Summer always conjures up all sorts of wonderful images and activities. Foremost is the linking of summer with relaxation. I find it a wonderful time to experiment with my craft supplies. And yes, it's also nice to get a headstart on anything I plan to make for the holidays.
One of my favorite ways to relax is to color. Yes, I love everything about coloring, the visuals, the motion of my hand on the paper, the tools, the end result, and the happy mistakes along the way. Pencil is my preferred method, because it gives me the most control. I like to sit with my husband and son in the evenings and indulge my love of coloring while we all watch TV.
I also enjoy stamping. A few weeks ago at the Great American Scrapbook Convention, I met up with a dear pal, Judith Kleinschmidt and her daughter Heather Kleinschmidt-Visser. Judith always inspires me. She's so talented, and so giving of her talent. I love watching her whip out samples for people! Check out her website for all sorts of ideas.
One of the best innovations in stamping, and one that Judith does with great ease, is the technique of masking. You put a "mask" over an area you've already stamped, so that it's obscured. Then you can put one stamped image on top of another.
Here's how that worked for me with the "falling stars" piece above.
1. I stamped the bucket stamp (just the bucket) on my art paper. I was careful enough to give myself room to add the tree. (That meant I had to leave about five inches of white paper above the bucket.)
2. Now I created my mask. I stamped the bucket again, this time on a sticky note. Be careful that you actually stamp on the portion of the note with the adhesive on the backside. I carefully cut out the new, second bucket.
3. I stuck the new bucket (on the sticky note) over the bucket I had stamped on my nice white paper.
4. I stamped the tree on top of the sticky note bucket, being careful to let the bottom of the tree stamp extend onto my sticky note bucket. After this step, peel off your mask.
5. I added the stars. (This was a cheap, clear stamp of a star that I bought somewhere for $2.)
6. I colored my image. One of the best tips I've ever gotten for coloring is to "marry" your colors. So my bucket might look green to you, but I've added every other pencil color to it. There are shades of red (from the handle), blue (from the background), purple (from around the stars), and gold (from the stars) mixed in the coloring of the bucket.
7. I added the "happy everything" stamped logo. I put a piece of foam tape underneath to cause it to "pop" off the page.
Now I can put my colored scene on a holiday card or reproduce it for my personal holiday letters. By the way, the bucket and tree were both created by Judith. Over the years, I've collected a lot of her stamps. They all go together, which makes them a great investment for a crafter.
It's 90 degrees outside today, but I feel pretty cool working on my holiday cards!
3 comments:
Very nice, Joanna!
I'm hopeless at stamping! It's hard for me not to get ink on the edges of wood or lucite or whatever "handle" there is. And getting an evenly inked picture is no small task.
So, I'm impressed!
What a lovely idea for a card. I like the "Happy Everything."
You make it look easy, but I'm with Camille. I have a hard enough time getting our business stamp to come out on the back of a check.
Your card is just lovely. I'm so impressed with the shading, especially on the bucket. I'm a novice at stamping, but this makes me want to invest in colored pencils now as well!
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