Oh No, It’s Love Again

I have been packaging some photography that I have for sale.  I thought  it would be a good  idea to trace over some interesting shapes and lines in these photos before I sealed them in their sleeves.  With these pencil tracings on tracing paper, I can flip them over and RUB the tracing onto the very inexpensive product called Foamies.  Now Foamies makes their own shapes and sells them complete with adhesive on the back so you can make stamps, but I prefer to be more original and adventurous so I made mine from the plain sheets of foam and cut out my own shapes from a drawing or the shapes from my photographs.  The exciting thing about this type of stamp is that you can press into it with a pencil and create wonderful details…or not, as the case may be.  Your image can be as basic and primitive as you like it or more detailed.

Who doesn’t from time to time need the image of  part of an old building that looks like it is on a slope?

I take photographs of old barns and sheds with all of the lines of slats they have.  For instance…

…from this photo, I made a tracing of the doorway in the lower right hand corner, pressed it onto the foam, cut it out, and made pencil marks on the lines of the slats…

…to make this stamp

Results?

More stamps from drawings.

Distress ink is too wet and doesn’t stamp really well unless you want that kind of look.

You can create positive or negative images.  Foamies sheets are very useful tools.

Thursday Night Playtime

I have been doing some playing tonight. The stamps are made from Pentel erasers as well as the erasers that Dick Blick sells. Some of the stamps are EZ cut block and MasterCarve. You all should be surprised that I have a partially finished piece to show, because I sure am! After doing surface design, sometimes it takes me a long time to put a piece together. My brain is, like, satisfied to just create cloth. But my husband is gone for the evening and I have kept working. Also, this is small. I have lately been wanting to do some more journal pieces. I stamped white cloth with several layers and colors. Boy do I love the new Adirondack dabbers. Talk about convenience. Ya’ gotta try them. I think I will be getting more colors. The flowers, for now, are paper. I printed the photo on silk but the colors didn’t come out as vivid as the paper. This will give you an idea of where I’m going with this. Not sure about a name yet, but I am thinking garden something. The background definitely reminds me of a greenhouse or floral shop…or someone’s garden. I used pigment inks, acrylic paint (the dabbers), and colored pencils on cotton to create the background cloth. Ciao!

I’m Baaaaack…….

Chicago Festival was wonderful as usual.  It was also tiring because I was working a booth, but then there are the perks.  I spent too much at one particular booth….thanks for all your stuff, Betty!  Embellishment Village is where I spent quality time.  I got to meet Kathy Arnett, Patty Van Huis-Cox, Judy Coates-Perez, Julaine Lofquist-Birch (hope I’m spelling that one ok), Mary Jo Lawrence, Jane Aldoretta, Gail Tyler and Mary Bajcz.  I met Peg Keeney and Desi Vaughn and they talked me into joining SAQA, which I had been thinking about anyway.  Some people I met at that booth where I spent so much money, some I met at the Quiltart/SAQA reception and some I met in the Make It and Take It University area where everyone was having so much fun learning something new. I met up with Virginia Spiegel again and Barb Parady.  I met new people while I was eating lunch.  I even chatted a bit with Laura Murray while she was on a much deserved break.  What a nice lady.  Everyone is quite nice.

But it’s good to be home.  I have been gone a week.  When we got back from Festival, I had a lecture/slideshow and workshop scheduled with the Heartland Quilt guild in Wood River, IL.  That went well and now I am back home with tons of things to do.

But first things first!!…Virginia showed me the correct way to use the linoleum cutter to make stamps.  I could not WAIT to get home and start making stamps.  So here is what I have been up to in the wee hours this morning.  Too much FUN!!!!

I like organic shapes, leaves, bushes, stems, trees, and geometric patterns like grids, but I like them a bit funky.  I am using my new acrylic paint dabbers by Adirondack in Lettuce and Espresso (yumm…) as well as some distress ink and my new Cat’s Eye ink stacks.

To close…the sunshine on a red bush in my neighbor’s yard caught my eye this morning.  View from my back patio door…hasta luego (see ya’ later)!