June's Guest Designer - Alison Bomber.

Hello our creative friends! Today we have a bunch of inspiration from one amazing artist - our June Guest Designer. Her original and colourfull projects are eye catching and inspiring. She knows how to work with media, how to create stunning texture and how to perfectly balance colours. Our Guest Designer this month is...

Alison Bomber! 

Here is Alison to introduce herself:

My creativity was never really on the visual side - I was more the words, music,
books, theatre type. When I became a freelancer in Spring 2012 after eight years at
the Royal Shakespeare Company as a Text and Voice Coach, it was supposed to give
me more time for friends and family. I had no idea that within weeks I would be in
thrall to a whole new creative passion - stamps/inks/paints/texture/stencils - you
name it, I want to play with it!  There's so much to learn, discover and explore.
Now I have to balance the two worlds - hence the name of my blog, Words and Pictures. So much for friends and family...

Now it's time for some beautiful inspiration from our Guest Designer. Sit comfortably because Alison prepared a real treat for you:

Hello, Alison here from Words and Pictures.  I was thrilled to be asked to be a guest here at Artist Trading Post, especially to play with stencils - one of my absolute crafting must-haves.  I enjoyed myself so much that I ended up with a trio of projects, and I'm delighted to share the first of them with you today.

 Believe it or not, this altered trinket box started life as a humble plastic container (cotton buds!) saved from the recycling bin. 

 I coated it with gesso, smeared on various gel mediums and crackle mediums so that there was lots of random texture, and then spritzed it with some DecoArt Media Sprays.  Once it was all dry I applied some texture paste through the fabulous Herbarium stencil by Kasia Krzyminska... with all those blues and greens, the botanical look seemed the perfect way to go. 

 I painted the textured leaves using various Fresco paints, and decided I wanted even more crackle, so I put a coat of Rock Candy Crackle Paint over large areas of the whole box. 

While that was drying and crackling, I started playing with adding co-ordinating paint colours to an oval bezel charm, using a toothpick to marble them. 

 That needed a long time to dry, but once it had I added some ChitChat stickers and a coat of Glossy Accents to seal it all in. 

 The final touch was to add some shimmer using various Treasure Gold colours.  The gilding really helps all the texture to pop. 

 I hope you like my Herbarium Trinket Box, perfect for collecting beautiful moments, and I'm happy to say that I'll see you again soon with another Crafter's Workshop Stencils creation.
Alison xxx

Isn't it gorgeous transformation? Thank you Alison for preparing such an inspiring piece for us and also I must say that I feel very honoured that you used my stencil. :)

Here are some of products that Alison worked with:

TCW548s - Kasia Krzyminska - Herbarium Template - 6"x 6"	Golden - Gesso 237ml	Golden - Extra Heavy Gel (Matte) - 8oz / 236ml	Golden - Regular Gel (Gloss) - 8oz / 236ml	Golden - Crackle Paste - 8oz / 236ml
Rock Candy 4oz. jar	Fresco Finish Acrylic - Beach Hut	Fresco Finish Acrylic - South Pacific	Fresco Finish Acrylic - Hey Pesto	Fresco Finish Acrylic - Space Cadet
Tim Holtz Idea-ology - ChitChat	Inkessentials Glossy Accents	Treasure Gold - Aquamarine	Treasure Gold - Emerald

Please remember that our new ATP Exchange Challenge has just started. And for all of you who need more TCW stencils we have a special offer: we are running a promotion which enables you to buy any amount of 6"x6" TCW stencils and receive free shipping.  

Simply place an order containing only 6"x6" Crafter's Workshop stencils and select "TCW 6"x6" free postage" from the shipping menu. This offer runs till July 12th. (UK customers only)
Please note, orders combined with any other products are subject to our normal postage rates, and are not part of this promotion.
Have a beautiful Sunday!

ATP Exchange - June Challenge

Hello everybody! We are very sorry for a little delay with our June Challenge, but we have been very very busy last week. But at least we prepared something very nice for you, something that we are sure most of you are going to love.

Our new challenge is a little bit easier than last ones, but that doesn't mean that you can't show your creativity. This time we are focusing on specific products - The Crafter's Workshop stencils. We want you to share with us your works using them. It can be whatever you want - tags, ATCs, cards, layouts, art journals, canvases, collages etc. In your blog post remember to link to the specific stencil you have used on your project. All other rules of our ATP Exchange Challenges can be found here.

For this challenge Jamie prepared an interesting background working on a manilla tag. He covered it with black gesso and painted with white Sharpie and Golden paint through Entrelac stencil. When dry he mixed 3D Gloss Gel with copper glitter and spread through with the palette knife.

Products Jamie used:

TCW370s Entrelac Template - 6 x 6"	Finnabair Art Basics - Heavy Gesso Black - 250ml	Sharpie Water Based White Extra Fine Point	Iridescent Bronze (Fine)	Art Extravagance - Glitter Set - Luminous
Finnabair Art Basics - 3d Gloss Gel - 236ml	Plastic Palette Knife set	Inkessentials Manilla Tags - No 8 x 20

To inspire you I would also like to share some of my older works using stencils I designed for The Crafter's Workshop. 12x12 mixed-media canvas using XOXO stencil with sprays and Dina Wakley acrylic paints applied on collage background.

TCW491 XOXO Template - 12" x 12"	Dylusions Ink Spray - White Linen	Ranger-Dina Wakley Media Heavy Body Acyrlic Paint - Magenta	Ranger-Dina Wakley Media Heavy Body Acyrlic Paint - Tangerine	Acrylic Brush Set - Flat
Mod Podge Matte 8oz	Ranger-Dina Wakley Media Heavy Body Acyrlic Paint - Black

A simple art journal page using Distress Paints applied through Folk Art Flower stencil. Then I painted around the shapes with black gesso and added some journaling using a white Sharpie.

Products used for this project:

TCW493s Folk Art Flower Template - 6 x 6	Finnabair Art Basics - Heavy Gesso Black - 250ml	Distress Paint - Spiced Marmalade 1 oz	Distress Paint - Spun Sugar 1 oz	Squeezed Lemonade Distress Paint - 1 oz
Shabby Shutters Distress Paint - 1 oz	Distress Paint - Picked Raspberry 1 oz	Sharpie Water Based White Extra Fine Point

Below is also short video using Sea Bubbles stencil to create an art journal page. Enjoy! :)

This time we also have Pinterest Inspiration Board with some fabulous tutorials from The Crafter's Workshop team. 

The prize for this challenge is a £10 voucher to spend at the shop and a guest designer spot on our blog. Read more about prizes and the way we are going to choose winners here.
As a special offer in conjunction with our The Crafter's Workshop Stencils Month we are running a promotion which enables you to buy any amount of 6"x6" TCW stencils and receive free shipping.  
Simply place an order containing only 6"x6" Crafter's Workshop stencils and select "TCW 6"x6" free postage" from the shipping menu. This offer runs till July 12th.  (UK customers only)
Please note, orders combined with any other products are subject to our normal postage rates, and are not part of this promotion.
If you are entering our challenge and would like to share this badge on your blog, please copy the text below and paste to a html gadget.

<a border=”0″ href="http://artisttradingpost.blogspot.co.uk/" target=”_blank”><img src=http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8742/16365660804_8fa2efbe73_m.jpg></a>

Hope you enjoy! We can't wait to see your works.

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