Friday Focus - Artistic Outpost Stamps

Welcome to this week's Friday Focus ! I hope you're all ready for the Easter break and have lots of Easter Eggs ready and waiting for you on Sunday ! It's Sue here and today I'm focussing on Artistic Outpost stamps. I have to say this was not hard for me at all as I love these stamps ! So, grab a cuppa and get comfy as there's lots to share !

 For those of you who aren't familiar with Artistic Outpost stamps they are vintage inspired stamps made from rubber. They come unmounted so you will need to mount them onto foam mount and cut them out. They stamp beautifully and the clarity of the images is fabulous.

I decided to make a triptych style card using the Tim Holtz Arch Frame die which Linda has in stock in the Funkie Junkie Boutique. I was inspired by a piece that the very talented Candy Colwell made recently.

 I cut 6 arches as I wanted to double up on each section.

 I gave all of the panels some colour using the Tattered Rose Distress Ink and then started to build up the stamping. I've used Archival Sepia ink which gives a more faded look, which is what I was after and I've also used Victorian Velvet Distress Ink.

The lady image has been masked off and then I've stamped the text over her and used a corner punch to round off one corner. The pencil was stamped and cut out and stuck to the same panel. The paper flowers have been rubbed with some Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

For the second panel I've masked off parts of the stamps and also parts of the card to achieve the look I was after, again using Sepia Archival ink.

This time I stamped and cut out the image and then watercoloured her using Distress Markers.

I've added some more paper roses, this time I've used Victorian Velvet Distress Ink to colour them. The lace is May Arts and I've cut it in half so that it would fit the space between my stamped areas. I've used a stencil with Victorian Velvet Distress Ink to add some interest over the text.

For the final panel I've done lots of stamping without using an acrylic block (I've not got round to mounting all of my stamps onto foam mount either !) I use this technique alot as it gives an imperfect image which is perfect for vintage projects. I've also done some more stencilling using Gathered Twigs Distress Ink. Apologies, I forgot to take a separate photo of this last panel before I put the whole thing together !

This is the project completed laying out flat. I've attached some seam binding by sandwiching it in between the front and rear panels. What I didn't do is make it tight enough and as a result the card doesn't stand as perfectly as I would have liked, but you live and learn !

I really wanted to get the stamp on this tag inked up, I love it ! I can see me using it alot, the image is so clear and I love the almost photographic quality to it. The tag has had lots of stencilling and stamping using acrylic paint. The text is actually one stamp and I've cut it up in to the separate words. The flower is metal and started it's life copper coloured, I then sponged acrylic paint over it and did the same to the filigree metal embellishment.

This is a card I made recently and just wanted to share it here so you can get a real feel for the diversity of these stamps.

I hope you've enjoyed today's Friday Focus and remember that Artistic Outposts stamps will have a 15% discount for one week, so get shopping !