The joy is in the planting!

Welcome to my weekly post for Artistic Outpost. Today I am using the fabulous Seed Packets Background stamp and the Harvest stamp set. As I am a keen gardener, these are a favourite of mine at the moment.

I cut a piece of white card 4.5" x 6.5" and then applied removable tape around all the edges of the card, leaving me a panel in the centre to stamp and decorate. I added a piece of book page to the central panel.

I coloured the central panel with Peeled Paint and Vintage Photo Distress Inks. I applied the inks directly to a non-stick craft sheet, applied water to the panel with a paintbrush and then used a wet paintbrush to apply Peeled Paint Distress Ink first and then Vintage Photo; blending as I moved around and then dried with a heat tool.

I then stamped the Seed Packets Background image onto the coloured background using Black Archival Ink. I then applied a good thick coat of DecoArt Crackle Glaze and allowed to dry completely. DecoArt Raw Umber Antiquing Cream was applied to accentuate the cracks and then I added Matte Medium over the top to protect. I stamped the sentiment from the Harvest stamp set onto white card using Fern Green Archival Ink, colouring the edges with Peeled Paint Distress Ink and then added to the card.

I coloured two plastic plant labels with Citrus Alcohol Ink and then stamped them with some of the text from the Seed Packets Background stamp. I added a brad to attach them together and then adhered to the card along with some appropriate wording from the Harvest stamp set.

I added stamping to the inside of my card; applying Fern Green and touches of Black Archival to part of the imagery. I then removed the removable tape from around the edges of my card, applied Vintage Photo Distress Ink to the edges and added splatters of Peeled Paint Distress Paint.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Tracy x x

Live, Laugh, Play

Today I am showcasing the Bottle Caps Background stamp and the Paperboy stamp set from Artistic Outpost, available from Our Daily Bread Designs.

I opted for a neutral backdrop created with Vintage Photo Distress Ink; applied to plastic packaging, spritzed with water and the ink pressed onto the background and then dried with a heat tool. I then applied Fired Brick Distress Ink to the Stripes Layering Stencil, spritzed with water and then lay the inked stencik onto the background, dabbing with a piece of kitchen towel and then removing and drying with a heat tool,

I also added touches of background stamping using the Ephemera Backgrounds stamp set, stamped with Potting Soil Archival Ink. I then stamped three of the bottle caps only using the Bottle Caps Background stamp and Black Archival Ink. I also added Live, Laugh, Play from The Golf Club stamp set.

I used stamps from the Grunge Elements stamp set to age the background further and to add more layers of interest.

I recycled a bottle cap and added one of the stamped bottle caps to the centre. This adds dimension to the design.

I added the children from the Paperboy stamp set to the bottom of the card, and coloured the imagery with a touch of Vintage Photo Distress Ink to age. I also added a painty circle over the imagery using Fired Brick Distress Paint and an old lid. Live, Laugh, Play was added once again, this time to the edge of the circle.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Tracy x x

A Vintage Journey - Destination Inspiration - Terminal 2

Morning everyone, thanks so much for stopping by. Today I have a "Destination Inspiration" post to share over at A Vintage Journey.

To see the full project and step by steps simply click HERE and you will be magically transported.

Hope you enjoy the step by steps. Tracy x x

The Game of Golf

Today I am showcasing The Golf Club stamp set from Artistic Outpost, available from Our Daily Bread Designs.

I love this stamp set for masculine designs.

I began by applying Peeled Paint Distress Ink to a piece of plastic packaging, spritzing with water and then pressing the ink onto the background and drying with a heat tool. I then applied Vintage Photo Distress Ink to Tim Holtz Stripes Stencil; simply press the inkpad directly onto the stencil and then spritz with water. Press the stencil onto the background, pressing on the back with a piece of kitchen towel and then remove the stencil and dry with a heat tool.

