The Artistic Stamper Creative Team Blog

Shot Through The Heart by Emma

2012-02-10T00:01:00.007Z

Hello everyone!!

It's that time of the month when I get to share my first piece with you all and today, I thought it would be nice to continue the theme of our ongoing HEARTS challenge and make something for Valentine's Day. I had lots of bits and bobs, scraps of paper and sheets of chipboard hanging around my craft room, which I'd kept with the thought that one day they might be useful and so, I thought the time had now come to recycle them all, and this is what all those bits and bobs made...

To begin with I covered an old CD with various colours of alcohol inks. Once I achieved the desired effect, I just dabbed some Snow Cap Mixative over the top. I then painted an old ribbon spool, that I had left over from the Christmas wrapping, with Claudine Hellmuth's Studio Paint in Traditional Tan, set it to one side to dry, before inking up the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

Once the painted ribbon spool was secured into place onto my CD base, I die cut the Mannequin shape from the Sewing Room set of Tim Holtz's Alterations dies out of chipboard and covered it with Charcoal Black Studio Paint. I then die cut a separate piece of the body section of the mannequin from a piece of sticky back canvas and stuck this to my painted chipboard shape, once again inking the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I adhered some sticky back aluminium to a piece of chipboard, die cut a set of wings from this and then ran it used a Texture Fade to emboss each wing. I adhered the wings to my main body shape and then stuck the completed die cut shape to my painted ribbon spool base, using Glossy Accents and waited for it to dry, so that the Mannequin was securely in position.

Using the Movers and Shapers Mini Tattered Florals die, I die cut enough petals to make five dimensional roses which I then blended with Fired Brick Distress Ink and misted with Forever Red Perfect Pearls Mists. Once dry, I inked up one of the Calligraphy Mats with Black Archival Ink and stamped onto each petal before making up the dimensional blooms and sticking them to the base of my piece.

Next, I triple embossed a heart shape piece of chipboard, using red embossing powder. I then die cut the arrow from Tim's Valentine Silhouettes set using some more of the aluminium covered chipboard and covered it with alcohol inks before attaching it to the body of my mannequin.

Finally, I stamped the word "Imagine" onto a piece of cream card, inked the edges with Antique Linen DI and made a banner shape. I stuck this to the inside section of the ribbon spool and finished the piece with some vintage seam binding coloured with Antique Linen Distress Stain.

So, that about it from me and I really hope you like my recycled creation.

See you all soon and hope you have a lovely Friday and a very creative weekend.

Emma x

Keep Calm by Alison

2012-02-08T00:01:00.000Z

Hello again Stampers! Today, I have an inky frame to share with you.

I began by totally covering a papier mache frame with pieces of torn book page. I used Studio Matt Medium to glue the pieces of book page, then brushed more Matt Medium over the top, to seal.

Next, I brushed a thin layer of Studio Gesso all over the frame, so I could apply the Distress Inks to colour it. I used Fired Brick & Stormy Sky.

Then I stamped the flourish from the Flourish Swirls Plate, using Stormy Sky Distress Ink. I used a heat gun to dry and set the ink. I then stamped the splats from the A5 Swirls, Splats & Dots Plate, using Fired Brick Distress Ink, then heat set these too.

I stamped Keep Calm And Carry On Stamping onto glossy card, using Archival Jet Black Ink, then embossed it with clear powder. I cut it out, leaving a thin border, then inked lightly with the Fired Brick DI. I glued it to the inside of the frame, then added a crown charm.

To finish, I added some blue & red buttons, & applied Gold Inka Gold to the edges of the frame.

Thanks for looking,

Alison xox

BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED journal page

2012-02-06T00:01:00.004Z

Hi all, Kat here,
I have another journal page to share with you today
so I will jump right in,

I started by blending Iced Spruce Distress Ink

all over the page,

then stamped the buildings & the

Inspiration Light Bulb onto the page with

Jet Black archival ink

I then hand drew the stalks, leaves & petals with

a black pit pen,

& coloured them with

Rusty Hinge, Wild Honey & Forest Moss Distress Inks

by smooshing some ink on a craft sheet, watering it down

& painting it on with a water brush,

I coloured some of the buildings the same way with

Pumice Stone & Iced Spruce Distress Ink

next I hand drew B,L,M across the page to spell the word

BLOOM using the flowers as the OOs,

the rest of the phrase is stamped with small alphabet stamps.

& to finish I used the Small Cogs stamp

& Iced Spruce Distress Ink around the edge of the page.

That's it hope you like it!

I'll be back on the 16th with another project,

hope to see you then,

Kat x.

Flowers Dance by Sioux Jenneys

2012-02-05T00:01:00.001Z

I seem to be in journal page mode just lately so today I'm here to share just that! :)

I don't know about you but I do like to get mileage out of my stamps ;)...
...and by that I mean being able to make something completely different from the original intended use!

I was playing around with the solid leaf stamp from Flower Power and got very excited when I managed to make some flowers instead...it's a simple little thing but it made me happy :)

1. I used Adirondack pigment inks in wild plum and sunset orange to simply stamp the leaf image three times for each flower (no masking involved).

2. Coloured the background with water brushed neo colour crayons (you could use Distress Ink instead as a water colour)

3. Stamped portions of the Music stamp over the background in Distress Ink brushed corduroy and lightly brushed over it with the wet brush before quickly giving it a blast with the heat gun to stop the ink bleeding too much and degrading the image beyond recognition!

4. Drew in the stems with neo colour and a shadow using a charcoal pencil all around each flower.

5. Stamped the Scrabble letters in Archival black, cut out, attaching them to the page with Studio Multi Medium Matte and gave them a hint of colour with watered Distress Ink in antique linen.

6. Stamped the Dance sentiment in Archival black too.

Ooh! Making that made me happy :) See you again soon!

xoxo Sioux

Winner of The January Challenge

2012-02-04T00:01:00.002Z

Hi, its the chief stamper here again and this time with the winner of the January Creative Team challenge. We had an amazing number of entries to last month's challenge yet again, and we thank you all so much for joining in.
Now I know that you just really would like to know who has won the £15.00 worth of The Artistic Stamper stamps, so without much ado.. and a drum roll please....the winner is

Ms PETERSEN

with this gorgeous piece

Congratulations , and please email me, so I can send you prize to you.

Don't forget that this month's challenge is HEARTS, and we love seeing your creations...
Have a very creative day
Jennie x

February Challenge- Hearts

2012-02-01T00:01:00.009Z

Hi to you, and welcome to February, the month of love! Thank you for all your wonderful entries to last month's challenge. We will announce the winner in a couple of days.
Last month we were very lucky to have the very talented Sarah Engels-Greer as our Guest Designer, many thanks to Sarah for her fabulous creations.

The new challenge this month is HEARTS. To join in with the challenge is simple; make a piece of artwork, include the theme and some rubberstamping, pop back here to link up using the Froggy at the bottom of this post and leave us a comment to let us know you have joined in. As ever there will be candy for one randomly picked entrant - £15 worth of The Artistic Stamper stamps of your choice plus the Kling On to mount them onto. And... if you use Artistic Stamper stamps on your entry, you will be entered twice into the draw!

Here are the Creative Team's absolutely fabulous creations for this month's challenge

SIOUX

Sioux made an ATC using stamps from Men's plate 1 , Stitchels curly dot A6 plate, Twenties 1 plate and Journaling Words 1 and stamped with Adirondack pigment ink , Archival inks and Distress Inks.

KAT

Kat has made an A5 journal page using Heart background & Stipple background stamps & Swirls,Splats & Dots A5 plate with Iced Spruce Distress Ink onto the page that had been Gessoed with Claudine Hellmuth Gesso she then made hills & little houses from old book pages & patterned papers, the phrase was stamped with an alphabet onto old book pages & then cut out, the whole seen was glued down with Multi-Matte Medium then shaded around all the elements with a graphite pencil & a blending stump, to finish Kat doodled the top edge with a black marker & coloured the flowers in with a burgundy colouring pencil.

ALISON

Alison stamped large hearts from Roses are red Plate onto Tim Holtz Shabby Vintage paper, silver embossed them & cut out, Stamped the phrase onto one heart with faded jeans distress ink, stamped & silver embossed a small heart & added that below the phrase. She stamped the heart border with faded jeans DI down the sides of a 7x5 card, & added panel of bue paper at the bottom. She added the hearts & Ideaology trimmings to finish.

EMMA

Emma has made a freestanding plaque using the 'Where There Is Love, There Is Life" wording and the row of hearts stamp from the Roses Are Red A6 plate. She blended Wild Honey and Tumbled Glass Distress Inks over the background, then flicked water over it and dried it with a heat gun. She inked up the Smudge Background stamp with Wild Honey Distress Ink and stamped the background. Next, she used some Tim Holtz Alterations dies to die cut the shapes. Some of the die cuts are covered in self adhesive sticky back aluminum, embossed with a Texture Fade and then coloured with alcohol inks and the remaining are coloured with Fired Brick Distress Ink and painted with Rock Candy Crackle Paint. She finally stamped the wording in Black Archival ink, cut it into individual words and adhered it to the piece.

JENNIE

Jennie has made a rosey heart using Tim Holtz's Alterations Pine cone die to make mini roses. To make the roses, glue District Market Composer Tissue wrap to Co-ordinations, and make the roses. Dip some inot clear UTEE, and leave some plain. Add lots of Perfect Pearl mists in Interference red, and hot glue a papier mache heart.

We look forward to seeing your fantastic creations in the challenge this month, and don't forget to add a comment when you post your entry.

Have a very happy and loving month

Jennie

Can We Keep Him? ~ by Emma

2012-01-29T00:01:00.007Z

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

Only Love...

2012-01-28T00:05:00.005Z

Hello Everyone,
Thanks for calling by...Sarah here with my final piece of the month. Golly, almost February already! I've had a fabulous time being Guest Designer and thought I'd end with a bit of good old-fashioned vintage shabbiness!

I cut a large tag by hand from the Retro Grunge Stash and swiped it with Vintage Photo Distress Stain to add more depth of colour. I stamped it with a few Papillon butterflies and script before machine-stitching and distressing the edges .
This Gibson Gal is really great and I stamped her onto a French book page that I had white-washed with Gesso. I aged the edges, layered her onto a scrap of design paper which I'd also stamped before adding more random stitching and Distress Inks. I created the flowers by stamping the rose from Flower Power onto manilla card that I had swooshed with Distress Stains and water. I stamped them lightly with a script, gave them a light crumpling and roughed up the edges with an emery board for the shabby look. I dropped a gold bead into the centre for a little sparkle.

