Final Fall Card

As November comes to a close, I'm sharing one last Fall card before it's Christmas all the way! I made it for the Gingersnaps Farm Fresh challenge.

The main image is from Artistic Outpost - the Home plate - and I stamped it on a sponged book page background. This is simply mounted on black c/stock and then onto a vintage dictionary page.


Hope everyone in the States had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Ali

Farm Fresh Creations

Here are a pair of cards I made for Gingersnaps this month, where our theme is Farm Fresh.

The first uses an image from Artistic Outpost from their Home plate. I stamped the main image with black ink onto a sponged panel highlighted with white gel pen (they're meant to be stars!)

I can't for the life of me remember where I got this image of a barn from. If anyone knows, feel free to let me know in the comments. I stamped it onto watercolor paper and water colored the image with Distress inks. I do know that the sentiment is from the Artistic Outpost plate, Old Grist Mill.


I've had a busy week at Vintage Page Designs this week getting out Thanksgiving favor orders. And launching the Vintage Page Designs blog. It's still pretty bare, but pop in and say hello!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Ali

Halloween ATC Card

I haven't had a minute to stamp all week, but today I squeezed in a little fun. Well, I say fun because Halloween projects are always a challenge for me. I'm more of a butterflies and flowers kind of gal, not dark and grungy, but I gave it a shot and created a Halloween ATC.

I stamped the Artistic Outpost image (Generation Redux plate) onto a piece of "spooky gothic text" and mounted it onto a piece of pattered paper that must be at least 5 years old :) I stamped some text and numbers on the paper and grunged it up a little bit too.

I gave the ladies gold hats (cut from an old Christmas envelope) and embellished them with black rhinestones. A button here and a sentiment (Vintage Halloween plate) there and it was all done. Not too painful.

But wait, I had to mount it onto a card so that I could send it someone and because I was missing my white space!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ali

Vintage Mill

While we hunkered down during the hurricane at the weekend, I tried a new Technique Junkies technique called Vintage Art. It was inspired by old pencil and ink artwork. The technique involves sponging the background in various shades of yellow and brown, then highlighting with white pencil.


I thought this Artistic Outpost image from their plate called Old Grist Mill would work well with this vintage looking technique. The paper in the background is from an old dictionary page showing the definition for 'mill'.

I have exciting news to share at the weekend plus some more cards to share later in the week, so I hope you can stop by again soon!

Ali

Splitcoast Color Challenge

I was asked by Betty to make a sample for today's Splitcoast color challenge - the colors are Rich Razzleberry, So Saffron and Tango Tangerine.

These colors screamed Halloween to me, so I dug out my Artistic Outpost Vintage Halloween set and made this card. Of course, the base is a Fabriano watercolor card and there's lots of white space!


The pumpkin was stamped onto a piece of bookpage background that I sponged with So Saffron and Pumpkin Pie inks (I didn't have Tango Tangerine). I double matted him onto Pumpkin Pie and Rich Razzleberry c/stock. I added some piercing and white gel pen to mimic the polka dot ribbon.

Hope you have time to play the challenge today.

Happy stamping,

Ali

Split Stamping Personality

There hasn't been much stamping or blogging going on here for the past few weeks, I'm afraid. That's what happens during school vacation. I have a little down time this week because my daughter is in camp and I finally managed to stamp today.

I have two cards to share - one I made for a tutorial I wrote on Gingersnaps, but haven't had time to blog. The background behind the woman is a sun print made using a chemically treated paper. You can read how it's done here. I restamped the image (from Artistic Outpost) on cream c/stock and cut out the woman and adhered her on top of the sun print. The pale blue background was made using the Sanded Whitewash technique (TJ newsletter Aug 09).


And the second card is for today's Clean and Simple Challenge on Splitcoast - it's been an age since I did that challenge. It's for my husband because we celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary next week.


Together they highlight my split stamping personality! Generally, I go for botanical, vintage and collage images, but I also have what I call my 'Papertrey' side. I love the clean lines of some of the modern images, such as this one from Stampin' Up (Cute by the Inch).

Quick Tip:

I love these Pitt Artist pens from Faber Castell and use them all the time. They have four different nibs - brush, medium, fine and super fine, and are waterproof and smudge-proof.


I like to run the brush tip along the edge of inchies (or other punched shapes) for definition and these work great. The super fine nib is good for filling in missing parts of a stamped image. Or the dots on this card. Their uses are infinite and at $11 - a real bargain. I got mine at an art supply store, but I'm sure Michaels and other big box retailers sell them too.

Here's hoping for more stamping time tomorrow.

Happy Stamping!

Ali

Happy Independence Day

Happy Independence Day! Although we are British, we have lived in the USA for 13 years now and celebrate July 4th each year with our American friends. This is going to be a short post because we're heading out to a cook-out (English translation: barbecue).

I made this card using a technique called Brazen Brilliance, which was this week's Design Junkies' challenge. I never would have tried technique if it hadn't been for the challenge, but I'm really glad I did. It's fun and gives a great effect. Here's closer look:


The main image is from Artistic Outpost and the background is a retired SU stamp called Weathered.

Happy July 4th!

