My Favourite Stamp

Another swap I chose to join in CCSwaps was making something with a favourite stamp.

Well, that was a hard choice as I have quite a few favourites. I chose to use one image and one word stamp that are both favourites.

I placed a piece of  handmade mono-printed background paper in my stamp positioner and stamped the image using Clearsnap Ancient Page Coal, which is a permanent dye ink. I then coloured the image using Tsukineko  Brilliance Gamma Green, Ranger Archival Tangerine and  Clearsnap Ancient Page Primrose inks using Ranger Cut n' dry Nibs.

With the piece still in the stamp positioner I stamped it again with the Ancient Page Coal. It still needed more depth, so I stamped it again with Clearsnap Mica Magic Burnt Orange.

I then edged this with a crayola metallic marker. I stamped the "Believe" word and embossed it with copper, and cut around it. Both were attached to the front and I added a couple of extra strips of the mono-printed paper.

I took some printer paper and made a background using Cathie Allan's stamp smoosh technique with 3 fluid chalk colours. I attached this to two pieces of cardboard and punched the holes and bound it with the Zutter Bind-it-all .

I attached some ribbon around the back and inserted a Phone Message pad inside which I got on sale at Michaels.

Embossing Mania

I participated in another swap on CC Swaps where we had to use some form of embossing. I decided to use a technique I learned in a class I took from Cathie Allan at Western Educational Activities. Cathie is a regular contributor to Scrap & Stamp Arts and always is an inspiration to me. She tells you not to get too hung up on making the class project perfect, but to learn the technique in class then go home and play with different mediums and ideas and have fun.

I started with some Monoprinted background paper that I had made using Pinata` Inks and a Krylon Gold leafing pen. I cut the panel to size and stamped a background stamp by Judikins with a clear embossing pad and embossed with clear embossing powder. I edged the panel with gold Krylon leafing pen and layered it on black cardstock

I then took a small piece of the Monoprinted paper, cut a piece of paper towel and laid it over the stamp from Coronado Island. I cut around the area of the stamp image and laid it on top of the small piece of monoprinted paper and dabbed Stazon ink remover on top, smooshed it with my finger and left it for a few minutes. This removes some of the ink from the paper and leaves a faint background.

I stamped the image from Coronado Island on the paper using Colorbox Volcanic Black Pigment ink and embossed it with black embossing powder. I edged the piece with the Gold Krylon leafing pen and layered it on black cardstock and adhered it to the main panel.

I took a stylestone and inked it with Pinata` Ink and let it dry. I stamped the word stamp from PSX with the Volcanic black and embossed it with black embossing powder and edged it with the gold Krylon leafing pen. I adhered it to the panel with E6000.

The piece is now on it's way to Sheryl.

Shaped ATC's

I belong to a small group that has various swaps and one of them was to make 3 shaped ATC's (Artist Trading Cards). In other words not the normal shape. I have finished them and mailed them off to the hostess.

Since I have been doing so many row houses lately, I decided to do the first one in the "house' shape and added some left over cuttlebug embossed pieces to the top. This was handmade background paper that I rubbed with copper rub and buff after embossing it with the Cuttlebug. The main paper is also handmade using dye inks, then stamped with a Stampscapes stamp. The image is from some da Vinci images courtesy of Trish B.


The middle card is a Magenta stamped image which I cut around and then added the picture with a page pebble; for dimension I used Crystal Lacquer.


The third (which I am not really enamoured with) is also handmade background paper (monoprinting) stamped with a portion of a Magenta & Tin Can Mall stamp . The little Angel Post stamp was made from a piece that I stamped with a Hearts in Touch stamp, coloured with Marshall's photo oil colors and then made into a sheet of postage stamps.

June Tag Your it

This is an ongoing swap where we make a piece of art for the person whose name was chosen.

This month the "It Girl" is Autumn and the theme is mermaids/mermen or anything related to the ocean. I do not have any mermen/maids stamps so I printed off some images and made a deco page for her.

The background is some of my monoprinted cardstock. I stamped the front with Versafine blue, added some gold mica flakes and some Shimmering Sand to the bottom and attached the merman image. On the back I stamped cattails ( did not have a seaweed stamp, so I substituted - artistic license!!) coloured it green and added some green and yellow Crystal Lacquer to give them dimension. Again I added the image and Shimmering Sand at the bottom.

Playing with background techniques

I have signed up for a swap to exchange backgrounds, and was playing with some last night. These first two are monoprinting with dye inks and a smidgen of Brilliance ink.

The second batch are done on watercolour paper with Milk Paint and acrylics.