I layered up my sullen gal with some lace, adding a gold washer, butterfly and vintage buttons to the tag top. Then I had to sit and think about the words! I love using my vintage typewriter to add a sentiment and I went for these 'oh so very true' words from Oscar Wilde.

And there you go - a little womanly melancholy on a tag! I hope you like her...I could make another one with "Will I ever do my housework?" on it!!! So with that said, I am going to dig out my dusters and have a Cinderella moment (before the ball that is...)
I just want to say a huge thank you to Jennie, Hels, Emma and all the team for their support and this fabulous opportunity to share a little inky passion with you all. Have a great weekend...stay inspired, creative and full of Mojo!
See you around...Sarah.

NATURE'S FLOWERS (card book)

2012-01-25T00:01:00.002Z

Hi all, Kat here,
I am here with the 3rd & final project of the month for me,
today I would like to share a card/mini book creation.
the focus is still on perfect pearl mist at a reduced price.

I started by making the tags for the inside,

Here's what I used,

4 manilla tags 12x6cm,

2 different scripted stamps,

insect & butterflies stamp plate

Botanical stamp plate 1

coffee archival ink

Brushed Corduroy & Iced Spruce Distress Inks

Tim Holtz Paper Distresser

sayings printed out on my computer.

Next I made the insert for the tags to fit in from

an A4 white piece of card

the items listed above &

Stipple & mini lattice wire background stamps

Swirls, splats & Dots A5 stamp plate

I stuck it all together with

one strip of red line tape on either end. Only

(so it closes properly) & is not restrictive,

to the cover, (A4 pearlised brown card) cut to size,

REMEMBERING TO PLACE SOME RIBBON

BETWEEN TO TWO LAYERS.

I used the perfect pearls mist this time as more of a paint

& just painted the bodies of the insects,

to give them a sheen,

for the front cover,

again I used the same stash as above

with the addition of a large manilla tag, 16x8 cm

a sizzix frame & a saying from my stamp collection.

& there you have it!

hope you like my creation this time,

see you next month,

all take care, & have lots of creative fun,

Kat x.

Tick Tock by Alison

2012-01-24T00:01:00.000Z

Hello Stampers! For my third & final post this month, I have a card to share with you. I have used Perfect Pearls Mists, which are on special offer this month, on The Artistic Stamper website HERE.

For the background, I swiped chipped sapphire distress stains over a square of white card. Then I lightly misted the cog background stamp with forever blue perfect pearls mist, & stamped it on top of the background. I dried it immediately with a heat gun.

I stamped Phineas Pinchbeck & Tick Tock (from the Tick Tock plate), onto a dictionary page, cut them out, inked them with black soot & chipped sapphire distress inks, then matted them on black card. I glued them to the card as shown.

I die cut some Sizzix mini cogs from mountboard, inked them with chipped sapphire distress ink, then triple embossed them with clear UTEE. Whilst the last layer was still molten, I inked the Europe Map background with versamark & stamped the cogs. I trimmed the UTEE around the edges. I added some watch parts & Ideaology to the cogs, & glued them to the card.

I distressed the edged of my artwork with a paper distresser, inked the edges with black soot distress ink, then glued it to a kraft card blank. To finish, I added more watch parts, & a layer of matt accents to Phineas' clock.

Thanks for looking!

Alison xox

No Mortals by Sioux Jenneys

2012-01-21T00:01:00.002Z

It's that time again and I'm here to share a little journal page :)

1. I spritzed plain water all over the page in my 15 x 10.5cm journal book and then added some Adirondack Dye Ink wild plum to the top portion and fired brick re-inker straight from the dropper then used a brush to mix it all up before heat drying the page.

2. Spritz Perfect Pearls Mist in pearl all over the page......and don't forget to stock up on that pearly lushness whilst they are on special offer ;)

3. Stamp the bird head from Airmail Bird Collage Elements in Archival black and mask it before stamping one of the crowns from Crowning Glory in Archival aquamarine......leave both masks in place and stamp the calligraphic mat 13 all over the background in Distress Ink pine needles.

4. Stamp the Dreams from journaling words in Archival aquamarine using some sticky tape to mask off the smaller words.

5. Type up the phrase, print and cut up and adhere the "Dreams" and the words with Studio Multi Medium matte

6. I added some yellow neo colour round the word fragments and blended with a little water....drew round them with a Sharpie pen and hand wrote the author and work along the edge.

7. A touch of Inka Gold in a copper colour was added round the edges and a little blob of black Enamel Accents was put on the eye.

I'll be back next month so see you then!

xoxo Sioux

Shimmer by Emma

2012-01-18T00:01:00.025Z

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

Seeing Spots by Alison

2012-01-16T00:01:00.000Z

Hello Stampers! It's time for my second post of the month, & I have a tag to share with you. I've used plenty of those yummy Perfect Pearl Mists that The Artistic Stamper has on offer right now.

To start I attached some Claudine Hellmuth sticky back canvas to a piece of card, then I die cut the dress form from the Sizzix Alterations Sewing Room die. I laid the dress form on my craft sheet, in a pizza box, then spritzed it with red pepper colour wash & forever red perfect pearl mist. I mopped up the leftover ink on my craft sheet with a tag. I don't like to waste good ink!

I used jet black archival ink to stamp the dress form with the mini polka dot background. I then stamped the tag with calligraphic mat 15. I applied a thin coat of Studio gesso to the tag, then spritzed it with heirloom gold perfect pearl mist. I distressed the edges of the tag with my paper distresser & inked it with walnut stain distress ink. I also sanded the edges of the dress form & inked them with walnut stain DI.

I stamped the phrase from Tim Holtz's Going Somewhere plate on the top right of the tag, & the sewing woman from the Dressmaking plate slightly off the tag on the bottom right. I stamped the woman again on white card, cut her out, & inked her with vintage photo distress ink, before gluing her to the tag.

I used the Sizzix decorative strip vintage lace die to cut a lace border from card, then painted it with pearl paint dabber, & attached a piece to the hem of the dress form, & a piece to the bottom of the tag. I tied a strip of tulle around the waist of the dress form, added a safety pin, & glued it to the tag.

Finally, I stamped the thimble from the dressmaking plate on some sticky back aluminium, cut it out, and attached it to the tag, together with a couple of buttons & metal poppers.

I hope you like my tag, thanks for looking,
Alison xox

Feeling Blue...?

2012-01-14T01:14:00.001Z

Good Morning to both you and the weekend...
and hopefully a little off-duty time for some and oodles of crafty dabblings too! Sarah here with my second make of the month. Today I'm feeling rather blue and girly but all in a good painty, inky way. I make no secret of being an ATC fan, especially when they're funky and chunky!

I cut a chunk of wood from an old beam that was lurking in the shed. It's the three dimensional model of your standard ATC (2½ x 3½ inches, but 1½ inches deep). I started with a couple of coats of paint with my Cloudy Blue Dabber and then cut a cardboard frame for the front which I swiped with Snow Cap before stamping some yummy Polka Dots.

I lined the frame with Mr.Tim Ball Chain and inked up some Grungeboard Letters with pigment ink. I chose the word 'Fleur', because somehow French sounds so much nicer!

I painted some Grungepaper in Snowcap and then stamped the really great flowers and leaves from Flower Power and Flower Blooms.

I love cutting weeny things out so I had a ball with those leaves! Plus it means you can create more movement and shape with them.

I layered up the flowers, added a brass stud and made a triple one for the top finishing off with an old ceramic drawer knob!

On the back, more yummy dots, leaves and three pretty mini flowers. Just too cute! I don't often say cute, but these just are! I played around with the words from Flower Blooms by stamping them onto painted card and splitting them up. Oooh, so many places to play with...

I think chunky ATCs make great gifts because you can put so much in to them but they're just the right size too... They'll happily perch on a shelf or in a cabinet.

Are you stamper or cardmaker wanting to venture into mixed media but feeling a bit daunted by the thought? Well, this could be the perfect project to help you make that step, whilst still taking all your other skills along.

On the sides, I kept things fairly simple but still wanted to add a little extra detail with some seam binding, vintage buttons and another flower. I don't mind seeing the lumps, bumps and cracks in the wood - all part of the natural look! On this side some more wordplay and chain. Finally, (fanfare) the whole ATC is mounted on four metal corner thingies also painted blue!
So, that's all folks, as they say. Hope you like it and will maybe give it a go yourself. Thanks for looking and Happy Weekending! Sarah.

CAN CARS FLY?.....

2012-01-13T00:01:00.001Z

THEY CAN IN MY WORLD (lol)
Hi all, Kat here,
I'm here with project no 2,
it's another page in my little board book,

The focus is still on Perfect pearls this month,
you can grab yours HERE at a discount price.

My page is missing a smart of funny saying or quote,
can anyone help me out on this one,
please leave me a comment with any suggestions
as I am stumped, but I do feel the page needs one.

this is such a shiny page but I can't seem to get it on the camera.

(sorry about that)

OK I started by painting my page with blue acrylic paint,

then sprayed green patina perfect pearls all over it

then took a flat paint brush & brushed all over the page

to get the sheen all over, I unscrewed the bottle &

splatted the plastic pipe over the page to get the splats.

next I stamped the (be confident find your wings & fly)

sentiment, one of Wendy Vecchi's in Library green archival ink

all over the page,

along with parts of the Harlequin background stamp

& the Stipple background stamp

both stamped in Coffee archival ink

I then doodled around the page with a black uni-ball pen

& a white gel pen.

I cut the car images from a collage sheet,

and stamped & added the wings from the

Crowning glory stamp plate

then glued them in place,

lastly I added a sky line cut from a magazine

to try to give a bit of perspective.

hope you like it!

I'll be back on the 25th with a more in depth project

until then have a crafty time,

Kat x.

Dreams by Sioux Jenneys

2012-01-11T00:01:00.001Z

Hello everyone! It's my turn again and I'm here to share a card :)

1. I started off by making the flowers and stamped a piece of pale yellow copy quality paper (80gsm) with the Mini Calligraphic mat 20 in Archival chrome yellow then overstamped this with two of the flowers from Flower Power in Archival black and cut them all out ;)

2. Next I layered the large flowers with some small ones and one flower using just small flowers then pushed a brad through all the layers to hold them together.

