No Small Dreams

Hello all!  Apologies for the deafening silence here at Words and Pictures...  I've been settling back in to New York rhythms and the first week of rehearsals so that's been taking almost all my time and energy.  But I'm very happy you've been enjoying my rusty bubbles and springtime tea-sachet-book so much in the meantime!  And soon I'll share some pictures of my temporary craft space and travelling stash (already augmented with some NYC shopping - unfortunately there's a branch of Blicks Art Supplies right around the corner from the rehearsal studios!).

But for now, as promised, I'm here with a few making-of details of some of my samples for my newest quote stamps.  Catch the full launch post here at PaperArtsy.  Since time is at a premium, I'm trying to keep these posts pretty short and sweet, but you know me...

I'm starting in dreamy mode with a pair of tags showcasing words from EAB07 Dreaming & Doing.

I find so much inspiration in this set of words about dreaming big and what happens when you put your dreams into action.

The colour palette for this launch included some of Seth Apter's new paint set 4, so there's an unusual hint of pink which may surprise my regulars, but I was immediately right at home with the beautiful new blues.














And once I'd worked out that the Mulberry and Mushroom could combine with the blues to give me wonderful dawn and dusk skies, I was a very happy crafter!














The tags themselves are really very simple.  I started with a crackle background using the Steel Grey and Venice Blue as my first layer, followed by the PaperArtsy Crackle Glaze, applied in a thin layer with a palette knife.  Over that went some of the delicately pale Glacier Ice.














Next I started sponging on my sky-blue-pinks.  I used a natural sponge - I find you get a much softer effect than with anything artificial - and applied the paints in layers until I was happy... blending and softening with the paler Mushroom and Chalk colours when necessary.













All the stamping is done in Watering Can Archival and then clear-embossed.  (They're all PaperArtsy stamps - the tree is from Urban Snapshots Nature Plate 1 and the grasses are from the new Kay Carley plate EKC17.)













The embossing gives me the light-reflecting dimensionality I love, as well as deepening the intensity of the stamping, thanks to the refracted light.













That makes the images and the words show up with more clarity against the background.













There had to be some splatter, of course... Chalk Fresco paint was also in my palette, and that did the job beautifully.

There you go... I told you I'd be short and sweet - that's about as short as my blogposts get (unless they're sneak peeks).








I hope Gandhi and Goethe (and Gloria below) will inspire you to do some dreaming this week.  I'll try not to be away for so long before the next post, and I may even manage some visiting in Craftyblogland now that I'm slightly settled in.  In the meantime, happy crafting all!

Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all is a form of planning.
Gloria Steinem