Step-By-Step: When I Am King (or: February Is For Lovers)

Hello stamplings! Today for your creative delectation I'm going to walk you through "When I Am King," the piece I made for the Lovers event over at the Lost Coast Portal To Creativity.  (You have two more days to enter your lovers-themed art --until midnight, February 25th--for your chance to win cool stuff! Click on the link in this paragraph and find out the deets if you haven't already entered!)

So, as I was thinking about the lovers theme and looking through my catalog of fabulous images from Lost Coast Designs, I spied the king and queen from the Chess Set, and immediately the children's rhyme "Lavender's blue, dilly dilly" started going through my head! I decided to use the color lavender and a chess board as my jumping-off ideas.

So here's a step-by-step breakdown of how I made this piece!

Using permanent (waterproof) ink, stamp the awesome king and queen onto hot-press (for a smooth surface) watercolor paper. Stamp and cut masks for the figures, and place the masks over the stamped images.

Sprinkle blue, purple, and gray Nuance powders liberally about! At this point, your piece will look approximately like this:

Now go town and mist the powders with water to your heart's content. Watch the magic happen as they bloom and blend! I like to leave them a little dry in spots for texture, but you're the boss here.

I next used a checkerboard stencil to suggest a chess board, and spritzed some more color through the stencil. (TIP: Did you know that you can use the Nuance Powders to make your own sprays? Yep--just put a bit in a mister, add water, and you're good to go! Mix any color you need, for pennies!! These powders are so economical and give you full creative control!)

Let dry, and stamp the words "king" and "queen" with the Old Typewriter Alphabet, and emboss with silver EP. I outlined the letters in black artist pen to help them stand out, which also has the advantage of giving the letters more of a funky handmade look. The other text was computer-generated and collaged on.

With the masks still in place, drizzle and splotch some white and silver acrylic paint to bring light to some of the dark areas and add a little dimension to the piece.

When dry, remove the masks, and paint the figures with pale washes of lavender, blue, and purple. Accent the figures with sparkly silver glitter gel pen to further catch the light.(Wish this photo showed the sparkle and shimmer better! Use your imagination--sorry. LOL) Edge the piece with lavender chalk ink.

You are done! Admire the fruits of your labor...and don't forget to enter the Lovers challenge!

New Stamp Art Challenge: Steampunk Queen of Hearts

Hiya stampies!

There's another fun contest running over at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity, this time on the theme of "Steampunk Queen of Hearts"! Just enter your themed art using rubber stamps by midnight on February 24 for your chance to win blog badges and gift certificates for free rubber at the incredible Lost Coast Designs, purveyors of some of the quirkiest and most interesting images around.

Here's my project to get you going. It features Lost Coast Designs' gears background stamp behind the action, with the Queen giving orders to Steampunk Icarus to chase down the Steampunk Balloon Guys who are getting away!

I'll be back in a few days with a step-by-step of how this piece was made, including a tip on how I got the cool 3D effect on the gears in the center of the piece. Check back!

Can't wait to see what you come up with for your own Steampunk Queen of Hearts. Click here for all the contest details and get stampin'!

Hey, Valentine--New "Lovers" Art Challenge/Contest!

Happy Valentine's Day to all you lovers of stamps and art out there! I have a project here to inspire you to enter the Lovers challenge over at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity if you haven't already done so--your chance to win a gift certificate to spend on the fab rubber images by Lost Coast Designs!

Do you know the children's rhyme "Lavender's Blue Dilly Dilly"? It got stuck in my head as I was looking through my LCD rubber stamps for "Lovers" project ideas--I was fixated on how to use these awesome king and queen chess pieces from the Chess Set for Valentine's Day. (I just love the wacky/elegant collage of every chess piece in this set!)

My fave Old Typewriter Alphabet also came in handy for stamping "king" and "queen" (the rest of the letters are computer-generated).

Stay tuned for a little tutorial on how I made this piece, including masking tips and creating the background using Nuance Powders--plus I'll offer a couple of tricks for nifty techniques for using the Nuance Powders creatively! (My grandmother used to say "nifty" all the time...)

Can't wait to see your entries for the Lovers challenge. Make lots, and tell your friends--the more entries the better the prizes! Happy Valentine's Day!