Now the fun part for the scruchie look.....just spritz the layers with plain water and scrunch each layer into the centre. When all the layers are scrunched well, gently unfurl the layers to get the effect you want. Heat dry a little or just leave to dry naturally.

3. The background is a piece of paper from the Crowded Attic pad that I stamped with the Dance Dictionary background in Archival black and then spritzed with Perfect Pearl Mist in heirloom gold.

Grab those mists whilst they are on special offer here ;)

4. "Follow your Dreams" from journaling words 1 was stamped onto white card and cut out before attaching with dimensional pads on top of some die cut Elegant Flourishes that had been coloured with Distress Ink shabby shutters.

5. The background was first attached to some of the yellow copy paper and then to a piece of black card. A little bit of rustic twine was wrapped around and the flowers glued on top with silicone glue.

Hope your dreams come true this year :) See you soon!

xoxo Sioux

Darling Child by Alison

2012-01-09T08:00:00.000Z

Hello Stampers! I have a little 5x5 canvas to share with you for my first post of the month.

To colour the canvas, I schmooshed peeled paint & broken china distress inks onto my craft sheet, spritzed with blue raspberry perfect pearl mist, then dipped the canvas in the ink. I dried it with my heat gun, then carried on dipping in the ink, until I had a pleasing background. Then I edged the canvas with vintage photo distress ink, & stamped the music background in the 4 corners with coffee archival ink.

I stamped the girl image from The Artistic Stamper Childhood Dreams plate, using coffee archival ink, then inked with vintage photo & broken china distress inks.

I stamped the Calligraphic Mat 15 onto a small tag, using peeled paint distress ink, then the words from the Childhood Dreams plate in coffee ink. I added the flower fairy image from Botanical Plate 3, in the top right corner, & the edge of the rose in the bottom left corner, then edged the tag with broken china distress ink.

I embossed a couple of Ideaology Foliage flowers with broken china distress embossing powder, then a couple of long fasteners with shabby shutters distress EP. I added the larger one to the tag, & the smaller one to a prima flower, layered with a circle of vintage music sheet.

I layered my stamped images with an inked doily, a scrap of inked music sheet, & the flower. To finish, I added a scrap of cream lace & blue ribbon.

The Perfect Pearl Mists are on special offer HERE on The Artistic Stamper website.

Thanks for looking,

Alison xxx

So Red The Rose by Emma

2012-01-08T00:01:00.005Z

Hi everyone! It's Emma here and I hope you're all having a lovely, inky weekend.

It's already that time of the month for me to share my latest little creation with you and I chose to use a gorgeous Mabel Lucie Attwell image as the main feature of my project, together with lots more goodies from The Artistic Stamper. Also, if you head on over to The Artistic Stamper, this month you can 15% off Perfect Pearls Mists right up until the end of January...

So, here's what I made, all the details of how I did it and lots of close up photos...

To begin with, I made my own shadow box, using two pieces of white cardstock, cut to 15cm x 21cm. I then cut a circle aperture into one of the pieces of cardstock, which will become the front section of the box. Next, I blended Tumbled Glass and Vintage Photo Distress Ink over the front section and then inked up the Dots Background stamp with more Tumbled Glass DI and stamped over the entire front of the box.

I then stamped the Mabel Lucie Attwell "Cut Off Her Head" image from Alice In Wonderland and coloured it in with alcohol pens and Distress Inks. I mounted the finished image, centrally onto the back section of my box and then attached the front section, lining up the two pieces of cardstock and the cut out aperture, to complete my freestanding shadow box.

Next, I die cut some flowers from ivory card using the Tim Holtz's Tattered Florals Die. You will need enough petals to make three complete dimensional roses. I blended Fired Brick Distress Ink over some of the petals and left the petals that I will use for the third flower, ivory. I then used Forever Red Perfect Pearls Mists and sprayed all the petals with the mist, just like the Queen did in the story of Alice In Wonderland. I dried them all with a heat tool, before assembling each of the petal sections to give two completed red roses and one rose, that is half sprayed.

Next, I die cut the Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers, Mini Leaf and Branch and blended Gathered Twigs and Iced Spruce Distress Ink over them. I then arranged the dimensional roses, together with the leaves and twigs onto the front section of my box. Finally, you probably all had a small pack of playing cards in one of your crackers at Christmas...so, I used three cards from one of those packs and attached them to my shadow box.

So, I hope you like my creation and thank you so much for taking the time to come and have a look at what I made.

See you soon and hope you have a lovely creative week!

Emma x

Birthday blog celebration candy!

2012-01-07T00:01:00.002Z

Hello, and a very creative day to you. Because today is my birthday and because I am the Chief Stamper here at The Artistic Stamper, I have decreed that today is a

blog candy day!

There is lots of candy, stamps from The Artistic Stamper, a sheet of Kling-On, a set of Winter distress inks, a non stick mat, stiudio multi medium matte, idea-ology lace chain, Perfect pearl mist, a set of 20 Manila tags, and a hanging wooden frame :)))

To win the candy all you have to do is comment, and, if you wish , for another go at it, you can comment on my own blog, and for another chance please add it to your sidebar of your blog.

I shall post all over the world, and shall pick the winner next Saturday!

Happy Birthday to everyone who shares today as their birthday, and have a very creative day

Jennie

Time for a winner or two....

2012-01-06T00:01:00.005Z

Hi, its the chief stamper here again and this time with the winner of the Christmas challenge, and the winner of Hel's tag from last month. We had a brilliant number of entries to last month's challenge (85), and thank you all so much for joining in. Many apologies if we didn't get round to everyone to say thank you for joining in.
Now I know that you just really would like to know who has won the £15.00 worth of The Artistic Stamper stamps, so without much ado..

GLITTERY KATIE

is the winner. Please email me so I can send you your prize.
Hels has picked her winner, and

FATMONICA

has won her gorgeous tag. Please email Hels so she can arrange to send it to you :)

Don't forget that this month's challenge is Vintage, and we love seeing your creations...
Have a very creative day
Jennie x

TIME WON'T WAIT

2012-01-05T00:01:00.003Z

Hi All,
Kat here with my first project of the month,
Christmas is over & we are on to the new year,
so I have done a time themed page in my board book,
the focus this month is on perfect pearl mist on offer
in the shop for this month only HERE

I have taken the same picture 4 times at slightly different angles,

trying to get the perfect pearls to show up on camera,

who knew it would be so hard LOL.

I started by covering the page in Tattered Rose Distress Ink

with a blending tool,

then I sprayed Forever Violet perfect pearl mist

through a cogs mask,

I then stamped some cogs from the Tick Tock stamp plate

all over the background with

archival inks in Plum & Sepia

& used the stipple background stamp to age it a bit

then I went round the edge of the page with

Gathered Twig Distress Ink

I stamped some clocks & the sentiment

onto scrap paper off the

Time & Keys stamp plate & then cut them out

I used the same Distress Ink on theses as above,

lastly I dug out some copper coloured border peel offs

& used them as a watch chain to hang the watches from.

Hope you like it!

you can see a little sneak peek

for my next page in the pic above,

don't tell anyone LOL.

see you on the 15th,

Kat x.

Love Card by Sioux Jenneys

2012-01-04T00:01:00.002Z

Happy New Year everyone! It's a card from me today :)

1. First off I'll give you the measurements I used to make the card and the score lines.
Basically cut an A4 piece of card in two lengthways so that the larger piece is A5 size in height then cut this to 19 cm wide.
Using the long thin strip of card cut two pieces measuring 9.8cm and 10cm...
...mark 2.5 cm up on one edge, draw a diagonal line to the opposite top edge and cut.
Score the fold lines on both the card and diagonal pieces at 5.4cm and 3.2cm.

2. You can see the diagonal cuts below...
...now is the time to do any stamping on the base card.

I chose to add a pattern using the Baroque Background to both long edges of the card and the two outer edges of the diagonal pieces in Distress Ink bundled sage. The sentiment was stamped in Archival black.

Don't worry about the pattern not covering the main card right to the bottom as the diagonal part gets attached there and will cover it. :)

3. Die cut a couple of borders and stamp with the Mini Polka Dot background in Distress Ink spiced marmalade.

4. Attach to the top edge of the diagonal pieces....trim the ends...
...and edge with a gold marker pen before attaching to the base card.

5. I'm so glad the Perfect Pearls Mist show up on the flower from Botanical Plate 1 stamped in a mixture of Distress Ink aged mahoganey, spiced marmalade and bundled sage onto some watercolour paper then liberally sprayed with the pearl version of the mists.
Don't forget they are on special offer this month :)

6. Stamp the word love from Journaling Words 1 in Archival black onto some watercolour card that has already been sprayed with the pearl mist and left to dry, then cut out and attach along with the flower.

:) See you again soon!

xoxo Sioux

Some simple thinking and inking!

2012-01-03T00:01:00.000Z

A big hello and a Very Happy New Year wish to you all! Sarah here with my first Guest spot at the Artistic Stamper! Firstly, I hope you've all had a fantastic time of celebrations, lounging, fine food and merriment! A whole new year of crafty discoveries lie ahead...but where, oh where, do we start? Well, I have enjoyed all the tinsel, glitter and glam stuff, but I thought some back to basics, old school inkiness might just be the tonic! Some days you just can't beat fine stamps, Distress Inks and tattered edges...

After all the festive tags and mass card production, it's nice spending some quality time with just a couple of free themed creations. I was drawn to the elegant and fine details of the flowers on The Botanical Plate 1. I created a stencil by drawing and cutting out three rectangles from a card scrap. I taped it lightly to my card and began gently sponging graduated shades of Distress Inks with a piece of Cut 'n' Dry Foam. I used Mustard Seed, Scattered Straw and Wild Honey working from light to dark. Sponge gently taking care not to drag or twist otherwise you'll get streaks and lines.

I gave it a quick dry with my heat gun and then I inked up my stamp in Plum Archival Ink by Ranger. It's a great colour and just a little different from the brown shades. I made sure I stamped off centre, between two blocks so the flower can be seen against both the white card and rich inky tones. I then stamped a Wendy Vecchi sentiment which seemed to fit perfectly with the daisy. See lots more Wendy words here! I distressed and inked the edges and layered it up onto some Graphic 45 design paper and a white card base.

