* Artsystamper: Give Thanks

Hello! 

Happy Monday!

Today sees the start of a new challenge at the new Artsystamper Challenge Blog. Each challenge runs for two weeks and starts on the first and third Monday of the month. 

The theme for this challenge is Give Thanks. 

I hope that you can find time to join in the fun!

The winner will receive the stamp set of their choice from TheArtsystamperShop. Beverly Cole’s selections offer stamps and sentiments in each set as well as pre-colored images for easy, last minute cards. Why not take a moment and check out what she has in store!

I used the beautiful Sketched Spring Blossoms Digital Stamp Set for my two cards.

The first card is perhaps a more elegant design with matted layers, lace and ribbon.



The background is made by brayering Antique Linen and Worn Lipstick Distress Oxides onto 300 gsm smooth card, making the edges darker than the centre. To tone the pink down a little I added a small amount of Victorian Velvet around the edges. I watered down some white chalk paint and spattered them onto the backgrounds with a fan brush. I then added some script stamping along the side edges and inked all the edges in black archival ink.
The next part was a learning curve! I wanted to add some modelling paste through a stencil, but I wanted the paste to stay white, rather than pick up the inks. I applied Distress Glaze, then added the paste using a stencil. What I learned was that the paste does not stick permanently to the card - as it dried, and as I turned the card over, it began to fall off - it may be because I didn't wait long enough for the Glaze to dry or, it may be that the Glaze isn't the right surface for paste to stick to - the chemistry is all too much for me!
The beautiful blossom spray was coloured with Copic markers and fussy cut. I added a strip of ivory lace across the bottom portion of the background, then popped the blossoms on foam pads and adhered it to the background. I added a pink bow to the base of the blossom branch.
The sentiment was typed, printed, then die cut with a banner die; the fish tail was shortened to make it into a rectangle. The sentiment was also popped on foam pads.
The final stage was to mat the background, first onto black card and then onto pink card. All was adhered to a 6 x 6 inch white card.



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My second card uses the same colours and background techniques, but is more modern or artsy.



The background was made in exactly the same way as above. The Copic coloured blossom was added to the centre on foam pads, with the sentiment, placed on foam pads, below. Three sequins add a little sparkle.

Sketched Spring Blossoms Digital Stamp Set

That's all for today! 
I hope you will hop on over to Artsystamper Digitals Challenge Blog and enter! You will also see more inspiring designs from the Artsystamper Addicts Design Team ... so much fun.

I'll be back with another Artsystamper project in two weeks time.

Meanwhile, please check out:

 TheArtsystamperShop Etsy

Artsystamper Digitals Blog
BZCole Mixed Media (YouTube)
Artsystamper Digitals on Facebook 

Artsystamper Digitals Challenge Blog

Thank you for stopping by today!



I'd like to support the following challenges:

Card 1
Aud Sentiments #240 Thank You Sentiment 25/11 Top 3

* Crafty Creations #402 AG 26/11
* Fusion Card Challenge Thankful 26/11
* 613 Avenue Create #227 AG 29/11

* Dream Valley #214 Favourite Colour Combo 30/11
* Corrosive Challenges #11 AG 30/11
* Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #118 AG 30/11
* Crafters Castle #23 AG 30/11
* Dare 2 B Artzy Nov Thankful 30/11
* Path of Positivity #74 Thankfulness 01/12 TOP PICK & MOST INSPIRING

  
* Jan's Digistamps Challenges #2 AG 01/12
* Brown Sugar #295 AG 02/12

Card 2
* Crafty Catz #483 AG 21/11
* Cardz TV #102 AG 21/11

* Always Fun #137 Thanks 23/11 TOP 3

* Pammies Inky Pinkies #1946 AG 24/11
* Crafty Cardmakers #245 Thankful 24/11 WINNER

* Crafting with an Attitude #57 AG 24/11
* Crafting by Designs AG 27/11
* Crafty Calendar Cute & Girly 28/11
* Creative Fingers #175 AG 29/11

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* Vera Lane Studio: What the Fluff?

Hello!

Happy Monday!

Well, good grief, we are in November already. On Saturday some neighbours had fireworks parties. To be honest it sounded as though explosives were being rained down from the sky, and true to form, Sunday was a foggy start. Cold. Damp. Dark. Autumn has passed it's best where I live. Looking forward to cold, dry and crisp mornings.

It is my DT day at Vera Lane Studio, so I have a card which sums up how I usually feel at the beginning of December. I always plan to be ahead of schedule and organised for Christmas season, but it always creeps up on me. Maybe this year will be different ...

I used today's new digi set release called What The Fluff:

The tomboy image comes without a hat and has two hats to dress her in - a Christmas hat and a Derby hat (which I think is similar to a bowler hat). I coloured her in traditional Christmas colours using Copic markers. I added Stickles to her fur trim and eye lids. 

