Time for the Post

This is another postcard I have crafted for a swap over on UK Stampers Forum.  I had a paper napkin printed with timepieces on a gold and black background so I trimmed three of the timepieces out and separated the layes of paper in the napkin so I was left with a single ply with the image on - very fragile !!

The card was cut from coarse white card as I wanted a texture to stamp on.  The background was coloured with oregano Adirondack dye ink and cut'n'dry foam.  I then took a flourish stamp (PaperArtsy) and stamped this several times in the same ink, drying thoroughly before the next step.

I then glazed the background with a sheer gold acrylic glaze applied with a wide brush.  This allows the background colour and flourish to show through with a golden sheen.  One thoroughly dry I then applied a generous coat of acrylic matt medium, laid over the napkin images and carefully applied more medium over the top, smoothing down the images with a fine wide brush.  This was allowed to dry naturally overnight.

Final touches were to over stamp the words and the gears (PaperArtsy) on the card with jet black Stazon and edging the card with dark brown chalk ink.

The finish is antiqued and has a distressed look with a bit of depth.  This will go 'naked' through the post to my swap partner so I feel sure that the surface will not get damaged in transit due to the coating materials I have used.

Sid xx

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On The Seashore Card

Here is a card I made recently using the free cover stamp from one of the Craft Stamper Magazines.  I started with a square piece of white card which I coloured with Distress inks in old paper and spiced marmalade with cut'n'dry foam to give a sandy colour to the background. 

I then used Adirondack terracotta ink and stamped the shell image four times as shown and whilst still wet heat embossed with kaleidoscope embossing powder.  This embossing powder changes colour when heated and gives a subtle rainbow effect dependent on how much heat is applied and is not easily seen in the pic.

When cool a series of dots of  Adirondack Dimensional Pearl in stream were added and allowed to dry.  The plate was then edged with turquoise chalk ink.

The plate was then adhered centrally to a sea green pearlescent card blank.. A piece of narrow velvet ribbon in green was threaded through a small brass buckle and crossed over adhering with small glue dots to finish.

Very simple and easy to do.

Sid xx

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One Day Tag

This tag was inspired by some of the stamps I own.  I am sure, like me, you probably have lots of stamps across the range of types.....some cute and some arty. Must admit I move with my inspiration with the stamps I have ( but also like me, you wish you had loads of others !)

Anyways, this creation took place with using PaperArtsy stamps in general. The base was cut from white card and was stamped with little birds and galaxy gold Brilliance ink.  Adirondack wild plum was used to stamp with a flourish stamp and wild plum Adirondack ink.  Distress inks in forest moss and dusty concord were applied with cut'n'dry foam.

Two pieces of background card scrap were added....one on the bottom left with sequin scrap detail and another on the right with the stamped and coloured detail of houses (predominantly violet). These were adhered with glue stick and trimmed to fit the tag.

The remaining additions were added and were made by stamping the PaperArtsy floral stamp (two sizes) on a printed background paper with Adirondack wild plum and Distress  ink in forest moss.  The Paperatsy dies were used to cut out the flowers.  The large one was stamped with a fleck stamp in wild plum and was heat embossed with detail clear EP.  The other two flowers were stamped in a similar way, the middle one applied on the background with foam pads.  Each of the three flowers were embellished with a seld adhesive gemstone as shown.

The sentiment (PaperArtsy) was stamped in onyx black Versafine ink and the whole tag edged with violet chalk ink.

Finally a black eyelet was added with the Crop-a Dile and some Fab indian satin cord added through the hole.

Sid xx

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Changing Seasons Canvas

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

Ingredients:

1. Canvas (7 x 9.5 ins)

2. Adirondack Dye inks (Wild Plum and Lettuce)

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

5. Martha Stuart punch

6. Glossy Accents

7. Metal plate embellishment

8. White Card

9. Clear UTEE

10. Versamark inkpad

Stamps:

1. Florals plate

2. Dots Background

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sid xx   

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Odd Art !

Here is a little wall hanging I have entitled 'Odd Art' because I think it is.  Actually the idea came from the stamp.  This was done for the Ready Steady Stamp challenge blog as a guest designer sample.

The 5 required elements this time were:

Not an easy bunch of requisites, especially the handwritten script background !  I can't write for toffee actually and I ended up writing the word Charming several times with a green script pen on the lime green stripe in the middle.

