Art Journal Experiments with Stamps and Inks.

This year I decided to get some inspiration from my customers and friends in a more relaxed atmosphere than what is possible in a class. I love teaching classes, showing all the wonderful products and stamping techniques available from Stampin' Up!® but I wanted to provide an opportunity for sharing ideas, experimenting with products and techniques and creating stamp art with no pressure to create a particular item. 

Hence the "Creative Tuesdays" sessions evolved.

Friends arrive when it is convenient, sometimes stay for lunch, the urn is always on, and everything in my studio is there to play with. The girls bring there own supplies too, and each session we try to combine traditional techniques with "whatever" and see what happens. Some of the girls do what I'm trying, others "do their own thing" and we all have such a good time.

Today I wanted to show a variety of ways to use the brayer combined with other stamping techniques, and as my interest in Art Journals has evolved, I've become more fascinated with textures. 

Here is the finished product for my first experimental piece.

I started by applying colour with the brayer onto Glossy White card using  a Stampin' Up! Tea Lace Doily as a mask. Starting with the lightest colour - Daffodil Delight - other colours were added to cover most of the background. Then I stamped with Versa Mark and Clear Embossed the doily shapes and Gorgeous Grunge stamps before adding more colour with the brayer.

Some stamped images were added using Stazon Jet Black and then I used one of my new favourite stamps - Off The Grid by Stampin' Up!, heat embossed it in gold then finished off with a little sponging around the edges. 

I came back to this fun method later in the day and added more experimental elements to a new page.

I used the same basic elements - Tea Lace Doily and stamps, but this time I added some circle masks as well. More brayering, some stamping with the stamps covered in stamp cleaner (this gives a similar effect o bleaching) and some spritzing with an Alcohol based spritz.

The detail photos show some of the lovely effects achieved with these combinations of techniques.

The circular shape at the bottom Left corner has been stamped with one of the images from Gorgeous that had stamp cleaner sprayed directly onto the stamp. It was very wet at first but I loved the effects and was able to remove quite a bit of the excess simply by dabbing with a tissue.

I can't wait to add these pages to my Art Journal, and hope you have enjoyed a brief look at these fun combinations of techniques. 

Until Next Time

Happy Stamping