A Documented Life -- What's Black and White?

The latest prompt in The Documented Life Project, that's what. And it coincided with the very happy rediscovery of my favorite hand carved stamps that went missing sometime in April.

They are very simple,  but can be used in so many ways, singly or in combination, depending on their orientation.

I stamped several sheets of white paper, using an india ink stamp pad, then cut the pages into 1" strips.

The strips were then cut into 1" squares.

I played around with their placement, and finally settled on the above design.

The silhouette was done with a Dyan Reaveley stencil (by Ranger) in black acrylic paint. One of the things I like most about silhouette stencils, as opposed to stamps,  is that you can use it on either side, so your silhouette can face in the direction you want.

I finished it off with an outline of white machine stitching. I'm toying with the idea of adding one pop of color, maybe a red hat, but haven't made up my mind. 

My Newest Toy

I preordered this little gadget back in February, and the company had delays in getting it out to vendors, but it finally arrived a couple of weeks ago, and I love it!  I've made plenty of envelopes with my score board, but this is so much easier, and the end result is perfect and professional looking.
I got mine at Marcos Paper, and I believe they still have it in stock.  (And no, I have no affiliation with We R Memory Keepers or Marcos Paper; I just love a good gadget).

One of my online groups is having a mail art swap, and judging from the sign up page, it looks like I'll have at least 20 pieces of mail art to get out.  This is where the envelope punch board comes in.  Like most of you, I suspect, I have piles of unused backgrounds I've made.....experiments, extras, even some journal pages I don't mind giving up.  I've been busy turning them into envelopes, and with very few additions (some stenciling or stamping or bits of washi tape) they are ready to go postal as mail art.

Here are just a few.  What do you think?

I used some of my favorite Wendy Vecchi stencils on these next few.  I dabbed Ranger's Embossing Dabber right through the stencil, lifted it off, then sprinkled embossing powder over the image.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These were made from gelli plate prints on deli wrap or old music paper (reinforced by pasting the prints on cardstock), and more Wendy stencils:

 

 

 This one, done on an old piece of sheet music needed reinforcing on the folds, so I used tape for that:

 



 

 

Wendy's Mail Art stamp set is perfect for this project, and I'll be using elements from it on all my envelopes.   Here's an example.  (I also used the dandelion from her Botanical Art set.)



 

 

This one features a great stencil designed by Ronda Palazzari for The Crafters Workshop:

 

 

 

I love the stencil of people holding hands; I've had it for ages and use it a lot.  It's from Retro Cafe Art.

 

 

 

If you happen to use paper that has art on both sides, you wind up with an envelope that is decorated inside and out:

 

 

 

 

I have a few more to go, and will probably add to some of these, but I've made a good start.

Oh, and by the way, the Envelope Punch Board makes MANY sizes, from the smallest gift card size to one that will hold a 6x8 1/2" card.













Spray (and paint and stamp and draw) AND Paste

The Mad Scientist, Part II

I just couldn't stop....wondering how Wendy's metallic embossing pastes would look over some more of my favorite coloring media.  And of course the wondering led to the experimenting, which led to a whole lot of colorful sample pages.

Row 1:  Portfolio Water Soluble Oil Pastels, applied dry.
Row 2:  Portfolio Water Soluble Oil Pastels, applied wet.
Row 3:  Ranger Distress Markers.
Row 4:  Ranger Distress Ink (applied with ink pad direct to the paper).
Row 5:  Ranger Distress Stains.

Stencil:  Michelle Ward for Stencil Girl.

 

 

Then I decided to use Ranger's Color Wash sprays again, but this time stick to some deeper, darker colors.  I didn't expect to be wowed by the results, but I was.

 

 

Stencil:  Circle Explosion, The Crafter's Workshop

 

 

I had a few misters full of homemade sprays.  These were made with Distress Reinkers and Perfect Pearls.  Don't ask me which colors, because I didn't label them and made them ages ago.

 

 

Stencil:  Stencil Girl (one of the the March stencils from the Stencil Girl monthly club)

 

Before hanging up my lab coat I decided to see how the pastes would react when applied over paint.  And I do have an awful lot of paint.  I narrowed my sampling down to the ones I tend to use the most.