For my second card I turned the stencil, slightly changing the colours by using Scattered Straw, Wild Honey and Rusty Hinge Distress Inks Take time to gently blend the colours. Don't be afraid to apply more ink to achieve the exact shade you want. Make sure your stencil has fairly wide sides otherwise you'll get ink around the card edge too!

This time I went for the Lilies (from the same plate) although they rather remind me of daffodils with these rich colours. I stamped them with using Ranger's Coffee Archival Ink. I also added a two lines of random machine stitching to my card base for a shabby look...see you don't have to be able to sew in a straight line at all! For extra interest, I also added some gold thread, ribbon and lace scraps, and an orphan button.

Once again all finished off with fine Wendy words. Coincidentally, these two wonderful floral stamps are also available to buy individually here. So if you're on a post Chrimbo budget, you can still play along!
Well, that's me all done...
Just a simple but effective idea to get you going and one you can adapt for use with many colours and stamps. Especially when you think of all those thank you cards you need to write, not to mention the faint whisper of Valentine's and Mothers Day! Thanks for calling by and happy crafting! Sarah.

January Challenge- Vintage

2012-01-01T00:01:00.006Z

Hello, and welcome to 2012 and I cannot think of a better way than to kick start the New Year than with a brand new challenge!
Many thanks for all your wonderful entries for December, we had a stunning 86 entries! The winner of this challenge will be announced on Friday January 6th.

The new challenge this month is VINTAGE. To join in with the challenge is simple; make a piece of artwork, include the theme and some rubberstamping, pop back here to link up using the Froggy at the bottom of this post and leave us a comment to let us know you have joined in. As ever there will be candy for one randomly picked entrant - £15 worth of The Artistic Stamper stamps of your choice plus the Kling On to mount them onto. And... if you use Artistic Stamper stamps on your entry, you will be entered twice into the draw!
Last month we were very lucky to have the very creative Tracey Metcalfe as our Guest Designer, many thanks to Tracey for her innovative and gorgeous creations! This month we are welcoming a new Guest Designer ... and this is Sarah Engels-Greer and we cannot wait to see what gorgeous creations she will create for us.
Just as an aside, we have a massive sale on the website, and this month's Special offer is Perfect Pearl Mists with 15% OFF! Grab yourself a bargain this week !

Here are the Creative Team's absolutely fabulous creations for this month's challenge

JENNIE

Jennie made this with a tag, using distress inks in Spun Sugar, and then stamped over the top with Family Values in Vintage Photo. Stamp the boy and man in Walnut Stain again, and layered them on top. Add some black photo corners to the tag, and layer it onto a piece of Seasonal Paper Stash. Add a little bit of Glossy Accents on the Family Value words, and some letters and numbers from Alphaparts Newsprint

EMMA

Using the size 8 Manila Tag, Emma blended Tumbled Glass and Vintage Photo Distress Ink over the tag and then stamped the background with the Music Background stamp. She then inked up the "Keep Calm and Carry On Stamping" stamp with Fired Brick Distress Ink, stamped onto a piece of cream card, distressed the edges and attached it to the tag. The handmade flowers are made using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Die and the edges blended with Vintage Photo DI. She then attached these to the tag, together with the Mini Branch and Leaf Movers and Shapers die cuts. Finally, she added a butterfly die cut from card covered in Tissue Tape and a bow tied from seam binding and coloured with Antique Linen Distress Stain.

KAT

Kat has used a Mini hanging frame for her creation, along with Distress Inks

Brushed Corduroy, Iced Spruce & Gathered Twig, Archival ink Coffee, and some Tissue Tape,

& veriety of brass charms along with the following stamps, backgrounds

Watches, Music, Stipple & Harlequin, Stamp Plate Tick Tock A5, & Tim Holtz Steampunk set.

SIOUX

Sioux made an ATC using stamps from Ephemera 1 plate , Crowning Glory, Swirls, Splats and Dots A5 and Insects and Butterflies 1.

ALISON

Alison made a card, using Victorian Velvet & Walnut Stain Distress Ink, Biscotti Perfect Pearls Mist, & The Artistic Stamper Regency Background. She die cut a large Sizzix Rosette from vintage music sheet & a Ticket from kraft card, stamped with a sentiment from The Artistic Stamper Greetings & Words Plate. She added a border of gold embossing, gold Stickles, a pearl hat pin, & flower Trimmings to finish.

We look forward to seeing your gorgeous entries this month, and thank you for looking.

Happy New Year!

Jennie

Time for goodbyes, and welcome to 2012!

2011-12-31T00:01:00.006Z

I hate goodbyes, (au revoir is so much nicer) so, as 2011 draws to a close, The Artistic Stamper Creative Team is saying au revoir to Hels.
I first encountered Hels about 4 years ago when I joined a forum, and came across her work on her blog. This inspired me to start my own blog ( who'd have thought that blogging would become so big !) , and I in turn asked her to create some artwork for us here at The Artistic Stamper. The rest they say is history!
Hels has been my Creative Co-ordinator for the past 4 years, and I will miss her , not only for her creative artwork, inspiration and ideas, but for her "behind the scenes" help, whenever I have needed it. She has organised all the Creativity that you see on the blog , even designing her own stamps..namely Stitchels, as well as creating her own artwork for her blog. Thank you for the past four years, it has been fun. We wish you all the best for the future.

We also said au revoir to Nicky ( aka Minxy) who has always made me smile with her innovative artwork. Nicky has been with The Artistic Stamper for about 3 years , and will be missed for her gorgeous innovative artwork, and her inspiration using our stamps.

Finally Tina has decided to leave the team, and her artwork using Mabel Lucie Attwell has never failed to inspire!

We wish you the best for the coming year, may 2012 be bright, and fun filled, and full of Creativity!

Happy New Year! See you in 2012!
Jennie

Happy New Year by Emma

2011-12-29T00:01:00.022Z

Hi everyone!

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and you're now looking forward to celebrating New Year's Eve and the start of 2012!!

Once again, time has flown by and I can't believe that it's already my turn to show you my final piece of this month, featuring the FREE stamps that you get with every order that you place at The Artistic Stamper right up until the end of December.

I've included lots of close up photos of my tag, to show every little detail and I really hope you like it.

To begin with I stamped the Mabel Lucie Attwell "Scamp" onto a piece of white card, coloured it with alcohol pens and cut this image out. I then blended Tumbled Glass and Antique Linen Distress Ink over my tag, inked up the FREE snowflakes stamp with Tumbled Glass and stamped the snowflakes onto the top section of my tag.

Next, I die cut the Tim Holtz's Bigz Holiday Lampost from Grungeboard and blended Gathered Twigs, Aged Mahogany and Black Soot over the die cut piece. I then used Wild Honey DI to create the light effect and covered it with Glossy Accents. I stuck this to my tag and added some "snow" onto the lampost using the Snow Cap Acrylic Paint Dabber. I then stuck my little coloured image of "Scamp" onto the tag, at the bottom of the lampost.

I used the Tim Holtz Mini Rosettes die and some paper from my stash to make my rosette stack. Typed out a Happy New Year message and used a circle punch to punch it out. Next, I added the message to a bottle top and covered it with Glossy Accents before attaching it to the top of my stack.

I inked up the ticket stamp from the Tim Holtz ~ Odds and Ends stamp set with black Archival ink, stamped it onto white card and then die cut the "2012", using Tim's Decorative Strip Vintage Market die. I blended Fired Brick Distress Ink over the numbers and added Glossy Accents to the top. I then stuck the numbers onto my ticket using 3D foam and attached it to my tag with an Idea-ology Memo Pin.

As the finishing touch, I added some seam binding which I tie dyed using some Tumbled Glass Distress Stain.

So, that's about it for this post, and for this year!!

I hope you all have a wonderful, healthy 2012 and I wish you all a very Happy New Year. Thank you so much for stopping by to leave your lovely comments on all the pieces I've made since joining the team ~ I really appreciate it!

See you in 2012...

Emma x

Guest artist for December, part 3, my final offering

2011-12-28T00:01:00.002Z

Well hey there,

I am so excited and sad at the same time to be back with my third and final offering for my guest artist spot for December.!!

I want to say a huge thanks to Jennie and Hels for this fantastic opportunity, wish I could do it again!I have loved making these projects, so thanks!

So for my third offering offering I have used some fab insects and butterflies stamps, a configurations box and lots and lots of Artistic Stamper goodies!

So here it is:

I have always wanted to do a configurations box and now seemed like a fab time to make a butterfly and bug box trace style.
I started by cutting papers from the lost and found stack of Tim Holtz papers to size, using plain pieces for the sides and base and more patterned papers for the backs.I then over stamped these papers with the fab bugs and butterflies from the insects and butterflies plate, using black soot distress ink and the smudge background stamp in pumice stone.
Once the papers had dried I glued them into place and covered the joins using sketchbook tissue tape, I love this stuff!
Now for the fun bit, filling the box:
I wanted to showcase the stamps as much as possible and loved the way I could use these detailed images on clearly for art film, shrink plastic, dominoes and grungepaper.

There is too much to detail it all so here are a few of my favourite bits:
I used some blank dominoes, coloured with alcohol inks and edged with metal tape, these then had images stamped on using archival ink.I layered two together to get greater depth. The other set of dominoes I added an ideaology key and a shrink plastic butterfly.

I loved making wings for the fractured doll, using clearly for art film, coloured with alcohol inks and some beadazzles added for a touch of bling.

The frame for the box had ideaology corners added and some fab leaves from Wendy Vecchis arts parts added, which were pained with crackle paint, in peeled paint..the butterflies were made as above.

My final favourite, although it was hard to choose, as I loved filling each and every section and want to do another !!!,was the pocket watch section.
I added a grungepaper circle, coloured in Distress inks and stamped with butterfly
from the insects and butterflies plate.Then I added some shrink plastic butterflies and some beadazzles. The pocket watch shape next to it was made using a chipboard piece, colouring with distress inks, stamping butterfly and finally adding crackle glaze.

Well hope you like my last and final offering!
Thanks again for this fab opportunity!
Hope to see you around in blogland
hugs trace x

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T00:01:00.004Z

To all our readers, we wish you a very Merry Christmas from all of us at The Artistic Stamper Creative Team.

May your holidays be joyful and merry and very inky!
Hugs from
Jennie, Hels, Sioux, Alison, Kat and Emma xxx

Kisses From Heaven by Alison

2011-12-24T00:30:00.000Z

Merry Christmas Stampers! It's Christmas Eve, & here's my final post of 2011! I have altered a wooden heart, & made an icy Winter decoration. I have used the fab snowflake stamp, that you can get free with any order this month.

