Stamping... Over the Rainbow

Alice in ATC-Land

Phil — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:50:30 +0000

I went on a mini ATC binge today. I’ve been wanting to play with some of my new stamps for a while, and hadn’t yet had any projects in mind for which to use them. Ever since I started making ATCs, I dreamed of making a traditional deck of cards. After what I’ve done today, I think it’s a very real possibility, and something I’ll be exploring further.

First up is what I’ve titled Rough Queen of Hearts. The card concept worked okay, but when I tried stamping the Queen by first using my Marvy brush markers directly on the stamp, it turns out she’s too detailed and thus requires darker colors to stamp clearly.

(Stamps: “Queen of Hearts” from Tweety Jill Designs; “Q” from Marcella K’s condensed alphabet collection; “Heart” from Plate 60 of Nonsequitur Stamps. Inks: Marvy Matchable inks; and Marvy brush markers.)

So I tried her out again using all black ink, and sure enough, she turned out beautiful. I did the card the same way, only I added a light background using “D-2054 Solid Square” from A Stamp in the Hand. It’s a little trick I learned from Kat at the last convention I attended in November, and it’s incredibly handy. I colored the solid square stamp with my markers, stamped away once, and then stamped on the card. I called this one Hearty Queen.

Next, I aimed for a more traditional style card, with the character on the card fully reversible in addition to the number and suit. The first take didn’t quite work. It’s surprisingly hard to line an image up like that, so Alice ended up looking like she’s wading through water. Here’s Rough 7 of Clubs.

(Stamps: “Alice” from Tweety Jill Designs; “7″ from Pixie Stamp Design; “Spade” from Plate 60 of Nonsequitur Stamps; “Script text” from Plate 60 of Nonsequitur Stamps; Inks: Marvy matchables and Marvy brush markers.)

On the second go-around, I managed to get Alice just as I wanted her. I added a little color and changed the background into an angled one in order to make Alice stand out more. Overall, I’m very pleased with the result, and also the title: Alice in Club 7.

A Quick Techie Update

Phil — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:20:51 +0000

After spending a year and a half on Blogger, using a theme with minimal alterations that I wasn’t generally thrilled with, I’m pleased to welcome you to our new website! By ‘our’, I mean mine and Robert’s new website. Perhaps you know us, or followed us at our former site, Stamping With the Boys, or maybe you’re completely new to our fabulous little corner of the world. Whichever is the case, welcome to Stamping Over the Rainbow!

We hope you like it here. I’ve worked really hard to make this site easily accessible and navigable. Feel free to subscribe in a feed reader via RSS, or sign up for email updates. A quick word of warning: all feeds are powered by Feedburner, which in a month’s time will be merging completely with Google feeds. I’ll be updating the feed to Google, but with any luck, no one’s subscription will be lost as a result of the switch. If it is, I apologize in advance.

Now sit back, relax, and enjoy. Let the stamping begin!

I ♥ Stampscapes

Robert — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:12:00 +0000

Stampscapes are an amazing brand of stamps which combine seamlessly to create beautiful scenes and landscapes. I took a class a couple of years ago from Ken Pesho in Arizona. Ken is an incredible artist and a great teacher. Here are some examples of my own scapes. All of the stamps are from the Stampscapes line, with color added with Memento markers or stippled with Marvy Matchables and Adirondack Lights.

Thank you card, Albuquerque style

Phil — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 04:13:00 +0000

This is a thank you card I made today. I used stamps from a couple of Dee Gruenig’s sets. The style is very much Dee’s, as I drew from her vertical inspiration cards for the design. I used a few stamps from the Hot Air Balloons set, as well as the “gracias” stamp from the Southwest set. I stippled the background using Dee’s blending blox, and colored all stamps using Marvy markers.

A big thanks to Dee, as always, for being such an inspiration!

Going Stampscaping

Phil — Tue, 27 May 2008 05:53:00 +0000

Now that my first semester of grad school is over, I’ve found myself full of creativity. Last week I headed over to my favorite stamp store here in the valley for some Stampscapes classes. Had a great time making cards, and have gotten more independent and broken out my own stamps for the occasion. The two cards below were each made with a single set I picked up at the Carson Convention in March.

For this first card, I used Stampscapes’s “Hot Sun”, “Flock”, “Row Boat”, “Palm Island”, and “Palms With Huts (small)” stamps. I used a yellow base for the background, then added orange, pink, and shades of red on top. All inks were Marvy Matchables.

