FILE190102 000911FPart 3 of 3 part watercolor play for ATCs

This is part 3 of a short you tube video of me painting some stamped images on my May 2020 'Garden' theme ATCs. I hope you enjoy the video. Perhaps you will decide to play in the July 15th swap, the optional theme is 'Man's best friend'. See you in July!

Stamp Carving.

One of the things that drives me crazy is not having an image to convey the impression I'm going for on a particular piece. I can see it in my head...but I know I have no stamp or sticker or anything else that fits the mood. My favorite way to fix this problem is to make something. One of my favorite ways, is to carve my own stamps!

Not a lot of tools are needed to carve stamps. It can be done with a craft knife alone if need be. Some material that the relief image can be cut away from is also necessary. Rubber erasers will do, although they are a bit small. I don't seem to be a start small person though. I usually either go big or decide I don't want to do that particular craft. Stamp carving was something I had tried sort of, in high school. I think I did several lino-cut pieces, but I only have one set of plates left for a 2 color print I created. So I already knew I kind of enjoyed the carving process. I went big and bought a few different carving mediums and 4 full sets of carving tools. The reason for 3 sets for me was for convenience. With 4 handles I can have 4 different gouge blades already mounted for use and I don't waste time changing the blades around every time I want a different type cut. If you think you will be serious about carving, I recommend 3-5 handles. I would like to have one more.

To begin my stamp, I first created my image as a drawing on paper. I used an old Prima products mask I have to help me create the birds in flight shapes I was craving. It was an ideal for me because the birds were just the right sizes. So I drew them out, then used a #2 graphite pencil and coated the back of my bird's lines with a thick layer of pencil. I laid the graphite side down on my stamp material, and used a ball point pen to trace around my images, transferring the graphite to the stamp material. 

There are a couple of things I want to say here before I go on. The first thing is this. SAFETY FIRST! If you don't wear glasses, wear goggles. The waste material usually flies away from you, but every now and then it's going to fly up in your face, trust me when I tell you that it kinda hurts when it lands in your eye. Especially if you're working with a semi hard material like actual linoleum, or even worse, wood. Some materials can cause permanent damage to eyes, and there's always a chemical risk from man made materials and inks. The second thing I want to say is always, Always, ALWAYS cut away from yourself...including the fingers of your non-cutting hand. These blades don't appear to be butcher knife sharp when you're just holding them in your hand, but put 20 pounds of pressure behind it when you're carving linoleum, and a slipped knife could cause a lot of damage! I gave myself a couple of nasty cuts in high school before I learned to keep out of my own way, and I would hope to spare you the same pain. Okay, I think we are ready to proceed. :)

The four gouge blades I use most are the 1V which has a teeny tiny v at the tip. It is the gouge in the photo below. It is awesome for outlining your first cut, and for creating texture inside of your image. I also use it to clear spaces that are pretty close together. this is the gouge I used to make the lines between the two wings where they overlap. The second blade I like to use is the 1U. It is decidedly shovel shaped at the tip, and can make relatively quick progress in clearing waste material, but is still small and delicate for more detail and finer lines. The third I like is the 6V. It is used for deepening the outline around your image in preparation for clearing away the waste. The fourth I like to keep loaded is the 2U. It can clear a LOT of waste material in a hurry! It is however still small enough to get into some of those tighter quarters. These blades come in sets with the handles and there are several more blades to choose from. The largest U blade I have is an 8. It is huge! I'm not sure I have ever used it. lol Once you start using the tools you will find your own favorites, and that is as it should be.

It doesn't really matter where you start, but I like to begin with an edge. I wasn't trying to make this stamp a pristine, detailed image that looked super realistic, so the very organic shapes of the wings, and imperfect heads really appealed to me. The key to getting a great image is not to get in too big a hurry. Take your time. Shave slowly around the edges of your images, and if you make a small mistake try to embrace it and realize it is part of what makes this a hand carved, home-made unique piece of art! 

