Art In Bloom: Altered Beer Mats By Carol Fox

I was lucky enough to attend the Paperartsy retailer training day recently and even luckier to leave with this set of stamps by Jo Firth Young. Some of you may remember the bunting I did in the magazine a few months ago with a circus theme. I thought I would do a similer project here, but show how it can look completely different by simply using a different colour scheme and a softer style stamp.

What I did

• I created a crackle base on my beer mats using Fresco Finish paints and the crackle medium between the two layers of colour.
• I stamped my images directly onto the mats using black Archival Ink and dried this to heat set it.
• I used the Fresco paints again to colour my images, to do this I put a small spot of colour onto my craft mat, added a small spritz of water to dilute it, and then applied it to the painted image with a fine paint brush.
• I could see once my images were painted that the background was still too stark, so I dry brushed using the same pink shade I had painted the images with, brushing inwards from the edge so the colour was deeper at the edge and faded as it got towards the middle. I sealed it all with a coat of multi medium.
• I stamped my words directly onto the mats and coated them with Glossy Accents to make them "pop" a little bit.
• My smaller mat hanging from the centre is just a larger mat cut in half and coloured, stamped and painted in exactly the same way.
• I punched holes and added eyelets to each mat as shown. I used jump rings join the mats together, adding a length of chain to each end so it could be hung up.
• To finish I added a short length of beaded ribbon trim to each of the outer mats using a strong glue.

I used...

4 beer mats or hand cut your own from cardboard packaging

Paperartsy Rubber Stamps: JOFY10, ELB01

Paperartsy Fresco Paints: Mermaid, Nougat, Sherbet, Pansy, London Bus, Pumpkin Soup, Toad Hall

Multi Medium

Glossy Accents

Jump rings and chain

Beaded ribbon trim

If you have any questions at all please feel free to contace me via my personal blog where I will do my best to answer. Carol x

Ten Minute Dominos By Carol Fox

We all lead very busy lives and sometimes we just don't get the time we would like to sit down and enjoy our hobbies, with this in mind I have a very short and sharp project for you today, literally a quick little ten minute make for when you can grab a little bit of crafty time.

• Using a piece of Cut-N-Dry Foam, sponge PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paint in Snowflake over the front and sides of your domino, heat dry. Sponging on the paint gives a slightly textured finish to it.
• Use Black Archival Ink stamp your image, either leave to dry or heat set.
• Unscrew the top of your chosen colours of Dylusions Ink Spray and drop a tiny spot onto your craft mat, pick up the colour with a water brush and colour in your image. Heat dry between each colour to avoid the colours running into each other.
• Finish with a quick coat of Freso Finish Satin Sealer, do not brush to hard as you will make the colours bleed, just a quick flick over is all that is needed to protect your domino, or use a spray varnish.
• Add a magnet to the back if you want to use it as a fridge magnet, or just stick it to a surface with a piece of blue tack if you don't have a magnet.

I had not used paint and Dylusions inks on dominos before doing this, but I wanted to keep the colours bright - I was quite please with the result.

I used:

Prima Cling stamps: Songbird
A domino from a games set
PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Paint and Satin Sealer

Dylusions Ink Sprays
Water brush

Black Archival In

Thank you for your visit today, Carol x

Tutorial for Rub-on Resist Technique By Carol Fox

Hello, Carol here with my blog post for this month.

I have been having a little play with the new Remnant rub-ons available as part of the Idea-ology range. I have always love rub-ons, but I must admit I have in the past sometimes had problems getting some of them to work properly so I had always stuck to the 7Gypsies range. But I have to say the new Idea-ology rub-ons are easy to use and the images come out really well.

I have a sample to share that is based upon the resist technique that Tim Holtz has used on his blog recently. I have gone with a Steampunk theme for my tag.

Step 1

I applied my rub-ons to a size 8 tag, bear in mind that these will resist the ink you apply in the next stage so I tried to think where I would stamp my images before I applied my rub-ons as I wanted to my tag to look quite structured. I found the best way to do this was to lay it out on one tag and then apply the rub-ons to another tag as I removed them.

Step 2

I applied Distress Stain to my craft mat and swooshed my tag through it until I was happy with the coverage. I also coloured a short length of crinkle ribbon with the remains of the colour on the mat to use on my tag.

Step 3

I dried my tag and ribbon with my heat gun and as you can see the colours are a lot more muted now they are dry. You can also see how the rub-ons have resisted the distress stain background.

Step 4

I added some Vintage Photo Distress Stain to the tag by picking the colour up of my craft mat and flicking it onto my tag. I then spritzed with a mini mister, blotted it and heat set. I edged my tag with a black paint dabber and hand drew lines round the edges using a pen and ink.