I began by priming the wooden heart with Studio Gesso, then painted it with Blank Canvas Studio paint. When it was all dry, I coated the heart with Rock Candy Crackle Paint. I left it to dry naturally, then dabbed Stormy Sky Distress Stains all over, to highlight the cracks. I stamped the Snowflakes with Black Stazon, then inked the edges of the heart with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

I inked an Artistic Stamper Chipboard Flower with Versamark ink, then triple embossed it with Pearl UTEE. When the final layer was still molten, I stamped into it with a script stamp. I trimmed the excess UTEE, then inked the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

I used the Sizzix Tattered Florals die to cut some flowers out of tulle fabric, then layered these with the chipboard flower & a decorative brad. I glued the flower to the heart with Glossy Accents.

I used alphabet stamps from the Scrabble & Tags Plate, to stamp the phrase, cut them out, inked them with Walnut Stain DI, then glued them to the heart with Glossy Accents.

Finally, I punched 2 holes in the top of the heart, using a Cropadile, added silver eyelets, silver wire to hang, & a couple of pearl beads. I twirled the wire ends around a paintbrush to hold the beads in place.

Thanks for looking, & I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas & New Year!
Alison xxx

Merry Christmas by Hels

2011-12-23T00:01:00.000Z

Goodly Morning Stampfans! Today I am here showing you a quick Christmas card I have made using one of my favourite Artistic Stamper stamps... this old Santa looks like a jolly old chap and I love how detailed the stamp is. He is from Christmas Plate #3.

I wanted to make a statement with the stamp as the focal image of the card so... here's how I did it;
I stamped Santa in Jet Black Archival ink onto cream cardstock and gave it a quick zap with a heat tool to set the ink. I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink and a Blending Tool to make a vintagey edge to the card and then used Fired Brick and Peeled Paint Distress Ink, along with my water brush, to paint in the colours over the image. I then popped a teensy dollop of SnowCap Dabber onto my craft sheet and watered it down and then painted in his beard and hair... because the paint is thinner, you can still see your stamped image but the white really makes his beard and hair pop.

I used a thin paintbrush to pick up some Gold Dabber and painted around the circle and gave this a zap with the heat tool to dry it. Next, I used a thin paint brush to pick up some Rock Candy Cracklepaint and I painted carefully right over the top of the Gold circle. Once this had dried, I used Distress Embossing Ink and coated the whole piece of card with it. I used Clear UTEE over the top of this, heated it up and it gives a nice enamelled look. I waited until it had cooled and repeated the process, in the end the card had three coats of UTEE... the pics don't really pick up the crackles too well but they do look really pretty... like cracked ice.

Well, that's about it from me. I would just like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to Jennie for the past four years being on her Creative Team and co-ordinating it. I will be stepping down from the team on December 31st and I am going to miss Jennie and the girls on the team - they are all such a fantastic bunch of artists and it has been an honour to craft alongside them all these years. Thank you to all you lovely folks for all your wonderful comments you have left me here since this blog started... I am sure that Jennie and the team will have some treats for you to see in the coming months... I will shut up now before I need the Kleenex... THANK YOU all for looking... Bye bye ... Hels x

Must be Santa by Sioux Jenneys

2011-12-21T00:01:00.002Z

Seasons Greetings everyone and as this is my last post of the year I'd like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas by sharing this card with you :)

1. Cut a label using an alterations die and stamped the gorgeous Santa from Mini Christmas in Archival black.

2. Hand colour portions with a cut and dry nib...I used Distress Ink aged mahogany for the hat and berries, worn lipstick for the rosy cheeks and peeled paint for the greenery. I added a touch of Distress Stickles in fired brick to the berries too. The edges were aged with a touch of scattered straw and then some brushed corduroy.

3. I cut a mask from paper using another alterations die and taped extra paper round the edges so that it would cover the whole card front then stamped the snowflake (it's a freebie from The Artistic Stamper with any order this month don't forget) in Versamark and clear heat embossed.

Inked the background with a combo of Distress Ink scattered straw and brushed corduroy again.

4. Then I placed the other part of the mask over the centre panel and inked the rest of the card in Distress Aged Mahogany with a touch of brushed corduroy at the edges.....then stamped the calligraphic mat 13 in Archival coffee.

5. Stamped the lovely Seasons Greetings from Mini Christmas in Archival black and attached the label centrally to finish.

I wish you all the best Christmas ever! :)

See you again in the New Year!

xoxo Sioux

Merry Christmas by Emma

2011-12-18T00:01:00.000Z

Hi everyone!

Can you believe that it's only a week to go until Christmas?? Where did this year go and where has this month gone? It's already time for me to show you my second project of the month using one of the fab FREE stamps that you get if you place an order at The Artistic Stamper during December.

So, here's what I created ~ a Shadow Box Christmas card featuring another of the adorable images of Mabel Lucie Atwell ~ I hope you like it.

...and here's how I made it ~ I've included lots of close up photos to show you all the detail!

To begin with I stamped the Mabel Lucie Attwell ~ Ah! There You Are (large) image onto a small piece of white card, coloured it in and then cut around the outline of the image.

Next, I made my own shadow box from white cardstock and blended Weathered Wood and Antique Linen Distress Ink over the frame of the box to give some colour.

To create the moonlit background of my shadow box card, I used a piece of 10cm square white card and blended some Tumbled Glass DI over it, masking off a small circle where I want the moon to be. i then removed the 'moon mask' and blended some Antique Linen DI over the area where the mask was. Ink up the snowflakes stamp and stamp the flakes over the background. You can just about see the snowflakes in the photo, but they are much clearer in the flesh.

I then cut a piece of acetate, embossed it using the Tim Holtz Snowflake Flurries Texture Fade and placed it over the stamped snowflake background, adhering it in place, inside the frame.

Next, using Tim Holtz's Decorative Strip die, I die cut the Festive Greenery from various colours of Ranger Distress Core'dinations paper stack, sandpapered each piece and then arranged and stuck them to the base of my shadow card, together with the stamped and coloured Mabel Lucie Attwell image, which now stands in the foreground of the card, to give a three dimensional look.

I then die cut some snowflakes from white textured card, using the Movers and Shapers Mini Snowflakes die, arranged these around the edge of the frame and stuck them into place. I next used some black Archival ink to ink up the "Merry Christmas" wording from the Tim Holtz Winter Sketchbook stamp set and stamped this onto cream card, mounted it on a piece of Core'dinations from the paper stack and then stuck it to the top of my shadow box card. As the final touch, I squidged some Rock Candy Distress Stickles over all the Festive Greenery die cut pieces.

So, that's about it for this creation and I won't be posting again this side of Christmas...so, I'd just like to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and thank you for all your comments since I joined The Artistic Stamper Creative Team. It's been lovely reading each and every one of them and I really do appreciate them all.

Bye for now and happy creating.

Emma x

Winter Peace by Alison

2011-12-16T00:01:00.000Z

Hello Stampers. I have a Wintry double journal page to share with you today. I've used the lovely snowflake stamp that's one of the free stamps you can get with every order this month. You can see them both HERE.

Ok, so I started off by sponging Claudine Hellmuth Black Gesso all over my pages. It's a wonderful dense black, that gives great coverage! I made it thicker in a couple of corners, & stamped into it with the snowflake stamp. Remember to spritz your stamp with water when doing this, & then clean it thoroughly straight after.

Once the gesso was dry, I dry-brushed it with Claudine's Studio Paints in Sky Blue, Smidge of Blue & Purple Palette, finally adding a few highlights with some Blank Canvas. It really highlights the texture on the pages, especially where I stamped into the Gesso.

I stamped the Bare Tree on the right-hand page, then some more Snowflakes onto both pages, using Black Stazon ink. I added some highlights to the tree with an Inkessentials white pen. I used Pearl Perfect Pearl mist to add splatters across my pages. I did this, by shaking the bottle thoroughly, then unscrewing the top, & flicking the tube that goes into the bottle of mist. Hope this makes sense! Lol!

I painted some Grunge letters with Silver Paint Dabber, & glued them to my pages. Then I used small alphabet stamps from the Scrabble & Tags Plate, to stamp words on the edge of some old music sheet. I used Studio Matt Medium to glue these to my pages, together with a couple of scraps of music sheet.

Finally, I used a black pencil to edge the words, & the music sheet scraps.

Thanks for looking!

Alison xxx

TWINKLE TWINKLE BIG GOLD STAR

2011-12-15T00:01:00.001Z

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.

Guest Artist for December part 2!

2011-12-14T00:01:00.001Z

Well hey there,

I am excited to be back with my second offering for my guest artist spot for December.!!

So for my second offering I have used some fab journalling stamps and fab flowers stamps from the Artistic Stamper, distress inks , some wendy vecchi arts parts and a collage frame, as well as some funky ideaology bits , from Tim and some perfect pearls mist.

So here it is:

I started with a collage frame, which I painted up using household emulsion and crackled, a fab effect, this was then coloured using distress inks.
To create the collage inside I drew the shape onto paper and divided to get range of shapes and sizes of squares and rectangles, which were then cut from grungepaper.
Each piece was then coloured using distress inks in various blue shades.
I then started with one piece at a time and added perfect pearls mist to some pieces and crackle paint to one, trying to compliment and contrast adjacent pieces.
I added journalling stamps, journalling words #1, from the artistic stamper to some pieces as a focal point.

I also used the fab swirls,splats and dots stamps, again from the artistic stamper to some of the elements and the dots background to other pieces.
Once the backgrounds were complete it was time to play!
The beautiful flower stamps ,flower power and flower blooms, from the artistic stamper were used to create the fab 3-d flowers out of grungepaper, which were coloured using distress inks and spritzed with perfect pearls mist in pearl.

The leaves were also made using grungepaper, coloured using distress ink in
peeled paint and then covered with dots background stamp.
The small flowers were made in the same way, all from artistic stamper flowers from flower power and flower blooms.
The flowers on the corner of the frame were stamped using the flowers stamp,cut from clearly for art film, a fab mouldable film that can be coloured, heated and then shaped.I coloured these flowers using alcohol inks.

I added some great wendy vecchi arts parts which were coloured and I added
rock candy to the leaves part.
To finish I added some ideaology washers, foliage and fasteners.The washers and fasteners make flower centres.

