The Artsy Stamp ~ Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge

Hello everyone...

Hope you've all had a fun weekend and now ready for the week ahead!! As always, Monday means the start of a brand new challenge over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog and this week the challenge is all about The Artsy Stamp. It might be a background, a hand drawn image or maybe, a sketchy texture stamp. Whatever you choose, we challenge you to get out your artsy stamps and play!

Now I've got quite a few "artsy stamps" but as soon as I saw the challenge, I knew exactly which one I wanted to use. As a fan of Brett Weldele's work, I wanted to combine the image with some of my favourite Tim Holtz products and I really hope you love what I've created...

...and this is how I did it!

To begin with I had this frame in my stash which was the perfect size for the stamped image. So, after a lick of Distress Paint around the sides, I cut a piece of paper from the Tim Holtz Collage Mini paper stash to fit the outside of my frame and attached it with Glue N' Seal. I then sanded the edges back to give a distressed, vintage feel to the frame. To create the embossed section for the background, I used the Gears folder from the Blueprint and Gears Texture Fade set and embossed a piece of card, covered with Metal Foil tape. I then applied a layer of Black Soot Distress Ink over the top and allowed the paint to pool into embossed areas before wiping away the excess to create the look of metal. I then added the embossed metal to the recessed area of the frame.

The next stage was to use my artsy stamp, which I inked with Black Archival Ink and stamped onto water colour paper. I coloured the image with Distress Marker Pens, using a water brush to pick up the colour and blending the colours to give light and shade to the image.

I cut the image out and layered it over the top of a painted piece of Frameworks die which I had attached to the embossed metal.

I then wanted to add some dimension and elements to surround my Time Traveler and for this, I stamped a piece of card with a text stamp from my stash and then using the Rosette Die by Tim Holtz for Sizzix, I die cut the stamped card, inked the edges and created my rosette, which I then attached to the bottom left hand corner.

For all the cogs, I covered a piece of Grungeboard with some more of the metal foil tape and used the Gadget Gears die to die cut the metal. I then applied some alcohol ink over the top to create a rusty look and added some Idea-Ology gears and mini gears over the top of the die cuts and attached them to my frame.

To age the Word Band and make it look rusty and vintage, I used some more Broken China, Antique Bronze and Peeled Paint Distress Paint, building up the colours to create the look I wanted, then threaded some paper string through the holes and attached this to the frame.

As a finishing touch, no gentleman would be complete without his monocle. I attached this to a Hinge Clip which once again, I made rusty using Distress Paint and also added a Swivel Clip which I then connected to some dome studs that I'd attached to the frame and let the monocle hang free down the side.

...and that completed my piece for this week!

I really hope you've enjoyed today's photo tutorial of how I incorporated my "Artsy Stamp" within my project and that you loved what I've shared with you all. As always, for more great ideas and inspiration, then you need to look no further than the blog to see all the wonderful creations from my very talented Design Team members and every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. Good luck....

Products used:

Tim Holtz Sizzix Trellis Frameworks Die

Tim Holtz Sizzix Gadget Gears Bigz Die

Tim Holtz Sizzix Paper Rosette Flower Strip Die

Tim Holtz Sizzix Texture Fade ~ BluePrint and Gears

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamp ~ Time Travelers

Distress Inks ~ Frayed Burlap and Walnut Stain

Distress Paints ~ Antique Bronze, Peeled Paint, Broken China, Black Soot and Evergreen Bough

Distress Marker Pens

Alcohol Ink ~ Miner's Lantern

Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Paper Stash Collage Mini

Ranger Archival Ink ~ Black

Idea-Ology ~ Monocles, Word Bands, Paper String, Hinge Clip, Swivel Clasp, Mini Gears, Sprocket Gears and Game Spinner

Ranger Distress Watercolour Cardstock

Thank you so much for all your visits today and I'll see you all very soon!!

Bye for now...love Emma xx

www.simonsaystamp.com