Archive for the ‘Rubber Stamps’ Category

Keep Calm … there’s new stamps!

February 17th, 2012

I bought the original red Keep Calm poster from Barter Books in Alnwick back in about 2002, long before it became a global phenomenon.  I had it on my office wall for many years and still have the poster now.  Many times I have glanced up at the poster and taken a deep breath, absorbed the words and repeated them, mantra-like, while dealing with some petty crisis or other.  I think it stood me in good stead for when the major crises came our way – by then the motto was ingrained and automatic.

The phrase has been so over-used, commercialised and parodied in the last few years that it’s hard to remember its original purpose (to keep the British upper lip as stiff as possible during WW2) and see the soothing common sense of the message.  It’s great life advice for anyone, anytime really.  Having said that, I think my favourite parody is “GET EXCITED AND STAMP SOMETHING”.

Anyway, philosophizing aside (is that a word?), this card is made with the latest stamps from Crafty Individuals which we have just got onto the website today.  There’s a great mix of vintage and retro Britannia – perfect for all things celebratory with the Jubilee and Olypmics here this year.  I stamped the patchwork Union Jack onto a selection of papers from the Essence of Nature CD and cut and pieced the flag together.  I wanted a very simple, faded vintage look.  The card edge is sponged with Stormy Sky distress ink.

We have also launched a new stamp set of our own today too – this one is going to be a well used set, it’s called Artistic Expressions and it’s the little black dress of stamping – it goes with anything!

It’s so new, I don’t have any finished artwork with it yet (lots of stamped and die cut words and sentiments), but the Design Team do and if you check out the DT blog, they’ll be showing it off soon.  I’m also giving away a free set on the Design Team blog, so pop over and leave a comment to be in with a chance to win.  The winner will be announced on Tuesday, so it’s just for this weekend.

I managed to get some better photos of the tags I made last weekend, so thought I’d show you them in more detail.  I’ve angled them so you can see the embossing.

Stencils used were Pomegranate and Circle Explosion

Stencils used were Spring Fling and Circle Grid

This uses the two part stencil Poppies.

Have a great weekend, we’re off to Cumbria to visit St Oswald’s church in Grasmere.  A sentimental journey to visit the place where Adrian and I were married fifteen years ago.   Nothing to do with the Grasmere Gingerbread shop in the corner of the churchyard.  No, not at all.  Honest.

PS – if you are a Guild member, log in to your account and go to the Guild Offers department for special prices on the new stamps.

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Zingy yellow and pink

January 31st, 2012

This stamp is from the Fragrant Honeysuckle stamp set and it’s a lovely image to colour in.  I used Derwent watercolour pencils and just went for bright bold colours.  I didn’t quite intend the background to be such a vibrant gold, but I like the way it turned out.  I picked out the bright pink and gold in the layering and with so much colour, kept the rest of the card very simple.

It’s teasy time now – I just got the next few months worth of new stamp plates in and we’re starting to make the boards and test the rubber … There’s one coming out in February that goes really well with Artistic Affirmations and I’m LOVING it already.

Thanks for all the comments about lighting.  I am going to look into getting a decent light for the table, maybe an OTT light.  We swapped over our uplighters, so I now have the two from downstairs with the extra spotlights.  I’m actually pointing the spotlights straight up as I can’t really get them positioned to light up the workspace without them either getting in the way, or blinding me when I look up.  But the extra two bulbs bouncing light off the ceiling does help a lot.  I’ve also managed to keep one of the original uplighters as it is plugged in behind a unit that I really don’t want to move, so I’ve actually gone from two bulbs to five and yes, it’s definitely brighter in there.

So with lots of light and lots of new rubber, I’m one happy stamper!

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Subtle Meadow

January 29th, 2012

What, two posts in one weekend, good grief!  Yes, and I’ve done … shhhh … housework.  And I’m cooking lunch for 8 people today!  Don’t worry, the blog hasn’t been hijacked, I haven’t been abducted by aliens and replaced with a clone – it’s still me.  Ok, the card is a cheat, I had this one made already as those of you who read the DT blog may have spotted.