I want to take a moment to say that I consider myself to be a beginning stamp carver! I was truly inspired to try carving again by Julie fei-fan Balzer. There are so many stamp makers out there that surpass me in both skill and talent. I wish them all the great success they can earn and so richly deserve! There are tons of other stamp carving blogs, tutorials, videos, classes... I'm sure if you are truly interested, you'll be able to find several that work for you.

I always do a practice run of the stamp when I think I'm done. There always seems to be a little bit of stuff sticking up somewhere that needs to be cut out or a shadow line that needs to be trimmed away. Here below was the first impression with the new stamp. One small detail to remember when drawing your initial image...it is going to stamp backwards from what it was drawn...so if it makes a difference, do it backwards!

This lovely pink stamp material is about 3/8 of an inch thick. With a bit of practice, and planning, you can carve TWO images from the same piece of rubber! After I was happy with the birds and had cleaned them up as much as I wanted, I flipped the stamp over and drew out a second image on the back and carved it out as well!

And finally, a peek at the finished ATC I made from the stamp. I watercolored the background with iridescent paint, then stamped over it with black memento ink. I completed the card by hand lettering the sentiment with a black gel pen.

This set of ATCs was created for Diane Pineschi's Facebook group, Ventura County Artist Trading Cards. The May 2018 theme is birds. I encourage you to check out her group if larger swaps are something you really enjoy.

Have an awesome day, and thanks for checking out my blogpost!

I know I haven't seen you for a couple of weeks. I just haven't had much to share. It's been hard to get anything done the last few weeks as there always seems to be someone around to keep me distracted from my craft work. I will be posting when I do have goodies to share with you though.

Now, onto the meat... I signed up for an ATC swap a while back using mica powders, or paint powders. Well, I didn't jump on the paint powder bandwagon. It just didn't much appeal to me. I do have some mica powders though. I have 3 tiny pots that I purchased for making shimmer sprays years ago. That didn't work the way it was planned...so I still have some. I also have a wide variety of frosty looking eye shadows. Guess what makes them shimmery and frosty? If you guessed mica powder, you guessed right! I chose to use my collection of eye shadows to color the bottom layer of these wonderful butterfly die cuts that I have from Spellbinders.

I decided that since I was making 48 introduction cards for the spring swap from Jennifer Hines, I would do butterflies for those too. So I spent an afternoon cranking on my Cuttlebug machine and cut out about 110 butterflies. Whew! It got to be an awful lot like work after a while. lol

I started by using a paintbrush and brushing 3 different bands of color across the base layer. It looks pretty dramatic against this black paper.

After applying the color, I used wet glue to affix the top layer to the powder coated bases. Wet glue soaks through the powder to stick to the base. Stickery or tapey adhesives are not going to do that. they are going to stick to the powder and pull it off. Just remember to be very sparing with your wet glue. You don't want it to squeeze out and show in the tiny apertures and dull the shimmer.

I also used some white paper for the bases, and added mica powders in the same way. I used the mixed media sheets from a recent post for the backgrounds for these butterflies. The ones for the swap went on some scraps of gelatine plate monoprints(hectograph) prints I had left.

I hope you've enjoyed this post. Soon I will be posting about the creation of a hectograph plate. I'm excited to be able to monoprint again!

See ya later!

6 steps challenge ATCs for March.

Over the weekend I spent a fair amount of time playing a video game, but I managed to create these gorgeous ATCs for the March 6 step challenge. The six steps were add tissue, Use sequin waste as a stencil, Add washi tape, add string, add a butterfly, and use some orange.

I started with two playing cards. I glued on some black die cut waste pieces, then decoupaged 4 layers of pink tissue paper over the top of them.

Next I smeared some dimensional gel over a piece of sequin waste(punchinella).

This is what it looked like while wet.

And this is after a shot with the heat gun.

