Favorite Background Techniques: New Challenge for You at Lost Coast Designs

Hi friends! There's a new art challenge/contest up over at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity--enter your art using rubber stamps (any company) featuring your favorite background technique for a chance to win badges for your blog and gift certificates for free rubber from Lost Coast Designs!

As a member of the LCD design team, I hereby present you with a project to inspire you to enter. This ATC, "Lesson 175," uses one of my very favorite background techniques: stamping and stenciling on a gelli print. I love the complexity and depth and dimension this gives to the finished piece! And of course, the delightfully weird bird-bug from LCD is just da bomb.

I'll be back later with a more in-depth look on how I made this card, but for the moment, I leave you with these pix. Hope you'll get creative and enter your art in the challenge!

And a second shot, tilted, to show the shimmer of the wings and the dimension:

As always, I look forward to your comments below letting me know that you've visited. Thanks for stopping by!

Moar Inspiration for the "Orient Enchantment" challenge!

Hi stamplings! Are you ready to enter your art in the challenge/contest over at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity? The theme is "Orient Enchantment"...all you need to do is submit your fab artwork using rubber stamping (any company's stamps, though entries using Lost Coast Designs rubber count double!) with an "Oriental" theme for your chance to win fun prizes, including a gift certificate for LCD stamps! Everything you need to know about how to enter is found here.

Here's a little more inspiration for the theme: an ATC made with the mehndi hand from Lost Coast Design's India Set.

Can't wait to see your projects! (Mine is here.) Good luck!

New Art-Stamping Contest/Event: Orient Enchantment

It's time for another fun art challenge/contest over at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity! The theme this time is "Orient Enchantment"...submit your artwork using rubber stamping (any company's stamps, though entries using Lost Coast Designs rubber count double!) with an "Oriental" theme for your chance to win fun prizes, including a gift certificate for LCD stamps! Details here.

To get your appetite whetted for the theme, here is "I Is For Indian Peafowl," an ATC made with the peacock and Taj Mahal images from Lost Coast Design's India Set, as well as the I from the Old Typewriter Alphabet and the Clover Scroll Border.

Looking forward to seeing your entries!

A Pair of Blue-and-Silver Angels for "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas"

Season's greetings, art buddies! Today I have for you not one but TWO festive projects as part of the "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" contest going on over at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity. Wanna play? Enter your rubber-stamped Christmas- or winter-themed projects by January 6, 2017 at 5 to midnight for the chance to win a gift certificate to spend in the Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda rubber stamp stores!  The more entries the better the prizes, so round up all your friends and join the most festive art party of the year. Check the RULES to ensure your entries are eligible to win!

The first blue-and-silver angel I have for you is this 6.5" x 10" piece called "Pax Hominibus." You may recognize its text, especially if you're Catholic, as being from the "Gloria" in the Latin Mass. It means "And peace to people on earth."

It was made by stamping the Angel with Globe stamp from Lost Coast Designs and embossing it with superfine detail black powder.

The globe the angel is standing on was cut from marbled paper and pasted in...

The text above and below the stamp was handlettered...

The angel's robe was colored in shades of creamy blue pencil...the lettering was painted with Distress Ink in Chipped Sapphire...the border was colored with silver glitter gel pen, and the hair with metallic gold colored pencil and gel pen...

...while the wings and globe were underpainted with silver acrylic and topped with Twinkling H20s in Icicles, a holographic-glittery white. This was super-hard to photograph, so here is a detail shot that hopefully hints at all the sparkle (you know I love me some sparkle!):

And a closeup of the whole piece, which I have also entered in The Three Muses' "Frame" challenge:

My second angel project is an artist trading card.

This piece was done entirely by stamping and masking, using gray inks for the whole card. First, I stamped the angel from the Fortune Women set and masked it off. Behind her I stamped the blackletter text from ATC Text Set 1, then overstamped the corner with the Black Flourish stamp. Down the right side I stamped the Clover Scroll Border, and along the bottom used letters from the Old Typewriter Alphabet to stamp the word "Hark" (she's a herald angel--get it?).

After the stamping was done, I colored the angel's robe with Distress markers in rich shades of blue. When it was dry, I went over it with dimensional gloss medium to give a 3D clear raised (and/or permanently wet?) effect. The scrolling on the border I went over with dimensional metallic silver paint to give a raised effect there as well. I edged the whole card in metallic charcoal pigment ink, and it was done!

Hope you get a chance to enter--and WIN!--the holiday challenge at Lost Coast Designs! Go check it out, and good luck.  :)

Who Says Poe's Raven Was a "He"? (Besides Poe?)

Are you in the Halloween spirit yet? Well, you will be when you take part in the Lost Coast Designs Portal to Creativity spooky stamped art contest! Enter YOUR Halloween-themed art that uses rubber stamping (any company) for a chance to win one of TWO gift certificates to spend at the Lost Coast Designs store! See here for details.

