Double-sided Acetate

Hello all!  Firstly, a quick heads-up... I've just embarked on an Instagram journey, so if you'd like to see how that looks, do come and follow me there.  My Instagram name is w0rdsandp1ctures (I'm far too late to the Instagram party to have those words without fiddling around a little bit).  I'm determined to keep blogging too though (unless New Blogger makes life so miserable that I can't bear it!), so don't worry.  I like words as well as pictures...

This post title may be a reference known only to a particular viewership and a particular age group... Blue Peter, a children's show on the BBC, used to make craft projects every now and then and rather than mention a brand name would refer to "double-sided sticky tape".  We all knew who they meant!  But it seemed a good name for this post sharing a couple of samples from my latest stamp release with PaperArtsy. 

One quote/tag is for EAB19 Life & Living and one is for EAB20 Night & Day, but the thing the pair of them have in common is the stamping and embossing of the quote on acetate for a rather magical effect.  It wasn't until later that I realised that the acetate stamping wasn't all they shared!





Don't panic if you're finding the quotes hard to read in the photo above... it's not your eyesight.  Thanks to the sunlight they are there in double because of the shadow (and so the post title just keeps on giving!). 

When you look at them in the shade, or just in normal light, you can read them perfectly well...










... but you can still see the background and/or stamping going on behind at the same time.  So again, it's almost like seeing double.  You get the quote, but you don't lose anything behind it.

But just wait until you see the magic when the full shadow effect is in operation!!











First things first, though...  These started with a simple sponged background, blending the paints on for a lovely soft ombre effect.  The left-hand one is the tag for the meadow flower Life & Living tag... you'll see the other in action in an upcoming post.












And then for this one I got out one of my oldest stamp acquisitions, this fabulous PaperArtsy Hot Picks wildflower stem.  It's stamped in Olive Archival.













One of the things I love about it is that it has a fairly bendy stem so you can reposition it to go in a different direction which means it looks like two different flowers!













And at the foot of the tag is another long-time favourite, these lovely birds amidst the grassy stems.














And now for that sunlit magic...  I'm so in love with this effect!  The words are stamped in Archival and embossed in Wow Earthtone Pepper, a lovely mottled grey.  But just look at that shadow... double George Eliot delight!












Let's take a quick look at the other tag, using the amazing Jack London quote from the Night & Day plate.  I think these words are simply magical, so I kept the tag nice and simple to let them shine.  And I'm more than happy to have these words twice over!!










There's another sponged background - I use a natural sponge which I think gives a much better texture.  The surrounding stamps are Hot Picks again...  this is just a partial stamping of the gorgeous giant moon from HP1903. 

I painted a white area over my sponging before stamping in Watering Can Archival, so that the moon could glow nicely.









And here are those birds back in action.   I honestly wasn't thinking of these tags as a pair - they were made on different days.  It wasn't until I was photographing all the sample batches that I realised how much they have in common.













They're stamped in Archival and embossed in the Wow Pepper, just like the quote itself.  When you get it at the right angle, it has a lovely light-reflecting gleam.








So two relatively simple tags apart from that leap of faith of stamping onto the acetate.  (It's just some leftover packaging, by the way, nothing fancy.)  I hadn't really thought when I did it that you would get those lovely shadows, I just rather liked the idea of giving the words a bit of dimension, floating above the tag.





The doubling of the words was a delightful bonus which appeared as I was photographing them... happy accidents are so lovely, aren't they?  I hope they give you as much pleasure as they do me.





That's your lot for today, but as I say, if you're on Instagram do come and say hello to me there.  I'm still finding my way around so that will make it much easier for me to find and visit you in return.  I hope you're all having a good week, and I look forward to some more blog-visiting soon.  Happy crafting all!

I thought the most beautiful thing in the world must be shadow.
From The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath