Angel in the Window Coaster Collage – Stencil Test Drive

My dear friend, Jessica Sporn, did a post on her blog this week about angels.  I was inspired.  So, when she asked me to test drive her new stencil from Stencil Girl Products called Windows & Doors, I said to myself, “self, you need to do something with an angel”…. and so I did.

As most of you who follow me know,  I love to collect coasters from restaurants.  Sometimes, our server is nice enough to give me a stash of them.. .but I do ask beg them nicely.  I love working small sometimes.  It’s just such a nice little piece of art.  The coaster surface is really great; it absorbs wonderfully and has the right thickness.

First, let me show you the stencil I”ll be working with… I’m going to use the top right church window. Seems appropriate for an angel, don’t you think?  Jessica really created a beautiful stencil here.

I picked out a 4″x4″ rounded corner coaster and started to apply gesso.   Let dry. Then I applied some random colors and smooshed with my fingers.

I pulled off some of the paint with another piece of paper.. this tip came from Jane Davies; simple and effective.  Then used a brayer to blend the colors.

          

When I started to dry the paint with my heat gun, I started to get bubbles which is a very cool effect.  If you hold the heat gun very close, the paint starts to bubble.  Once I got the colors the way I wanted, I brushed a loose wash of acrylic teal paint with water on top and spritzed some alcohol on it to let the paint separate.  Can you see the texture it created?

  

  

Now, I know I wanted to put an angel on my coaster, but I needed her face to show through, so I put a light coat of Titan Buff fluid acrylic paint (from Golden) in the section where her face would show.

Now, it’s time to transfer my image onto the coaster. I printed off the angel image on the rough side of a transparency film (ink jet printer). I took gel medium and with my finger, rubbed some along the section where I wanted my angel.  I also put some on the image itself.  Laid down the image and gently rubbed with a soft cloth.  Wait a couple of minutes, then gently lift it off. There you go… I like that it’s NOT perfect.. it has a worn/vintage look to it.  Now, let her dry.. doesn’t take too long; about 5 minutes.

  

Oh boy.. I get to play with pastes.  I used the Viva Decor Modeling Cream in gold for the window.
I placed it over the angel’s face, taped it down on one side.  Using my palette knife, I scraped the cream over the stencil and lifted it up… Beautiful window.

Now, one of the panes was covering my angel’s face.. I had to gently scrape it off.  There she is.. so purdy.

I added my spiral lace paper in the corner and used a pen tube as a stamp for some small circles.  Added gold ribbon lace to the bottom of the window.

  

I found an old earring that I cut up with a wire cutter to make a window top.  When I cut the metal, it creates tiny rough metal edges; so I filed them down with a Chizzel-it.  I’ve had this for years.  I used it for engraving baked polymer clay.  Oh, who am I kidding.. it was just a fun toy.  You can also use 200 grit sand paper to file down the sharp edges.

I added some glitter and painted around the edges with a Gold Leafing Pen. I love this pen.  It’s puts the best finishing touches on your work.

 

I added a “believe” metal tag to the bottom.  After all, we DO believe in angels, don’t we?  Then I added some red lines of acrylic paint with my credit card that I changed to white in the end result… you’ll see why.

To the right of the coaster, I added handmade polymer clay flowers in red with turquoise (what else) rhinestone centers. Then teenie tiny flowers to the bottom of the stems.  The leaves are made with music paper. I thought the dragonfly was a cute touch, too.

 

Here is the final piece and a close up of window.

Now, it’s your turn to go visit my art sisters to see what they did with Jessica’s new stencil… go now!

Jessica Sporn, our leader in this drive.
Carolyn Dube  (by the way, Carolyn has a new Gelli Plate Workshop starting on April 1st… what fun; I can’t wait!)
Maria McGuire
Corrine Gilman (Corrine is going to be teaching at Lucky Star Art Camp this Fall… they are so “lucky” to have her join their team).