Step 5

I did all my stamping using black archival ink. I removed the ink from the rub-ons after stamping, by using a very small spot of alcohol blending solution on a piece of kitchen roll and very gently rubbing over the rub-on image. Then I added the various embellishments as shown in the main photo.

I do really like this technique and I can see myself using it a lot, adding in extra elements like stencilling and gesso.

I used the following items on my tag, If you want to see stockists for these please see the post on my own blog where I have a full list.

Rubber Stamps: Stampers Anonymous Time Travelers
Distress Stains: Wild Honey, Peacock Feathers, Broken China, Picked Raspberry, Vintage Photo
Remnant Rubs: Elements, Numbers
Crinkle Ribbon
Alcohol Blending Solution
Film Strip Ribbon
Staples
Metal Number 6
Brads

Thank you for visiting the Craft Stamper blog and enjoy the rest of your day, Carol x

Melt Pot Canvas Tutorial By Carol Fox

Hello, Carol here with my first post on  the Craft Stamper Blog.

I am going to be using the melt pot with a rubber stamp to make a partial image that I will be layering over the same stamped image to add interest and depth to a small canvas. I have personally found that a collage type image works best for this and I try to avoid using one that has to many solid black areas.

This is a great way to introduce yourself to the melt pot if you have not used one before. It only involves a small amount of UTEE and because you work on a small piece of craft sheet as opposed to pouring your UTEE out, it gives you greater control while you get to grips with a new medium.

UTEE gets incredibly hot when it is melted so always be careful when using a your melt pot, if pouring melted UTEE always pick it up by the two handles on the sides and pour keeping the pot well away from yourself on a desk top that you have protected with a heat resistant craft mat. Even when melting your UTEE directly in the pot you do not need to melt a great deal in one go, as it is surprising how far melted UTEE goes. I always use the clear as my base for what ever colour I am going to be using, as this seems to be slightly thinner when melted, and therefore makes the medium more fluid to pour, also the clear is less expensive than the coloured and it makes it all go further.

So without further ado on with my project and I hope it inspires you to use your melt pot in some interesting way. If you do it would be lovely if you shared your makes on the Craft Stamper Facebook Page.

Step 1

Lay an insert into your melt pot. You can buy these, but I have cut my own from an old craft mat that had seen better days. Sprinkle some embossing powder onto the insert; I used clear and platinum. Let this melt.

Step 2

I removed my insert, quickly spread the melted UTEE over an area approximately the size of my stamp and stamped into it. I left my Stamp in place until the UTEE was cold.

Step 3 

When it was completely cold I carefully removed the stamp and then pealed the UTEE image from my insert; do this very carefully as it will be quite fragile. You can see from mine that I have lost part of my image where the butterflies are, I was about to put this back to remelt and do it again, but I decided this will probably work quite well and will hopefully add a bit more interest to my finished item. I also trimmed it carefully around the sides to remove any UTEE that had gone outside of the stamped area, but this is again is a personal choice and depends upon the size of your finished item.

Step 4

As you can see from the main image at the start of this post I am making an ATC sized canvas. It is only a cheap canvas and not very firm to stamp directly onto, so I stamped my image onto tissue paper using black versafine ink and coloured it in on the back using Distress inks. I tore this to size and stuck it onto my canvas using Mod Podge. I added a layer of Mod Podge over the  top of the tissue image and let this dry.

Step 5

I then edged my Canvas with a Black Dabber to tidy up the edges. I then positioned my UTEE piece over the stamped image carefully placing it so that it lined up, glueing it into place with Glossy Accents.

Step 6

I  highlighted the UTEE image with some Treasure Gold and added some around the edge of the canvas to draw it all together. Finishing it as shown in the main photo using ribbon and charms.

I used

Melt Pot
Utee: Clear, Platinum
Crafty Individuals Stamp: CI-337
Versafine Ink: Black
Distress Inks:  Peacock Feathers, Spiced Marmalade and Festive Berries
Treasure Gold: Rose quartz, Renaissance and Sapphire
Small canvas
Tissue paper
Ribbon Scrap
Small Charm

A full list of suppliers can be found on the post on my own blog.

Thank you for visiting the Craft Stamper Blog today, if you do have any questions at all, either leave a comment below or you can contact me via my blog, a link is also in the right hand column.
Carol x

FREE tutorial with Carol Fox

Our last bonus tutorial this week is from the lovely Carol Fox.

Carol is fairly new to the team but she has already settled in nicely. I love how each piece she makes is a journey and tells a story of some kind - she is a very imaginative and thoughtful crafter.

Leave Carol a comment and you could win her art to hang in your craft space - how cool is that?

Make sure you come back tomorrow for the start of Trish's new challenge! It's going to be fun!