I lined up a small bit of the punchinella with the pattern on one of the cards, and stuck it on with a strip of washi tape. I added some extra quick dry tacky glue to the tape. I also added some tape to the second card. Then I tied on a piece of orange baker's twine to both cards. 

The remaining step of adding a butterfly was taken care of last. I only had 1 of these red butterflies. I also had one of these other butterflies left in a pack of Tim Holtz ephemera. 

I also love Tim's paper dolls pack, and couldn't resist using some on this gorgeous pink and orange background.

Im quite pleased with how they turned out. What do you think?

Stay tuned later in the week...I'm not sure what I'll have then, but I'm sure I'll have something! :)

Busy Bees

I recently made a cute little card for my favorite cousin. It was her birthday, and I wanted her to have something pretty. I know she likes my layered pieces, so I decided to send her a hive of bees. 

I started out with some yellow and yellow green papers. I put them through the Cuttlebug with the first embossing folder I ever bought. It was the Honeycomb folder from Cricut/Cuttlebug.

 
I cut a few of the hexagons out here and there, and also cut pieces to go under the 'windows'. I also cut a few pieces to layer on top of the original layer.



I used a tiny bee stamp that I got with a small Prima set several years ago. I fussy cut them and colored them to look like bees. Then I layered the whole thing using foam adhesive squares to give the layers and the bees some dimension. I used two different thicknesses. The thicker foam I used to separate the layers of hive, and the thinner foam to pop the bees up just a tiny bit.

I was pretty pleased with the final results! This is a relatively simple process that results in a pretty high impact image. By far the most time consuming part of the job is the fussy cutting of the bees. 

I hope this has inspired you to go make something pretty today to send to a friend. It is totally worth the work when they open up the mail and see something other than bills in the mailbox. 

Have a happy weekend, and happy arting!

The last day of February...

What a glorious day! The sun isn't shining, the birds aren't really singing and nothing special in a good way is happening. But I woke up breathing, and everything seems to be functioning. So it might not be a beautiful day, but it is glorious nonetheless. 

I didn't blog on Monday. I was busily working on finding a supply I needed to finish a set of ATCs for the gallery showing and swap I participate in every year in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. It took me literally all day to find it. I hate when that happens. I seem to be losing things a lot lately. That means it's time for a reorganize. That means some things are going to get packed away. Other things will get put in the forefront, and everything will get revamped. More on that later.

I want to share the ATCs I created for the gallery swap with you, then I want to share the swap details with you, just in case you are interested in playing yourself. So without further nonsense...

I started out by going into a tub of 'junk' I've been putting bits and pieces into for a while. I have tried to keep things in there organized, but there's still a little bit of chaos. I pulled out some bags of scraps and bits that I've been wanting to play with for a while now. There are so many here that making a set of 7, and 2 full sets of 12 ATCs hasn't even really made a dent in the stash. :(  I was really hoping to do better. lol

I made a full set of these, all 'identical.' Identical being relative as there are always little random differences.

I had a full 8.5x11 sheet of this shimmery, textured paper. It was sent to me wrapped around a set of ATCs for protection in the mailing system, so I only got 8 cards out of the sheet instead of 10. I recently got this distressed filmstrip die from wish.com, and the stamp from my stash. The tiny acetate ticket came from another friend recently in a my stuff/your stuff swap. I think all together they make a striking image.

The second set I created were different, but I created 2 of each card. One for the swap, and one for my personal collection. I did use postage stamps as my theme this year. I had an ok time finding 2 of each of these, but that was it. Amazingly, I couldn't find any more of them!

 

This and all of the next papers have been in the stash for a long time. The acrylic piece and the flowers are from the my stuff/your stuff swap and the gems are from Paper Studio. That's what I spent all day looking for. lol...this card just wouldn't be the same without them though.

 

 The lace is vintage, and came from a thrift shop somewhere. The pearls in the center are also from Paper Studio. My favorite brand of bling.

