Artists Trading Christmas - The Sequel

2 more ATCs for the swap I'm involved in, and that's my 5 finished! :o)

Time for a little break from Christmas for me now I think. The next thing I make will be something I've been saving for when I had no lists or anything waiting to be done..... Watch this space!

Artists Trading Christmas

I have just joined a Christmas themed ATC swap. Each person makes 5 ATCs and receives 5 back. Here are my first two efforts. Nothing that new here, I have definite favourites among my stamps this Christmas, and this Santa and the pine trees are certainly among them.

I haven't made any ATCs in ages, and really enjoyed working at a smaller scale for a change. The backgrounds and images on both were stamped with Distress ink pads, with the graduated sky on the first one being achieved by applying the 2 shades of ink with a wet wipe. White acrylic paint was added for the snow foreground before overstamping the message with fired brick distress ink. The snowflakes were stamped with white Versamagic chalk ink and the gold border above and below Santa's head (which hasn't scanned in very visibly) was stamped with a Brilliance gold teardop pad.

I hope the recipients like them! :o) Thanks for taking a look.

Altered box

I'm involved in a swap on the UKS forum where you have to alter something and send it to a swap partner, then receive something else from someone else in return. I've had this small wooden cigar box kicking around for a while, so decided I would alter it for this swap. I used acrylic paint to prime the surface, then decorated it with stamps, dabbers and distress ink pads. The top of the box is triple heat embossed. Inside, I placed a version of my christmas poem, resized to fit the box.

I hope the recipient likes it! Thanks for taking a look :o)

Happy Holly-days!

Sorry for the groan-worthy pun! :oD

This is another 6x3 tag for the swap I'm involoved in. I started out making this as just the background for the tag, but I liked it so much, I left it just as it was!

Tag had a light coating of scattered straw distress ink, applied with a baby wipe. It was then crumpled, and an old paper ink pad rubbed across the raised areas. It was then spritzed with a little water and ironed flat.

Holly and candy cane stamps were applied with pine needles and fired brick distress pads, and coloured with a water brush. The ring around the eyelet is glossy card with alcohol inks applied to it. The holly berries had glossy accents applied to them for a bit of shiny. We like shiny. :o)

Click on the image to see a larger version. Thanks for taking a look! :o)

Song for a Lost Love

There are actually 3 of these floating around the world in various places! One has a home in Canada, the other two at opposite ends of the UK. Not a new piece of work, but in the name of completeness, I thought I'd post it here for those of you that are recent discoverers of me and my paper world! :o)

I had hoped to present this as another of my interactive flipbooks, but unfortunately it's so long and narrow that as a double page spread, it just isn't big enough to read any of the text, so here it is as a series of still images.

A book made from regular office type tags, bound together using brass hinges to turn each page, and chipboard covers. I cut craft paper down into A4 sheets and printed the text from the computer, then covered each tag with it and stamped, distressed and decorated each page. Words from "Love Song for a Vampire" by Annie Lennox.

Click on the slide show or on any image to enlarge it.

Page 1 - "Come into these arms again and lay your body down. The rythm of this trembling heart is beating like a drum".

Page 2 - "It beats for you, it bleeds for you, it knows not how it sounds. For it is the drum of drums, it is the song of songs".

Page 3 - "Once I had the rarest rose that ever deigned to bloom. Cruel winter chilled the bud, and stole my flower too soon".

Page 4 - "Oh loneliness - oh hopelessness, to search the ends of time. For there is in all the world, no greater love than mine".

Page 5 - "Let me be the only one to keep you from the cold, now the floor of heaven's lain with stars of brightest gold".

Page 6 - "They shine for you, they shine for you, they burn for all to see. Come into these arms again and set this spirit free".

Once Upon a December Night

I had the idea for this book back in September, and I wanted it to be a take on "Twas the Night Before Christmas", but with a more adult feel to it. I think it's the biggest thing I've ever made, 13 verses to the poem, and 32 pages in total to decorate.

The poem itself took quite a while to get right, but that was nothing to the task of trying to collect appropriate stamps to illustrate it. I searched for weeks, but was unable to find stamps of the right style to illustrate some of the verses. Eventually I designed a stamp of my own for one of the pages (it's for the verse about chimneys, you'll know it when you see it), and I used acetate/photograph/alcohol ink techniques for the 4 or 5 remaining verses.

Things I am particularly proud of? The book plate on the front which was plain chrome when I started. I painted it with brown acrylic paint and then attacked it with sandpaper - I think it looks great!

As there are 32 pages, the flipbook is quite large, so give it a few seconds to download! Click on the image below to try the interactive flipbook.

P.S. If it doesn't work for you, your browser may not have the latest version of the bit it needs to see the book. You can get it by following this link:

Click here to update your Flash player

Click on the slide show images below to see a gallery of the pages in this project!

An extravaganza of embossing!

4x4 fat book page for a christmas rubber stamped swap that I'm involved with.

Everything apart from the background on the front of this page has been embossed. The background was faded jeans and black soot distress inks applied with a wet wipe.

3 rows of pine trees were embossed, in white, silver and black sparkle. The snowflakes are a paint splatter stamp I bought in Canada, embossed in white.

Back is faded jeans distress ink with my avatar stamp and a tapestry stamp.

Click on the image for a larger view.

Santa Tag

Another 6x3 tag for the tag swap I'm involved in. PaperArtsy holly border was stamped and embossed in gold. Fired brick distress pad applied to the whole tag, black soot distress pad applied to the holly border with a wet wipe. Eyelet surround is black card with a crackle background stamped and embossed in gold, then punched to shape. Santa is a rubbadubbadoo stamp, applied as low-level decoupage, which is to say it was separated into layers, but no 3d foam or silicone glue was used. This still gives a 3d effect, but it's much more subtle. Back of tag was stamped with my own avatar and "handmade" stamps and a tapestry snowflake stamp, in fired brick and aged mahogany.

Oh, and I almost forgot, there's a tiny amount of stickles glitter on his hat and beard, just for a bit of sparkle :o)

Click on the image to get a larger view.

Blue Christmas

A christmas card based around one of my fat page designs. An acrylic message stamp and a tapestry stamp were used for the text on the card.

Click on the card for a larger view.

Words Tag

Another of my own stamp designs, the original design shown on the left. I love this stamp, it makes such a crisp, clean impression, and is so versatile - the words can be kept in one block or separated to make 6 word stamps.

The tag was stamped and embossed with black sparkle embossing powder and the words were then coloured using Sakura glaze pens.

Designed by yours truly!

I've finally gotten around to having a sheet of my own stamp designs made. The image on the left shows the original stamp design, and on the right is an ATC made with the completed stamp.

This stamp is based around an image of my grandmother as a young girl, I hope she likes it!