How Were Those Made? Orient Enchantment Projects for Lost Coast Designs

Hello again, my stampy and mixed-media friends! Today's post will tell you how I made each of the projects that were posted to the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity as part of my design team role to inspire participation in this month's Orient Enchantment event.

Using stamps from Lost Coast Designs's India Set, I made three ATCs. The first, "Do More Than Exist," has the simplest directions...

I started with a gelli print (there's tons of information about how to make these on the Interwebz, so for space reasons let me refer you to Google if you don't already know what gelli prints are). I stamped the god from the India set directly onto it, then colored him with creamy colored pencils (leaving some of the background showing through) and with white and shimmery copper gel pens. Then I affixed stick-on copper gems to the card and outlined the pattern with more white and copper gel pen. Oh, and added a text label, of course!

For "Talk To The Hand," I scraped some white gesso onto heavy cardstock with a palette knife and let it dry. This gave a bit of texture and a nice base for the next layer. I got out some Distress Crayons, scribbled some color here and there, and blended it with my fingertip (the gesso helps the Crayons smear more evenly than they do on plain paper).

Using permanent black ink, I stamped the Calligraphy Square from Carmen's Veranda for a little background interest. Next I stamped the mehndi hand from the India Set, colored it with gel pens in fluorescent and glitter greens as well as metallic golds and white, and cut it out and collaged it to the card along with the computer-generated sentiment.

To finish the card, I scraped some black glitter paste through a stencil to get the little ball effects on the sides...added 3D dots made of shiny white Enamel Accents and metallic gold Pearl Pen...and edged the whole piece in more black glitter paste. This added dimension and texture to the finished ATC.

For "I Is For Indian Peafowl," I first stamped the peacock from the India Set onto white cardstock and masked him off, then stamped the Taj Mahal behind him and masked that off. Next I applied Distress Inks with a mini blending tool around the masked images, then used the spritz-and-flick method to forcefully apply water droplets to give a mottled effect to the ink background.

Next I stamped the Clover Scroll Border along the bottom of the ATC and embossed the image with silver powder. I colored the clover scrolls with colored pencils, and added a border of dots made with metallic blue, gold, and white gel pens.

I painted the peacock with various colors of Twinkling H2Os--the shimmer on him was amazing in real life! Since the famous mausoleum is white, I left the Taj Mahal uncolored, revealing the plain white cardstock underneath the mask.

Lastly, I stamped and embossed the capital I from the Old Typewriter Alphabet, collaged the genus label onto the card, and edged it all in black chalk ink.

And there you have three very different ATCs, but all with a touch of exotic India. As always, I welcome any questions or comments below...I love chatting with you!

Edgar Allen Poe Appreciation Blog Hop: Ghostly Edgar

Hi Poe lover! Thanks for stopping by to check out my offering for the Poe Appreciation Blog Hop 2017! (See below for how you can join the hop and win PRIZES!)

Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda are sponsoring this hop in conjunction with Poe's birthday and the release of some wonderful new stamp images...some of which are used in my project below. (Check out the pages of Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda to see the rest of the new stamp images!)

Here's my offering--a reversed-out effect made by embossing the images with platinum powder on dark paper, with special "text effect" on Poe's face:

The stamps I used were Edgar Allen Poe from Carmen's Veranda, Blackletter text from ATC Text Set 1 at Lost Coast Designs, the License Plate Alphabet Set from LCD, and the Left Zentangle Raven from LCD.

How I got the text effect on Poe: I inked up the image as usual, then pressed the blackletter text stamp onto Edgar's inky surface...then simply pressed the text stamp (which had picked up only the shape of his face) onto the paper. In other words, the text stamp had ink transferred to it only where it had come into contact with the "positive" image of the face. Cool, huh?

Thanks for your visit! I'd love to chat with you in the comment section below!

An InLinkz Link-up

It's "Hip 2 B Square": Oomphing Up a B&W Project with...GLITTER (yeah, baby)

Greetings, crafters and craftresses!

September 4th is the FINAL DAY over at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity's challenge contest event "Hip 2 Be Square"...which means you gotta hurry and enter your own squarey art project to win prizes like gift certificates for a shopping spree at Lost Coast Designs (purveyors of the most deliciously quirky stamps out there)!