AND…Thank you, Jessica for another amazing stencil creation.  What else to you have up your sleeve?  Hmmm?

Well, there you have it.  So, grab some coasters next time you go out (or have a friend grab one for you) and get creative with them.  Then, send me a picture and I’ll feature on my blog.  OR.. create it, put photo on your blog, then comment on my blog with your link back to your blog… Huh?  What the hell did she just say?  Go on… you can do it… I know you can.

Alert… Alert… Up Next:  Giveaways !!

Thank you for stopping by.  Share the love.

Judy ♥

Mixed Media Mail Updo

Hey there… I know I know….I’ve been gone for about 3 weeks.  Life/work, once again, gets in my art way.  But no fear, I’m here now.

I’ve been working on this video for a few weeks. I finally found the time to finish it.  I started out as a large pamphlet I got in the mail.  I thought it would be neat to alter it with some mixed media magic. Once I finished filming, this sucker was about 45 min long.  So, had to cut it down a little and fast forward a lot.  I put some comments in so you would know what I was doing.   Let me know what you think.

If you have any questions about my process, give me a shout.. glad to help.

Now… enjoy!

Here are some close ups.

          

  

If you  live in New England or even Massachusetts, you probably are ready for Spring like the rest of us. We’ve had enough snow this winter and I’m ready for a nice long walk… I don’t know… Maybe late April?

I hope you enjoyed the video.  Love to hear back from you.

Judy ♥

Polymer Clay Bookmarks – Stencil Test Drive

Here I am again, going for another test drive with Jessica Sporn’s new stencils that she’s created and are now sold on Stencil Girl Products. I love what my friend, Jessica, has created and by now, I think many of the stencils she’s made have new owners and they are creating beautiful art with them.  Like, this week, check out the other artists taking this stencil for a drive Marjie Kemper,  Nataša May, Maggie Nemetz and Maria Mcguire. This week we are testing Jessica’s “borders” stencils.  I wasn’t too sure what I wanted to do with them… something different. So, I ended up making polymer clay bookmarks.  How, you say?  Well.. lookie there.. here is a video on how I made them.

Post Video Comment:  My friend, Raine, who is a great polyclay artist, mentioned that the reason why I had gritty raised edges was because of the leather texture.  Ah, DUH MOMENT, JUDY!!! Of course it was.  I’ve always used texture plates with clay, never stencils. So, when I put the clay against the leather, that’s why it was rough, because of the tiny pattern on the leather.  There you have it. I digress.  Thanks, Raine.   Don’t mind me, I’m in my own little world over here.

Some close ups of the final bookmarks… click pictures for a closer look.

    

Don’t foget to check out what  Marjie Kemper,  Nataša May, Maggie Nemetz and Maria Mcguire did with their stencils.  I’m going there now.

I hope you enjoyed the video and the bookmarks.  They make great gifts.

Thanks for stopping by. I love hearing from you.

Judy ♥

Gelli Prints – Recycled Box

Well, I’ve been waiting for this week to come for about 4 months now. This marks the end of very long days, and sometimes nights, preparing for a very big customer event at work.  So, mission completed and have sent all the executives off on their trip. I promised myself once this week came, I would take some time off and enjoy some time in the studio….

…. and that’s exactly what I did this morning…… follow me, will you?

I recently purchased something that was contained in this long box.  I decided to recycle it … I could do something with it… right.. something for the art studio???  I think so.            CLICK ANY PICTURE FOR A CLOSER LOOK.

I gessoed all over.  If I were to do it again, I would sand the sheen off. But, a couple of coats; wait til each coat dries.  Tip: sand the box first.

  

Then, I used up my Gelli Prints I had done over the past couple of months.  See my posts/videos HERE and HERE.  Measured, cut and glued.

I used Martha Stewart’s Decoupage Glue and Sealer.  I had it in the studio, so I do not favor it, really.

One the sides were glued down well, I scraped the edges with a scissors blade to get rid of the excess paper coming over the edges.

