Eclectica³ Alison BomberSet 40 (EAB40)
Meadow Grass Candle Lantern
You realize by now that I really like my altered candle lanterns! I’ve obtained plenty of autumn and winter ones, however now I’ve added to my summer time lanterns for evenings within the backyard with this Meadow grass Candle Lantern.
I really like the medical gauze label that’s on this set – in my head, it hyperlinks again to these Culpeper botanical prescriptions on my earlier stamp designs…
Pressed Grasses Tag Pair
And listed below are your easy tags, exhibiting you simply how detailed these grasses actually are. In shades of inexperienced this time, with a full splatter background (once more, simply repeat-stamping the feel stamp in Bundled Sage Misery Ink), in opposition to which the silhouette grasses actually pop, stamped in Archival Peat Moss and clear-embossed. And it is the identical remedy for the phrases – this can be a phrase from The Lake Isle of Innisfree by W. B. Yeats, a favorite poem of mine. We have got extra fragments of that very same poem on the earlier units, in addition to on these three. Fairly quickly, we’ll have the entire thing!
And the fragile fronds on the tip of the grasses sketch actually do not want something achieved to them to look nice… right here they’re in opposition to a easy white background. That is as CAS (clear and easy) as I get! I really like this piece of ephemera with Gothic font from a e book frontispiece… simply the writer’s title and the date, however it provides pretty element to a challenge.
You had some Umbellifers within the Botanical Textures launch, they usually’re right here once more however in a distinct kind as EAB41 Pressed Umbels. I really like each variation of the phrase… umbellifer, umbel, umbelliferous – and each variation of this flower formation! The crackle is a scan of some precise crackle texture I created for a e book cowl years in the past, and the poetry fragments are courtesy of my two Williams once more – William Shakespeare and William Butler Yeats (as they’re all through this trio of stamp units).
Eclectica³ Alison BomberSet 41 (EAB41)
Dreaming of a Summer season’s Day
One actually necessary factor for me about these stamps is that you’ve every part you want on one set to create a challenge – focal factors, background texture, ephemera particulars and, in fact, phrases!
The big ephemera label can also be reduce from a separate piece of card, however the postmark and airmail label are stamped direct to the background, and given a contact of the Dragonfly Mattint (principally) to make them pop. This tag makes me very glad!
Pressed Umbels Tag Pair
And here is your easy tag pair so that you just get a very clear have a look at what you get on this third stamp plate. The rubber of the silhouette umbels could be very versatile, so you’ll be able to fluctuate the angle and relationship of the flower heads quite a bit. I really like the drama of these stamens – like fireworks exploding. (Hey… there’s one other means to make use of them, minus the stems, on Bonfire Evening or New Yr’s Eve initiatives!) And I am unable to recover from how dimensional the crackle appears, simply very merely stamped in Weathered Wooden Misery Ink right here, however it appears as if you’d really feel the feel in case you ran your fingers over it.
Cyanotype Explorations
With my obsession with nature and botanicals, I’ve at all times adored cyanotypes of crops. A cyanotype is a photographic print created by exposing a selected chemical formulation to daylight… the unique “blueprints”.
Primary “Blueprints”
So listed below are a few of my “fundamental blueprints”, achieved on the gel plate with Fresco End Chalk Acrylic paints. I brayered on the paint, after which merely stamped into it with the stamps, the identical means I did my faked “nature” gel prints for the discharge earlier this 12 months. (You may watch that approach right here on my YouTube channel.)
I did a little bit of taking part in round with creating further layers and depth by stamping excessive of the print and white-embossing the picture.
Complicated “Cyanotypes”
And listed below are a few of my “superior” variations, impressed by Roxi Hardegree’s complicated chemical combos. (It is actually price having a look at her gallery which I linked to earlier – each to see the place I am coming from with these, and in addition simply because it is breathtakingly lovely work she creates!)
The backgrounds for these are achieved with Fresco End Chalk Acrylics once more, however this time with some watercolour paints added whereas the underlying Fresco paint was nonetheless moist; and sprinkles of salt to create texture.
I am going to undergo all this in additional element in Instagram posts and blogposts over at mine, in addition to both a YouTube video or perhaps a full class sooner or later, however within the meantime if you wish to have a mess around, listed below are the Fresco colors I used – Paua Shell, Calypso, House Cadet, Inky Pool and Southern Skies – and dig out some blue/turquoise/inexperienced watercolours so as to add to the combo. (Mine had been American Journey – June Bug, Andrew’s Turquoise, Indigo, Prussian Blue for essentially the most half.)