For this second card, I used Stampscapes’s “Hot Sun”, “Row Boat”, “Frond #2″ and “Frond #3″ stamps. I used a small amount of yellow in the middle of the card, then surrounded that with pink, wine, and purple colors. Again, all inks were Marvy Matchables. When I was doing the background for this card, it looked like an egg yolk with bubblegum-colored egg white surrounding it. I positively hated it at the time, but don’t feel the same sense of loathing now that I did then.

ATC Samples

Robert — Sun, 25 May 2008 20:24:00 +0000

As promised in my recent post, here are a few ATC cards I made recently. For each, I used magazine pictures I liked to decoupage backgrounds. I then attached a single word to each.

Website Update

Phil — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 23:34:00 +0000

Just to give fair warning, this site is currently undergoing pretty major changes. Besides stamping and crafting in general, one of my hobbies is, for lack of a better way to put it, web design. I’m by no means educated in this area, and don’t do it for a living (far from it, actually). But I enjoy it nonetheless, and this website is one of my current projects. Therefore, it will be undergoing probably a series of changes until I finally am able to have an official theme that is of my own design.

Currently, I’m using a template that I modified somewhat. I’m in the process of learning Photoshop, and at the same time, a number of computer coding systems. My basic knowledge and comfort base is in HTML, but this Blogger utilizes XML, and other sites utilize PHP. So I’m working on learning those as well, so that I can have more freedom with the design of this website as well as my non-crafting one.

Thanks for bearing with me as this site is under construction. It will probably be under construction for quite a while to come, but the content will always be there, so thanks in advance for your patience.

Signing off,

Phil, Stamp Aficionado and Webmonkey

ATC Time!

Robert — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 03:46:00 +0000

ATCs, or artist trading cards, are very popular with artists and stampers. There are 2 simple rules to follow when creating ATCs: they must be 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches and they must be traded, never sold. The rest is up to the individual artist. ATCs can be very simple or quite complex, in terms of design and materials used. Some cards are even made from fabric. A wide variety of techniques can be employed in the creation of these cards as well, from stamping, embossing, collage, resist, stenciling, stitching, using fused fibers, resin, twinkling H2Os, mica, metal tape, and any kind of three dimensional embellishments.

Two of my favorite books about ATCs are Artist Trading card Workshop by Bernie Berlin, published by North Light Books, and Rubber Stamping Artist Trading Cards published by Tweety Jill Publications. Both books discuss various techniques for creating ATCs and are illustrated with many examples of these beautiful minature works of art.

I have begun to create ATCs myself. So far, I have only used rubber stamps with little to no embellishment, but as I continue to experiment and play, I will certainly branch out into other techniques and materials.

Coming soon: I’ll be posting some of my ATC cards here, so be on the lookout for those.

Gone Scrappin’

Phil — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 01:21:00 +0000

I’ve now officially added Scrapbook Expo to the list of things I’ve experienced in life. I used to be under the impression that Scrapbooking offered a nice crossover to those of us who prefer rubber stamping, but now I’m not so sure. The Orange County fairgrounds had two large buildings for the expo, and out of 20+ vendors, I only found three that catered to stampers.

I am a stamper at heart, so while I appreciate a good scrapbook, I’m not very interested in making my own. However, if you do happen to be into scrapbooking, do go check it out. There’s papers, albums, stickers, and add-ons galore. One of the booths that I found amusing was called Your Scrap Daddy (interestingly, they’re based out of Utah). For more information on the Expo, check out their website.

Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to A Stamp in the Hand’s upcoming convention, The Original Rubber Stamp Convention, coming up in three weeks. So if you’re in LA and love stamping, you probably won’t want to miss it.

This is sort of stamp related, but not really.

Phil — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 05:27:00 +0000

It would appear that it’s been a nearly four months since I’ve posted anything on this site. Seriously. And holy cow, that’s a pretty intense hiatus, especially considering this blog has only four blog entries (well, five now) to its name. It’s not that I haven’t been stamping. In fact, both Robert and I have been doing a fair amount of stamping these days.

Much (okay, all) of my blog-writing has been happening on my personal website. It’s a blog too, but not one geared toward any one thing in particular, like this one. Hence the title of it.

But I digress. I do have plans to revamp this site. You might notice a slight change in its appearance. Out with the black background, and in with the purple one! And hopefully, we’ll be getting to post some new stuff on here. I’ve got a few items lined up:

Artist Trading Cards

Classes with Dee Gruenig

More sample cards and projects