Digital Stamps

I have enjoyed using digital stamps and there are many free versions you can get off various websites.  I came across a digital stamp artist that compelled me to purchase some stamps.  The cost of a digital stamp is usually cheaper than a wood mounted stamp that you may see at a craft store.   The advantage of digital stamps is that you can get an immediate download of them.  You then save it on your computer and can use it over and over again and vary the size by the project you are working on.  You simply size up the image and print it.  I make sure I'm using good quality paper when I print it plus, I make sure the ink is completely dry before I start coloring it.  I recommend you experiment with whatever you are going to color with on some scrap paper and see how it reacts with your printer ink.

I've used digital stamps in 2 ways.  One is to simply print out the image, color it then cut it out for my project.  The second way is to print it out on scrap paper then trace it onto your project.

The stamps I'm using today are by Rick St. Dennis.  Here is a link to his website if you would like to take a look.  From this website, you can shop or go to some of his tutorials.

http://rickstdennis.blogspot.com/

Yupo Paper

I have seen other Artist note that their work was done on Yupo paper and until just recently, I have never heard of it.  It's a 100% synthetic paper that artists mostly use either for watercolors or with alcohol inks.  I decided to give it a try so, I went to my local art store who only carried it in big sheets but the cost was not bad at a little under $5.00 per sheet.

I'm prefer working with watercolor vs alcohol so that's what I concentrated on.  The paper in nonporous so the color floats on the top until it's dry.  While it's wet, you can apply various techniques to it to make the paints swirl or add texture to it.

Here is what I ended up doing with it:

As you can see it still retains the look of watercolor but is another way to work with the paints.  One really nice part about it is if you mess it up, you simply apply water and wipe it off, even after it has dried.  I also used this wipe away technique on the daisies.  Originally the card was all blue but, I wiped about the petals for the flower using a wet brush.  For the stems and leaves, I put a business card into the paint and the ran the edge of the paint on the card.  I also used brushes on the leaves.  It's fun so, if you enjoy watercoloring, give it a try.

Spring Themed ATC's

Spring has arrived so, I feel inspired to do some flower ATC cards.  I'm ready to create.

I ran across some great bargains on tissue paper and paper napkins.  Michaels Craft store had some close out tissue for .50 cents a pack and Tuesday Morning has a huge selection of all kinds of patterned napkins.  I bought some of each and started tearing and gluing paper.  Here is the beginning:

Tissue Paper torn into pieces

Pieces glued to an ATC size card.  For the glue, I used Gel Medium.  I also don't worry about the papers running over the edges at this point.

Final cards - to get here I kept layering until the card is covered and only the tissue paper shows.  I then let it dry and finally cut it to size.  The napkins are the same process but you need to check if you have 2 ply napkins.  In this case I did.  The second ply was white so, I just peel that off.  I've tried gluing them on with both the plies in place but that is a bit of a headache and it's simple just to pull of the second ply.  The right side of the picture is the tissue and napkins I started with.  I wanted to show you the before and after.

To finish the cards, I stamped over the backround papers and then applies other pictures, embellishments, punches etc to finish off the card.  Here are the final cards:

More Pocket Pages

Looks like I will be making a bunch of pocket pages in the next couple of weeks.  I'm having so much fun doing it that I connected up with some additional people to do some more.  Here is my latest creation.

In the back are the traditional note plus, ribbon, tea, post it notes, buttons, and stamped images.  This page is for another fellow lover of the Julie Nutting doll stamps.

Pocket Letter Pals

Pocket Letter Pals is an emerging fun craft project centering letter pals (pen pals) that you swap with one time or ongoing.  Instead of just a letter, everything is put together into a trading card size plastic sleeve page.  Each plastic sleeve has 9 pockets per page.  To do this project, you fill up at least 1 pocket with a personal note/letter and the other pockets are usually fields with goodies, quotes, ATC cards, etc.  You pockets should be personalized to the person receiving it.  I have attached a video of the woman who started this trend (Janette Lane).  She will explain how it got started and exactly what they are:

http://janettelane.blogspot.com/2015/02/what-are-pocket-letters.html

I jumped on this run after just learning about it a few days ago.  It looks like there will be a lot more swaps out there with this type of format.  It is fun because the range of creative opportunities is large.

Here are 2 of the pages I completed:

The designs are directed at some of the things the receiver would like.  Behind the decorative fronts, the goodies are such things papers pieces, ATC blanks, clips, a tea bag, post it notes etc.  It's fun so check it out your favorite swap site and see if they are giving this a try.

Journal Page - Wedding

I have weddings on my mind as we have 2 coming up in our family.  I guess love is in the air.  It inspired me to make a wedding page.  I already had a Julie Nutting stamp which screams wedding gown so, I centered the page around that.  Here are the steps I took to complete my page.  It's a mixed media page.  I only wished I could have used 3D flowers but, the journal is already getting too fat and that would have put it over the top.

I start with torn up pieces of black and white paper.  I glued it in place with Gel Mat and then used modeling paste around the edges of most of the papers to make the transition between the papers smooth

Gesso over the top of everything after it dried

Painted with pink and white acrylic paints.  Softly painted so the papers underneath show through

Stencil on top of the pink using white paint

While the journal dries, I switch to making the doll.  I stamp it twice.  Once on white paper and once on a paper with lace etc.  The doll is colored in, cut and a layered back together

The doll is moved around to determine exactly where to glue her down

I make a pattern for the cake and then emboss each layer

The layers are glued down with white lace at the bottom of each layer.  The doll also has white lace on her dress.  She also has some sparkly silver mesh behind her.

I color around the cake and doll to make a shadow effect.  I made a banner that said "Forever on it".  The banner did not turn out so I tossed the idea.  I did not like the way I lettered it plus, I used pop ups underneath it and the journal had a hard time closing.

Finished page.  The last touches were butterflies, some stamped with a light pink dye and some punched.  The ones by the cake were stamps that were colored and cut out.
For the top, I cut strips of 3 different colors in varying lengths and glued them down

Crazy quilt ATC back rounds

Somebody asked me to show my techniques on making fiber and material ATC's.  I use a combination of quilting and sewing methods.  I like doing this sort of thing because you can give the art a rustic look with seams that you ravel to make fluffy, mixing paper with material etc.

I'm still having trouble with my video techniques but this should give you an idea of how to start one out.  It's a series of pictures with some text on how I did it.  It's pretty short but, if you have an interest in trying this, it may be helpful to get you started.  I also posted some of my other combination ATC's of fabric and paper

Video link:

Enjoy!