This has been great fun to make and I love the way the collage effect can be built up using any colours and stamps to suit any taste,

thanks again!!

see you later in the month for my last offering

have a fab inky day

hugs trace x

Festive Feeling... Giveaway Time!

2011-12-13T00:01:00.002Z

Goodly Morning Stampfans! Tis that time of the month again when I do my taggy giveaway... this month the tag has been inspired by lots of different techniques shown by Tim Holtz during his 12 Tags of Christmas bonanza this year. Did you know that Jennie is feeling in a very generous festive mood and not only is she giving away two free limited edition stamps with every single order... she has also set up a special discount of a mahoosive 20% on any orders for the stash used in the 12 Tags... to see all the deets, please CLICK HERE. The offer is only open for a limited time... til 18th December so time to grab yourself a nice Christmas pressie bargain! On with this months tag for giving away. To be in with a chance of winning it is a doddle... simply leave me a comment here and tell my what your favourite Tim tag was this year... the winner will be chosen at random and announced here on the blog on January 3rd 2012. I had lots of fun making this tag because I included all my favourite stashly supplies. The base of the tag was coloured with Antique Linen Distress Stain. I spritzed it with water and then dipped the tag into a smoosh of stain (liking that description!) on the craft sheet... using Frayed Burlap (this has to be one of my faves for vintage, nostalgic Christmas projects)

Anyways... I dried the tag with a heat tool and then did some "Ghost Stamping" with the crackle background from the Joyful Song stamp set. This is a really fab technique and so easy... simply pop your stamp onto your craft sheet face up, ink with your Distress Ink and then pick it up in your hands and kind of roll it over your tag... this will mean that there's no start or finish to the image, instead it just fades out... no harsh edges! I dried this with a heat tool and then roughed up the edges with a Paper Distresser and blended Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the edges. I used a variety of green Alcohol Inks to colourize a piece of Kraft Glassine paper, scrumpled it, dragged Vintage Photo DI over the top of the scrumples and then dried it. I used the Holly Branch Alterations Die to cut five leaves out and then used the Tattered Pinecone Die to cut out three shapes from brown cardstock... I then assembled them into the pinecones and added Picket Fence Stickles to the edges of the bracks. The little holly berries are Baubles, coloured in a zippy bag with Red Pepper Alcohol Ink and tied with wire and some vintage lace - these are FAB ideas from Tim... and all the deets for the 12 Tags are on his blog. I used a piece of Lost & Found music paper to cut a Tattered Banner and popped this into the pinecone/holly leaf assembly and then set about making the sentiment... which is another easy but cute way of stamping; using Distress Embossing Ink for stamping the sentiment onto Kraft card and then embossing with Ranger Black Embossing Powder and cutting around the sentiment and edging with Vintage Photo DI.

Cor... this is a long winded explanation for one tag... nearly done! The Idea-ology Christmas Adornment charm was painted with a selection of Adirondack Dabbers... using a teensy Claudine Hellmuth Studio brush to apply the paints... then drying with a heat gun, sanding gently and then squishing it into the Distress Embossing Ink and embossing with Clear Embossing Powder... worn of warning... don't try to pick it up straight after you have heated the powders... it is metal... and that means it is hot... ouch!!! Just sayin ;o)) I repeated the "enamelling" process so the bells are really covered with a good thick layer of powders... punched a hole in the top using the Idea-ology Screw Punch and popping onto a little Jump Ring and Mini Safety Pin. Once the whole tag was assembled, I gave it is a really fine spritz with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls Mists.

You will see that there's a border of snowflakes and the odd snowflake dotted around the tag... I made these using more Alterations dies to cut Kraft Glassine that I had coloured with SnowCap Alcohol Ink... I have done a quick Tutorial over on my own blog so you can see how I did this... all the deets are HERE. Well, that's all from me for now... thanks for looking!!! TTFN

Hels x

Balancing Act by Sioux Jenneys

2011-12-11T00:01:00.003Z

I thought I'd take a break from the Christmas stuff and share a journal page today that uses one of the new background stamps.....although I have used the free icicle stamp as an added touch...it makes a great border for a page :)

1. Ink the large solid dancer in Archival black and kiss stamp using the numbers on the reflections set by Tim Holtz. Draw a thick black line at an angle for the tightrope...
...cut a mask and apply to the image. Stamp the separate plain bodice onto card in Distress aged mahogany....cut out and apply glossy accents.

2. Stamp the watch background on most of the page in Archival black...
...stamp again onto some white card stock and cut some label shapes from this using the tiny tags and tabs die set and colour with Distress vintage photo.

3. Spritz some hand made Distress re-inker mixes (made using one full pipette of re-inker and topping up with water in a Ranger mini mister spray)...
...I used antique linen, peeled paint and faded jeans.

4. To tone down areas on the background apply some Distress stain picket fence.

5. Stamp the icicle stamp in Distress peeled paint and apply Distress stickles.

Don't forget that you can choose either this icicle or a snowflake stamp totally FREE with any order placed at The Artistic Stamper this month ;)

6. Stamp the word LIFE from journaling words in Archival aquamarine onto sticky backed canvas and apply to a black mat card.

7. Stamp the scrabble tiles in Archival crimson, cut out and apply to the tags....stamp the umbrella from T!m's umbrella man in Distress aged mahogany and cut out...

...Cotton thread was tied to the tags and a little dries clear glue was applied to stop them unravelling.

There is still plenty of room for some hand written words in the future too.

Hope your Christmas preparations are going smoothly :)

See you again just before the big day to share my final piece of the month.
Thanks for looking :)

xoxo Sioux

Merry Christmas by Alison

2011-12-09T00:01:00.001Z

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

"Holly" by Emma

2011-12-08T00:01:00.014Z

Hi everyone ~ it's Emma here!

December is whizzing by and it's already time to show you my first project of the month using one of the FREE stamps that you get with any order placed at The Artistic Stamper during December.

So, time to share my decorative Christmas plaque ~ I hope you like it...

Here's how I made it and I've included lots of close up photos to show you all the detail!

To begin with I stamped the Mabel Lucie Attwell ~ Holly image onto cream textured card and coloured it in.

Next, I cut to size a 15cm square frame from white card, trimmed the edges to give a decorative effect and then cut an 8cm aperture from the centre. I blended Weathered Wood Distress Ink over the frame and then using the free snowflakes stamp, I stamped all around the edge of the frame with some more Weathered Wood Distress Ink. I then mounted my frame over the top of my stamped Mabel Lucie Attwell image and placed the completed frame onto chipboard, trimming off the excess.

Next, using Tim Holtz's Alterations dies, I die cut the Holly Branch from Grungepaper and the "25" from the Noel die from chipboard. I then blended Evergreen Bough Distress Ink over the holly leaves and Festive Berries on the berries ~ both inks are from the Winter Seasonal DI set. I then used Gathered Twigs on the branch which came in the Autumn Seasonal DI set. Next, I blended Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink over the "25" before covering each number with Picket Fence Crackle Paint.

Once the crackle paint is dry, I assembled each of the Grungepaper die cut elements onto the left hand side of my frame, slightly overlapping the edge. I then placed the "25" on top of the holly branch to give the effect of it being suspended in mid air. I squidged some Rock Candy Distress Stickles over all the die cut pieces.

Next, I punched two holes and placed some eyelets into top corners of the frame using a Crop-a-Dile. I attached some glass beads to the twine and threaded this through the holes to create a hanger. Finally, I added some seam binding as the finishing touch, to complete my decorative wall hanger.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look at what I've made and once again, for taking the time to leave comments on these posts ~ I appreciate all your kind words.

Bye for now and have fun creating.

Emma x

CREATIVE FLIGHT FRAME

2011-12-05T00:01:00.003Z

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.

Advent Candle for The Artistic Stamper

2011-12-04T00:01:00.003Z

Seasonal Greetings and, as it is the second Advent Sunday today, I'm sharing a candle with you for another element on my Christmas dinner table :)

It's the first time I've ever altered a candle but it's super simple to do and now you won't be able to stop me!!! LOL

1. Separate the layers of a plain white paper napkin and use just a single ply.

Stamp the snowflakes using Distress Ink tumbled glass (don't over ink or it may tend to bleed the image) and then over stamp the Seasons Greetings using Archival black.
Cut out the motif leaving as little edge as possible.....but there is no need to be too accurate ;)

2. Stamp the icicles in the same way and cut out.

Don't forget that you have the choice of either of these really useful stamps totally FREE with any order placed at The Artistic Stamper this month ;)

3. Place your motifs onto your candle and heat using a heat gun......don't get too close but do keep that heat gun moving....you are only aiming to heat the wax enough to melt a very thin layer that the napkin sinks into and the edges magically just disappear...

(hence the great bit about not needing to be too accurate with the cutting out!)

Tip.....apply one motif at a time and hold in place till your wax has melted in one tiny spot....it does not have to be more than the size of a penny/one euro coin! This will stop it flying off and you can continue to melt the rest of the motif into place.

As it's the first time I've tried this I was a little apprehensive but trust me it works a treat!

4. Light your candle and celebrate Advent Sunday ;)

Ooh! Making that made me happy...I love candle light :) See you again soon!

xoxo Sioux

Winners, winners, and more winners!

2011-12-03T00:01:00.006Z

Hello, it is Jennie here again this month with the winners of so many things, I am not sure where to start! So I will just jump in and announce them!
firstly, the winner of last month's challenge is

MARJIE

with her gorgeous piece of art!

Congratulations! Please email me so we can arrange for your stamps to be sent to you

Secondly the winner of Hel's Tag is

LOTTIE

Please email Hels to claim your tag :))
Thirdly the winner of the set of Winter Distress inks is.. drum roll please

LESLEY

And finally after much consideration the winner of the stamp competition is

LAURA LIDDELL

who sent in a wonderful drawing of converse boots, which we will make and have in our catalogue next year! Laura please email me so we can arrange everything.

I have to say thank you to everyone who joined in our stamp design competition, and it was extremely hard to chose a winner.
Congratulations to everyone this month, and don't forget you can join in this month's challenge which is Christmas, and if you are doing Tim's Tags, then you have 12 opportunities to join in!

Happy Creating
Jennie x

Guest Artist for December

2011-12-02T00:01:00.003Z

Well hey there,

I am thrilled, honoured and well mighty chuffed to have been asked to be the guest artist for December.!! I know little me!!!?!!