I also added a touch of random background stamping using the Ephemera Background stamp and Potting Soil Archival Ink. I then stamped the golfer with Black Archiva Ink onto the background. I created a mask of the golfer, placed the mask onto the stamped image and them stamped the image once again with Black ink. I used an old lid, applied DecoArt Burnt Umber Fluid Acrylic to the lid with my finger and then stamped the lid over the focal imagery.

I used a mix of the stamps to add Golf, Club, Ball to the background; drew around each word with a Stabilo All pencil and then smudged with a water brush. I also added the Live, Laugh, Play sentiment with Black Archival Ink. To add a further layer of interest I added splatters of Burnt Umber paint.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Tracy x x

Seeds, Plant, Harvest

Welcome to my weekly post for Artistic Outpost. Today I am showcasing the fabulous newly released Harvest, Seed Packets Background and Grunge Elements stamp sets available from Our Daily Bread Designs.

I have opted for a more neutral colour palette this time around, giving an aged vintage feel to the imagery. I began by applying Vintage Photo Distress Ink to the background of the Kraft card; adding the ink to a piece of plastic packaging, spritzing with water and then pressing the ink onto the background and then drying with a heat tool. I then applied Potting Soil Archival ink to the Seed Packets Background stamp and stamped towards one edge of my card. I then die cut a small circle from the card using a circle die and then applied Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the circular aperture.

I then die cut a second circle from white card and then stamped the boy from the Harvest stamp set onto the circle using Potting Soil Archival Ink. I applied Vintage Photo Distress Ink to a non-stick craft sheet, spritzed with water and then mopped up the ink lightly with the card to age and then dried with a heat tool. I then adhered the decorated piece and the circle to a card blank. I added a memo pin, attaching a small tag to the pin stamped with part of the imagery from the Seed Packets Background stamp along with a stamped plant label, again using part of the imagery from the Seed Packets Background. I aged the plastic plant label with Potting Soil Archival Ink.

I stamped the sentiment onto a separate piece of craft card, bent the card to age and then coloured with Vintage Photo Distress Ink, applying more ink to the creases. To add further to the aged feel I used background stamps from the Grunge Elements stamp set, stamping with Potting Soil Archival Ink.

To complete, I added some splatters of Fresco Finish Snowflake Paint to the background.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Tracy x x

Twist and Style!

Today I am showcasing Eileen Hull's Twist and Style Tool combined with Eileen's Canister Die. You can see a full video HERE from Eileen with step by steps for using her fabulous new tool released this spring.

I used rusty wire with my Twist and Style tool to create flowers for my Canister.

I began by die cutting the elements for my Canister from thick black card.

Die cut two pieces for the body of the Canister and adhere together using the tab shown above.

Once completely dry you can then adhere the two ends together to create the Canister. I always work with it flat at this stage to add decoration to each panel.

I used a Gelli print I had made earlier and cut to fit each panel of the Canister.

I used a Tim Holtz Layering stencil along with Vintage Photo Distress Ink to add a further layer of detail to each panel.

I then used the Twist and Style Tool to create my flowers and flower stems and then stapled into place using the Tiny Attacher.

From this picture you can see I doubled my wire and then twisted to create a good sturdy centre piece for the flower head.

Each of the decorated panels were then added to the Canister. I decided to create a daisy type flower; reminding me of when I was young and played Loves me? Loves me not?

I drew the petals of the flower onto book pages from an old Alice in Wonderland book to give further interest to my design.

I also included scratchy paint lines using an old credit card along with Black Soot Distress Paint.

I also included some paint splatters to each of the panels.

The top also has a decorated panel along with a rusty circle of wire to echo the wire shapes around the Canister.

From this picture you can see all the layers to the design.

All these petals were cut randomly but I love how I have captured the words grow, grass, gardeners, caterpillar and mushroom on each of the petals; perfect touch I thought for a flower!

I love the PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Paints Bubble Gum and Zesty Zing combined together on the Gelli Plate they give a real pop of colour against the black backdrop.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Tracy x x