The background is brayered Distress Oxides in Hickory Smoke and Peeled Paint. I added some white paint splatters and some Hickory Smoke 'December' stamping around the edges. I needed to emphasise the edges more, so I stamped the doodle border from stamp #210 from AAll & Create in black. The background edges are also inked in black. Black and white torn washi tape grounds my girl and tiny torn pieces were added along the edges. The sentiment was cut into strips , inked and adhered to the background under the stamped 'December'. 

What The Fluff?

I hope you'll come along and play on Vera Lane.
It's such a friendly, fun place to be!

  

Here's all the info you need:

Vera Lane Studio Blog

Vera Lane Studio Facebook Group

Vera Lane Studio You Tube Channel

Vera Lane Studio Etsy Shop

Thanks for stopping by today.

xoxo

I'd like to play along in these challenges:

* Pammies Inky Pinkies #1944 AG 10/11

* A Bit More Time to Craft #103 AG 13/11 (2)
* Crafty Friends #122 AG 15/11 (2)
* Creative Fingers #174 AG 16/11 (2)

* Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #117 AG 16/11 (2)

* Happy Little Stampers Christmas 29/11 DT Favourite

* Corrosive Challenges #11 AG 30/11 (1)

* Dragonfly Dreams Christmas/Winter 30/11(1)
* Love to Scrap #127 AG 30/11 (1)

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Cat Lovers Hop: Holly Cat

Hello!

Have you heard? 

It's the Cat Lovers Hop hosted by Janis at Her Peaceful Garden.

This year is the fifth hop and it's a crazy week filled with crafting, commenting and celebrating cats of all sizes. There are fabulous sponsors and prizes to be won, but best of all, friendships to be forged with like minded cat lovers from around the world. Why don't you come and join us?

Here is my fourth card:

I love Laurel Burch images! I'm a big fan of colour - the brighter, the better in my book, so Laurel Burch images are purr-fect for me! Holly Cat was the prize that I won in the 2018 Cat Lovers Hop and I have kept it in its packaging until now. 
I used to have a cat named Holly - a sweet natured, tuxedo that we adopted as a tiny kitten. She lived happily for 18 years and loved to travel in the car when we went to visit friends for the weekend. 



I coloured the image with Copic markers and added some white highlights and dots with a white Posca paint pen. I made the plaid-like background by brayering Twisted Citron and Peacock Feathers Distress Oxides horizontally and vertically onto 300 gsm card. The card edges were inked with Peacock Feathers and then black archival ink.
I fussy cut around the frame of the image and popped it on foam tape for dimension. I stamped the sentiment (free with a magazine last year) onto white card, inked the edges with Peacock Feathers and glued it directly onto the background. 



Please bear with me, Cat Lovers - I am such a slow commenter. I'm only half way through at the moment, but promise I'll get to all your posts before the end of the hop!

That's all for now!
Pop over to see what the others cat lovers have been up to
click here

Thanks for stopping by today.

xoxo

I'd like to play along in the following challenges: 

* Crafty Animals #31 27/10
* Crafty Sentiments AG 28/10 (#3)
* Winter Wonderland Oct Merry & Bright 31/10
* Ellibelles #Oct Stamp It  01/11 (#2)
* 613 Avenue Create #226 AG/Opt: Spotlight 02/11 (#5)
* SUYP #47 AG 04/11 (#4)
* Creative Moments #179 AG 05/11 (#3)
The House That Stamps Built #02319 05/11
* Crafty Creations #401 AG 12/11 (#1)
* Christmas at Sweet Stamping Oct AG 12/11 (#2)

I'd really love some feedback :)      

I read and appreciate all your comments. 

* Crafts Galore Encore: Autumn Owlet

Hello!

September brings another Anything Goes challenge at Crafts Galore Encore. 

The sponsor this month is the fabulous Fabrika Fantasy who are offering the winner 3 digistamp images. 

Fabrika Fantasy kindly gave the DT some images to work with. I chose this Autumn Owlet. 
Here is my project:



I coloured the owl with Copic markers and added some white Posca pen highlights. I lightly inked the background of the image with Distress Oxides in Stormy Sky and Antique Linen and added a few patches of Vintage Photo to give it a grungy look. I distressed the edges of the image card with scissors, inked them with Vintage Photo and matted onto kraft card.
The background is brayered Distress Oxides. I used a variety of colours including Picked Fence, Fossilised Amber, Spiced Pumpkin, Fired Brick and Vintage Photo. I brayered Snowflake chalky acrylic paint over the top to tone the colours down a bit. I used a Tim Holtz die to cut a pattern from the top left corner of the background. The edges of the inky background were inked with Ranger black archival ink and it was matted onto kraft card. I added some Vintage Photo ink to the kraft card under the die cut pattern so that the background was be more prominent through the holes.  
 The image was popped on foam pads and I made a paper flower using a Heartfelt Creations die and die cut some Tim Holtz foliage to make a cluster. I added some cheesecloth to the left side of the image and tucked the flower and foliage in place interspersed with some dried flowers.                                     