 The button came from the my stuff/your stuff swap. I used 2 different kinds of glue for this set. I was worried about my tried and true Elmer's school glue on these funky papers, so I used Aileen's Paper Glaze and Aileen's Fast Grab tacky glues instead. I have to say. They did a stellar job on these super slick finishes.

 

 This paper was put through an embossing folder before it was sent to me. I kinda liked it, but have never seen the embossing folder. The gold braid and string of black beads were in my stash.

 

 This is probably the simplest one of the set. This is actually a vintage paper doily I found in a thrift shop. They are exactly 3.5 inches wide! They are hard to see in the photo, but there are also some teeny tiny red gems on the berries on the stamp. Paper Studio strikes again. Lol





This last one is my favorite I think. I used some leftover pieces of a window shade sample from The Shade Store. I loved how it looks like the parrot has his feet resting on the bamboo, and like he's going to nibble at the braided grass. I only wish his tail was all in the picture. This set was fun to make, and came together pretty quickly once I found the bling.

 The third set, are all the same, but used different papers and stamps. I started out with poker playing cards from the dollar store, and covered them with leftover scraps of paper from the stash. Then I cut up a couple of paint paper towels I had around for the next layer. The third layer is some thin packing paper that I put through the Cuttlebug in an embossing folder from wish.com. Next is a piece of clear plastic that I also put through the Cuttlebug with a set of tiny doily dies that also came from wish.com. They didn't cut quite all the way through, but the plastic is pretty thick. I really like the way they look. I topped the whole thing off with a postage stamp. I stapled the stamp, doily and embossed bit together before gluing the embossed bit down. I didn't think any glue would hold those doilies down. Tell me in the comments which is your favorite?

  

  

Now, as promised, here are the deets of the swap. Tis link may not work. Wen I find a better one I will edit this.

https://www.facebook.com/events/2060562907498792/?ti=ashttps://www.facebook.com/events/2060562907498792/?ti=as
Well, that's all I have for you today. I will try to have something on time for you next Monday. Even if I have no photos, or it isn't even art related. ;)

Bye for now> Happy arting!

Only 1 day late...

I'm so sorry I didn't get a post in yesterday. I don't know if it was my computer or the internet, but I just couldn't get it to let me write a new post. I spent a few hours trying to get it to work before I finally gave up. So here I am a day late, with nothing much to share. 

All I have to bring you today is a few Artist Trading Cards (ATCs). I am a member of a swap group called ATC Fun. If you click the name it will take you to the group home page. I occasionally host some swaps there. For the month of January I hosted three. The subjects were Cake, Cardinals and cold. 

I tend to be pretty lenient when I host swaps. I will allow any materials, any techniques, any interpretation as long as the 2.5x3.5 inch size guideline is observed. I didn't get very many players for these swaps. Plus I spent 12 days in the hospital in January, so I extended the deadline to February 15th. That date has passed, and the swaps are closed now. I've exchanged all the player's returns and they are ready to mail back.

Here are photos of my contributions.

                                         Cake...

The base, or substrate of all three of these cards is a poker playing card. Plain uncoated paper ones are available at dollar stores. I covered the card with a piece of old book paper treated with iridescent watercolor medium from Windsor & Newton. I hand drew the cake slice, and painted them with watercolors. Then I outlined and defined with a black sharpie. I also stamped and cut out the words, then glued the whole thing together.




Cardinals...

The background of this card is a mixed media background similar to the one from a few blog posts ago. I will do these again soon, and post about them. The pine tree is a die cut from Wish.com, and the cardinal is from Tim Holtz Mover's and shapers.







And Cold...

The background on this one is from a scrap of paper a friend sent me. I thought the lines of the napkin scrap kinda looked like wind. The snowflake is also from my stash of goodies sent by friends. The snowman is from a set of stamps I've had for so long I don't even remember who made them. I filled in the hat and scarf with glitter gel pens.

I hope if you're interested in ATCs that you will consider visiting ATC Fun, and maybe join in and swap with us!


For Monday's post I will be talking about ATCs again. Stay tuned...