Then I used Pan Pastels to fill in any white spaces.

 

It’s coming along.

 

Took a rubber coaster and used it as a stamp (dots) with some Staz On black ink.  Then I used Distress Ink (walnut stain) to rub along the edges of the box to stain it or vintage-ize it (I made up that word).

 

Not shown here, but I added some stamping around with black ink.  Painted a text stamp with white acrylic paint and stamped all over.  I also took some brown and orange paint mixed and filled in some of the corners of the box.

Ok.. now I must put some “buttons n’bellishments” on there, don’t ya think?  What to choose, what to choose.

 

Then on the back.. I think a big face.  Yes?

I put a coat of the Martha Stewart sealer on one side and Liquid Laminate on the other.  The MS sealer had tiny bubbles and dried that way.  No big deal, but wasn’t crazy about it.  The Liquid Laminate was, as always, great.  Nice thin coat that dries fast.

 

 

Ok, now it’s done.. what shall I use it for?  It won’t take anything to heavy, I had to think light.  I decided to use it for my smaller stencils and Gelli Print bookmarks I made. I LOVE! I LOVE!

   

I love what embellishments do for an art piece.  My online “Buttons n’bellishments” workshop is over and I’ll be sharing the student results very soon, along with a Flickr group.

If you want to see what else you can alter/recycle with your Gelli Prints.. Check out Carolyn’s Heart Boxes and Corrine’s binder along with Jessica’s pasta box recycle.

As always, thanks for stopping by.  Leave some love.. I love hearing from you.

Judy ♥

Mixed Media Collage from a Post It Pad

I had so much fun creating my Post it flip chart paper collage.

It was hours of filming and editing, and would have been too long and I would bore all of you.. but here is a video of my process… sped up.  I would have kept it really time with my hand dancing, grooving to the music and talking, but it went on forever.  So…………

…. it started with my flip chart pad that I keep under my work surface.  An idea I got from Autumn Hathaway.. thank you Autumn.

Here we go…

Close ups. Click for larger view.

     

Let me know what you think. I would love to hear from you.

Judy♥

Stencil Test Drive – Starry Night – Stencil Girl Products

Well, it’s my turn again to test out one of Jessica Sporn’s new stencils called Starry Night by Stencil Girl Products. This time around, I used the stencil creating two pieces.  I didn’t start out thinking I would do two, but it just seemed to fall into place that way.

PART 1 – First, I’ll show you my collage. I took Bristol Paper and made a paste of Super Heavy Gesso and Hansa Yellow Medium acrylic paint by Golden. Then I used the stencil to push the yellow paste through it onto the paper.  Let dry.

 

The result is below left.  Then I took Patina Green Glaze by Golden and spread it over the textured page.  

Now, let’s start collaging.  I added some lace ribbon down the left side and then did a leaf stencil with the heavy gesso on the bottom right.

 

I had put some of the same stencil on other cardstock (as you’ll see in my next project), painted it blue and ripped it, and put gold leaf pen on ripped section then put down the right side.  Now, I’m adding more papers and fabric and end with one of my polymer clay “bellishments”; I chose Mr. Moon. Here’s how it developed
I pounced some titan buff acrylic paint through some dry wall tape.  Love the dots.
Added some rhinestones on the pink paper; fabric under Mr. Moon.  Store bought embellishment on top of the gold embossed paper.  Made the embellishment a flower with lace stem and magazine paper leaves.  Added another “bellishment” at the bottom right.  I like the orange contrast with the rest of the collage.

Final collage.

If you want to learn how to make my handmade polymer clay “Buttons n’bellishments”, come join us in my online class that starts in February on Joggles.com

PART 2 – Handmade Journal

I started out with other 1/2 of the Bristol Paper from my collage. I used my palette knife and spread extra heavy gesso all over it and let it dry.  I love the texture this gesso leaves.

