Stampscapes tag swap

I know I have been MIA lately, but family does come first! Hopefully, things will be back to abnormal soon, so keep checking back for more!

I was in a tag swap in my Yahoo Stampscapes group, so I thought I would share with you some of my creations. My swap partner is Darsie Bruno who is a truly gifted artist, so I hope she won't mind this newbies tags! This is the first time I've used glossy papers with my Stampscapes images. I truly have so much to learn, but I really love the ease of using makeup sponges as brushes with my stamp pads.

The tags may look hard to do, but they really come together quickly! Kevin has done such an excellent job of designing his Stampscapes line. They really blend together well & are very forgiving (good thing for me!). If you make a "mistake," you can usually cover it with another stamp. You can really add dimesion to the scenes by adding more images at the front of the scenes like the tree branches I used.

The images are stamped on glossy card stock. For this swap, I cut out 4 pieces of one sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" Kromekote glossy paper that I got this paper from a local copy shop, after coming up empty at all of the big name office supply stores.

On the first tag, the main image is stamped 2 times. I used the right side of the stamp on the left side of the paper & then the left side of the stamp on the right side of the paper. You can just put some torn paper towels over the image that was already stamped, so you don't end up with a lot of overlapping. Next, I stamped the cumulous clouds several times in the sky. The fun part was the coloring. Start w/the lighter colors & work up to the darker ones. There isn't a main light source on this tag, so the shading & highlights weren't as pronounced. I wish I had left more white spaces on all of the tags, but I guess you have to start somewhere! After I was done coloring, I added the bass, bird & branch images to the scene. There is some color on the bass, but the other images were left as is. Always spray these pieces with some sealer when you are done. It was finished off with a sticker sentiment & layered over the DP & card stock.

The next tag was stamped with portions of the stamps again. First, the cabin image was stamped. After covering w/torn sheets of paper towels, I stamped the right side of the cove image to the left of the cabin. While the cabin was still covered, the left side of the cove image was stamped in the forefront of the right side. I messed up on this image some, so I covered it up w/aome extra tree images. The clouds were added & colored like the rest of the images & then the branch, fisherman & duck were stamped last. It was finished off w/glossy sealer & matted & a ribbon was added to the top. I found another sentiment sticker to add that seemed to fit this image perfectly, but Kevin at Stampscapes has some great sentiment stamps that he just added to his line of stamps recently that would work just as well.

The third tag followed the same process as the others. The right side of the cove & the left side of the boulders & trees were stamped first. The clouds were added & everything was colored. The branch & the pine trees were added to the scene for dimension, & I blotted black ink around the edges. After spraying w/sealer, a sticker sentiment was added. Some more matting & a Kimberly Poloson rub-on was added at the top.

The last image would have to be one of my favorites especially since it uses one of my numerous covered bridge stamps! This image is by Wildlife Enterprises. I started w/the covered bridge image, & then added some rocks by Art Impressions to the right of the bridge. I covered the bridge & added the mountains. I stamped the main mountains about 3/4 of the way from the left edge, & then I masked this image & stamped the mountains again to the right side. I think I had to stamp a bit more of the mountains to the right of the bridge to fill-in the scene better. The clouds were added & everything was colored. The branch was added to the right side, & an unknown maker bare tree was added to the bottom along with the tops of the pine trees. This scene was triple matted & another rub-on was added to the top along with a stray silk leaf.

Ta-Dah! This was the last tag in my first Stampscapes group swap. I hope I will be involved in many more if the group allows. I just love seeing all of the great images that have already been added to our photo album over at the Yahoo group Stampscapes II. I have to add one more image of a card I made to thank Darsie for being my swap partner, & it was also her birthday last week. This card used one of Kevin's earlier images that he created when he worked for A Stamp in the Hand. I decided to try my hand at highlighting with a white gel pen. Kevin using this technique all of the time, & it just adds so much more to the scene. I have a way to go before I master this technique, but I really love what it does to the scene. I added a Coloroasis sticker to the card, & a ribbon from Hobby Lobby.

Happy Stamping!

Lee

Recipes:

All images by Stampscapes rubber stamps unless listed

Ink: Main images - Black Memories dye ink

Adirondack, Seashells, Sea Brights, Stamp it & Memories dye ink

DP: 1st tag - Frances Meyer Blue School Skirt
2nd tag - Karen Foster Design Natural Burlap
3rd tag - the Paper Studio Green Country Cackle
Cardstock: Paperabilities

Ribbon: Unknown except as listed

Embellishments: Unknown except as listed

Covered Bridge in Red, White and Black

It's time to introduce you to some of my covered bridge stamps. Why covered bridges? I'm from Ohio, & I just love to go back east & check out some of the bridges I remember & even more that I don't. My favorite memories of covered bridges are all in the fall. The fall trees back east have so many beautiful colors. We do have the beautiful golden colors of the aspens here when they turn in the fall, but nothing compares to that great spectrum of colors you see back in Ohio & other eastern states.

I saw a card challenge today that wanted you to only use the colors red, white & black. I immediately knew that I wanted to do a covered bridge scene (& a Christmas one that I just got from Impression Obsession - more on that later). I usually stamp the bridges with lots of fall colors, but I knew I could make one of these stamps seem a bit more formal with these colors. By the way, I can't remember where I saw the challenge, but I finished the card anyway.


I stamped several images before I decided on this one. I tried the white on black, but I couldn't make the red pop & then I tried red on white, but the black highlights were too much. I did stamp this combination first, but as usual, I just had to try a couple more options. I'm used to putting backgrounds & colors with the covered bridge scenes, so it was hard to stop when I did. It would've taken away from the image if I added anymore which is not something I usually do. It's really time to get a new camera so the detail shows up much better, but since I'll be getting my assistance dog on the 15th, I need to get some more items for her before I can spend money on a new camera.

Card Recipe:
Stamp: Stamp Cabana
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black
EP: Ranger Super Fine Detail Black
DP: The Paper Studio
Black Card Stock: Paperabilities
Polymer Image on Black Card Stock: ????
Black Paper EP: Detail Clear
Black Mulberry Paper
Red Paper: Echizen Embossed - Papers by Catherine (love the detail & shine!)
Ribbon: The Craft Studio (black & white dots) & Michael's (red sheer)
Rhinestones: Cell phone embellishment from Target

Coming next - the Impression Obsession image,
Lee