I'm travelling into a new way of working, a new country, a new language, and a new hobby which I'm passionate about. Come with me for some of the journey...

Wednesday 9 October 2019

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

27 comments:

Helen said...

wow, what gorgeous tags! I love the soft muted colours, and the stronger tones on umbrella man. Beautiful.

Anke said...

WOW WOW WOW Alison I love your tags, absoluteley stunning. Fantastic works !

Hugs
Anke

Sue said...

Beautiful tags Alison, I love the soft colours and how you've added text to the butterflies. Have a wonderful day, Sue xx

My name is Erika. said...

I like the contrast of rain and sunshine. Around my world, October is one of the rainiest months of the year, so thanks for inspiration from these beautiful tags. Happy mid-workweek. Hugs-Erika

Fonda said...

Gorgeous! Love the purple.

Valerie-Jael said...

Fantastic tags, love the colours, and the themes fit well to today's mixed weather. Have a great day, hugs, valerie

Anita Houston The Artful Maven said...

Oh Umbrella Man, and your quote with him is perfect! Both of these highlight your quotes wonderfully and are fabulous tags!

Patty O'Malley said...

Awesome tags, Alison!

Mac Mable said...

Both tags are beautiful and the sentiments are fabulous. Great colour combination and the umbrella man looks so unique and love how you did him. Thank you too for the inspiration about stamping with the paints, loving the effect x.

Dorthe said...

Alison they are wonderful, I so love the umbrella man with his stamped umbrellas all over, and also the other background stamp looks gorgeous - the lavender tones are brilliant and stands also so sharp used for the words stamps ,- beautiful , dear.
Hugs Dorthe xo

Mrs.B said...

Fabulous tags and I love the gorgeous colour tones. Love the stamping on Mr Umbrella Man.
Avril xx

Meggymay said...

Gorgeous tags, I love how you used the umbrella man image.
Yvonne xx

Redanne said...

Two absolutely gorgeous tags Alison, the colours of the ombre on umbrella man are so lovely and the butterflies and grasses on the yellow coloured background look so, so beautiful. The quotes work so well too! Anne xx

Astrid Maclean said...

Two fabulous tags, using great colours!

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

Who would have thought a pesky squirrel could have sidelined me for over three days. It ate through my phone/internet line and sidelined ME. Otherwise I would have been here sooner.

I've used the background technique you used with Umbrella Man, but never used a brayer. I just "smooshed" the substrate on the mat and twisted or pulled it through. I'm going to have to try using a brayer, because I like the look you got.

I really like the sunnier contrast with the butterflies. It was sunny and brought those butterflies to the foreground. Two incredible and beautiful tags with great attention to detail, too.

craftytrog said...

Beautiful tags Alison, I love the colours and your new quotes.
Alison xx

sarascloset said...

Well, it's difficult to pick a favorite from the pair! I love the ombre look of your die cuts and the umbrella stamping on Umbrella Man. And I'm really loving the sunshine sky of the second one and the background text beneath your raised quote-quite effective! You are a creative genius!

Felix the Crafty Cat said...

This colour combination is great. I so love to mix things up a bit but you know that. I'm off to Stamp Magic on Sunday so I'll be having a look for the new stamps. I've got a few of the original ones but maybe it's time to add to the collection. Have a lovely creative week, what am I saying! I know you will, Angela xXx

Hazel Agnew said...

Loving the watery brayeted background technique Alison and The coordinated stamping of the words is a great tip too. Lind grasses are a favourite of mine too. Lovely quotes, beautifully presented. Xx

Cocofolies said...

Hi Alison,
Two absolutely gorgeous tags in their apparent simplicity, what I love so much! (even if I'm not always able to obtain this result myself..).
Great idea to use a simple watery brayering technique for your background as it's just perfect here regarding your choice of colors, as well as your choice of your words, so beautiful in tone on tone, right, with your "ombré" die-cuts.. this is also a very good choice of course!
Hugs and good night (I'm going to catch-up with your previous posts too before leaving your blog :D)
Corinne X
Coco xx

Marci said...

I love the rain quotes, your tags are beautiful!

Paper Profusion said...

These are wonderful Alison! Not sure why umbrella man especially nabs my fond attention, but he does. Reading comments above I can see lots of others agree. You even have torn the tissue perfectly for grounding and shadow! The butterflies tag is beautiful too. Hope your new quotes are selling like hotcakes. Nicola x

Craftyfield said...

I love this colour scheme and the tags are just so beautiful, Alison! x

paperwishesbyamanda said...

Your colouring is as delicate and poetic as the words, just beautiful tags.

suzyb said...

The die cut man with the umbrella is one of my favourite ones! Love these tags!!! I do love your work.

Neet said...

I would never have thought of putting [purple with this yellow and blue but WOW it is so effective, I hope I remember it in the future. Similarly I hope I remember how you did this water brayering and I hope I can do this technique half as well as you can - your work showcasing this is wonderful. The ombre effect on the man with the umbrella is beautiful and I love how you have used the same colours for your script.
Love the butterflies and the grasses (tempting me to buy again Alison).
Thank you for some beautiful work again.
Hugs, Neet xx

pearshapedcrafting said...

What an absolutely wonderful colour combination! Two fabulous tags that really do portray your words so well! Hugs, Chrisx