 

 

 

Rows 1 and 2:  Ranger Distress Paints

Row 3:  Ranger Claudine Hellmuth Acrylics

Rows 4 and 5:  Golden Fluid Acrylics

Row 6:  Your garden variety store brand acrylic, the kind you find under the Dick Blick, Utrecht, or Cheap Joe's brand, to name a few.

 

 

Stencils:  I have no clue.  They are very pretty border stencils, but the manufacturer is not printed on them and the original packaging is long gone.

I thought I was finished, but went back and filled a page with Derwent's Inktense Color Blocks.  These are highly pigmented inks in stick form, and when water is added they produce intense yet translucent colors.  And when they dry, the color is permanent.

 

Stencil:  Daisy Cluster, The Crafter's Workshop

 

I just had to try the pastes over alcohol inks.  First I coated the page in my journal with Ranger's glossy glue n seal to create the nonporous surface the inks work best on.  Then I applied a variety of inks the usual way, pouncing them on with the felt covered tool.

 

 

 

Stencil:  Diamonds by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer for The Crafter's Workshop







Have I come to any conclusions?  Well, in my opinion, these metallic pastes look great over everything I've applied them to.  My personal preference is the gold....most of the time.  I just think the underlying color comes through a little better with it than the silver.  Also, a lighter coat of paste (usually) reveals more color than a thicker coat.  I've noticed exceptions to all these observations, so bottom line:  just go for it, have fun playing, and honestly, I doubt you'll be disappointed in any of your results.















This and That

This is what I've been up to lately.  I was too tired yesterday to blog, so I posted some of these on FB.  But, there is something new here.  :)

One of the many gifts from Elena at Keys4Art was the complete collection of Julie Nutting's whimsical doll stamps.  Even a confirmed old anti-cutenik like me finds them irresistible.  I used them on a tag and a card.

Stamped on Ranger's Specialty Paper, colored with distress markers, doodled on with glaze pens and souffle pens, and cut out.  The conversation bubbles were traced and cut from a template of various sized and shaped bubbles I've had for years.  The words are all bits of two different (and very old) Stampin' Up stamps.



 

 

The tag (from Prima's tag book, the perfect size for Julie's stamps) was inked a bit.  Instead of coloring all of this doll, I stamped the clothing (and headband) on various papers from Jenni Bowlin mini paper pads, cut them out and attached them to the doll.  I added the bouquet of flowers and the two flowers in her hair.  The sentiments are also old Stampin' Up stamps.

 

The challenge at Everything Wendy Vecchi was to use distress embossing powder and at least one of Wendy's stamps.  I did that and then some on a journal page.

 

 

 

The two striped flowers are Wendy's stencil, filled with her gold embossing paste.  The third flower is from Stencil Girl, and that was embossed with broken china embossing powder.  More distress embossing on the leaves, and the rest is stamping.....Wendy's and even a few I've cut myself.

 

Remember my polymer clay mouse from last weekend?  The oil paint we used finally dried enough for me to add some embellishments.  Striped stockings, polka dotted sleeves, and some pretty shocking shoes.  And you can't see it, but....I filled her crown with gold micro beads.  As befits a royal mouse.

 

 

 

I received another book in the Kindred Souls round robin.  This one is Deb's, and her theme is "vintage feminine."  I used one of my favorite images.

 

 

 

By using both Tim's regular sized and mini cabinet card die as an insert, I was able to create the frame, which was embossed with Cuttlebug's vintage wallpaper folder.  It was cut from a piece of Ranger's foil tape sheet, and altered with a mix of Ranger/Vintaj patinas and distress paints.

 

The flourishes on the left are not stamps....they're Tim's rub-ons.  The flowers (sprayed with perfect pearls mists) are Primas, and the stick pins were made by my friend Carla.....she gifted everyone with a set of them at Keys4Art.  The pearls and lace are from my stash.

 

So, I'm caught up again.....just waiting for the next journal delivery.







The 12 Tags of 2013 AND a metal etching update

April really snuck up on me.  I had an idea for the March tag but before I knew it, April was upon us.  Click HERE to see what Tim did on his April tag.  It was all about the new metallic distress paints, which, sadly, I do not yet possess.  However, I do have some fluid acrylic metallics, and as their consistency is similar to the distress paints, I thought I'd give it a go.  And finally get something done on time!

