Masking and Stamping by Frankie Gaywood

Hi everyone, it's my last time to share my guest spot with you, but I hope they ask me again (!!!) cos I have been thrilled to see your reactions to my work, so thanks everyone who left me a comment here, and those who also left one on my personal blog...

So...  what have I done for this last post? Well, I decided to share the masking technique with you ... many of you will know this one, but some may not, and many of you will have forgotten it. It allows you to use your stamps in whole new ways, and that has been my theme this month... I will put a list of the stamps used at the end of this piece, so you can hop over to the Artistic Stamper site, and get some for yourself... tee hee!!

To begin with, I decided on a theme of postcards, and had chosen some bird stamps as the main images. I used my deckle edge scissors on 2 pieces of shiny cardstock, and crimped around both bits, stamping one card with the post card stamp and a postage stamp.  I drew the line with a sharpie pen.

Next I stamped my birdie images in archival black then embossed with clear embossing powder. Then, I  attached my masking paper... you can see where I had already had a practice 'cos the paper is overprinted with brown...

Having masked all the bits I wanted to stay clean and clear, I inked up the music background stamp with sepia archival ink, and printed just off centre, over my masked pieces.

Here it is with the finished overprinting, and the masks removed - simples!!!

The next process was to ink and distress the background, which I did with old paper distress ink. Then I did the sprinkle thingie - you know, when you spray  clear water on to your fingers then splatter it on to the ink. I used a roll of kitchen wipe, that I keep for just such a purpose, to blot up the excess water, to leave spots of lighter colour.

I stamped a ickle postie card and letter and distressed them in a similar way. The uneven dotty stamp came in very useful for adding age dots to my piece. For this I used frayed burlap and bundled twigs.

And this is the finished article, all mounted together on a distressed background, and made to look like a set of old letters and cards in a pile...

My Tim Holtz paper distresser came in handy here!!! I used it quite heavily to rip and tear too!!

This is the main image close up, showing the distress and "mould" spots and

This is the whole thing full on to the camera...

I hope you have enjoyed seeing this ickle card get made, and how the background stamps can be used differently, overstamping with masks... I also hope that I will see you again very soon, either here or on my own blog, where I would love to share some more pieces with you... meanwhile, get inky and ENJOY!!!

Love and light

Frankie

xx

Those Stamps

birds of a feather plate

music background

grid background

random dots background

ephemera plate

postage no1 plare

Triple Embossing... by Frankie Gaywood

Hello again, stampers. It's my turn again, to share a piece with you. So, for my second project, I would like to take you back to what hooked me on stamping and crafting, a trillion light years ago!! Embossing powders, and triple embossing in particular. I watched in wonder and amazement whist the alchemy took place, and HAD to do it for myself!!! Been fascinated ever since...

Once again, I took out my yummy background stamps, a few colour-coordinated powders, some pre-cut chipboard shapes and a few pieces of stampbord. I began with a rectangular base board and smooched it with distress inks, then set it aside.

Then, piece by piece, I embossed each one with clear, ultra thick embossing powder. This means you don't have to use as much of your pretty colours to get the depth you need!!

Next, whilst the clear was hot, I sprinkled my jewel colours and heated them.

I inked the stamps with versamark, or gold ink, then pressed into the hot embossing powder. A few seconds later, they could be lifted, carefully, and the wonderful indentations and patterns became obvious... joyous moments, each time!!

Finally, I rubbed the edges and texture of each piece with Inca Gold copper and gold pastes, then set them out in the order I had decided upon... Got to love my new crafting gloves for poorly arthritic paws, eh!!!??

And there we have it - a jewel-like wall hanging, which glows in the sunshine, and is full of delicious texture and pattern.

 This is the dots background stamp and a screw- head brad. I made 4, 1 for each corner.

 Here is a Tim Holtz Idea-ology piece, an ornate plate adorned with buttons, beads and a tiny grunge paper rose.

 Here are the gears and caligraphy background stamps. Also the time and keys plate.

Here we can see the idea-ology piece close up, and the grid background stamped with gold. I love the texture where the hot UTEE has bubbled passed the grid marks!!

And this is the complete piece. It is very pleasing to look at, in real life, because of the texture and deep jewel colours, even if a couple of the shapes look a bit like chocky biccies!!

I hope you have enjoyed looking how this project was made?? If so, please leave a comment. I also hope that not too many of you think I have taught you to suck eggs!! But I often hear people saying that triple embossing is hard to do/understand. Doing small fragments helps you to have a go without being worried about it!!!

Next time I see you here, it will be with my final piece as your guest designer, so have fun until then.

Love and light

Frankie

xx

DragonsWeb

Mokume Gane - Stamping with a Difference by Frankie Gaywood

Woo, I am so excited to be bringing you my first piece on this wonderful Artistic Stamper Creative Blog!! So, stamping... yes it is, but with a difference. As the title suggests, it is actually Japenese and is a metal working technique, to make wood grain effect in metals. I am using it with polymer clay, and I want to share 2 projects with you. It is quite photo-heavy, so get a cuppa and enjoy.

 So, on the desk is a whole lot of new clay and all the tools I need to get going., including my pasta maker.

 Each pack needs to be cut and then -

 popped into the pasta machine to be conditioned...

 When all my colours were conditioned and softened

 they were cut and layered with each other and with some gold foil... is she ever getting to the stamping, I hear you cry!!  Yes I am so see below...

I lay the mini polka dots background stamp on top of the stack and pressed down hard to imprint the image through the clay. The beauty of this technique is that you never really know the beauty of what you have made until you cut into the stack...

 I slotted some orange clay into the stack then started to slice...

 The blade slices as thin slivers as possible, being careful not to cut your own fingers!!!! Tee hee...

 So I used the mini polka dots and the cogs background stamps - yummy deep-etched rubber and below it is possible to see their influence!!

 This slice shows the cogs and the dots beautifully...

On another stack, I used the grid backround stamp and made some holes with my pokey tool!! Just look at the wonderful clay markings that produced...

 Beautiful squares of colour... and such texture...

 So I wrapped some beads made from spare clay. I will make something with them and show you the finished articles in a later post...

 Here are some of them, surrounded by a bracelet I made recently. They will match beautifully...

 Woo, such lovely colours and swirls, and I LOVE those cogs and squares!! Great stampimg!!

 With another stack, I decided to create a frame for one of the 15cms collage alterable frames. I laid thin slices around the edge and trimmed ...

 Look at the bright sunshine streaming in through my craftroom window... and the frame finished and waiting to be "cooked""... I use my halogen oven, it's quick and easy and less costly than my large cooker.

 I made a Tim Holtz-type background with distress inks and stamping using the dots and checks background stamps, and then added the teeny tiny butterfly. The beetle in the bottom corner and the beautiful large buttlerfly are from the same plate called insects and butterflies.

The leaves are from the Graphic 45 Tropical Paradise Pad. I fussy cut them. I used the pad because my frame reminded me of the paper when it was finished...

Well, I thoroughly enjoyed sharing my first project of the month with you, and look forward to seeing you all again soon, in a couple of weeks.

Love and Light

Frankie xx

DragonsWeb