A beeswax collage done for the 18th birthday of an acquaintance. I’m more than pleased with the result.
Tag Archives: stamp
For A Sweet Young Lady
Stamp Carving: Leaf
Yesterday (or rather, the day before yesterday, as I’m sure any moment I’ll see the tinges of daylight) I had the privilege of watching Samantha Kira’s tuesday vlog. This week, she focused on stamp carving, by request of one of her fans. It really got me inspired. I was supposed to meet up with a friend for artistic stuff tonight, but I completely flaked out and forgot AND left my phone downstairs. Thankfully, we didn’t have a specific time set even, just a general plan. And we’ve known each other long enough not to be offended. However, I was still bummed that I missed out, because I’ve been wanting to do art, but rather unmotivated beyond very basic background prep. So (after being lazy for a few more hours) I plunked myself down, and decided I was doing a stamp.
Unlike miss Samantha Kira, I don’t have that cool rubber stuff. Nor did I buy the rubber erasers at the dollar store (this time…). What I have is this odd cork looking stuff. My carving did not go so smoothly as hers. And I still made mistakes (especially since I was free-handing it and kinda changed things as I went). Nonetheless, here is the end result.
Yes. that is an envelope I tested it on. To be specific, an unopened envelope containing the pay stubs I never look at until months later due to the modern marvels of direct deposit and online banking. It was the nearest thing I had handy.
Also, I worked on a journal page, which is nearly done. I will post that later/tomorrow.
I searched on linoleum cutting, but I didn’t find any useful carving techniques or even how to cut it into smaller pieces. Oh well. I just did what seemed right. Here’s my first attempt, an antique key. A mistake there, and then the attempt to hide it probably didn’t help either, but overall, I like it. A bit big to use on an ATC, but it would fit nicely on a art journal page, or in an altered book, or something of that sort. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to print with it. I probably need to mount it on wood, or get a stamp press. We’ll see.ATC: Secret Garden
Ugh! My art fought back! Yet another exercise in failure, haha. I am coming to realize that my art (or at least my muse) is most definitely not docile. It fights tooth and nail, and it has some pretty sharp teeth. But in the end, I beat it into submission. Or at least– into some sort of compromise.
When I saw the Secret Garden challenge on the Thank God It’s Friday website, I knew I had to enter. I’d just finished reading the original book by Francis Hodges Burnett for the first time, and it is easily one of my favorites now. Read it, if you never have. (It can be found online at the Literature Network). It is soooo good. I spent a few days thinking on what I should do (a bunch of greenery seemed too easy, and not very meaningful.) Late last night, as I was drifting to sleep, the idea began to form and solidify. Instead of the flourishing happy garden of the middle and end of the book, I would depict the garden as it was when Mary first found it– wild and full of old, seemingly dead plants, but deep in the rich earth, full of potential and the magic her imagination would bring about.
Tonight, I went back, checked the specifications to be sure there weren’t any size requirements and– egads! it requires stamps! Ironically, this was one of my few artistic ideas that didn’t use stamps. I tried to make them fit, but it was turning out terrible. Most of the original stamping has been washed out, but the blurry colors in the background used to be stamped (and incedentally, used to be other colors, in some cases. That pink there was originally a color called “tea dye.”) I decided to just go ahead with my original plan, justifying it with the fact that the stamps are there, even if almost entirely washed out. However, in the end, I used the word stamp, and two other stamps in the final outcome, so there! It qualifies! I’m not 100% happy with it, but I’m willing to call truce.
Interestingly, the back might possibly look better than the front. Sadly, as bad as this is in person, it scanned 10 times worse, in part because gold thread doesn’t look gold on a scanner.
“There’s lots o’ dead wood as ought to be cut out,” he said. “An’ there’s a lot o’ old wood, but it made some new last year. This here’s a new bit,” and he touched a shoot which looked brownish green instead of hard, dry gray. Mary touched it herself in an eager, reverent way.
“That one?” she said. “Is that one quite alive quite?”
Dickon curved his wide smiling mouth.
“It’s as wick as you or me,” he said;
—-The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett
Read The Secret Garden online.
See my other ATCs.
Art Journal: The Written Word Challenge
My entry for Mixed-Media Monday’s challenge, The Written Word. This is nothing like what I envisioned. I was going to take pictures and make another tutorial, but it started going south at the beginning. If I made a tutorial from this, you would be extremely lost from all the replanning and repurposing and experimentation, haha. I’m fairly happy with the end result, but not so sure about the feather. Funny thing is that’s one of the few things that was part of my original plan. Quote is from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass. It kinda looks like my art supplies had a party, but I think thats appropriate for a Lewis Carroll quote, even if that wasn’t what I intended.
Materials used: book page, lined paper, tissue paper, watercolor, stamps, ink, prismacolor markers
My Uninformed Artistic Interpretation of Tuscany
I had a request for an ATC from a person that liked European themes, such as Tuscany. I think that’s awesome, but I’ve never been to Europe, so its hard to really do it right. I looked at some pictures, and came up with this. She also preferred no collage elements, and lately, that’s a challenge for me. I might end up doing another more suitable for her, but I’m pleased with this one.
Materials used: Cardstock, Watercolor, pencil sketching, stamps, and ink.
