A Pear for All Seasons

Here is a bright little fruity creation I made using very few materials. I took a piece of white card as a background and coloured this directly with Nick Bantock chartreuse leaf and sapmoss green inkpads direct-to-paper.  The pear image (Stamp in the Hand) was inked with Versamagic hint of pesto chalk ink and stamped once in full and then several times after selectively inking the leaf and branch.  A little Versamagic pumpkin spice was added to the pear as an accent.  A yellow Marvey Le Plume II pen was used to colour the veins in the leaves.

Another swirl stamp (Paperartsy) was then inked with Brilliance sunflower yellow ink and this was heat embossed with clear detail embossing powder.  Two dark green skeleton leaves were cut to fit and applied with very small amounts of Glossy Accents.

The words (Stamp in the Hand) were stamped onto white card with Versafine onyx black and trimmed out before colouring with lots of the green NB inks direct.  A mat was coloured with  Nick Bantock van dyke brown ink and adhered and trimmed behind the words.

The plate was then matted twice onto orange and espresso textured card before applying the word plate on foam pads.

Sid xx

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Clowns - Love 'em or hate 'em

Circus Clowns are one of those weird things that you either love or hate. Most of us have childhood memories of the circus and my own memories (being brought up as a kid in Blackpool & The Tower Circus) were that I was petrified of them. They always managed to put the fear of God in me for whatever reason.

With that in mind I recently bought a set of 'build a clown' acrylic stamps (Basic Grey) and as part of my monthly swap with Diane over in the USA we decided to do a Triptych ATC this month, hence the inspiration for this one.

I started off with pale blue base card and cut two ATC sized pieces. I then cut the arch shape freehand across both bases and cut the top ATC in half lengthwise to make the 'doors'. The front panels were made from a background I had made previously with mica sprays. I used a polka dot stamp from Tanda to stamp the dots on the fronts and the insides in vintage sepia Versafine ink. The flowers on the bottom of the fronts was a border stamp (?) inked first with black cherry Stazon ink. The clown stamps were inked with onyx black Versafine and the clown was built. The words were stamped similarly on the inside right 'door'.

I then used Nick Bantock inks in cerulean blue, prussian blue and damson plum applied with cut'n'dry foam to colour the inside of the card. The clown itself was coloured with Copics and a flower stamp was inked with prussian blue and stamped around the clown.

Next the hardware was added. I used two brass hinges and attached the doors with eyelets applied with the crop-a-dile. The door knobs are two brass effect brads.

Final touches were added with Stickles glitter glue in crystal and diamond.

Hope that Diane likes my little Triptych (even though she might hate clowns !).

Sid xx

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King Tut ATC

Here is another Egyptian themed ATC I did recently. The stamp is from Tanda and was inked with black Stazon ink on a white slightly textured card cut to ATC size. The background uses Nick Bantock inks in damson plum & vermillion lacquer applied over the image with cut'n'dry foam. The highlighting was done with an opaque white Jelly Roll pen and the ATC was edged with gold Krylon.

Sid:-)

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Queen ATC

This weeks TMTA theme is King/Queen so I thought I would do a little abstract version as my Royal style entry.

I used 4 stamps. All stamped in black Stazon on a white card. The body stamp is from Cherry Pie, the face is from Invoke Arts and the crown and border from PaperArtsy. The background colour is Nick Bantock inks in chartreuse leaf, chrome yellow & sapmoss green (applied with a sponge) .The border stamp was inked with sapmoss green. The crown was stamped onto a separate piece of card and cut out. The remaining colours on the crown & face were from Marvey le Plume II pens and a waterbrush. The crown also has some gold paint (Viva) and some Stickles glitter glue applied. The crown has simply been stuck into place at a jaunty angle.

Hope you like 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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Stampbord Fridge Magnet

Here is my fridge magnet piece made out of Stampbord. The swap was organised by a member of UK Stampers Forum. I already had a selection of oval pieces and this one is relatively small (2.5 x 1.5 inches).

The background was coloured with Nick Bantock inks from Ranger ( Prussian Blue & Deep Turquoise) applied with a piece of cut'n'dry foam and set with the heat gun. The text stamp (Paper Artsy) was inked with Prussian blue and stamped onto the background. The wildflower stamp and the butterfly stamp were both from Crafty Individuals (wildflower plate). The flower was inked with Brilliance pearlescent ivy ink on its stem and pearlescent lilac on the flower. The butterfly was inked with Memories India Ink. When dry the stampbord was scratched through to reveal the white base as shown on the flower and the butterflies. The edge of the stampbord was coated with Versamark and gold Embossing Powder added and heated until melted to finish.

That's it, fairly straightforward, but I am pleased with the result.

Hope the receiver likes it :-)

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