Thanks so much to Jennie and Hels for the chance and hope you like what I have done!

So for my first offering I have used some fab time themed stamps from the Artistic Stamper, my favourite distress inks and some funky ideaology bits , from Tim!!ooh and some perfect pearls mist.

So here it is:

The background was made using antique linen, tea dye and walnut stain DI. The left hand side has been over stamped using Artistic Stamper marbled background stamp and then using coffee archival ink stamped with cogs and watches from tick tock plate from Artistic Stamper. The middle section has been over stamped with calligraphy mat 11, from Artistic Stamper.

The right side had the cogs stamps from plate stamped and clear embossed and then the inks applied to create a resist effect, I love this technique!!!

Once all adhered to background I spritzed with fab perfect pearls mist in heirloom gold, not sure you can see the shimmer but it is lovely!

I then used chipboard shapes from the Artistic Stamper which are designed to go with the stamp plate time and keys, to make two 3-d watches..inked with DI, then stamped clock in coffee archival and applied good layer of glossy accents and when dry some ideaology chain.

The sentiment is from the plate and the gorgeous little man is the fab Phineas Pinchbeck from the Artistic Stamper.

Finally I added lots of cogs and spinners from Tim's ideaology range as well as some old watch parts from Artistic Stamper.

I have had a ball using these stamps and loved making this card.......

thanks again!!

see you later in the month for my next offering

have a fab inky day

hugs trace x

December Challenge - Christmas

2011-12-01T00:01:00.005Z

Goodly Morning Stampers and welcome to a brand new challenge for December. Many thanks for all your wonderful entries for November, the winner of this challenge will be announced on Saturday, December 3rd. The new challenge this month is CHRISTMAS. To join in with the challenge is simple; make a piece of artwork, include the theme and some rubberstamping, pop back here to link up using the Froggy at the bottom of this post and leave us a comment to let us know you have joined in. As ever there will be candy for one randomly picked entrant - £15 worth of The Artistic Stamper stamps of your choice plus the Kling On to mount them onto. And... if you use Artistic Stamper stamps on your entry, you will be entered twice into the draw! Moving on, last month we were very lucky to have the very talented and uber creative Kaz Hall as our Guest Designer, many thanks to Kaz for her innovative & gorgeous creations! This month we are welcoming a new Guest Designer ... and this is Tracey Metcalfe and we are all really excited to see the wonderful artwork that she will bring to the team.

We do have some sad news this month... Minxy and Tina have both left the Creative Team... we will certainly miss them both very lots and wish them all the very best for the future and from all of us... a huge Thank You for all the hard work and gorgeousness they made for us.

There's much excitement at Artistic Towers this month, we have Christmas coming and with that, the 12 Tags of Christmas... and all the goodies used will be listed daily and be available on the website HERE. AND... as a thank you to all our loyal customers, each order placed will receive a pressie of one each of these fab limited edition stamps. Our team have been using them on their entries for our monthly challenge... there's a sweet little snowflake background and some cool icicles too :O))

SIOUX

Sioux made a festive place setting trio of a napkin, place card and menu holder simply stamped with Distress Ink using one of the free stamps.

KAT

Kat made a folded easel card using her favourite Santa stamp from the Christmas Mini Plate #1, Tumbled Glass and Faded Jeans Distress Ink and a bit of Stickles for some added Bling.

EMMA

Emma made this card by using the Mabel Lucie Attwell ~ Jolly Day Out stamp and combining it with the free snowflake stamp to make a wintery scene. Some die cut Mini Snowflakes from Tim Holtz's Alterations range were added, together with a couple of the gorgeous Tattered Pine Cones and an Adage Ticket. To complete the card, the die cuts were all covered with Rock Candy Distress Stickles for an icy feel.

ALISON

Alison used masking & Distress Inks, with the free snowflake stamp, the new icicles stamp, & an image from the Victorian Christmas 1 Plate.

JENNIE

Made this in the tradition of Tim's Twelve tags of Christmas, and used the mini reindeer die, and the mini holly die, with added red stickles. The tag was inked in Alcohol inks, using the Snow Cap Mixative as random dots of snow :) . The white embossed snowflakes are one of the free stamps that are on offer this month with any order from The Artistic Stamper! The reindeer were covered in Tim's District Market Tissue paper and then alcohol inked in Latte and Espresso inks.

HELS

I got all inky and messy with those fab new freebie stamps, making the icicles using SnowCap Dabber and an inky background using Distress Stains and Perfect Pearls Mists. I painted the frame with Pitch Black Dabber and sanded it back to show some wood, which was then inked over with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink. The embellishments are made using the Sizzix Alterations Holly Branch and Tattered Pine Cone. The sentiment in the middle is cut using the Sizzix Alterations Vintage Noel, cut from cream card that I then dabbered with Silver Dabber and embossed with Silver Ultra Thick Embossing Powder and then edged with Black StaZon to make the design pop. I added some bling using Picket Fence and Rock Candy Stickles. Finally, I added the fabby little reindeer from the Christmas Adornments Idea-ology pack... I coloured him with Caramel Alcohol Ink and popped him into a Memo Pin so he could sit inside the embellishment. To see more deets on how I made this, please pop over my blog :O))

That's all from me for now... thanks for looking and a very Happy Christmas to you all!!

Hels x

Tick Tock by Emma

2011-11-29T00:01:00.011Z

Hi everyone!

It's time to show you my final project of November and it's been made using some more fab Distress Stains, which until the end of this month, you can find on offer, here at The Artistic Stamper.

So, time to share my creation and I hope you like it...

...and, here's how I made it!

To begin with I dabbed some Weathered Wood, Broken China and Antique Linen Distress Stain onto my craft mat, misted the stains with water and then applied my 20cm x 9.5cm sized tag over the stains, moving it around slightly to soak up all the colour. When you take the tag away, it leaves you with this gorgeous marbled effect on the background. I then inked up the Sequin Waste Open background stamp with the Weathered Wood Distress Stain and stamped the pattern all over the tag. Next, I inked up the clock face from the Tick Tock stamp plate with black Archival Ink and stamped around the edges, masking off the previous stamped image, each time to create an overlap of clocks as a border to my tag.

I then stamped the Mabel Lucie Attwell - Large White Rabbit image onto a square piece of white card and then stamped the same image again onto a separate piece of white card. I coloured both of the images in with alcohol pens but cut around the outline of the second White Rabbit image, which I will eventually be decoupaging over the top of the base image.

Next, I used some Grungeboard to die cut the Tim Holtz Weathered Clock and then, coloured all the die cut pieces with Weathered Wood Distress Stain. Attach the die cut clock to your base image of the White Rabbit, making sure the rabbit is in the centre of the clock and then trim away any of the excess cardstock. Take the cut out rabbit and layer this directly over the top of your first background image, using 3D foam pads for dimension. Adhere this completed section to your tag.

Using some papers from my crafty stash, I made up a rosette with the Tim Holtz, Decorative Strip Rosette Die and stuck this to the bottom section of my tag. I then stamped another of the large clock faces from the Tick Tock Stamp Sheet onto white card and cut this out. Using the hands of the clock that you've previously die cut from the Grungeboard, attach these with a brad, to the centre of your stamped clock face. I made sure that the hands weren't attached too tightly to the clock face, allowing you to move the hands around, so they will always tell the exact time that you want.

I inked up the "Tick Tock' wording from the Tick Tock stamp sheet with Black Archival Ink and stamped onto cream card, trimmed each of the edges to give a banner shape and then added it to the top of my tag.

As a finishing touch I coloured cream seam binding with some more of the Weathered Wood Distress Stain and tied it into a bow, through the hole in my tag.

So, that's about it from me for this month.

Thank you for taking the time to come and look at my creation and I'll look forward to reading your comments.

Bye for now and happy creating.

Emma x

Guest Artist

2011-11-28T00:01:00.000Z

Hello friends

Wow I just can believe how quick this month has gone!

For my last guest post I decided to create a very simple box made out 2 pieces of 6x6 inch cardstock in white. I scored the card and set to work using Tim Holtz Distress stain in vintage photo, spritz with perfect pearls in heirloom gold. Then using the mini dot Background I stamped randomly over the card using Distress ink in vintage photo,

when it was completely dry I then constructed the box.

Too create the flowers I used the Flower Power stamp set, I stamped onto some text from an old book and distressed them using the vintage photo ink.

While the flowers were drying I distressed a small tag, I used the word Imagine from the Journalling words #1 set I stamped in Rangers black Archival ink

To finish off the box I used Tim Holtz Idea-ology corners.

(The keys/vintage buttons are from my own stash)

I would really like to thank Jennie and her design team at Artistic Stamper Creative blog for letting me lose for the month of November.....its been so much fun!

I really hope you like this box, feel free to leave a comment.

Wishing you a great week

stay inky

Kazxx

A Page Turner!

2011-11-27T00:01:00.002Z

Hi , it's the Chief Stamper here again, and this time, I have a little altered book page to show you. I have spent quite a bit of time this year going back to my altered book that I started well over 10 years ago. I thought I would show you a technique that is perfect for altered books, journaling, and even cards. It is a masking technique, and very simple and quite effective.I used some of the words and saying stamps to mask, and I simply stamped them onto the book pages,

and then stamped them again onto a piece of spare paper and tore them up , so that you have rough edges. You can make any shape you like, and it doesn't have to stamping underneath it.

I covered up the words with the torn pieces of paper glued very lightly down with a glue stick. and sprayed with Colorwash from Ranger over the whole page.

Once the page is dry, over stamp with background stamps in Archival ink, and lift off the torn paper masks.

I highlighted some of the background stamp, and words with a fine black pen. I also used a couple of the stamped paper masks to add dimension to the page, attaching them with screw top brads.

Hoping you have a very creative day
Jennie x

Find Your Wings & Fly

2011-11-25T00:01:00.091Z

Hi all,
Kat here with my 3rd & final project for the month,
The focus this month is still on the very fab distress stains
on offer in the shop for this month only,

So straight onto my creation,
(love the size of these tags)

To start,

I squeezed the distress stains

onto my craft mat, then spritzed them with water

smooched my tag into the puddle

(this technique is called wrinkle free distress)

turned it over & dyed with a heat gun,

I continued to do this until I was happy with the background,

I then went round the tag with

gathered twig limited addition Distress Ink

next I added the stamps

I used mini polka dots & sequin waste open

backgrounds with plum & maroon archival inks

I finished by adding a few swirls from the

swirls, splats & dots A5 plate

with pale ochre archival inks

With the background done,

it's on to the embellishing part,

I cut the cage from the caged bird die

using craft metal & embossed it with an

embossing folder,

next I stamped the leaves on to the metal

with black stazon & cut them out.

