Wednesday 31 December 2008

Some More Stamping

These are some more ATCs I made using layers of stamping and lots of ink. (Yes, I now have multi-coloured fingers that won't come clean). The star on the top one is triple embossed chipboard which I've stamped into, and on the bottom one I've used some tiny bits of Stickles to highlight the flowers on the tree.


Tuesday 30 December 2008

A Bit of Stamping

This is a stamped ATC I made a couple of days ago. I created the background using three colours of ink and the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Timeworks Masks, which I got for Christmas and absolutely love! I stamped some text on the background in turquoise and stamped the main image in Timber Brown Stazon then added some brown around the edges. I stamped the words "tick" and "tock" on separate card and tore them out then inked them in turquoise, and then finally added some turquoise seed beads at the opposite corners.
I've joined a rubber stamped ATC swap, so there will be more to come shortly!

Saturday 27 December 2008

I'm Back!!!

Well, I just realised I haven't blogged for over three weeks! There are a few reasons for this, but mainly I've been very busy with Christmas and also haven't been feeling too good and have been totally lacking in inspiration.
Anyway, I was lucky enough to receive a melting pot for Christmas (thanks Matt! :) ), and lots of other bits and pieces, so am finally beginning to get some inspiration back (and some spare time too).
The ATC on the left is one of my first experiments with the melting pot. I mixed up some UTEE, silver embossing powder and reinkers, (yes, I know you're not supposed to use reinkers in it, but why would that stop me?). I poured some of the mixture directly onto the ATC and stamped into it. Then when it was almost cool I trimmed the excess off the edges and dumped it back into the melting pot to be used again.I painted the ATC below the UTEE in pewter and then dry brushed over the UTEE with the same colour to pick up the raised bits. I used antique gold metallic rub on over parts of it. Finally, I stamped the words "tick" and "tock" into air dry clay and used the same paint and metallic rub on on those.
It's available to swap if anyone wants it - you can email me from the link in my profile.
I've also done some other bits and pieces with the melting pot, and will put the results on my blog when I've made them into something.

Friday 5 December 2008

Happy Birthday Cindy!


This is what I made for Cindy for her birthday. I know I'm a few days late saying happy birthday, but I didn't want to post a picture until I knew she'd seen it.
I won't go into full details of how I made it, but I've used rubber stamping, a gel medium image transfer, moulding paste which I've stamped into, acrylic paints, a plastic lizard, fabric, buttons, Liquid Pearls, paper roses, sticky ribbon, a watch face, wire and some micro beads (I think that's everything but there may be one or two other things that I've forgotten about).

Thursday 4 December 2008

Blog Candy at The Artistic Stamper

Jennie at The Artistic Stamper is giving away Advent blog candy every day from now until Christmas Day. Click on the link to the right to go to Jennie's blog and leave a comment for a chance to win.

I am extremely lucky and am today's winner. I'm very excited as I never usually win anything. Thank you Jennie!

Wednesday 3 December 2008

Three Ms - Metal, Mesh and Messy


Yep, I'm still alive! I haven't been feeling very well, hence my lack of posts lately. I haven't done much arty stuff either, which is not good, although I have managed a few ATCs.

These ATCs are for a swap I'm hosting on the DoCrafts forum. Each ATC must have an element of metal, mesh and something messy (eg. paint, ink, etc.)

On the top one, I created the middle section by freehand embossing some copper, heating it until it went all nice and orangey, painting over it lightly in black acrylic and then sanding it lightly with fine grade sandpaper. I created the texture around the edges using extra heavy gel medium, copper mesh and plasterboard tape, painted with copper acrylic and a black acrylic/PVA wash. The words were painted on shrink plastic in acrylic and then shrunk.

The background on the second one was done using two different types of mesh. I painted over it with a thick layer of acrylic and heat dried it to create some texture, then added copper embossing powder around the edges. I made a tile from Makins Clay, which I rolled with a piece of lace on top to create the texture. The face was also made using Makins Clay. I made it in a mould and then pressed a flower bead into it three times, leaving it in place the third time. I painted the tile and the face the same colour as the background, stuck them on and then went over the whole thing with some copper metallic rub-on to bring out the texture.

The background on the third one was done in a similar way to the second, except that this time I dry brushed it with two different colours of acrylic rather than using a metallic rub-on. I used aluminium mesh on this one. The house was stamped onto aluminium which I coloured with alcohol inks and then embossed. I rubbed over it with some sandpaper to bring out the embossed lines and make it look distressed.


The background on the final one was done again using different types of mesh. I painted over it with black acrylic and then covered it with red and gold embossing powder and stamped into it. The main image is stamped onto alcohol inked aluminium and the words and stars were painted onto shrink plastic and shrunk.


Tags and Awards

I just wanted to say thank you to all the people who have tagged me or given me awards lately and to apologise for not having acknowledged them. I am grateful and very honoured, but I've got two young children and what little spare time I have gets spent doing arty stuff, so I just haven't had time to acknowledge them. Thank you all anyway!

Sian.