I started with a piece of chipboard 8 x 4 inches and trimmed three strips of coloured textured card using the challenge colours.  These were stuck in place centrally with a glue stick.  The remaining edges of the chipboard were covered with some metalised foil strips from the LLB collection (Trimcraft)  which just happened to be in the same colours.  These were stuck in place to complete the background..  I then handwrote the word 'Charming' several times with a Sakura green script pen on the lime greem stripe and applied a little Adirondack dye ink with sponge in stream & wild plum to the other two coloured stripes.

I then took some heat resistant acetate and stamped the house stamp (Zettiology) with Versamark ink and heat embossed this with detail black embossing powder.  The cooled image was then trimmed out.

Next I chose some little rectangular die cut frames from the same LLB collection and coloured these with more wild plum ink, stamping with a swirl stamp and violet pigment ink and heat embossing this with clear embossing powder. The centres of the frames were rubbed over with Memento grape jelly dye ink  These were placed and attached on the background with foam pads.

The embossed acetate house was stuck in place with Glossy Accents.  I took some ribbon and some brass ribbon embellishments and applied some purple and turquoise grosgrain ribbon over the frames sticking in place at the back with glue dots.  A couple of metal fold-over clips were added at the sides and two glitter flowers with gem centres added as shown.

The hanger consists of two brass spring clips threaded with a length of black glossy wire twisted to close.  Another of the rectangular frames was stamped in black Stazon with the words 'Odd Art' and this was attached to a piece of card over the wire with double sided tape to finish.

How ODD is that?

Sid xx

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Ma Cherie !

I have been watching the RSS (Ready Steady Stamp) challenge website for a while and have never taken part.  I decided to join in this time and this is my entry.

This entry had to have at least three of the following ingredients:

*   The letter M

*   Purple, pink, green & black

*   Stamped flowers

*   Gesso on background

*   Rubber

I managed to use all five of the ingredients.  I first made the background out of a piece of brown backing card and cut it to a 4 x 4 inch square.  I then applied Gesso roughly and stamped into this with a Klimt swirl stamp  (?).  Once dry I coloured the background with brushes and Adirondack dye ink in lettuce and eggplant.  I used Memento angel pink dye ink for the pink in the background.  Once happy with the overall effect I selected a flower stamp from Tuscan Rose and inked this with lettuce Adirondack ink and stamped on two corners of the background, providing a subtle image over the background.

For the embellishment I again stamped the floral image onto white card but this time in Versafine onyz black and heat embossed with detail clear embossing powder before cutting out.  I hand coloured the daisies with Marvey Le Plume II pens in appropriate colours as shown.  This was later adhered on foam pads to raise the image a bit. I then mounted the background plate on two card mats, one in lavender and one in french pink.

The black vine embellishment was made out of die-cut bike tyre rubber by a crafting friend of mine Lorraine and was given to me as a RAK some while ago.  I knew I would get the opportunity to use it sometime and this was just that opportunity !  It was adhered carefully as shown with Glossy Accents.  The beauty of using rubber in this way is that it's flexible and can be easily curved as desired.

The 'ma cherie' was stamped directly using more Versafine ink and a polymer stamp from Sizzix.

Finishing touches were added by punching 2 holes at the bottom and knotting through two pieces of thin lilac grosgrain ribbon.

Sid xx

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'Summer' Art Raffle piece

Here is my 'Summer' inspired piece for the 'UK Art Raffle' where you send in a piece of artwork of any type and the lucky winner gets all the art ! Costs nothing to enter and it's a fabulous idea and a fabulous prize to the winner each month.

This piece is made on a piece of artboard 4 x 5 inches in size. The background was first painted with pale blue acrylic paint and allowed to dry. I then applied two colours of distress Crackle Paint in faded jeans and weathered wood in a thick uneven coat down the left hand side of the board. Once dry the board was coloured around the edges with cut'n'dry foam and Adirondack inks in stonewashed & wild plum, going over the crackle finish to get some ink into the cracks.

The little house was cut from chipboard and covered in gesso. Once dry this was stamped in black Stazon with a PaperArtsy stamp and coloured with cut'n'dry foam in stonewashed Adirondack Ink. The roof was masked with sequin scrap and inked with Versamark and finally heat embossed with dark blue EP. A flower snap was added to the bottom left. The edges of the house and window were inked in dark purple ink. The lady in the window was stamped and applied behind the house with glossy accents and a flower covered in glitter with a flat backed gem as the centre was added on the roof.