Then I took Ultramarine Blue acrylic paint by Golden and scraped it on the gessoed paper with a old credit card.  Just look at that texture.  It almost looks 3D.   Just beautiful for any texture queen.  Click on the pictures for a closer look.  Hard to believe it’s just a piece of paper.  My daughter thought it looked like denim.   
Then I took the same yellow paste I made above with the heavy gesso and the yellow acrylic paint and used a palette knife to push the paste through the Starry Night stencil.  Helloooo.. is this cute or what?
I took Liquid Laminate and brushed a layer over the entire page to give it a shine and strength.  You’ll notice that I only covered 1/2 of the page.  Once the laminate dried, I took some lace paper and put a few of my favorite spirals on the back then took a black sharpie pen and outlined the stars and swirls.  See the shine?  
I took Wausau paper (cardstock like) that I got at an office supply store and made one signature of 5 pages.  I ripped around the edges for two reasons.. one to make them smaller than the cover pages and two, to give them a roughed up
look.
.

Now, it’s time to sew the pages and cover together.  As I told you in my last post, I am not a journal maker. This is basic in one hole and out the other sewing.  I used black wax thread.  Then I sewed one of my polymer clay buttons to the cover.  Sprayed some Dylusions Ink to the front and back covers pounced some titan buff paint through the stencil and
called it done.   Badda Bing.. Badda Boom!

   

Front and back cover

Well, that was fun.  I’ve never been sad doing art.

Check out Jessica’s post this week test driving her stencil.  Then go check out my partners in stencil crime, Maggie Nemetz and Revlie Schuit and see what they did with the Starry Night Stencil. Here are the Stencil Test Drive players:

December 6: Hebrew Calligraphy

Carolyn Dube and Michelle Rydell

December 20: Medieval Leaves

Carolyn Dube, Corrine Gilman, Maria McGuire and Ronda Palazzari

January 23: Random Squares

Seth Apter, Kristin Dudish,  Corrine Gilman, and Diana Trout

February 27: Fun Borders

Marjie Kemper,  Nataša May, Maggie Nemetz and Christy Tomlinson

March 14: Retro Flowers & Circles

Nataša May and Maria McGuire

April 2: Embrace the Rain

Carolyn Dube, Marjie Kemper, Nataša May, Michelle Rydell, and Revlie Schuit

April 18: Flying Tulips

Kristin Dudish and Carol Merveille

May 2: Cascading Leaves

Nathalie Kalbach,  Michelle Rydell, Judy Shea, and Roben-Marie Smith

May 16: Apples & Pomegranates

Carolyn Dube and Revlie Schuit

June 6: Dots & Dashes

Jane Davies, Maria McGuire and Carol MerveilleThank you, Jessica, for inviting me to be part of the drive.

Thanks for stopping by and I would love to hear from you.
Judy ♥

Sneak Peek – “Buttons n’bellishments” Workshop

Hi Everyone… Here is a little peek at my workshop.. just to entice you to join me.

Thank you for stopping by.

Judy ♥

Stencil Test Drive – on your mark…get set….goooooooooooooo

   

It’s time to commence the Stencil Test Drive. I’m honored to be part of this group of great artists and to be one of the firsts to kick it off.

It’s really exciting to see what each of us will do with each stencil.  I hope you have visited Stencil Girl Products and chosen a stencil to play along with us.  We’d love to see what you do.

My first stencil is the Hebrew Calligraphy.  I admit, I am a bit ignorant about the Jewish religion.   The creations that Jessica makes with her Judaic art is amazing.  And that’s just her Judaic art, the rest is so fun, eclectic and meaningful.  I, myself, have always loved the Catholic art.  The paintings of the saints and the colors are so incredibly beautiful.  So, I approached this page from an art perspective and I hope I did it justice.

There I go again, with my chit chat… sigh.  Now, let’s get to it.

I started on an Bristol paper, 11″x7″.

Fluid acrylic Ultramarine Blue scraped down with old gift card.  Dreamy.

