Saturday 28 February 2015

Ribbons and leaves

Hi, it's me, mellpellmell (Maria Potapovich) here for you today!

And I have a little questionfor you...

Whether you like gifts?

And whether you like to give gifts?

And how do you package your gifts?

Do you know how do I do it?

Soooooo...

The first step:


  The second and final step:



Here you'll find branches-leaves - Botanical Plate 2 A5
And here - the crowns for the ribbon London A6

Have a good creative day!

Thursday 26 February 2015

Art Journal page- Fly

Hello Everyone,
Shilpa here,

I've art journal page to share with you.


I've taken few photos while making this ...here are they


Journal is of A4 size. At two corners I adhered paper and texture strips. In the middle I created textured butterflies with stencil and modeling paste.


Next I applied gesso and spritzed Lindy's sprays in teal, brown and yellow shades. I loved this undefined spread created by inks...drips and drops!


I used Artistic stamper stamps- Calligraphy Mat8
and small butterfly stamp in the background


I wanted to highlight texture in my  background, I outlined textured butterflies and strips with Faber Castell PIIt pens.


I stamped 2 butterflies from Artistic stamper Insects and butterflies stamp set on white card, colored them with ink. I fuzzy cut them and adhered on my journal page.

here is the another picture


Thanks so much for stopping by today, hope you liked my page :)

Supplies used:



Tuesday 24 February 2015

Golden Gibson Girl

Hello everyone!  Alison (butterfly) with you here again today, and I'm back in the journals again, I'm afraid... but with a whole new colour palette for me.  I'm here today with a Golden Gibson Girl!


This page came about from playing with the fabulous new Background Flourish stamp.  It's A6 sized, so I was able to stamp it twice - in Wild Honey, Scattered Straw and Pumice Stone - and cover the whole page.  I gave the inked stamp a tiny spritz of water for a softer look in places.


The details in the flourishes are gorgeous.  I stamped some of my favourite script stamp - Calligraphy Mat #6, as I now have the large size too - also in Pumice Stone to add another layer.


I can't resist a bit of crackle, as you know, so I applied some crackle paste through the Tim Holtz Harlequin stencil and left it to get on with crackling.


With all the vintage flourishing going on, I found myself reaching for one of the Gibson Girl stamps as a complementary focal point.  I stamped her on watercolour paper and used Distress Stains and some Tattered Angels Glimmer Glaze to tint the background.  I toyed with colouring her in, but decided I like how the image really pops in its "naked" state.


Once the Harlequins were crackled I used the same Distress Stains and Glimmer Glaze to add colour to them too.


I think Ripe Persimmon, Dried Marigold and Spiced Marmalade are all in there, as well as the Scattered Straw and Wild Honey, and the Glimmer Glaze was the slightly innappropriately-named Flirty (it looks to me as though flirting is pretty much the last thing on her mind at the moment).


I also used my Pumice Stone Distress Marker to add some shading to the diamonds...


... and the final touch was to add some Treasure Gold in White Fire and Florentine to highlight the crackled texture.



A simple WordBand provides the thought for the page, picked out in Chalk Fresco Paint - a reminder for her not to get dragged down by reality's limitations, but to dare to make the leap of imagination and break free.


And of course there's lots of splatter!


So it's stamping plus crackle plus colour - a step outside the normal colour zone, for sure, but still essentially playing in the journals with my favourite things.  I hope you like it.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  There's still a week or so to come and play in our Love challenge this February.  You don't have to use Artistic Stamper stamps, but if you do you get a double entry in the prize draw.  Hope to see you there!

Ingredients used:
Distress Inks - Pumice Stone, Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon
Distress Stains - Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon
Distress Marker - Pumice Stone
Idea-ology WordBands
Treasure Gold

Sunday 22 February 2015

Florishes and Butterflies


Hi everyone I have for you a picture  for my next post the background came out of a
 session playing with a brayer and using Paper Artsy Fresco Finish paints 
in shades of blue,  I watched Leandra's you tube brayered 
backgrounds and that was the result.


Instead of their waxed paper I used kitchen grease proof paper
and gradually built up the layers.


You have to be very careful not to have to much paint on the brayer and be gentle rolling 
it across make sure all the paint is off the brayer before you use a different colour. 
Start with dark colours first then and then gradually add the lighter ones.


It left a lovely mottled effect and the grease proof paper gets stronger
 with each application.


To finish the background I used Tim's Flourish stamp inked up with snowflake fresco
 finish paint then stamped randomly across the paper.


I triple embossed The Artistic Stamper butterfly off the insects & butterflies plate 
three times with gold embossing powder.


I then layered it up and highlighted areas with treasure gold after using alcohol
 inks to colour the recessed bits.


Little sequins were glued onto both wings and the body was made up with beads
 from my stash. The curly twig with berrys on I had laying around and 
two sparkly circles were glues on.


The frame was made with grunge paste through a stencil once dry painted with deco art
media paint in Cobalt Turquoise, once dry I used Deco Art Antiquing cream 
if you haven't tried this product yet you need to get some its amazing.