As a member of the Lost Coast Design Team, I have a featured project over at the Portal today: a glitter squares tile. Here it is...BEHOLD! (But, darlings, what makes this look so cool IRL doesn't photograph well. What would that X-factor be, you ask? Why, GLITTER! Opalescent light-refracting eye-catching GLITTRAGE. You know I love me some sparkle and shine...)

How did I get the glitter factor going on this tile of squares within a square? Why, dear reader...'twas glittered embossing powder.

I stamped the Bird Square from Carmen's Veranda in black ink on two pieces of white cardstock, then embossed the images with Black Sparkle EP...

...then cut out the white squares and mounted them on squares of black cardstock.

(Here's a closeup of the black embossing, showing a little of the glittering going on!)

Next, I stamped the nicely coordinating Calligraphy Square (also from Carmen's Veranda) (you may note that there are quite a few of these square tile stamps over there that harmonize nicely together) in white ink onto two pieces of black cardstock. I covered the ink with a homemade mixture of opaque white and clear glitter EPs, and melted it with my trusty heat tool. Then I cut out the black squares and mounted them on squares of white cardstock.

Here's how the white looks all a-glitter:

I then mounted all four glittery squares onto a larger square of black board, and topped it off with a square faceted black rhinestone. You know, for shine and all.

Easy-peasy, but with a little sparkle to make it speshul.

You see that comment box below right there? It's for you! (It's much more fun when I have you to talk to.)

Medieval(ish) Stamp Art: "Le Lièvre" (The Hare)

Greetings darlings! Today I have some art featured over at the Lost Coasters' Review blog as a little designer's inspiration for their "Hip 2 B Square" project challenge. (Share some of your art and be entered to win a gift certificate at Lost Coast Designs' stamp store! Click here for details!) 

I thought I would tell you a little more about the thinking behind my featured piece--"Le Lièvre" (The Hare)--and how it was made...

For the "square" theme, I chose this Rabbit Square stamp  from Carmen's Veranda:

Although I assume from the "cracks" indicated by the artist indicated that this image is supposed to represent a tile, its "feel" put me in mind of something from a medieval tapestry, perhaps along the lines of the famous series of The Lady and the Unicorn:

...and at first I thought I might try to suggest a tapestry in my project. But the image ALSO reminded me of an initial from a medieval manuscript...something like this one from Orleans MS 9 at the British Library:

So upon further reflection, it seemed to me that it would be easier as well as more natural to suggest a manuscript than a tapestry, since mine would be a paper project after all.

To give the proper "medieval initial" gestalt, I needed GOLD. (You may have noticed by now that I rarely pass up the opportunity for a little metallic shine.) So I stamped the Rabbit Square on heavy ivory watercolor paper, and embossed the crap out of it with liquid gold. (Yeah, baby!!)

I then set about laboriously painting the image with water-soluble oil pastels in shades of green, blue, and gray, keeping the bunny buff-brown and "white." I didn't want the color to look flat and even, but to have a bit of watercolor effect to lend some life to the otherwise static composition. 

Next I wanted a border. In keeping with the medieval theme, Lost Coast Designs has the most awesome, ravishing Antique Text Border stamp that HAD to go on this project. I just love it. You'll probably be seeing me use it every chance I get!

Isn't that gorgeous and amazing? The letters definitely looked very tapestry-like and more woven (rather than written) to me (shades of The Bayeux Tapestry?), but it was super-atmospheric, and it was going on my project!

So I stamped the border on a scrap piece of the watercolor paper (instead of stamping directly around the painted image) because I wanted to miter the corners instead of having them overlap. I embossed the text border with MOAR SHINY GOLD before painting with the oil pastels, then cut it out and mitered the corners around the center image.

The finished result looked like this:

BUT because the gold isn't really shiny enough for my liking in the photo above, here's another where you can really see it catch the light. AHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhh...

Aren't these cool stamps? I am such a history nerd that I found these quite exciting.  :)  And there you have my finished project: "Le Lièvre" (or The Hare--but wanted to keep that French medieval vibe, you know!)  ;)

And hey--there's still time to join in on the Hip 2 B Square challenge--it runs through September 4! Enter your square-themed projects for one or more chances to win a prize. (The rules are on the Lost Coast Portal To Creativity blog.) Join in the fun!

Talk to me by leaving a comment below! I love chatting with you guys. Would love to hear what you think of these historical images.