Just a little journey...

Hello all!  Here's the first of series of closer looks at some of the samples created for my latest Eclectica³ Alison Bomber quote stamps.  We're starting with EAB12 Travel & Journeys, and this quartet of ATCs.

The soft blue/violet tones of my Stripes of Strength journal pages appear here too, but rather than inks and watercolours, they're now provided by some of the lovely new PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Paint colours.









For the background of the purple pair, I used a brayer to create this gentle ombre effect.















The shades move from the palest Periwinkle via Wisteria to Forget-me-not.














Before running the brayer through the paint on the craft mat, I spritzed it with plenty of water, so that you get a really soft look to the finish.















The postmarks from another PaperArtsy designer, Courtney Franich, are great to go with a travel theme, and they're stamped in Watering Can Archival.












The quotes themselves are also stamped in Watering Can, but then I used Wow Embossing Powder in Vanilla White to give them glossy texture.













The squidginess at the end of the word "miles" was entirely my own fault... I picked the ATC up before the embossing had cooled and managed to put my thumb straight on the end of that line.

Ah well... let's embrace imperfection, shall we?  I still think it's worth it for the dimension and light-catching properties of the embossing.














I used an old credit card to add textural stripes of Aquamarine and Captain Peacock to the edges of the ATCs.












For the second pair, those turquoise colours are the main feature of the background, along with some Caribbean Sea and the soft blue of the new Summer Sky.













This time, rather than brayering, I applied the paint by smooshing the ATC into puddles of watery paint on the craft mat.  Finally, I added splatters of the Wisteria and Periwinkle paints so that the turquoise/blue/purple colour combination would match across all the samples.













The Seth Apter minis I've chosen are reminiscent of globes and compasses, so there's an abstract reflection of the Travel & Journey's theme.















They're stamped in Watering Can Archival again, and I added partial stampings around the edges to add more detailing.















Again, the quotes are in Wow Vanilla White and, again, I have to hold my hand up to the minor imperfections in evidence.












This time the problem was that I hadn't dried the grey stamping fully, so some of my Vanilla White powder stuck to it.  In brushing those unwanted grains away, Antoine slightly lost his Exupéry!








There will be making-of details about some more of the samples on their way to you soon.  There really wasn't time in the original launch post to cover all of it in one go.  But before the next set of samples, there are some new projects to enjoy over the next couple of weeks too.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I'll see you again soon.

For the person for whom small things do not exist, the great is not great.
Jose Ortega y Gasset