Instead of working on a tag I did a birthday card on a coaster (4"x4"). 

The background directly on the coaster is from a gelli plate print.  Within that is the piece I did with one of Tim's techniques.....swiping paper through small amounts of distress paints, including a metallic.  Over that I stamped the butterfly from Tim's mini blueprint set, using black archival ink.

On Tim's tag (he used the full size dragonfly blueprint stamp), he added wings cut from Wendy Vecchi's Clearly For Art.  I stamped the little butterfly on a piece of CFA twice.  Once with black and once with magenta hue archival ink.  I wanted to see which I liked better, and decided to use both!  So I have a double set of wings.



For the body of the butterfly I used a pen nib and yet another technique for working with the distress paints......dabbing them directly onto metal.  I used pickled raspberry and a bit of the gold metallic paint I had on hand. 

The sentiment is one of Tim's word bands.  I covered it with peeled paint and broken china distress paint and then wiped the paint off, so that it settled into the letters.  It was then strung on a piece of narrow ribbon that I colored with some of the leftover paint (after misting the paint with water).

 

 

The back of the card is ready to be personalized.

 

 

 

The cupcake is from Tim's Birthday Blueprint set.  It was stamped on the same paper the front image was stamped on, cut out and adhered to plain cardstock that I inked with just about all the red/pink inks I own.   I went over the cupcake with different colors of distress markers, and I'm happy to report that the metallic shine from the underlying technique still comes through.  The little birthday greeting is a Stampin' Up stamp I've had forever.

 

In my last post I mentioned that I was working on a better closure for my little book with the etched metal covers.  Here it is!

 

 

 

And I added just a few more charms to the spine.

 

 

 

Hey, sometimes less is more, and sometimes (this time) more is better.



 









  

Eclectic Vintage Gentlemen

The title refers to the theme of Stephen's book in the Kindred Souls round robin.  NOT to my social life.  The book was waiting for me when I returned home from Key Largo, and in between posting about the retreat, I worked on my page for him.

The pages that were already done were so interesting and different (eclectic is the right word!).  I had an idea of what I wanted to do, and for a change it didn't take me too long to figure out how to accomplish it.  I wanted a steampunk feel and a bit of humor.  Oh, and it had to be easy to look at too.

So, here are the brothers Boeing, imaginary founders of Boeing aircraft, in the early days of air travel.

The background started with paper from Graphic 45's Steampunk Debutante line.  I liked all the hot air balloons on it, but the paper was very dark.  I lightened it up by scraping some Ranger picket fence distress paint over it with an old credit  card.  It was then light enough to add some stamping, stenciling, paint splattering, embossing, and so on.

The three gents are from a Tim Holtz stamp (embossed with walnut stain distress embossing powder). I did have to cut them apart and squish them together again to fit them into the basket.  Also from Tim is the compass (embossed with black powder), as well as the small images on the bottom right and the two balloons on the upper left. (All from the new Tiny Things stamp set).
The balloon carrying the brothers off is from Oxford Impressions, stamped on glossy paper, embossed with black powder, and colored with a variety of alcohol inks.  There are also some other balloons from Oxford Impressions, but I'm not sure if you can see them.  Both the balloon and basket are raised up off the page; the basket with pop dots and the balloon with a wiggly springy thingy.  It bobbles when you touch it!



The metal scallop border is by 7 Gypsies.  The balloon's basket is from me.  I just cut a shape, covered it with some scraps from my gelli plate print pile, and added some gold embossing.  The ticket on the top is also one of Tim's stamps.  Oh, and there is a tiny compass glued to the center of the compass stamp.  There are also two air travel related charms dangling from the page that you can't see much of in the photo.

The back of the page in this round robin is supposed to be finished, not highly decorated, and contain our information.  On the page Stephen did, he put Laurel and Hardy on the back, and everyone who followed did the same.  Who am I to argue with success?  I found an image from a film in which the funny men flew a plane.  Perfect!  And you can still see most of the Graphic 45 paper I used underneath.

 

 

 

If Stephen likes this even half as much as I enjoyed making it, I'll be satisfied.