The background was then stamped on the right side with swirl and bud stamps (Wendy Rhodes). The summer word ( Making Memories magnetic alphas) was stamped in black Stazon on a scrap of card, trimmed and clipped into place with a swirly clip.

The glitter flowers were applied in abundance as shown with glossy accents over the stamping and the house stuck in place also.

Good luck to the winner this month.

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Bottleton-on-the-Marsh !

Well here it is at last ! My July entry into a CJ being run on UK Stampers Forum. This CJ was originated by Chicken Licken (Tasha). She chose the colour green and also her chosen stamp was a bottle. I searched my mind for ideas and finally came up with this theme. Why not do a little hamlet called 'Bottleton-on-the-Marsh' and make little houses of the bottles?, I thought !

I basically chose two colours of cardstock, a mint green and a moss green. I then got to work and stamped numerous bottles onto each card in oregano Adirondack ink, cutting them out and edging in dark brown chalk ink. I then overstamped with a couple of numbers plates from PaperArtsy in the same ink. I then cut some smaller and some at an angle for a bit of variety and on some cut cut off the cork and bottle neck to act as a a chimney which I stuck back on afterwards.

Windows and doors were cut from the contrasting card in different shapes and a black pen was used to draw in window frames etc. I then used a white opaque Gelly Roll pen to embellish the roofs and highlight bits of the buildings. Two other bottles were used for journalling as shown on the pic above !

The background card was the mint green and onto this I prepared the base using green matt acrylic paint applied roughly with a wide brush and allowed this to dry. I chose some tree stamps from Tanda and then stamped the background with these in Adirondack bottle, lettuce, meadow & oregano inks overlapping as necessary. I then laid out the pages and positioned the pieces before applying them with glossy accents (some on foam pads to add relief).

Once satisfactorily applied a small flying bird trio stamp from Crafty Individuals was inked in vintage sepia Versafine and applied randomly into the sky area. I thought about adding some blue in the sky but thought it would detract from the overall green effect - blue was definately out. Some little grass clumps were added by hand as a final touch using Marvey le Plume II pen in pine green (fine end).

The last two pics just show some detail on the houses ! The pages were then stuck onto the CJ base and that was it done.

Overall very few materials were used on this entry and I am quite pleased with the overall effect not to mention the fun had in its making.

Hope she will like it :-)

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'F' is for Face Tag

This is my 'F' is for Face Tag completed as a challenge over on UK Stampers Forum. The background was a grungy pale map and this was overstamped with a diamond stamp from Cherry Pie in vintage sepia Versafine. A few fine swirls were added with an unknown stamp inked with Adirondack oregano ink. The main image (Cherry Pie) was stamped on oyster card with onyx black Versafine ink and carefully cut out. The alphas were from PaperArtsy and were stamped on oyster card with black Versafine and coloured with ochre Marvey le Plume II pen. The tag and the alpha plate were then edged with dark brown Chalk ink.

The hole and eyelet were cut and applied with the Crop-a-dile and some mustard fibres added and knotted several times.

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'Fly' ATC

This is my entry for this weeks TMTA challenge. All rubber stamps are from a plate from A Time To Stamp with colours from Distress inks and Adirondacks with some Stazon too !! I used a waterbrush also.

Hope you like it :-)

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'Stars & Stripes' ATC

It's July 4th, so to celebrate Independance Day in the USA I crafted a little ATC I entitled 'Stars & Stripes'.

Simple Adirondack dye ink in red pepper & stream applied in stripes with cut'n'dry foam to a marbled white base card cut to size. The stamp is one from Third Coast Stamps and the central image was stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with detail silver embossing powder using a heat gun. Parts of the stamp were then inked with the Adirondacks in the same colours and some of the stars in the images inked in using opaque white Sakura Gelly Roll pen. The ATC was edged with silver Krylon pen.

Here's wishing all my friends in the USA a great celebration on the day !

That is it.....hope you like it !

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'Face' ATC

This ATC has been made as my entry into the TMTA 'Look into a face' theme for this week. The main stamp is from Cherry Pie and is stamped in black Stazon over a spray background and torn backing paper. A small dragonfly has been stamped in rocket red Brilliance ink and a script stamp was inked in sunflower yellow Brilliance and stamped at the top (not easily noticeable in this pic). The flowers were coloured using a waterbrush and red pepper /stream Adirondack dye inks. Finished with edging of iris chalk ink.

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Altered Cutlery ?

