Encore - Always and Forever Changing!

Encore Posts

While I'm away, there are some scheduled posts with new creations coming your way, but I'm also taking the chance to do some catching up here at Words and Pictures.   Projects which made their first appearances elsewhere for Design Team duties or Guest Designer opportunities, but which only had a sneak peek here, are being gathered together in the pages of my virtual scrapbook.  I'm calling them "Encore" posts and they're formatted differently (all the way down the centre), so you can spot them easily.

Please don't feel that you have to comment all over again!

This Encore takes us back to January 2014, and it's another one from my days in the Artistic Stamper Creative Team.  The Katy Fox - now Katy Leitch - botanical stamps were definitely amongst my favourites, and I remember loving this particular creation at the time, so I'm very happy to finally gather it in to my virtual scrapbook here.  Anyway, here's what I wrote back then...

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Hello all!  Alison (butterfly) here with my first Artistic Stamper post of the New Year.  I should probably have made a resolution about trying to write shorter posts, but I didn't, sorry!  I've another photo-heavy marathon for you (and remember you can click on the photos for a closer view).

I started with one idea in my head with this one, went via a completely different possibility and ended up in an utterly unexpected destination - but one that I'm very happy with.  In fact, it may be one of my favourite makes.

I'm afraid I don't have many photos en route since most of the way along I was pretty sure I was going to bin it.  Very glad I didn't now!

I started with one of the papier mache icons and some PaperArtsy crackle glaze, but that's long lost under some heavy gesso and loads of ColorWash sprays.  What I can tell you is a little bit of how the background shaped up once I'd gesso'd over my first idea.

I started with some text, stamping the botanical definitions from Katy Fox's Encyclopaedia Botanica plate in Potting Soil Archival (just as well I picked Archival with everything that then happened).

I stencilled Walnut Stain Distress Ink through the Harlequin stencil, and then clear embossed it, using only a light covering of powder.  (Again, just as well I kept it in place with the embossing - it wouldn't have lasted through the spritzing.)

At this point I had a gentle neutral affair on the way - white background, dark brown stamping, and I was still planning to stamp one of Katy's flowers directly onto the icon.  But, in my usual fashion, I had more than one thing on the go, and chance intervened at this point.

I happened to use a kraft tag to mop up some white paint from the mat, and suddenly wondered how the flower would look stamped onto that instead... the answer was "lovely"!  This particular flower is from Katy Fox's latest Botanical 2 release, and it's stamped in Potting Soil.

But then it started looking a bit bland to me.  I thought I'd like just a little hit of colour in the background... hmm!  I got out the ColorWash sprays, with their yummy earthy, natural tones, and tried them out on a nearby tag which gave me lovely spray patterns and some gentle blending and dripping.  But when I sprayed them onto the gesso, they behaved very differently and I ended up with really full on colour going on - not what I'd intended!

However, thanks to the embossed Harlequins, there was a lovely resist effect in places that toned in with the whitewashed kraft tag, so I decided to persevere.

I stamped the Artistic Stamper Messy Art blots and splashes (Katy Fox again!) in Fresco Snowflake...  I hadn't used these before and, oh, how I love them now!

I added a couple of spritzes of Dylusions White Linen too...

... and dry brushed some Snowflake around the edges of the icon too.  Obviously, all this is being carried over the edges as usual.

I stamped one of Tim Holtz's Simple Sayings in Potting Soil onto another whitewashed kraft tag and cut it out and distressed it.

And I added some Idea-ology Linen Ribbon to the top of the tag.

My final brainwave was to add some "Diamond Confetti" chipboard from the UmWow Studio, and highlight it with a dusting of Snowflake Fresco brushed up from the bottom corner.

I'm really pleased with how these echo my embossed Harlequins, and add a touch of dimension to the composition.

So that's me for today.

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Thanks so much for dropping in today - always lovely to know you're out there!  I'll be back soon with another Encore, but there's something new just around the corner...  Happy Crafting all!

What is once well done is done forever.
Henry David Thoreau