Corrugated Quotes

Hello everyone!  I hope you're doing well, and not suffering too much in the heat (if that's what's happening where you are!).  I wanted to pop in to share probably my favourite samples from my latest round of stamp releases, launched by PaperArtsy in June.  It's a lo-o-ong one, so grab a cup of whatever keeps you going!

There's one sample for each of the stamp sets, so one quote comes from EAB18 Gardens & Growth, one from EAB19 Life & Living, and one from EAB20 Night & Day.  The colours for each were specific to each stamp set, but intended to co-ordinate overall with one another, so these work beautifully as a trio.

I was going to try to write this post in New Blogger, but then I decided I didn't want to waste my time getting frustrated.














For as long as Legacy is here, I'm sticking with it.  I can write a complex post very quickly.  With N.B. even the simplest post is a trial.














But on to happier things... this trio of tags.  You can see what they have in common... the Paper Dolls, the regular-sized colourful tag mounted over corrugated cardboard...
















... the Tim Holtz Wildflower thinlits and Lin Brown's fabulous grasses from PaperArtsy ELB30.  These grasses always seem to play a part in my quote stamp samples, and here they are in triplicate!

I was also enjoying playing with 3D quotes with these arched banners.  Some of them were done on acetate (check out Double Sided Acetate if you missed those ones) but on two of these I went with a more conventional substrate for my arched words.

What's great about this technique is that you can use a quote that might be just a bit too wide to fit on the card or tag and still get it all on!















Let me take you through a few process pictures so you can see how they all came together, but mostly I'm going to share pretty close-ups, so feel free to scroll on and enjoy those!














Let's start with EAB18 Gardens & Growth (might as well go in number order so that I don't get completely confused!!).

I stamped the grasses in paint over a brayered background - there's a lovely softness to the paint stamping, as though the grasses are blowing in the wind.














I decided to have another layer of stamping, so this Hot Picks wildflower stem appears in Leaf Green Archival.  I stamped the stem again upside down to make it long enough, and you get one of those lovely knotty bits in the stem into the bargain - very true to life.













I cut the Thinlits stems from another piece of painted card, and used more Fresco paints to add the petal details. 













Some are tucked behind the tag, and some are layered on top.  It all adds depth and dimension.















The twisting cotton thread adds movement and intricate detail.













The quote is stamped in Leaf Green Archival and clear-embossed so you get that little touch of gloss to catch the light.













And I blended on a little bit of co-ordinating paint around the edges to draw the eye in towards the words, before fixing it in place with a couple of Idea-ology fasteners.















I love this little girl, so I'll forgive her for picking flowers in my garden!














Onwards to EAB19 Life & Living...  a quick look at the early stages first.  For this, I used one of a pair of sponged tags (you've seen the other in action already on the Life & Living acetate tag linked to above).














This time the grasses are stamped in Archival so you get that lovely sharp look.  I combined Leaf Green and Olive Archival inks directly on the stamp for a slightly variegated look.














The tag I cut some of the Wildflower thinlits from was a bit dark, so I sponged on some gesso and got this really lovely mottled look.













And you'll see that others have a little bit of script stamping to add extra detail.

Again the cotton thread swirls around to help give a sense of movement and life.  (Ignore the little seedpod near the bottom star - it's not a permanent fixture.  I was photographing outside.)













Speaking of the stars - they're moulded in paperclay in one of the Finnabair silicone moulds.













Since it's clearly twilight, I thought the stars might just be starting to appear.

I gave them a rough coating of white embossing powder so that they would be the same colour as the text stamping, rather than just having the plain paperclay matte finish.












And there's another segue to the white-embossed words themselves.  Since the colour palette for the Life & Living samples included the lovely Lavender and Wisteria Fresco paints, I decided to echo the twilit sky at the top of the tag for the quote down at the bottom.











It brings those soft purple tones to the fore on the panel as a whole.  It's fastened in the same way as the one on the Gardens & Growth panel, even though this quote would have fitted lying flat.













The boy is one of my all-time favourite Paper Dolls, so it's only fitting that he takes his place on this, with one of my favourite quotes (by Oscar Wilde).















And it may also be my favourite of all the samples.

(Sshhh, don't tell the others - and in any case the Gardens & Growth girl and tag is such a close second as to make no odds!). 















And so to Night & Day... (This post has probably taken you all day and all night so that seems appropriate!).  I don't seem to have anything in the way of process photos for this one, but you get the idea by now.















The ombre tag in the background is another sponged affair - I love the subtle blending capability a natural sponge gives you.  (Again, you can see its partner in the acetate tags linked before - you get a better look at the effect there.)














And I think here we're probably at the start of the day...  throwing open the windows to the day.  The window might be very weathered (with PaperArtsy Crackle Glaze), but it still lets in the golden dawn light.
















The Thinlits stems here play the role of the ripening corn...













... as do the grasses, stamped in Pumice Stone against the sky.














The quote is stamped in some Stampendous powder which happily echoes the Sky Fresco paint of the background, as well as catching the light to make me happy!













I decided I really wanted to include the author of the words this time.  Quite apart from anything else it adds an important balancing element to the composition of the whole piece down there at the foot of the panel.