Well this is it ! My weirdest creation yet. I have called it 'The Tree of Life'. It's made from a black plastic fork obtained with a salad from Subway last week. It is part of a swap run by Hazel on UK Stampers Forum in the altered art section.

I made the tree itself using a stamp from PaperArtsy which was heat embossed with violet pearl EP on a background made with Adirondack wild plum and red pepper inks applied with a piece of cut'n'dry foam. Once embossed the tree was cut out and left to one side. In the meantime I made three shrink plastic embellishements which were stamped in purple Stazon ink on white shrink plastic sheet. The bird stamp was also PaperArtsy. The bodies were coloured with pink chalk ink before cutting out and shrinking. A metal leaf was attached with a square silver brad and a hole punched with the cropodile on the bottom right of the tree. An eyelet was applied. The mini tag was coloured and written upon and threaded with a metal tree embellishment with the ball chain as shown. The three birds were applied with mini glue dots as shown

Detail of tree

Detail of Tag

Next was to cover the handle of the fork. I took a long strip of mediumweight black craftwire and threaded it with alternating gold and blue glass beades with silvered centres until I had a length of threaded wire long enough to spiral around the handle to hide it completely. One end of the wire was wrapped around the middle two prongs of the fork and the beads pushed down to the top of the handle. I then commenced wrapping the beaded wire round and round the handle to the base where the last coil was made to trap 3 pieces of coloured velvet ribbon before securing the wire into the last coil.

Handle base and ribbon detail

I used big sticky dots to attach the tree to the front of the fork prongs, hence the reason that the tree is curved slightly (following the contour of the prongs). The whole thing was wrapped in white tissue secured with three pieces of the same ribbon.

This was certainly a challenge for me ! Hope whoever gets it in the swap is happy with it :-)

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'P' is for Party Tag

Another tag in the Alphabet series. This time it's 'P' for Party and rather than go for the usual party hats, clowns, baloons etc. I thought more Political and went for the Green Party - eco friendly so I though that green plants and flowers fitted the bill.

The tag was cut from oatmeal mottled card and was coloured with the wonderfully vibrant Nick Bantock inks from Ranger in chartreuse leaf and sapmoss green, applied with cut'n'dry foam and a swirling motion to achieve the shaded areas.

The stamps used on the body of the tag are a selection from PaperArtsy and Crafty Individuals. I wanted to achieve a relatively densely layered effect so I just overstamped many times using NB sapmoss green, Brilliance pearlescent ivy & starlight black inks. Some flower were stamped also and coloured with a waterbrush and Adirondack stream and cranberry inks as shown.

The main letter P was made from chipboard which was rubbed over with Versamark and triple heat embossed with dark green embossing powder. At the last layer the leaf stamp was inked with Brilliance sunflower yellow ink and whilst the EP was still molten the inked stamp was stamped into the EP on the letter and left for a few moments until the EP had set. Full instructions on triple heat embossing are available as a class on my blog by clicking HERE.

All the letters are K&Co and I trimmed them and edged with green chalk ink. These were stuck in place along with the main chipboard letter as shown. To finish a green eyelet was applied with the cropadile and a small piece of dry natural twig applied as a hanger. The tag was finished with an edging of green chalk ink.

This shot shows more detail of the letter P embellishment. :-)

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Summer Twinchies

Here are a set of Twinchies I have made for another monthly swap on UK Stampers Forum. The June theme was 'Summer' so I thought what is more Summery than flowers and foliage?

I chose pale blue card as the background and a single outline stamp from Rubber Stampede (All Over Floral) inked with black Stazon. Quite a big stamp this so I stamped several times and then cut out the twinchies on a rotary trimmer before hand colouring.

I used a waterbrush and Adirondack inkpads where I transferred some of the ink from the pad onto a non-stick craft sheet and used this as a palette with the brush. Colours used were: butterscotch, bottle, meadow, pesto, eggplant & cranberry. The stamens of the flowers and parts of the butterfly wings were gilded with a fine brush and Viva gold precious metal colour. The butterflies were additionally coloured with lilac Tiara Gelly Roll pen. The twinchies were then finally edged with Krylon Gold.

Just liked the simplicity of these.....they also have a slightly Oriental look about them don't you think !

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Summer Inchies

These are a set of 9 'Summer' inchies done for a monthly swap I run on UK Stampers Forum.

Very simple to do this set but I thought the colours were quite Summery. I first coloured the background with cut'n'dry foam and Whispers dye inkpads in green and yellow and overstamped with Adirondack lettuce ink and a PaperArtsy squiggle stamp. These were then punched out using my trusty 1 inch square punch. Each was then stamped with a small sun stamp in Versamark from a set of mini wooden stamps and heat embossed with orange sorbet EP (Ranger). The centres of the suns were embellished with a gold brad and each inchie edged with tangerine chalk ink.

There we have it. Hope you like them :-)

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Something Fishy is going on !

Here are three ATC's made to swap with my crafty friend Diane in the USA. Our theme was 'Fishy' this time, and she said it was a bit of a challenge for her. Well I suggested it and found it even more of a challenge. I found I really only had one fishy stamp and she had already used it in one of her swaps !!!

I succumbed to using images from the web, printed on the colour printer. The fish are all pictures of tropical fish that you can keep in a tank at home if you wish (not the paper ones of course !). I concentrated on the backgrounds using a variety of techniques and materials. Embossing features as does stamping with various Brilliance and Adirondack inks, paints and sequin waste. Rubber stamps are from various companies and sources.

Hope she likes them :-)

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'W' is for Wings Tag

Really enjoyed doing this tag. The challenge ( UK Stampers Sunday Challenge) was to make a tag in the theme of 'W' is for Wings. The cardstock was plain white and I used Adirondack inkpads and cut'n'dry foam to apply bottle, lettuce, meadow & oregano inks to make a background. These were set with a heat gun. Next I took a swirl stamp (Wendy Rhodes - swirly doodles collection plate) and inked with pesto ink and stamped 4 times as shown. This was again dried with the heat gun. I then took an angel stamp (Paper Artsy - Urban Snapshots Nature 1 plate), inked with Brilliance pearlescent rust ink and stamped bottom right. I used another rubber stamp background from Tanda Stamps (Altered Polka Dot) and inked in Brilliance pearlescent lime applying two uneven areas of dots bottom left and top right - not very noticeable in pic. Next the butterfly blank was stamped in Memories black India Ink onto the big swirl.

I made the two butterflies from Crafty Notions Fusible Films, which were layered and ironed (dry iron) over a butterfly stamp after inking the stamp with white and black inks. The butterflies wings were trimmed off and applied in position with glossy accents only at the wing bases. The words were stamped in Brilliance pearlescent purple ink and the tag finished with a green eyelet and some fibres in green and rust. The tag was finally edged in brown chalk ink.

Hope you like it :-)

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'Vintage' ATC's

Here are a set of three ATC's I did for a swap. The theme was Vintage.

The first (from left) was made from a piece of serendipity paper that I had stamped on numerous times and I then heat embossed the stamp (from the 'pensive' plate by Cherry Pie) with blue glass EP finishing with an edging with iris chalk ink and the word EVIDENCE.

The second is on a background made from Moonglow mica sprays and templates. A few layers were applied over magenta cardstock and allowed to dry. The swirls stamp was from Crafty Individuals and was inked with Adirondack Eggplant ink. The collage element is another stamp from Cherry Pie (Klimt plate) and was finished with Alcohol Inks in various orangey colours and finished with black stazon on glossy cardstock. The card was edged with midnight blue obsidian EP from Moonglow.

The third uses another homemade background using blue Moonglow Glitz Spritz sprays. The flourish stamp was another from Crafty Individuals and was inked and stamped with denim Adirondack Ink. The image is another from Cherry Pie and was stamped in black Stazon on white glossy card, cut out and split three times before adhering to the background. The headress was made by applying glossy accents as a glue and then sticking on random black sequins and infilling with stickles glitter glue.

Hope the recipients like them :-)

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'N' is for Numbers Tag

Yet another in the series of tags done as part of a challenge on UK Stampers Forum. This weeks the tag had to include numbers and the letter 'N'.

My inspiration came from relationships and 121's so a bit of a 'lurve' theme crept in !

I used Adirondack inkpads and Cut'n'dry foam to colour the background. Colours used were lettuce, butterscotch & oregano. The stamps are all from Crafty Individuals (particularly love the filigree heart) and I again used Adirondack terracotta & oregano inks for stamping with. The sentiment is a clear sticker from Making Memories and the numbers 121 are chipboards coloured with dark brown ink direct from the pad and then distressed with glass paper to achieve the worn look. They were adhered with glossy accents. Finishing touch was a metallic eyelet coloured with oregano alcohol ink and applied with the cropadile.

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