Fantasy Lavinia

I’ve gotten some new stamps from a brand called Lavinia. I had liked their stamps for a while, but they are not available as rubber stamps, only clearstamps so that put me off a bit. I prefer rubber stamps as I do not have to worry about the kinds of inks I use on it, e.g. Stazon is not advised for clear stamps (it contains a solvent), but what other non-solvent ink is there that can stamp over acryllic paint and is waterproof after drying?

Still I went ahead and ordered some. I also want to try and work more with sprays, as I don’t use them often or find it hard to use them with stencils (hardly ever get a nice image). Yesterday I learned something important: Take an empty mister, put a little bit of water in it and spray your ink spray into it. Shake, and spray. The colour tone is much lighter, making it easier to work with. Anyway, didn’t know that before.

The cards:

I think the above card was the best one of the series. Stamps used: Zen-plant, Large Path, Freya. With the other cards I experimented a bit more.

Although the next one isn´t bad either, like a misty place in the forest. I´ve used the Zen-plant stamp here and the Tree Root.

The last has got some mistakes, like the upper right corner (I just noticed) – I can glue it in place though. Other thing is the fairy Freya, I stamped her but it didn’t cover enough. I stamped again, this time putting something under the paper, not just the cutting mat, I think I just put a cloth underneath I think? Not sure, but this time the image transferred better, but not exactly at the right place. Let’s call the ghost image a special effect 😉

I also tried a mirror stamp technique, as I saw in a shop they have a special stamp with which you can mirror another stamp. I thought, let’s try it by stamping onto my acryllic block and put that on the paper. Didn’t work extremely well, I won’t repeat it, but the effect is ok. What did I do? Mirror the root of the tree, so it looks more like  branch from a tree then a tree itself. Stamps used: Zen-Plant, Freya and Tree Root.

The psychedelic mushrooms-fairy

Well she isn’t that psychedelic at all herself. Then again, usually the dealers aren’t addicted…

Here she is:

She’s got her own vices. Sitting on a mushroom, smelling the flowers.

The fair+ mushrooms + branch behind her are all one stamp, the flower is another. I also used a nature fragments stamp for the treetrunks around her. Here is another use of my home made marbled pearls.

This is my second entry for the Chocolate Baroque Colour challenge #3

One card left for this challenge! So we’ve explored our own psychedelic imagination, visited the fairies, then what else could be next then the mysterious orient?

 

Psychedelic Party

Here is my first entry for the chocolate baroque challenge:

Ever since I saw those swirls from the abstract fragments set I thought “retro”, though not quite (as that would be more geometric). Still, when this colour challenge was presented – brown, orange, yellow (and grey/cream/offwhite) I thought: yes, retro! (Not that I’m good at retro, or have ever made a retro thing, it’s just that now I had to try something new.

Stamped with distress ink ripe persimmon (or spiced marmalade?) then clear embossed, inked inside with vintage photo, mustard seed around it, fading via Scattered Straw to Pumice Stone.
Then embossed in a Tim Holz embossing folder (probably called Rays) – highlighted the rays a bit more with yellow, inked the edges with the orange.
Added the pearls to it (the first use of my premade batch, yay!) with the idea of adding a sentiment in between it, with the card rotated 90 degrees to the left. A word like: Disco! or: Party! Or: ” staying alive”

Problem: I didn’t have that sentiment, none of my alphabet stamps fit the theme, and couldn’t be bothered to spend another hour behind the pc looking for the appropriate font. I knew I would end up hourS behind the pc, not just one.

Time for a small test. I showed my partner the card as it was then, and asked him what he thought. I pretty much thought it breathed retro, or disco.
Do you know what he said?
Kermis. Carnival.
Uh what? How can you think that?
Well, the wavy thing, and the rays…
Ok, I said, and went back to the crafting table.

What more retro, disco, old but not vintage old? Hmm hippies? Flowers! Ok, flowers… I stamped the flowers on a separate sheet, dabbed some ink on my craftsheet and coloured the flowers. I cut them out (note that I don’t say fussy cut, as I didn’t, only the first half…. then I was too tired. But would you have noticed if I hadn’t said it?)

Played around a bit with the layout. But what to put in the middle? Still didn’t have a sentiment. But, I did have this big mushroom from my second Chocolate Baroque entry (actually I made that card first, but haven’t blogged about it yet. I’m not much for chronological order.) Yay, I could use left overs!

Hippie… drugs…mushroom…

Jaaah, and then I could use some of the fairyland stamps! “Welcome to fairyland”? “Let the adventure begin”? Those would have fitted equally well. How about “sprinkled with fairydust” for an added dose of psychedelics! Ofcourse, no way I could stamp that onto the embossed paper, so stamped it onto tissue paper, embossed it, and glued it. Oh, as you can see, I didn’t use the big mushroom – it didn’t fit. I made 2 new ones. (See how I use my leftovers?)
I sprinkled those with fairydust. That was possible because I had made a card with her first, you know, that second entry which I haven’t blogged about yet.

So that was my card, for the Chocolate Baroque Colour Challenge. No idea who I would give this to. (And you know what my partner said when I asked him again what he though? “Still Carnival, sorry…”. Hm. I think I need to feed him some more mushrooms with some special fairy dust, maybe then he’ll see!.