Words and Zinskis

Hello all, and happy summer solstice to you!  (Or happy winter solstice, obviously, if you're in the southern hemisphere.)  And happy Sunday too.  I hope the day is being kind to you.

I'm just here with a quick post today to start sharing some of the samples from my latest stamp release at PaperArtsy.  Thank you so much for your amazing feedback both here and at PaperArtsy and, of course, over at the dreaded (ssshhhh, whisper it) Facebook.  If you missed the launch post, you may also have missed my first ever Facebook Live - so do take a look if you fancy it.

For now, I'm just going to offer up a couple of close-ups of the two tags I created for the launch using the Zinski characters, and some of Kay Carley's lovely meadow flowers.  One has a quote from EAB18 Gardens & Growth, and one has words from EAB19 Life & Living.






Let's start with Gardens & Growth and the little boy.  I began with some brayered tags, applying the paint with plenty of water spritzed on for a soft effect.














For both backgrounds I used Kay Carley's lovely meadow grasses from EKC17.  I stamped some in Olive Archival, and then decided I'd like some yellow grassy stems, like hay.  So I painted some Cheesecake and Haystack onto the craft mat...














... and used that to stamp into and layer the stems with thicker heads over the others for a grain/cereal look.  There's a little white spatter (of course) and the Zinski "ground" stamp to go underneath the boy's feet.













Here he is, stamped on a separate piece of card using the stamping platform so that I could stamp, paint him and then re-stamp to retrieve all the details.

He's mounted on some padded tape which is what gives him that lovely shadow, making him pop from the background.  I added slightly darker shadows beneath him with some walnut ink.













Here are some of those Olive-stamped grasses in close-up...
















... and the yellow stalks layered over the top.










And here are those words by Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of The Secret Garden.  You can read the words two ways, I realised.  There's the primary one, which I think was probably in FHB's head: if you look at the world the right way, you can see good things everywhere.

But there's another possibility, if you choose to hear it: if you have the right appearance, the world will be a garden to you.  If you don't look the right way - not so much.





Onwards to Life & Living and the girl dancing her way through life.  Her tag started out with a sponged background.  It's one of my favourite ways to blend Fresco paints onto a tag.

I flatter myself that you can get quite a "Monet-esque" effect!












Some more of Kay Carley's pretty grasses - this time all stamped in paint for a lovely soft focus look.
















Some are in the light Spring green, and some have a little of the darker Lawn mixed in.














And again, I stamped some Zinski "ground" beneath her feet and added some walnut ink shadows.














The girl herself I stamped on separate card again, using the stamping platform - same process as before... stamp, paint, re-stamp for detail.  But when it comes to cutting this sweetheart out, there are a lot of fiddly bits to deal with around the edges.













So I took the easy route and also stamped her direct to the tag, embossing her hair with Wow's Primary Bark embossing powder to give it a dark, glossy sheen.  Then you can just cut the easy way and have the details ready and waiting on the tag when you stick her down!





And finally those words, stamped in Archival and then embossed with Earthtone Pepper embossing powder by Wow.  I find it's best to stamp in Archival rather than an embossing ink.  You get a sharper image for the powder to cling to - important when you're working with fine detail stamps like these words.

I know I'll find lots of other uses for this fabulously positive quote, but somewhere in the back of my brain it will always be linked with this exuberant little girl!

So there you have it... the first of the samples done and dusted.  I'll be back with more over the coming days and weeks.








But before all that there's some new journalling coming your way, also using a quote from one of these new sets.  Watch this space...  Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Stay safe, stay well and I'll see you all again soon.

If you've never experienced the joy of accomplishing more than you can imagine, plant a garden.
Robert Brault