  

Then I scraped some translucent yellow liquid acrylics, then squirted some air brush white paint on the page, then sprayed some water and alcohol on it and let it spread.  Blotted with paper towel.  Getting better.

  

Now, here is where the stencil comes in.  I pushed some  gold Viva Decor Modeling Cream through the stencil in sections.

  

  

I thought it would be cool to add some transparency image transfers.  I went on Google Images and grabbed some Jewish clip art.  I put in a Hamsa hand.  Then some of my yummy favorite paper.. lace paper.  Can you stand it?

  

Another transfer, but on muslin this time; clip art of a Jewish Synagogue.  Added some final touches of wrinkled gold paper, my handmade polymer clay piece and a few old paper doily sections.  Smudged some Portfolio oil pastels (black) around the edges and in some areas.  Dabbed some white paint through some dry wall tape with a make up sponge. Brushed a couple of areas with red acrylic paint to even out the collage and called it a day.

.  

The gold calligraphy really shines and stands out when you see it live.

I hope you enjoyed the first test drive.  Don’t forget to visit the other artists doing this same stencil this week.. Carolyn Dube and Michelle Rydell and… keep this list handy of the rest of us doing the test drive and follow along.

December 20: Medieval Leaves

Carolyn Dube, Corrine Gilman, Maria McGuire and Ronda Palazzari

January 10: Starry Night

Maggie Nemetz, Judy Shea and Revlie Schuit

January 23: Random Squares

Seth Apter, Kristin Dudish,  Corrine Gilman, and Diana Trout

February 27: Fun Borders

Marjie Kemper,  Nataša May, Maggie Nemetz and Christy Tomlinson

March 14: Retro Flowers & Circles

Nataša May and Maria McGuire

April 2: Embrace the Rain

Carolyn Dube, Marjie Kemper, Nataša May, Michelle Rydell, and Revlie Schuit

April 18: Flying Tulips

Kristin Dudish and Carol Merveille

May 2: Cascading Leaves

Nathalie Kalbach,  Michelle Rydell, Judy Shea, and Roben-Marie Smith

May 16: Apples & Pomegranates

Carolyn Dube and Revlie Schuit

June 6: Dots & Dashes

Jane Davies, Maria McGuire and Carol Merveille

Would love to hear from you. How was my test drive? In this kind of test drive, accidents are encouraged.

I want to thank Jessica for coordinating this test drive and gathering an amazing group of creative souls to join in. Congratulations on your new line of stencils and working with Mary Beth Shaw.

Now, off to see what Carolyn and Michelle have done with their stencil.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

Vroom Vroom

Judy ♥

Butterfly Collage with Ink Jet ImageTransfers

This week, I decided to give the Peerless Watercolors a try.  I purchased them at Art is You from Joanne Sharpe.

So, I stopped work early one night (5p.m.) (only one night, but i”m working on more of them) and I put on my jammies and sat myself down to play with the paints.  Let me just say what a great feeling it was to kick back and concentrate on my art.  Since my daughters are now both in college (help! send money), our nights have a bit more space in them.  Funny how fast the time goes and all of the sudden your here, their there and life moves on.  Screeeeeeech… halt… Sorry,  I got off track.  Continuing….

I decided to work on Strathmore Bristol paper and paint in patches all over the page like this…  Click on any image to enlarge.

Seriously, this page took me a couple of hours.  I had fun swiping colors off the “peerless” cards and onto the page. That took time and all with a small brush (water brush by Koi).  I love the puddling of the watercolors when you use more water.  They dry to a nice dark edge.

Once I was happy with the background,  I gave it a spray of PYM (Preserve Your Memories) to seal it.  You can see it deepens it a little.  I took this picture under a normal light bulb.  The top picture was taken under an Ott Lite.

