colours on the whole canvas but in a number of different types of media. Hope this has inspired you to make one in your own style, the stamps are really good to build up flowers and on this one I particularly liked the watercoloured effect on the petals.

Sid xx

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