Creating Backgrounds @ The Artistic Stamper

Hello folks! Welcome to My first post for May for The Artistic Stamper. This month's theme is 'backgrounds'.

The Artist Stamper have a fantastic collection of stamps which can be used for backgrounds. 

I love making my own backgrounds - starting with a white piece of card and adding colours, textures and layers to create a background. 

And this is what I did for this creation...

I started with a white piece of card - size 7" x 7" and coloured the white card with a selection of blues and purples Distress Ink. 

I then added a couple of squirts of water and let the water run down the card.

I used The Artistic Stamper Mini Backgrounds A6 stamp set, Mini Backgrounds A6 #1 and Mini Backgrounds A6 #2 by Neil Walker. 

(These stamps do all come as individual A5 stamps. But with the Mini Background set, there are 4 stamps in the set which I find gives me much more variety.)

I used stamps from all three sets and stamped using the same Distress Inks, layering and overstamping the patterns.

I then stamped the butterfly from the Insects and Butterflies A5 stamp set on to the background with black ink. I then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.

To finish I added a sentiment from the Tim Holtz Advantus Idea-Ology Small Talk sticker.

Thanks for popping by my blog today.

Toodles for now,

Lisa xxx 

Here is everything I used...

                       

I would like to enter this in to the following challenges:

Craft Stamper - "Take It Make It challenge May - anything goes
Stamping Sensations - Sir Stamps A Lot May challenge - "Close To Nature"

Soak It Up! @ Tando

Hey folks! Today's blog post is for Tando Creative and the theme this week is "Soak It Up!"

This is an amazing theme to focus towards Tando products as the majority of them are made from greyboard. Greyboard is a fabulous product to work with, and when it gets wet it is highly malleable. Which means you can bend and twist the greyboard to manipulate it in to different shapes. It also behaves like Gremlins, meaning it multiplies to a number of layers - so you can have a number of the same shape only thinner. It is great to experiment with this technique as loads of different outcomes can be created. 

This week, I decided to make a card and play with Tando Bottles and Jars.

Here is what I created...

First I cut a piece of card 7" x 7" and blended a selection of Distress Inks on to it. I then used Creative Expressions Midnight Waltz stamp set designed by Lisa Horton with black Versafine ink to add the stars to the background. 

I collected a selection of the Tando Jars and Bottles and sat them in a tray of water for a couple of minutes. At this point they start to expand and begin to separate. After a couple of minutes, I took them out the tray and squeezed the excess water out of them. Then you can start to manipulate them in to the shape you want. In this case, I moulded the jars and bottles around a paintbrush handle to curve the shapes in to a more 3D shape.  

I then painted them all with DecoArt black gesso. I added DecoArt texture sand paste to some of them and DecoArt white crackle paint to the others. 

When they were dry, I used DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic Gold Metallic paint over the top which I applied with my finger. 

I them covered some of the jars with clear embossing ink and heat embossed clear UTEE over the top.

I stamped the Carabelle Studio wood texture stamp on to white card and cut in to 1.5cm strips. I then painted them with DecoArt Titan Buff and adhered underneath to create shelves to sit the bottles on. 

To finish, I used my Dymo machine to create the words - "get busy creating" and then painted a border around them with the Titan Buff paint. 

I hope you like this weeks themed creation. Leave me a comment telling me your thoughts.

Thanks for popping by,

Lisa xxx 

Here are all the products I used...