Our Paper Doll looks more than ready to throw his heart into his day's work, whatever that may be, but however high his heart is leaping... 















... his feet are firmly grounded on some Idea-ology Design Tape.
















Phew, I think we made it!  I hope you like them as much as I do.  I really enjoyed creating this triptych... even though it was an unconscious one.  I didn't plan it like this from the start.

They weren't made together... each was created along with the samples for the rest of that quote set, but as the days progressed I obviously gave in to letting them echo one another, and by this third panel, it was a conscious process.























I wanted the Lin Brown grasses again, so I used them again.  I wanted some more corrugated card,  so I grabbed some more.  I wanted the Wildflower Thinlits to add another layer, so I let myself have them.  I wanted another arched quote, so I made one.

And by the end I was a happy woman.  As a triptych, they're one of my favourite makes of all time, all the better for being slightly accidental.  Serendipity is a wonderful thing.



















Thank you so much for stopping by today.  As you know, this blog is as much my own personal scrapbook for my creations as anything else.

It's an endlessly happy bonus to have your company as I keep my records of what I did and how.  For that, and for your lovely comments and for the inspiration I find as I hop around Craftyblogland, you have my thanks now and always.  Stay safe, stay well everybody.

I am working here (in Amsterdam) on my last big triptych, which will be a tremendous story, and which gives me a more intense life and exhilaration. My God, life is worth living!
Max Beckmann

Even tinier houses!

Hello all!  Since we're all pretty much confined to quarters at the moment, I've got a post celebrating our houses and homes.

I shared some tiny houses at the start of the month (officially so - the die used to create my Useful or Beautiful houses is called "Tiny Houses"), but compared to these, those were actually pretty big.  Today's houses are really teeny tiny ones, located on a quartet of ATCs.

There were quite a few prompts behind this creation... first the fact that we're all spending much more time at home just now; then there's the Little Things theme at the Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog coupled with a Home Sweet Home theme at Try It on Tuesday; it was also Mothering Sunday, so this quartet of houses was destined for dollshouse-loving Cestina; and finally, it was another chance to get out my new PaperArtsy House & Home quotes and play.

And in fact they started by themselves, before I'd even thought about them... these were the mop-up/overflow tags for my It's Patina Time tag. 














Every bit of leftover smooshing ink or Oxide made its way onto these tags, either smooshed or splattered.















I thought I'd play along at the FJB by cutting my two tags into four ATCs.






They weren't quite big enough to make the full 3.5 x 2.5 inch sizing, so I cut up a cardboard box to make proper ATC-sized mounts for them.

I didn't want the trimmings to go to waste (they could have been wider than 2.5, but weren't tall enough for 3.5 - that's why there are trimmings for anyone worried about the maths!) so I played about with adding them to the composition.







This was the point at which the idea to use the little houses popped into my head.















They're from one of those cheap woodcut sets you can sometimes pick up at places like The Range, and I'd bought them ages ago.














Thankfully, I was able to lay hands on them amidst the chaos of my hoarded craft supplies.














They've had a couple of coats of Snowflake Fresco paint, and they're grounded onto the background with a wash of Payne's Grey.














Each of the quotes comes from PaperArtsy EAB15 House & Home, from the most recent launch of my word stamps.














They're stamped in Garden Patina Archival Ink, which tones in nicely with the verdigris blotches in the background.














In fact, it seems to have colour variation built in to the pad - sometimes it's slightly bluer, sometimes slightly greener as you stamp.













I've not noticed that about it before, so maybe mine's just "gone off".  If so, I'm delighted - I love the slight shifts in shade.















I liked the simple wooden houses, but the ATCs needed a little something extra.  Time for another rummage through the stash...














These wooden stars seemed just right to provide a touch more detail and another white accent.














Well, they were white once they'd also had some Snowflake paint added to them, at least.













I ended up whitewashing the rugged corrugated cardboard in the background too - and roughing it up some more with my scissor blades for a nice distressed look.














I also did some scraping of the edges of all the tag pieces to give them some more texture.

















That was fine on the larger background panels, but more than a little tricky when it came to the tiny decorative strips.  My thumbs have lost their top layer of skin from getting scraped!

















Worth it though, I think.  You get a light framing colour from the manila tag fibres as well as that extra texture, which draws the eye to them more effectively.










Some twisted tangled thread adds more movement as well as a nice touch of random squiggliness to contrast with all the right angles and straight lines.

And of course there's been some spattering with leftover Snowflake white paint as I went along.  So there you have it.  I hope you like this quartet of ATCs, and I hope you enjoy the added spring sunlight... 

It's lovely to have the sun to cheer us through these tricky times.  I hope you'll have some bright sunshine at some point if you haven't got any yet.  We're all going to need every ounce of things-to-be-happy-about as the virus progresses.  Take care of yourselves and happy crafting all.

It's the little details that are vital.  Little things make big things happen.
John Wooden

It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I'd like to add these ATCS to the collection of Little Things at the Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog
At Try It On Tuesday the challenge theme is Home Sweet Home/Where Would You Like To Live