Lost Coast Designs is also participating in the 31 Days of Halloween Blog Hop, for which I am contributing a few projects. This one right here...

...is my own weird take on Poe's famous poem "The Raven" (reprinted below, in case you have never read the full text of this sad and spooky gothic classic).

Now, Poe tells us that his raven was a boy. "PAH!" I say! Balderdash, even! Who needs your sexist raven-tropes around here? Not I! My raven is a WOMAN, do you hear! And not any slinky hot sexy young chick (<--see what I did there?) either. Mine is a GRANNY RAVEN and she has zero darns to give if you are shocked by this!!

I made this card by collaging the image of Lost Coast Designs' great Old Lady Raven (that's what I'm calling her) from the Big Anthropomorph Birds set onto a background that I printed on my (beloved) Gelli plate. There's a bit of washi at the bottom and a hand-drawn spiderweb with artist's pen and glitter gel pen on the card too...and a single word, lovingly rendered in Bodoni for that Poe-period feel.

And now...to plunge your soul deep into Gothic chill...I leave you with the words of the master.  Happy Halloween!

THE RAVEN

ONCE upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
" 'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door;	5
Only this and nothing more."
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore,	10
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore:
Nameless here for evermore.
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating	15
" 'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door,
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door:
This it is and nothing more."
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;	20
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you"—here I opened wide the door:—
Darkness there and nothing more.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,	25
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?"
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore:"
Merely this and nothing more.	30
Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
"Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore;
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore:	35
'Tis the wind and nothing more."
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door,	40
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door:
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,—
"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,	45
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore:
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning—little relevancy bore;	50
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door,
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as "Nevermore."
But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only	55
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered, not a feather then he fluttered,
Till I scarcely more than muttered,—"Other friends have flown before;
On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before."
Then the bird said, "Nevermore."	60
Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore:
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore	65
Of 'Never—nevermore.'
But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore,	70
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking "Nevermore."
This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining	75
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamplight gloated o'er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er
She shall press, ah, nevermore!
Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.	80
"Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee—by these angels he hath sent thee
Respite—respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!"
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore."
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil! prophet still, if bird or devil!	85
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted—
On this home by Horror haunted—tell me truly, I implore:
Is there—is there balm in Gilead?—tell me—tell me, I implore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."	90
"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil—prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us, by that God we both adore,
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore:
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore!"	95
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
"Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting:
"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken! quit the bust above my door!	100
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,	105
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor:
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted—nevermore!

Edgar Allan Poe. 1809–1849.

Technique Tutorial: Cracked-Glass Effect

Greetings NetPeeps! (My teen daughter just cringed as I wrote that.) Today I have a little tutorial for you on how to achieve a cracked-glass effect on small pieces of art like this ATC I have featured over at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity, where they are currently running a contest--submit any art of yours that uses rubber stamps and be entered to win a gift certificate to buy MOAR STAMPS. What have you got to lose? Nuthin'. But to gain? Shopping spree! So take a picture of your stampy art and go over and enter! Rules here. Deadline September 25. GO!

So...cracked glass! Here's my ATC (entitled "Progress") so you know what we're talking about.

See all those crackledy lines and cracks? This looks pretty cool in person...cooler than on the screen (photos have SUCH a flattening effect, don't they)...and you will definitely want to try this technique.

Here's how I did. First, I will tell you about the background and composition of this card, although the cracked-glass technique will work on top of just about anything you want to do.

So. I took a mini ink-blending tool and swirled some Distress ink in three or four colors onto the card.

To add interest and a bit of surrealism to the background, next I took some Nuance pigment powders by Magenta and sprinkled some onto the card. I used yellow, orange, and magenta pigments. TIP: A tiny bit of powder goes a long way--once you wet it with water, the pigment blossoms and balloons out pretty bigly, depending on how much water you add.

Before I spritzed the powder with water, the card looked like this. Tiny quantities of powder, yes?

(Sorry for the color difference between the first and second photos--I think I used flash on the second one so the powders would show up better.)

While the card was drying after the powder spritzing, I got my stampin' stuff out. I used two cool images from Lost Coast Designs--this awesomely bizarre sort of monk-bug from the Isle of Aud Creatures set (for which I have nothing but profound respect--every one of the images in the set is SO great):

...and this Large Perspective Background that I just love. It's like a surreal Italian Renaissance piazza.

I stamped the monk-bug in waterproof ink (TIP: you want the ink to be waterproof so that the next steps don't smear your images) and then masked him off to stamp the background. So that part was easy-peasy. The composition was done.

NOW comes the cracked glass part. [drumroll....]

I took the ATC and pressed a clear embossing ink pad all over it. I then covered the card in several coats of clear ultra-thick embossing enamel. This stuff is just embossing powder that has very large grains--horrible for detailed images, but great for melting over your entire pieces. It kind of looks like table sugar--here's how my card looked with the unmelted first coat adhered and ready for the heat gun:

One melted coat of the ultra-thick embossing enamel will probably yield a pebbly appearance, which can be a cool look. But for this technique, you want to apply several coats, MELTING each coat before you apply the next. Three coats will probably be enough. (See my post Step-By-Step: A Glasslike ATC for more details on this process.)