So, my fine friends, I took it to my studio and scraped some gesso all over it (that’s why I had to seal the page first, otherwise the colors would have mixed), rubbed it off,  then buffed it dry.  Used black Staz On ink and a make up sponge with stencils (from Stencil Girl and Mary Beth Shaw = LOVE).  Added stamped, hand made foam stamps and of course some of my polymer clay ‘bellishments.  One of the parts I love the most, are my image transfers; the butterflies and the two women, under my teal heart..

Below, you can see some gold glitter trails it put in.

I get so lost in time when I am doing image transfers.  My favorite combination to make a perfect transfer is a transparency film and gel medium.  I did a few tests using different mediums and my best result was Golden Gel Medium.  I have not tried Liquitex, but I will someday.

I transferred on muslin  and cotton fabric, paper towel, masking tape and I did a packing tape transfer also.  I got the images from Dover Clipart which is copyright free.  You can join their mailing list and they will send you samples every week.  Click on THIS LINK and put in your email address.  You will get samples every week.  If you like them, you can save and download on your hard drive on your computer.

The technique goes like this:

Get yourself some transparency film. Maybe you know someone who might have some or you can split a box with a friend.  I had some old Lexmark ones and some I hadn’t used even after I printed on them  months or years ago.  You want to print on the matte side, not shiny.  Your best bet is to print a bunch of images on one page.  You can use Microsoft Word or Powerpoint to insert an entire page of images (please email me if you need help with that.).  This is my method. There may be other ways, for example, using a photo software would also work.

Cut your image out.

Spread some gel medium on the surface you want to transfer to and on the image itself… gently, you don’t want the ink to rub off.  Use the consistency of spreading butter on bread.  I use my finger to spread the gel, as I don’t want any brush line.

Lay the film with image face down on the gelled up surface and rub it down with your finger in a circular motion, working from the center and making sure your reached all around the image.  Now wait 5 or 10 minutes or even longer.. overnight even if you need to be away.  But, if you’re like me, you ain’t going nowhere and you want instant results.

After you’ve waited and I hope you were patient, peel up the film slowly.  Check a corner and see if the ink is now transferred to the surface.  If it did, then keep slowly peeling it off.  Did it work?  It works 99% of the time for me.

Here is a few pictures of my image transfer results…

The butterflies are on paper towel, cotton fabric (old ripped t-shirt) and masking tape.  I decided to color in the black and white clip art with the “peerless watercolors” and the “Koi” watercolors…

I give the images a spray seal of the PYM so I  know they will keep their color and last a long time.

I made a bunch of image transfers on muslin fabric for my mom who loves her religious (catholic) books.  She wanted angels so she could sew them to her fabric covered books.  She was just in love with them.  I’ll be using my masking tape painted images on some other art; I wanted to use them on this page, but it didn’t seem to match.

Hope you enjoyed this post and I want you to try the image transfers and let me now how they come out.

And always… thank YOU for stopping by and leaving some blog love.

Judy ♥♥

Fun Finds, Wood Blocks and ‘bellishments

Hard to believe that just a few weeks ago, we were melting from the heat around here.  Amazing how fast it changed.  Ok, ok.. so I already put my heat on a little… and I put on my electric mattress pad at night to warm up my tootsies. Ahhhh… one of the BEST inventions, I tell you.  ”Honey, keep your cold toes to yourself”.

Well, I wanted to share with you some cool finds I came across at Michael’s.  They have a table full of marked down costume jewelry.  I bought a few to use in my work.  Here a bunch.  Aren’t they purdy?  I’m sure I will find a place for them in my collages.

Next, my new friend, Nancy, (love that I can say “new friend” in my 50′s) sent me, along with some other goodies, these pieces of jewelry.  I just need to lock myself a way in my studio for a week.  Just bring me bread and water.. ok ok.. some chocolate too. Who am I kidding.  I’ll come out to eat.

So, with all these new embellishments, I decided to make a few more of my own.  I love making these.  As you can tell, I just love the turquoise and the reds.  Oranges are great too. It all depends on what looks good with the staining.  Read on.