Ali

CASE Challenge

There's a Blue Moon Challenge on Gingersnaps today and the challenge is to CASE (copy) a card by a fellow Design Team member. I chose a card by Gingersnaps Co-Founder Sharon.


The main image is from Artistic Outpost and is stamped on a panel created with Distress Inks and Glimmer Mist - a technique called Antiqued Glimmers (TJs newsletter Dec 09). I also used the Torn Frame technique (TJ Dec 08)to mat the boy. Here's a closer look at the Antiqued Glimmer panel:

It's a fun challenge to play - the only hard part is deciding who and what to CASE.

Happy Stamping!

Ali

Supplies:

• Stamps: Artistic Outpost, Stampin' Up!
• Paper: Vintage Cream c/stock (PTI), So Saffron, Early Espresso
• Ink: Glimmer Mist, Distress inks, So Saffron
• Accessories: metal flower (Ideology), brads
• Tools: Word window punch

Gingersnaps Color Challenge

It's time again for another Gingersnaps Color Challenge and this month we're making creations in all shades of blue.

I spied a piece of blue book page background on my desk, so decided to incorporate it into my challenge card. I bought an Artistic Outpost set called Steam Punk several months ago and it seen ink yet, so I reached for this too.

The book page background included a sequin waste stamp from The Artistic Stamper, so I carried this onto the card base. I kept the rest of the card simple because the main image has a lot of detail and I wanted that to be the focus of the card.

I hope you'll check out the other Design Team creations and play along with our challenge!

Happy Stamping!

Ali

Patchwork Card

I have been really busy stamping and not just enjoying the fabulous weather we're having, but I can't share any of the projects for another couple of months because it's a surprise.....sorry!

However, I did stamp a few cards for fun this weekend. I can't believe that the June/July 2010 issue of the TJ newsletter has been out for a couple of weeks and this is the first chance I've had to try any of the techniques! The first one is called Patchwork.


I created the patchwork panel by sponging brown (Soft Suede) and blue (Baja Blue) inks onto c/stock, using post-it notes to mask of the different areas. I stamped a script background over the entire piece, then blew the dust of my sewing machine and zig zag stitched the seams.

The bird image from Artistic Outpost was lightly water colored with SU inks and mounted onto a new SU color c/stock called Early Espresso. The 1/8" taffeta ribbon is in the same color and it's so rich and dark, I know it's going to be one of my new go-to colors. I LOVE it!

Have a wonderful week!

Ali

Flower Form Art Exchange

The most recent Gingersnap Creations Art Exchange was a flower form. Here's one of the flowers that I made. The flower base was created from a piece of the Book Page Background (tutorial here) and the quote is from Artistic Outpost.

Here's a closer look at the background:

And here are the four flowers all together.


We have another Art Exchange coming on June 3rd - don't miss it!

Ali

Robin Inchie Card

I love grids! I think that's why inchies and cards made with inchies make me smile!

I created a sheet of faux designer paper (TJ technique Dec 08/Jan 09) using Birds of a Feather by Artistic Outpost. The large script/egg image was clear embossed on cream c/stock and covered with blue and brown inks. It was over stamped with robin image and the embossing powder ironed off.

I followed my own Inchie Collage technique and created this inchie card. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.


Happy stamping!

Ali

Warhol and Whitewash

It feels like a million years since I stamped - it's really only 3 weeks, but it feels like forever! There's been a lot going on with family visiting from overseas, a party, home renovations, school vacation etc. You get the picture!

I made this card for Reasons to Stamp on Gingersnaps today. It's our monthly features which lists a whole bunch of reasons to stamp a project during the upcoming month. This is to commemorate Memorial Day at the end of the month.


I used two TJ techniques - Warhol and Sanded Whitewash. The stars background was created by painting a piece of really rust c/stock with gesso, running it through an embossing folder (once dry) and sanding the surface.

The military man was stamped on really rust and more mustard c/stock, cut into squares and mounted onto vanilla to create a Warhol effect.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Supplies:

• Stamps: Hero - Artistic Outpost
• C/stock: Very vanilla, basic black, really rust & more mustard
• Ink: black
• Accessories: Word Sticks - Ideology, black embroidery floss
  

Button Tags

The Spicy Supply Challenge over at Gingersnaps today is buttons.  Here are a few tag/distress ink projects I came up with for the challenge.

On the first tag I sponged on Peeled Paint and Faded Jeans ink with the blending tool and gave it a light spritz of water.  I applied a mask and blended in some more ink.  And finished the tag base with a spritz of perfect pearls mixed with water.  The bird and sentiment are a transparency that I adhered with the button.

The images on the next two tags were clear embossed before applying Distress Inks with the blending tool.  After a spritz of Perfect Pearls and water, I ironed off the clear embossing powder and added a little more ink to tone down the images.  The vintage bone buttons were adhered with Art Gel.

This tag uses a stamp from Artistic Outpost with Faded Jeans and Weathered Wood Distress inks.

This tag uses an image from Stampers Anonymous with Fired Brick and Spiced Marmalade Distress inks.

Don't forget to check out the other Gingersnap Creations Design Team projects on the blog - they are awesome!