Once you have three or so coats of the melted powder on, your art will appear as though it is encased in glass with rounded edges. I tried hard to capture the look for you here:

See the shine in the lower right-hand corner of the above pic? See how the card looks thick and glossy there?

How about here? It's an effect that is just durned hard to photograph.

But just trust me. It will look pretty cool at this point...so cool that you might be tempted to stop here. And I would be sympathetic to you. HOWEVER, if you wanna crack that "glass," here's what you do next...

Put that sucker in the freezer for an hour.

When the resin is thoroughly chilled/frozen, take the ATC out and gently bend it back and forth in several places until the resin cracks. It's fun. You don't want to bend the card so hard that you are creasing it--just stress the cold resin so it has to sprick. (<--Hmm...that may be a Swenglish [Swedish-English] word...but it's just so perfect for the sound and feel that your card will have as you flex the resin in various spots.)

When you're done, your cracked glass surface will look like this:

Cool, ja? (Swedish again.) Talk to me below and let me know if you've ever tried this technique and how your results were...or let me know if you're planning to very soon. Make some art today and feel better!

Two Looks, One Stamp: The Stampsmith's Ophelia

My friends! You might know from already having read this post how sad I am that the great Stampsmith is closing its doors and liquidating all stock in its Etsy store. The Stampsmith is known for incredibly detailed photostamps (many of which are difficult to tell apart from actual photographs) and very intelligent and quirky images, most of which are vintage or historical. If you care about such things at all (and of course you do!), you might want to visit their Etsy shop ASAP to grab a few of whatever images are left before they are gone forever.

[blows nose loudly into lace-trimmed hanky]

Despite my grief, I thought it might be fun to feature one of The Stampsmith's all-time best-selling stamps in a couple of different projects, not only to whet your appetite for this lovely image (which is still available as of this writing), but because it's cool any old time to see the various looks you can get out of the same stamp. At least, I always dig that kind of thing.

The image under discussion is one of a series of illustrations of Shakespeare's heroines taken out of a 19th-century edition of the Bard's work.

--But soft! What beholdest thou below with thine eye agleam? 'Tis she, Ophelia, languid, nubile, not having gotten herself to a nunnery...

This image above is how the full stamp looks. (Yes, it comes with the text, which you can choose to ink up or not, or even to snip off the unmounted rubber to save for a separate stamp, which is what I did.)

The first project I have for you featuring Ophelia experiments with only partially inking the stamp. You can see that I inked only her face, so that she appears to float in the surrounding textures (which were made with dye inks, matte chalk inks, and metallic inks, which impart quite a bit more liveliness  to the background than the photo shows). The soft edges to the partial inking were meant to evoke a sort of ghostly or apparition-like effect.

The second piece is an ATC whose specifications were that it be made in a Gothic arch shape and in black and white. Here a bit more of Ophelia is showing than in the project above, but I still didn't want to use all her dark hair and garment, so she was again partially inked, and then cut out and covered in layers of B&W collage.

Unlike in the first ATC, where Ophelia is the darkest thing in the composition, in the B&W ATC she is the palest thing. (Unless you count the stars...but aren't stars uncountable anyway?)

The materials on this one were dye and chalk inks, enamel paint, glitter, transfers, and collage, including a black faceted rhinestone in the "firmament" of glitter at the top of the card (which I also thought could suggest a rose window in a cathedral). Because this piece was all black and white, I tried to maximize its dimensional and textural qualities, attempting to include matte and shiny, velvety and rough, hard and soft. Not sure how much of that translates via photograph!--but at least you know what I was thinking.

Anyway, back to the Ophelia stamp. You can see that this is a very romantic and versatile image. FURTHERMORE, The Stampsmith still has it available in a couple of sizes! If you end up getting this stamp, I would absolutely LOVE to see what you make with it. It's very gorgeous. 

But you KNOW I am a sucker for anything Elizabethan (even when reinterpreted with a Romantic-era Roman nose).

Talk to me below! xo

ATC (Artist Trading Card) Contest Challenge!

Hello you artsy people!

I've got some artist trading cards featured today over at the Lost Coast Designs Portal to Creativity, where there is a challenge running to win some gift certificates to spend at the LCD stamp store.

Artist trading cards...juicy little pieces of art to trade or give away...I'm amassing a rather nice collection of interesting work by other artists myself this way. Try your hand at it and see what all the fun is about.  :)

Challenge rules & eye candy inspiration!

Click on the badge to have a look at some artist trading cards by me and other members of the Lost Coast Design team and read the contest rules...then get stamping, and PLAY! You know you want to.  ;)

Your comrade in arms,


P.S. Don't miss a tutorial or notice of a chance to win a prize...follow the blog via e-mail or add me to your feed.  ;)