Saturday, March 29, 2008

GPP Crusade 18

I know I haven't been doing the Crusades for that long, but I have to say that this has been my FAVORITE! Stamp carving is ADDICTING. I carved three new stamps for
Crusade No. 18. Two of them resemble an ironwork fence and the last one was kind of a spur of the moment carving of a pair of eyes. I have a lot of stamps that have eyes but for some reason, I felt the need for a pair that was bigger.

The designs for the ironwork style stamps were from a book on architectural clip art. I carved them so they could be lined up for a continues design of any length. The larger of the two is about 6 inches wide. The basic design for the eyes was traced from a piece of artwork I have by Christina Lazar-Schuler. The eyes of the woman in the piece I have have such a haunting quality that I thought they would be perfect for a stamp. I traced them on tissue paper and then transfered the pencil to the stamp surface. To get a lighter feel to the shadow and iris of the eyes, I used one of my Stampbord tools that is used to create cross-hatching on Stampbord. It worked well to make that section of the stamp less solid.
These two art journal pages show the stamps I created. The one page includes a bunch of stamped images (birds and flowers) using See Ds Stamps by Sugarloaf. My carved stamp is the fence in the foreground. The other art journal page features both the eyes stamp and the other ironwork stamp (which was stampe in silver Brilliance ink and then embossed using Broken China Distressed Embossing Powder by Ranger Ink. Just a reminder...if you click on the image of the journal page, it will open in a lightbox and you can see it better (and scroll to the other image). I thought I would mention that again since the little symbol that indicates multiple images is difficult to see on the pictures.

Next month's challenge is going to be making stencils. I am getting geared up for that. I actually made a stencil a couple of months ago and still have yet to use it so I know this will give me the kick in the butt I need to finish that project.

15 comments:

x said...

looks fab....

Hugs
Nicole

Karen said...

How absolutely cool is that!!!

michelle ward said...

Diane - wonderful images! Those took alot of patience but wasn't it worth it? You have your very own tools! I especially love the patterns. Thanks for telling us we have to scroll to see the two journals pages because I couldn't find them at first. Thanks for sharing your great stuff with the team!!

Anonymous said...

WOW These are amazing carvings!!

Anonymous said...

That ironwork is some impressive carving - you could stuff tiny pillows with all of your rubber shavings!

Cindy said...

Your images are so complex! You must be very patient. They came out, great, though. Thank you for sharing!

Elizabeth said...

Daine!
your stamps sare wonderful!! i love the ironwork and the details on the pair of eyes is amazing!!
Elizabeth

Kat W said...

Wonderful stamps, look like they took a lot of patience! :)

Kim Tedrow said...

That's some amazing detail on those stamps. Well done! -Kim

Anonymous said...

Absolutely love the leafy ironwork one...

carin.c said...

Wow such an intricate pattern - the prize goes to you for patience! Your stamps are gorgeous!

moi said...

so clever. that is an awesome stamp. quite complicated. this month has been too much fun.

Anonymous said...

Diane........these are fabulous! I love the ironwork fence stamps. There is so much detail to them. they turned out beautifully and your pages showing the use of them is wonderful :)

forcryeye said...

OOOOH! I would love to see the eyes stamped!

reagan said...

Diane, your stamps are just marvelous! Makes me want to go and do some more! GOOD NEWS, you have won the giveaway on my blog! Just go and check it out and make sure to email me your address (it's listed on my blog) CONGRATS!!!
hugs and jumping up and down!
Pam