Then excessive of these backgrounds, I stamped in paint… sure, these detailed photographs are stamped in Fresco End Chalk Acrylic!
If you’re stamping with paint (or stamping into paint as with the essential blueprints above), it is REALLY necessary to not let the paint dry on the stamp. It may compromise the long run readability of your stamp in case you do. You definitely do not wish to attempt to get dried paint out of all of the little cracks and crevices – you will be repurposing an outdated tender toothbrush – a lot simpler to get it off whereas nonetheless damp!
The bonus of that drawback on this course of is that after stamping you can provide the painted stamp a spritz of water after which stamp that watery model too, and also you get these great tender impressions which additionally occur generally within the chemical processes of cyanotyping.
So then, as with actual cyanotypes, you will have lovely botanical imagery in each crystal clear and deliciously tender photographs giving depth and selection to the “prints”. And I really like that these stamps look simply pretty much as good in a non-perfect stamping as they do in pristine perfection!
I completely love the outcomes of my explorations. I am unsure what I am going to do with all of them but (possibly there’s one other handmade e book within the offing!) however here is one instance mounted on a card, with the straightforward addition of some Liquid Platinum embossed phrases and an envelope embellished to coordinate.
Stroll within the Meadow Quartet
This quartet of panels options one panel for every stamp set, plus one that mixes the stamps from all three units. …
Then I stamped and stamped and stamped… layering up sketches and silhouettes in varied Archival greens (Olive, Leaf and Peat Moss are all in there I feel). EAB41 Pressed Umbels prime left, EAB39 Pressed Foliage prime proper, EAB40 Pressed Grasses backside left, and a combination of all three backside proper.
You may create actually delicate depth and variation by utilizing the sketch/silhouette mixture… and now you’ll be able to see the place the masking tape within the journal web page got here from! A bit of easy collaging excessive with Tim Holtz ins and outs, and the phrases and phrases are embossed to assist them pop – Vivid White for the massive phrases and Main Bark for the poetry fragments.
I believed these botanicals could be good for creating framing results or “garlands” round a focus, so that is what they’re doing on these tags. The Pressed Foliage particularly appeared to me to be crying out for a little bit of gilding, so I’ve used totally different metallic embossing powders to select sure stampings within the border.
Once more, there’s delicate depth and variation from utilizing the sketch/silhouette mixture, and by utilizing tone-on-tone stamping. Look intently to see the fragile sketch foliage stamped in Backyard Patina over the tender inexperienced background. (I feel these had been most likely mop up tags after doing the cyanotype backgrounds, however to be sincere, I am unable to actually bear in mind!!)
The gilding on the Pressed Foliage is completed with Liquid Platinum embossing powder, and the gilded stems on the Pressed Grasses are Queen’s Gold (each Ranger powders).
On the Pressed Umbels, there is a extra wintry look with silver embossing powder over the turquoises and blues. Once more, search for that basically delicate additional layer tone on tone… I adore it!
And I feel the poetry fragments and enormous phrases provide the right component to be framed… properly, I’m “Phrases and Footage” for a cause, you already know!
Watercolour Tags
Lastly, here is an important instance of what I imply about these stamps wanting simply as pretty in tender focus. One other (for me) clear and easy trio from some watercolour stamping…
The botanicals are achieved in Misery Inks with a spritz of water direct to the inked stamp simply earlier than urgent it down; and the phrases are in Archival Ink, to protect the readability of the lettering.
I believed I might stamped one every of silhouette and sketch on every of those tags, however clearly with the softening impact of the water, it will get tougher to inform! However the two items of foliage are positively leaning in numerous instructions, so it is definitely one in all every on that one…
On the Pressed Grasses, it is the sketch model twice – one with fairly a powerful spritz of water within the paler colors – so it is crammed within the leafy shapes quite a bit. The second stamping had rather less water on it, so that you protect a bit extra element.
And the umbels tag has the sketches on the left (plenty of water so pretty and tender) and half of the silhouette on the precise in that fairly tender model with a contact of turquoise (Evergreen Bough amidst the Peeled Paint, I feel?). Such straightforward tags – ink it up, a spritz of water, little bit of spatter (or use the spatter stamp if you’d like!)… a easy deal with of a trio.
I hope that the samples I have been creating with this launch provides you with an perception into a few of the considering behind the designs, in addition to a couple of concepts for various methods to play with them.
However now it is over to you!
I do know that what I’ve achieved right here is simply the tip of the iceberg by way of potentialities, and I hope this put up will inspire you to make use of your artistic voice and take these stamps in new instructions that talk to you.