Products Used
  1. Fresco Finish Paint in marlin, lake wanaka, antarctic, bora bora and snowflake. 
  2. Deco Art Media Cobalt turquoise Hue, and Antiquing cream Raw Umber.
  3. Grunge paste
  4. Speciman Stencil
  5. The Artistic Stamper Insects and Butterflies plate, Tim Holtz flourishes.
  6. Gold embossing powder.
  7. Treasure gold classic.
  8. Alcohol Inks in stream, and denim.

I used beads and sequins from my stash, The very talented Jools Robinson inspired this piece by suggesting that I framed the paper I had made. So with that in mind this was where I ended up.
I would be very pleased if you let me know what you think.
Cheers Dee x

Thursday 19 February 2015

Butterflies on my page...

Hello there, this is Titbelsoeur today sharing an art journal page with you.

First, I have distressed the page with Brushed Corduroy, then glued a very old school book page on it :



 I made my own masking tapes, stamping cogs and watches background stamps on to a piece of tape :



 and sticked them to my page, adding a piece of a used tea bag :



 A coat of gesso, then I stamped Treillis and Dots backgrounds and added brown shadows here and there with a watercolor chalk and a wet paintbrush :



 Then I stamped butterflies on to the background with water-based ink and made them a bit blur in adding some water with a paintbrush which also spread the watercolor below :




  I did the same with the central butterfly I stamped on a white paper, slightly blured and cut out :


And here is my page :




Here are the stamps I used :
Butterflies
Encyclopaedia Botanica
Treillis Background
Watches Background
Dots Background
Cogs Background

Thanks so much for stopping by,
your comments are very much appreciated.
Don't forget to participate in our monthly challenge to win some fabulous Artistic Stamper stamps.

Titbelsoeur

Monday 16 February 2015

...remembering the autumn...

Winter will end soon ...
Soon will come the spring...
 But I remember last fall...
Maybe because I now do not have enough bright colors, which was a lot recently!.. ..?


And if you pay attention, you will notice that I used the stamps at all of the other subjects.


Look, I took the flags from this set of stamps 


and an umbrella from this set:


I hope your autumn was as bright as mine.
And as I dare to hope that spring will be even brighter!

With <3 from Maria Potapovich (mellpellmell).

Friday 13 February 2015

Early Bird

Hello Everyone, Shilpa here,

I made a mixed media canvas using fun stamp 'Early Bird Resort' designed by Debbie cotton.


I love that cute Owl so much. I've worked with only two colors here, Evergreen bough and Dusty Concord.


I stamped these flowers with Ranger Black/ watering can  Archival ink and colored them with distress paints.
Background bubbles are created with stencil and Gelatos


Hope you liked my project today.
Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Material used:
Artistic Stamper Stamps: Early Bird ResortBotanical plate 2
Faber Castell Design Memory Craft Gelatos

Tuesday 10 February 2015

How does your garden grow?

Hello all!  Alison (butterfly) here with a gentle tag for you today.  I've been playing with some of the lovely new gardening stamps just released here at The Artistic Stamper.  There are some fantastic new releases.  If you haven't seen them yet, do check them out.

So here's my relaxing garden tag - a fairly simple affair, but it gives me lots of pleasure.


I started by putting Distress Ink onto a large acetate gridblock, spritzing it with water and stamping onto a watercolour paper tag.  I did some spritzing and flicking of water to create even more of a textured look.


The fork and spade from Garden #1 are stamped in a combination of Coffee and Potting Soil Archival inks and clear embossed.


I stamped the very useful "extra bit of earth" from Garden #2 next to the main image, so as to 'fade out' the earth rather than have it stop abruptly.


I added another layer by stamping the tiny bubbles from the Borders 2 plate in colours to coordinate with the background.  And there's plenty of white splatter to create more life and movement.


The sentiment is from a PaperArtsy set, and is stamped in graduated Archival inks - Cobalt, Leaf Green and Olive, I think, and then clear-embossed as usual.


I tried out a number of different embellishments, but each time I preferred the simpleness of the tag without any extras until I suddenly remembered these tiny wooden confetti circles, hiding in my stash.


I glued them in place and gave them a tiny swipe of Chalk Fresco paint from one angle.


The Distress-dyed ribbons at the top are tied with some Idea-ology paper string, and the whole thing is mounted on some distressed corrugated cardboard for that rustic look.


And that's your lot for today.  Thanks so much for stopping by - your comments and visits really mean so much.

I hope you'll come and play along in our Love challenge here at The Artistic Stamper this February.  You don't have to use Artistic Stamper stamps, but if you do you'll qualify for a double entry in the prize draw.  What have you got to lose?!  Happy crafting!

Ingredients used:
Artistic Stamper stamps - Garden #1, Garden #2, Borders #2 A6
Distress Inks - Broken China, Stormy Sky, Vintage Photo, Gathered Twigs, Walnut Stain, Peeled Paint, Mowed Lawn, Pine Needles
Archival Inks - Coffee, Potting Soil, Cobalt, Leaf Green, Olive
Fresco Paints - Chalk
Seam binding
From my stash - watercolour paper, paper string, corrugated cardboard, wooden confetti, sentiment stamp