Many thanks to Dmitry at Fabrika Fantasy for generously sponsoring and supporting this challenge. We hope you'll pop over to the shop to see the many lovely products on sale.

Also, please pop over to Crafts Galore Encore to see the DTs wonderful designs. 

We'd love to see your creations.

Remember the challenge is always 'Anything Goes' and so you can create any type of project - it doesn't have to be a card.

Thanks for stopping by today!

xoxo

                                                                                                                                            

I'd like to play along in these challenges:

* Crafty Creations #397 AG 08/09

* A Gem of a Challenge #17 AG 09/09
* Cardz TV #97 AG 12/09
* Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #113 AG 14/09
* 2 CraftyCritter Crazies #30 AG 25/09
* A Perfect Time To Craft #9 AG 27/09
* Crafty Animals #30 AG 27/09
* Fabrika Fantasy #34 Autumn 28/09
* Classic Design Team Challenge #9 AG 29/09
* Lovet o Craft #38 AG 30/09
* Love to Scrap #125 AG 30/09

I'd really love some feedback :)      

I read and appreciate all your comments. 

* Artsystamper: Awesome Asters

Hello! 
Happy Monday!

Can you believe we are heading towards the end of August? Where does time go? Here in the UK today is a Bank Holiday and it's the last one of the year, so hopefully we'll be heading out for some walking and fresh air.

Today is my DT day for Artsystamper, a relatively new digital stamp company owned by Beverly Cole. One of the things I love about Bev's digital stamps is that you get a great selection of stamps and sentiments in each set and also pre-coloured ones for those quick and easy, last minute cards. Please pop over to the Etsy shop, TheArtsystamperShop, and see what she has in store.

I have two cards to share today and both feature the beautiful Aster Garden digital stamp set.

My first card has a mixed media background and is hand coloured. Here it is:

 

Aren't these asters gorgeous!  I printed out several and coloured them with Copic markers, adding some white Posca paint dots to the centres. I fussy cut the flowers and put them to one side whilst I made the background.
The background is 12.5 x 12.5 cm 300 gsm card. I used a brayer to apply Distress Oxide inks in Twisted Citron and Wilted Violet, concentrating the violet around the edges. I used a stencil to add some white circles and dots with watered down acrylic paint and a stamp to add touches of Black Soot grungy marks. Next I added white paint splatters using a Posca pen. I blended Wilted Violet ink around the background's edges, then used archival ink in black to add a little more definition.



I decided to add some ribbon along the bottom edge and found this purple organza ribbon and green satin ribbon in my stash. I knotted a piece of the purple ribbon as attached to the band.
The sentiment is one of four that comes in the digital stamp set and I opted to die cut it with a stitched rectangle die. I inked lightly around the edges in archival black ink and popped the sentiment on foam for dimension.
I arranged two of the flowers, shaping them with a stylus and adding foam to the centres. The stems were glued directly onto the background



To finish, I matted the background onto violet card and then green card and placed all onto a 14.5 cm square card base.

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My second card uses the pre-coloured yellow aster from the Aster Garden set along with the yellow taxi paper from Bev's Retro Fun Papers. 



I printed the paper to fit an A6 card and printed the yellow aster three times. I die cut one of the aster's using a torn rectangle die. Leaving the die in place, I inked the background lightly using Scattered Staw Distress Ink, concentrating the colour around the edges of the die cut. By leaving the die in place you get a crisp white border to the image mat. I also die cut a piece of black card upon which to mat the image.
As you may know, I'm not keen on one dimensional cards when I use pre-coloured images. I always have to make my own mark on them, so this time I opted to cut petals from the other two asters and layer them up. I inked the edges of the fussy cut petals with Scattered Straw and layered them with foam pads.

 

 Before I assembled the card, I inked the edges of the yellow paper with Scattered Straw, then it was just a case of matting the paper on black card, adding the matted image on foam tape and adhering the sentiment band which I also inked.
I decided to add a few Posca paint dots to the image background.

Here are the TheArtsystamperShop products I used:

Aster Garden           Retro Fun Papers

    

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That's all for today! 
I'll be back with another Artsystamper project in two weeks time.

Meanwhile, please check out:

 TheArtsystamperShop Etsy

Artsystamper Digitals Blog
BZCole Mixed Media (YouTube)
Artsystamper Digitals on Facebook 

Thank you for stopping by today!

I'd like to support the following challenges:

Purple and Green Card
* Dragonfly Dreams No Patterned Paper 28/08

* Cassic Design Team Challenge #8 AG 28/08
* Cardz TV #96 AG 29/08
* 613 Avenue Create  #224 AG 30/08 (#3)
* Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #112 AG 31/08
* Craft Rocket #62 AG 31/08
* Crafting by Designs AG 31/08
* Corrosive Challenges #8 AG 31/08
* Dare 2 B Artzy Aug AG 31/08
* Pammie's Inky Pinkies Challenges #1934 AG 02/09
* Creative Crafters #19 AG 08/09

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