Anything Goes Swap for Stampscapes II Yahoo Group

My swap partner for the Stampscapes II Yahoo group received her swap from me in the mail, so I can finally post the pictures of the projects I sent to her.  This swap was an easy one for me as it was an anything goes swap.  I'm still pretty new to Stampscapes rubber stamps, so some of the other swaps either didn't appeal to me or I had never done yet.  This is not to say that I won't try new techniques (which almost all of them are new to me!), but I couldn't invest the time or money for supplies for items that I didn't have at the time.

This scene was made using some of the new stamps I just received last week from Stampscapes.  There are so many stamps I want to get from Kevin to add detail to my scenes, but I have to remind myself that if I don't eat, I won't have the strength to stamp! lol   All of the images were stamped onto Kromekote Glossy Paper with Tuxedo Black Memento Dye Ink.  The water & trees on the left side is from Nature Sheet #1.  This stamp was connected to the Lakeside Cove on the right.  After masking off the stamped images, the Rocky Peaks Sm. was stamped with Soft Stone Memories ink to add distance to the scene that I wouldn't have if I had stamped it in black.  

Next, I had to figure out what I was going to do for the sky.  I see a lot of suns & moons that don't use any of the stamps, so I thought it was time to try that technique out.  I used a Stampin' Up! circle punch and punched a circle out of a sticky note.  The inside of the circle left from the punch was used as a stencil for the yellow sun, and the punch itself was used as a mask after I inked it up with Memories Yellow ink.  I can't remember if I used the cloud bits stamp initially for the sky, but I did add Memories yellow and pink, Adirondack Eggplant and Sea Brights Pool to the sky with a sponge.  The yellow and pool was also added to the water, but it was made darker by adding additional layersalong with Adirondack Stream.  Many different colors of  green was added to the grass & leaves including Adirondack Lettuce and Meadow, Stamp It Sage and Printworks Forest Green.  Some of the shading was added with Stamp It Brown which was also used on the rocks as well as the soft stone.  As you can probably tell by now, it doesn't matter if you use the same inks types all together.  The paper quality seems to be the biggest factor in scenic stamping.  One thing you won't want to use is regular photo papers.  They will fade very quickly which would be very disheartening after putting so much work into a scene.

When I was pleased with the colors, I stamped the rowboat, solo duck, water grass and reeds to the scene with the addition of an Art Impressions leaf to the top of the scene since I don't have the Stampscapes leaf.  These stamps don't usually need any colors added since they are so small.  The items that are closest to you also wouldn't need color to stay in proportion to the scene.  Last, but not least, I add the highlights with a trusty white gel pen and some rub-ons from Heidi Grace.  This may seem like a lot of trouble to many stampers, but since I love scenery so much, I love that I can use these stamps to make a scene look so realistic.  If I ever need inspiration to make the scenes, I can go as far as my computer to picture hosting sites like Flikr, Picture Trail, webshots and more to see some excellent examples to recreate.

The bookmark scene below only used a few stamps with wonderful results.  I've also cut off potions of scenes I had screwed up and made them into bookmarks.  This was matted onto cardstock, added an eyelet and fibers and it was ready to use or send to someone. 

Another great thing about Stampscapes stamps is that you can use stamps from other companies to fill in on  Kevin's line.  I've used other stamps like Beeswax, Art Impressions, Wildlife Ent., PSX, Victorine Originals, Coronado, Sutter, OnyxXpressions, Impression Obsession and other companies stamps with wonderful results.  There are also tons of techniques to use to add so much more life to the scenes.  Just go to the Stampscapes website and click onto the lessons link to see the many examples you can complete by following these step-by-step instructions and videos. 

These cards would be great cards to send to the soldiers serving overseas that send them back home to their friends and family.  I donate all of my extra cards to Operation Write Home that takes a lot of the work out of supporting this mission.  I hope you can join me in supporting this cause for our Heroes!    

 ~~  Lee  ~~