Inspiring Memories

Hello all... 

Double trouble again here at Words and Pictures as it's the first of the month, and we've two new challenge themes to play with.  

Later this morning, Our Creative Corner gets back up and running with the April challenge, and I'm your host, so more of that shortly (you can now find my post here).

But first, it's time to reveal that the theme for The Artistic Stamper challenge this month is Embossing and Texture.  

It's not really my month to do AS inspiration but, I'm sorry, with a theme like that - it's rare for me not to use embossing and/or texture - I had to jump in!

And here's the result.















It's a tag full of inky colour, but with lots of glossy light-capturing embossing too.  

And for once I've used a clear texture paste, so that's doing a similar job.

It's one of my favourite things about clear embossing that it gives you that "now you see it, now you don't" look, according to the position you hold it in.

So the fabulous phrenology head from the new Stampers Anonymous Classics #11 set (oh, how long I've been wanting a phrenology head!) is stamped in Potting Soil Archival and then clear embossed.  

Now you see it, now you don't.

And the words from the Artistic Stamper Journalling Words II set have had the same treatment.  

Now you see them, now you don't.












And I'm so enjoying the effect of the translucent embossing paste.

You get the raised dimensional advantage of a texture paste, but the glossy light-catching of a clear emboss.  Doubly delicious!










Of course the clear paste has taken on the colour of all the inky loveliness already in place when I added it.

I blended on some darker inks, Gathered Twigs and Walnut Stain to really accentuate the look.










And there's some Calligraphic Mat #4 stamping around it too.

The paste acts as a resist, so you can wipe away the ink after stamping, even though I did it with Archival (as long as you're quick).











There are more layers of script stamping, this time in Cornflower Blue rather than Coffee Archival.

And as well as the texture paste through the Crafter's Workshop stencil, there are also some inky rings using the Artistic Stamper Splats and Swirls Mask.











I also did some inking through the new Latticework Layering Stencil from Tim Holtz.  It seems to have become my go-to mask!













The tag is layered onto some corrugated cardboard (big surprise, eh?!), and in case there wasn't quite enough embossing, I've added Distress Embossing Powder in Broken China and Peeled Paint around the edges.

I added some clear embossing powder for extra glossiness and depth in places.













I've added my usual Distress Stain-dyed seam binding and paper string at the top.












Finally, some good old metalwork... the cogs and gears of the brain lurching into action to summon up remembrance of lost times.  Yup we're channelling Proust today, too - À la recherche du temps perdu!












Hop over to The Artistic Stamper Creative Team Blog for all the challenge rules and details, as well as more inspiration from my lovely team-mates.

And I'll be back in the morning to launch the new challenge over at Our Creative Corner.  Hope you'll find time to play along with both this month.

Memory is the diary we all carry around with us.
Oscar Wilde






And, yup, it's a triple whammy today.  Since it's Tuesday, as well as the first of the month, I'm also over at Artistic Outpost today with another chance to catch my wooden flower market heart... only if you missed it last time!

Don't forget to pop back later this morning to find out what I'm challenging you with at Our Creative Corner this month!