It uses another piece of the white stamped vellum as in the last post and a paper from the Essence of Nature CD.  The stamping is done onto glossy card from Southfield and there’s a story to the card.  Back in 2010, Southfield informed us that they were discontinuing their glossy card as the manufacturer was no longer making it.  There was a lot of disappointment as it was a great card, brayered up lovely and produced a perfect Versamark resist.  They soon announced that they had brought it back so we started stocking that.

Fast forward to 2012 and my pile of glossy card is now well and truly mixed up.  I have bits from the old manufacturer, but obviously a lot more from the new and it’s not the same.  The new stuff doesn’t resist the Versamark, it does the opposite and the ink sticks to it!  Lesley has been writing some brayering articles for the Baroque Guild and ran into this problem when trying to photograph technique pieces for her article.  She had some happy accidents along the way, but when I tested out my card, I realised there’s glossy and there’s glossy.

So this card features the newer glossy card.  I tried to do a resist and it didn’t work. (For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, Versamark ink will normally ‘resist’ a dye ink so you can stamp with the Versamark onto plain white glossy card and brayer dye ink over the top to create white stamped images.)  I went along with it anyway and just built up layers of stamping (using Wisteria Lane), stippling, sponging and a bit of brayering – all with Memento and Distress inks.

It seemed like quite a sombre palette until I added the orange which livened it up a bit.  The rose started out cream and was sprayed with Angel Pink.  It turned out a more coral shade than I expected and just added the finishing touch.

I’m off to do my domestic goddess bit now.  That means clearing the craft room table so we can take it downstairs – our little dining table only seats four!

Enjoy your Sunday,

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Thank you bird

January 28th, 2012

Every week I think I’ll blog more this week, but it just isn’t happening and I think I’ve figured out one reason why – lighting.  I had brilliant lighting in my last craft room – Lynn put her kitchen design skills to good use designing it for me just before she left MFI and there was loads of really bright task lighting.  I think it may be time for me to invest in some new lighting, so if any of you have any good recommendations, please leave me a comment.  I have a couple of cheap Ikea uplighters which help, but I think I need something a bit brighter and a good work light that I can have over the table.  It’s not just about lighting the work space though, I need the whole room to be light and bright to combat the SAD that I’m sure we all feel at this time of year.

Maybe that’s why most of my cards at the moment feature bright white backgrounds or why I find myself drawn more and more to pale colours and off whites?  Today’s card features a fair bit of white too.  The stamps used in this card are from The Rose Tree.  I have stamped the die cut bird with a floral spray using Versamark and clear embossing powder to create a resist.  I’ve coloured over the top using a mixture of dye inks to make the stamped pattern emerge.

I then stamped a solid flower repeatedly onto vellum and embossed with white embossing powder.  The die cut ‘thanks’ was coloured with Distress inks, then given a coat of clear embossing powder.  A printed ribbon hides the adhesive used to attach the vellum.

I’m working on something at the moment which is anything but white – we have a bright sunny day today, so maybe I’ll get it finished in daylight.

Don’t forget to check out the Design Team blog, the girls are still showing off their creations with the latest stamps.

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Honeysuckle Watercolour

January 20th, 2012

We have just launched some new stamps!  You can see them all over on the Design Team blog and of course they are showing up in the What’s New department on the Chocolate Baroque website too.

 

There is so much you can do with these images, from complex colouring to very simple stamping.  This little concertina is made from heavy watercolour paper and stamped with Adirondack dye inks.  They are not waterproof, so I used a waterbrush to pull colour in from the stamped image.  I then patted the inkpad onto a non-stick sheet and mixed with water to paint the backgrounds.  The colours used are Oregano, Wild Plum, Denim and Terracotta (or possibly Ginger, I can’t quite remember).

I have some other cards I’ve made with these and some work in progress too, so watch out for more artwork coming soon.

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