The best thing one can do...

Hello all.  In real time on the craft table I've definitely in my autumnal zone.  There's already been one autumn tag, Tree Poetry, and there's another coming later in the week.  However, I'm also trying to squeeze in some of the samples from my latest launch of word stamps with PaperArtsy, so today we're taking a very quick look at a couple of tags using EAB13 Sunshine & Rain.  

For this stamp set, I was using a palette of yellow, blue and purple with some of the new Fresco paint colours involved.  I thought it would be a good combination to capture the sunshine and the rain!  These two are a pair in so far as they both have die-cuts/punched shapes playing a part, and they were cut/punched from the same piece of ombré-painted cardstock.








You can see the ombré most clearly on Umbrella Man.  He goes all the way from a nice dark Lavender, via Forget-me-not, to pale Wisteria.

The umbrellas are from Hot Pick 1801 and stamped in Distress Archival in Dusty Concord.














One thing I enjoy about the word stamps is being able to stamp them in coordinating ink colours, so that you get a nice cohesive look.













The background is done with what I call "watery brayering".  I put blobs of the paint colours I want to use next to each other on the craft mat and give them a good spritzing of water before rolling the brayer through.















I love the soft textural effects this gives you, almost like ripples on a pond.

There's some background stamping from the same Hot Picks set...














... and a few torn strips of tape for him to stand on, and that's that.













The butterflies are over another watery-brayered background, but this time mainly in the sunshine yellow of Cheesecake Fresco paint.  I did a little bit of additional smooshing into droplets of Haystack for a warmer yellow accent.














The grasses are by Lin Brown from ELB30 and they are one of my all-time favourite stamps.  They played a part in the samples for all three of the new stamp sets, which pretty much proves my point!

I stamped them in Fresco paint, painting Forget-me-not and Periwinkle onto the craft mat and pressing the stamp down onto it before stamping.  You get a lovely, loose, wind-in-the-grasses look.













The butterflies are punched with a Tim Holtz punch and I used the main quote stamp as extra detailing on their wings, again stamped in Dusty Concord Distress Archival.













I also used the word stamp to add extra shadows and texture at the foot of the tag, and stamped the main sentiment on separate cardstock before cutting it into strips to get the arrangement I wanted.












Again, I really love the coordinated look you can have, as well as being able to have my words in as many different colours as I have ink pads and/or embossing powders!.

Another simple bit of twine finishes things off.














Thanks so much for stopping by today for this duo of sunshine and rain.  I'll be back with a new autumnal offering in a couple of days, so I hope I'll see you again soon.  Happy crafting in the meantime!

The mind is like an umbrella. It is most useful when open.
Walter Gropius