Hearts is what I went crazy with. Oh, and of course, I love the faces.   I made some tiny birds also, along with a pair of wings.  The ” ‘bellishements”, are made from polymer clay.  They are impressed with texture sheets, buttons, jewelry pieces.  Anything with texture really.  You have a cool pattern on the bottom of your shoe.. bam, texture.  You have a cool door knob .. bam, texture.  You have a cool embossed place mat, coaster, piece of hardware.. bam.. texture.  Look around you, it’s there.

However, recently an artist blogger friend did a post on some wood blocks that she got from a couple of co-workers.  Read Autumn’s post HERE then read more of her posts.  Her journal pages are to die for.  So, I thought I’d search out the import store (Ganesh Imports)  they got the blocks at and found a store in Newburyport, MA (where I go often).  Off I went and found some great wood blocks.  Thank you, Autumn for your post on this.  I would have never known about Ganesh.

Here is my find… the big one is about 2″ round.

Love them.  Have you ever seen a carver make a wood block?  Once you see it, you will appreciate it the work that goes into making just one block.  Take a look here.  Talk about patience.. poke a needle in my eye.

So, I decided to make few “medallion-like” ‘bellishments out of one of one of the blocks… the bigger one.

Take some polymer clay, get it soft, roll it up in a ball and press it out into a circle shape.  Then so the clay won’t stick to the wood, I put some cornstarch in an old t-shirt, tied it up, like you see below and pounced on the wood then lift and separate.. hmm, sounds like a Playtex commercial.

     

Now, bake in a dedicated clay oven per the directions on the package of clay.  (Note:  Go here if you are concerned about using your kitchen oven to bake clay).  Don’t burn it and tent it and you’ll be fine.   I like to use either “Premo” or “Fimo Soft”.  Once baked and cooled, I stained it with brown acrylic paint. Smoodge it in the deep textures, then wipe off gently with a clean paper towel, letting the paint stay in the grooves, let dry.  Then I take a sealer (I used Future Floor Wax) and brush one coat on, let dry.  That’s it.  Now you have your own ‘bellishment to use in your collages, journals, etc.

You can check out my step by step button’s tutorial I did HERE.

   

Now, let’s go back a couple of summers ago on my trip to Martha’s Vineyard in Edgartown.  I actually found some wood blocks there at a place called “In the Woods” (they do not have a website).  These puppies can get expensive, but they are worth it.  Here’s my purchase.  The bigger ones are about 6″ x 3″.

Can you stand it?  Aren’t they so much fun.  So different than any other rubber stamps out there… BUT I must say this…
They are made for fabric, not paper.  It can be done, but, you need to have some cushion under your paper when you stamp.  I just used a folded up piece of fabric or paper towel.  I just love using them to texture my clay.  LOVE. ♥

The other use for them is paper casting.  I use tissue paper for my casting; the kind you blow your nose with.  Here’s a look at some of the castings I’ve done…

This won’t work with detailed rubber stamps.  You can see the deep lines that really define the tissue. When the tissue is finally dry, you can paint and stain the pieces.  Use in your art anyway you want… Made by you.

I used one casting on one of my book covers.. The dark blue circle with the read heart.

I’m getting ready to venture out to Art is You.. in Stamford, CT Columbus Day weekend.  It’s my first retreat that i’m going to.. alone.  It’s always fun to go to these things with a friend, but it didn’t work out this time.  However, I’m sure hoping to come home with many new friends.  I mean, not with me, of course.. HA! .  I’ve heard that is retreat is something special, one of the best.  So, here I come.  I’ll be taking pictures and blog about my experience.  I’m trying to make a bunch of ‘bellishments to take with me.  I’m thinking 100.. yikes. Better get moving a little faster.

Well, I’ve filled up your brain with a lot of info tonight.  I’ll be doing a tissue paper casting blog or video soon.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting.

Judy ♥ ♥