Mixed Media Tag - Boy on swing

Hey everyone,

Today I'm sharing this vintage mixed media tag and a super fun stamping technique with you.

 

I cut my tag from a piece of watercolor paper to a size of 6 x 3,5 inch and simply added some stamping. 

Next, I spread some texture paste with a palette knife in various spots of the tag. The paste I used is quite thick (an older one, already starting to dry in its container). I would recommend using a heavy body paste or gesso for this technique, but honestly I haven't tried out a thinner one. Now comes the fun part: I took a stamp and stamped right into the paste before it's dry. You will lose some detail, so the stamp shouldn't be too delicate, but even the numbers that I picked worked well.
Make sure to clean your stamp immediately with water. A stiff brush can also be helpful. You really don't want that texture paste to ruin your stamp, right?

After the paste was dry, I started building some layers of color with some Lindy's Gang Moonshadow Mists.

I added some more stamping with the numbers, but this time in a more common way. For a little color pop I sprinkled acrylic spray over the tag.

After browsing through my stamps I chose this guy on a swing as a focal image, stamped him dirctly on the tag (no fussy-cutting this time) and added a little color with some ZIG brush pens. I also darkened up the edges with some Oxide Ink and Archival Ink. 

I added the little die cut birds and a quote, embossed in gold onto black cardstock. To finalize my tag I adhered it to some cardstock and added a bow.

Stamps used:
Vintage Boy on Swing (19729)
Numbers Set (19659)
Writing Circles Background (19567)
Don't Waste A Moment (19786)

Other material:
- Canson watercolor paper
- Black cardstock
- Archival Ink (jet black, pebble beach, seafarer)
- Versafine Ink (onyx black)
- Versamark Ink
- Distress Oxide Ink (ground espresso)
- texture paste (heavy body)
- Lindy's Gang Moonshadow Mist (treasure island aqua, van dyke sepia, buccaneer bay blue)
- ZIG real brush pens
- embossing powder (Altenew - antique gold)
- die (Memory Box - small flock of doves #99015)
 

Hope you're giving this technique a try and that you found some inspiration here.

See you soon,

Bookmarks and Notebook - Gift Ideas | Sue Plumb

Hi everyone!

It's Sue Plumb here to share my latest design team project with you. As we head into the festive season, I thought it would be a good time to share a couple of simple appreciation gift ideas with you. There are always people in our lives that deserve a small token of our thanks - whether that be teachers, neighbours, friends, the mailman, or even the staff at the local store. So I decided to whip up some simple stamped bookmarks and notebooks featuring some of my fave Banksy stamps to give out.

For the notebook, I started with a plain, kraft cover notebook (purchased from Kmart). I used Dina Wakley acrylic paints, applied with a brayer and layered randomly to add some colour. I then took the recently released Victorian Flower Background and used it to stamp a border around 3 sides of the cover.

Next, I chose the fabulous Banksy Wall Singer for my feature image on the cover, before I also stamped the Banksy Life is Beautiful as the accompanying text. I love how it turned out! I paired it with a pen before wrapping it up.

After I created the notebook, I decided to re-visit a project I have created previously and shared here - bookmarks. (You can find my original watercolour bookmark post HERE) This time however, I wanted to use a more minimalist style to showcase some cool Banksy stamps. 

I started by cutting some smooth white cardstock into strips measuring 2x8.5". I then stamped a focal Banksy image onto each one, and an accompanying quote as well. 

Here is a list of all the stamps I used on the bookmarks (as shown from left to right above):

- Banksy Man on Bicycle and You Only Live Once

- Banksy Frida Kahlo and Banksy Just Because

- Banksy Spray Can Cop and The Unicorns Made Me

- Banksy Einstein Protestor and Banksy Love is the Answer

- Banksy Girl Floating with Balloons and She Was a Dreamer

- Banksy Ladder Painter and Banksy Life is Beautiful

- Banksy Gas Mask Flower Girl and Where is My Mind?

- Banksy Child Sitting and I Hope You Know

- Banksy Swing Girl and She Spread Her Wings

I also stamped the back of each bookmark with the Banksy stamp.

Once they were all stamped, I used Faber-Castell gelatos to add a splash of colour to each one. I wanted to keep them simple, so I only used a single colour on each one and left the focal images uncoloured.

I then took all the bookmarks and laminated them, trimming off the excess laminate with a trimmer.

I then punched a hole into each bookmark and added a variety of twine, tassels and a metal charm to decorate them.

I am so happy with how these turned out and cannot wait to gift them to their new owners! Thanks so much for stopping by so I could share this with you. I hope I have inspired you to create some special handmade appreciation gifts for the people in your lives too. 

Stamps used:
- Victorian Flower Background
- Banksy Wall Singer 
- Banksy Life is Beautiful
- Banksy Man on Bicycle 
- You Only Live Once
- Banksy Frida Kahlo 
- Banksy Just Because
- Banksy Spray Can Cop 
- The Unicorns Made Me
- Banksy Einstein Protestor 
- Banksy Love is the Answer
- Banksy Girl Floating with Balloons 
- She Was a Dreamer
- Banksy Ladder Painter
- Banksy Gas Mask Flower Girl 
- Where is My Mind?
- Banksy Child Sitting 
- I Hope You Know
- Banksy Swing Girl 
- She Spread Her Wings
- Banksy

Other materials:
- Plain notebook
- White cardstock
- Tsukineko StazOn ink
- Faber-Castell Gelatos
- Dina Wakley acrylic paints
- Laminating sheets
- Assorted twines, tassels and charm

August Challenge --

Thank you so much for all the beautiful entries in our July Challenge!

We are jumping into August with a black and white newspaper feeling!

We'd like to inspire you with words like BOLD, newspaper print and dictionary text, heritage, black, white, gray, monochrome, film reel, movies, black AND white, tire swings, business, suits, man, briefcase, tire swing, grungry, distressed, vignette, trees, pensive, lost in thought, contemplating and silhouettes.

Don't forget the rules:

-Create a new project based on our inspiration board

-Use at least one (but certainly more if you want) Viva Las VegaStamps! rubber stamps

(We are now allowing competitors stamps to be on your work, but please make VLVS! the focus of the project, thank you.)

-Post it to your blog with a link back to us

-Upload to our linky using your direct blog post link (You may also upload via facebook, flickr or other gallery)

You could win a Project Spotlight post on our blog + some new rubber of course.

And visit us back here for inspiration!

An InLinkz Link-up