I then cut the bird from (caged bird die)

& the flowers from (tattered florals die)

with book pages glued to scraps of card,

I edged them with Victorian velvet Distress Ink

& added some snaps to the centres,

I shaped all the pieces

glued them down with silicone glue,

to finish I added a sentiment on to a scrap of card

& coloured it to match,

I added some fibers through the hole at the top,

& there you have it, another XL tag, done

Hope you like It!

Have a great day, until next time,

Kat x.

Dance Bookmark by Alison

2011-11-24T00:01:00.000Z

Hello Stampers! Today I have an inky bookmark to share with you.

I cut a piece of Grungeboard, 20 x 6 cm, then applied Distress Stains in faded jeans, dusty concord & chipped sapphire to it. The Distress Stains are still on special offer HERE, on The Artistic Stamper Website. I spritzed with water to blend the colours, then dried with a heat gun.

Next, I used Black Archival Ink to stamp the words from the Journaling Words & Creative Art Thoughts Plates repeatedly down the bookmark, then I inked the edges with the black ink. I stamped the small dancer from the Dance Plate, 3 times onto white card, using faded jeans, dusty concord & chipped sapphire Distress Inks, then cut them all out. I glued them to the bookmark, as shown in the photo, using Glossy Accents.

I smeared Rock Candy Distress Stickles all over the bookmark, then dried this with a heat gun. I used dusty concord Distress Stains to colour some seam binding, then stamped the word Dance with the black Archival Ink. I punched a hole at the top of the bookmark, added an eyelet & some of the seam binding, leaving a piece to add to the bottom edge. Finally, I added some crystal beads to the top to finish.

Thanks for looking,

Alison xx

A Triple Distressing Blog Candy!

2011-11-23T00:01:00.002Z

Hi, it's the Chief Stamper here again, and this time, I am bringing you goodies to win, and a little ATC as well!I thought it was high time we had a BIG giveaway on the blog, so I have up for grabs to one lucky winner a Set of WINTER DISTRESS inks!

You can also win this ATC which I made in honour of the blog candy....

I made it using the Playing Games embossing folder, and inked the ATC with Iced Spruce, then inked one side of the embossing folder with Festive Berries, and ran it through the die machine. It has the effect of giving a raised look with the rays of the folder in two different colours .. that is really hard to describe, but I am sure you know what I mean!
I added a little rosette, and edged it in Festive Berries, and painted a Philosophy tag with Watermelon Dabber, and wiped it off a few seconds after putting it on. It stays in the crevices.

A little tiny bit of Bakers Twine, and my ATC is ready for you to win!
Now here is the easy part...leave a comment to be in it to win it, leave one on my blog for a second chance, and if you feel inclined, add it to your sidebar of your blog, and you have a third chance!
I will be picking the winner on the 3rd December, just so you have the inks in time to play with them for Christmas!
Have a brilliantly Creative and inky day!
Hugs
Jennie

Imagine Picket Fence! by Sioux Jenneys

2011-11-21T00:01:00.001Z

It's my final post for November and I did a bit of an experiment...
...so today I've got two tags for you :)

I have to say that if you are undecided about Distress Stains (and I certainly was!!! LOL) then I'd recommend buying the white Picket Fence even if it's the only one you ever buy!! ;)

I've tried to show how versatile just this one colour can be as it transforms any Distress Ink colours you may already have.....giving you even more variety!

Don't forget the Stains are on special offer this month here ;)

1. First I stamped the dragonfly from insects and butterflies 1.....(I love him dearly ;))....in Distress Ink black soot and heat embossed him with holographic powder then I coloured the wings with Distress Ink faded jeans using a cut and dry nib.....masked him and stamped the watch from time and keys in Archival black then coloured the casing with Distress Ink rusty hinge.......and masked that too.....then I inked the two tags with Distress Ink pine needles and aged mahogany....so far so much the same!

2. The masks stayed in place and I swiped Picket Fence distress stain all over one tag...
...you can see the colour change this made below...
...the red turns violet/purple and the pine needles turns a shade of bluesy green :)
I made a little happy dance at this discovery!!

3. Whilst the masks were still in place I stamped the calligraphic mat 13 background in Archival sepia on the top half of each tag and the mini polka dots on the bottom half in Archival coffee...

...I think you can see below that the picket fence one seems to soak up the Archival ink and even that becomes a slightly different colour ;)...

...look at the centre of the fob winder where the original pine needles is still showing as that had the mask in place whilst the picket fence was applied.

4. I stamped the word Imagine from journaling words 1 and the Time saying from time and keys in Archival black and aged the edges of both tags with Distress Ink vintage photo slightly colouring the watch face too.

5. I love that my Distress Ink colours have suddenly doubled overnight!! :)

Go on...experiment with that Picket Fence...I'm off to see what colour changes happen with the rest of my inks :) See you again soon!

xoxo Sioux

Imagine by Emma

2011-11-18T00:01:00.005Z

Hi everyone!

It's time for me to show you my second project of the month and once again, I've used some more of those gorgeous Distress Stains that are on offer here, at The Artistic Stamper, this month.

I chose to make a tag and combined the Distress Stains with another of those adorable Mabel Lucie Attwell stamps.

So how did I make it:

To begin with I dabbed some Peeled Paint and Antique Linen Distress Stain onto my craft mat and then pulled the tag that I made from Manila cardstock, measuring 20cm x 9.5cm, through the inks to give a marbled effect to the background. I then inked up the Dots background stamp with the Peeled Paint Distress Stain and stamped the dots all over the tag.

I then stamped the Mabel Lucie Attwell - Coming Up Daisies image onto white card and coloured it in with alcohol pens. I matted the image onto a piece of black card and adhered it to my tag.

Next, I die cut some petals from cream card, using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die and using the same technique as I used for the background, I dabbed some Spiced Marmalade Distress Stain onto my craft mat and then dragged the plain cream die cuts through to give them colour. I then overstamped some of the petals using one of the Calligraphic Mat Background stamps, before then making all the coloured die cut petals into two 3D flowers. Next, I dipped the completed flowers into UTEE which was melted in the Melt Pot and once you've covered all the petals in the UTEE, it leaves you with this lovely enameled look.

Using some papers from my crafty stash, I made up two rosettes with the Tim Holtz Mini Rosettes Die and stacked them on top of one another. I then used an old beer bottle top, punched out a circle from some paper off cuts and stuck this in the centre of the bottle top, using a dab of Glossy Accents. I then covered the entire area of the inside of the bottle top, with some more Glossy Accents and set aside to dry completely before adding it to the top of my rosette stack.

To complete my tag creation, I arranged all the elements that I've made and clustered them all at the bottom of my tag. I inked up the "Imagine" stamp with Black Archival Ink and stamped onto cream card before adding this to the bottom of my tag. As a finishing touch I added one of Tim Holtz's die cut flourishes, together with some seam binding.

I hope you like what I've made and as always, I look forward to reading each, and every one of your comments.

Thank you for taking the time to look.

Bye for now and happy creating.

Emma x

World Tour Tag by Alison

2011-11-16T00:01:00.000Z

Hello Stampers! I have an inky tag to share with you today. And, of course, I've used those fabulous Distress Stains that are on special offer this month HERE, on The Artistic Stamper Website.

First I took a manilla tag, then I stamped various images from the Ephemera Plate all over it, using Coffee Archival Ink. Next, I embossed it using a Texture Fade. I then applied various Distress Stains (scattered straw, mustard seed, spiced marmalade, & vintage photo) all over, spritzed with water to blend the colours together, & dried them with a heat gun.

I stamped the Round The World balloon & a Label on manilla cardstock, using the Coffee Ink, then cut them out. I coloured the label with Vintage Photo Distress Stain, & attached it to my tag with a long fastener, a sprocket gear, & a game spinner.

To finish, I coloured some string with spiced marmalade Distress stain, tied it in a bow around the balloon, pinned a muse token to it, then attached the balloon to my tag.

Thanks for looking,

Alison xx

A Quick Distress Stain Card - By Kat

2011-11-15T00:01:00.004Z

Hi all, Kat here,with project number 2 for the month;

I have been trying out all different techniques with the
fab Distress Stains on offer for this month only HERE

Although there isn't a lot to say about making this card, the technique I used (direct to stamp)
amazes me every time, when you lift your stamp off the image is so crisp & clear.

I placed the background stamp

Baroque background

face up on my desk,

dabbed the distress stains

(Dusty Concord, Peeled Paint & Broken China)

onto the stamp, then spritz it with water

I then layered my card onto the stamp,

& pressed down gently with an acrylic block

I then peeled it off & dried it immediately with a heat gun,

I matted & layered it onto the card as shown in the picture,

I then used the same colours of distress stain to

colour the flower layers, once dry I glued them together

then added a vintage button,

I attached some velvet ribbon to the card

then added the flower,

lastly I added a rub on.

and there you have it!

I'll be back on the 25th

I think I'm going to make another XL tag,

I'm really liking them at the mo,

see you then Kat x.

Guest Artist Second Post - By Kaz Hall

2011-11-14T00:30:00.001Z

Hello friends

Its my second guest post for the Artistic Stamper Creative blog,

a huge thank you for all the lovely comments on my last post.

I'm excited to share with you my next make......

For the base colour of the tag I used Distress ink in Faded Jeans, I coloured two tags, one would will be cut to make the pocket later.

I then used stamps Calligraphic Mat#12 and Cogs background these were stamped with the distress ink.

I then stamped the wings and crown from the Crowning Glory set onto the tag using Archival ink in black. The Slow /fast was stamped onto some text from a page from an old book, I then secured it into place using Rangers glue and seal

I then stamped on a separate tag, The Keep Calm and Carry on Stamping stamp I used Archival ink in Black then distressed using Vintage photo distress ink I then stuck it onto the tag again using the glue and seal.

(The hinges, cogs and wire and are from my own stash)

To finish off the tag I added some Idea-ology corners and distressed some ribbon.

I added some cogs and a game spinner.

And wrapped wire around the tag.

I really hope you like......

I will be back soon,

feel free to leave a comment

Stay Inky

Kazx