Second time around!

I got so excited about the first mirrored image card that I decided to go a around with the idea a second time. I looked through all my stamps and couldn't find one that would work. Then I saw the lighthouse stamp at A.C. Moore and knew this was a perfect image to mirror. Luckily I had coupons galore and I got it. The paper is from Cosmo Cricket and works well here too. I stamped the reflected image in gray to create a softer affect and the actual image in black. Using a brayer I inked the lower part of the image with various shaed of green and blue inks. Therest of the coloring was done with pencils. The text is a sticker from Cloud-9-Designs/Fiskar (which is now available on an acrylic stamp sheet).

May: a time to reflect

Experimenting with new techiniques and looking back at what you have done is always a good thing. I wanted to come up with something new and fresh (at least for me) for a generic man's card. So I took out some stamps and played around. I'd always wanted to try my hand at mirrored images with rubber stamps and I decided this was as good a time as any to go for it. So here it is. A serene manly landscape using the mirrored stamping technique. The idea really came together when I found a great background paper from Cosmo Cricket of a beautiful sun set/rise. The rest was just a little trial and error and a lot of patience and work. I had seen stamps sold at craft store to use for creating mirror images, but they were small and quite expensive at over ten dollars. So I looked for something else to use that woult not limit me on size and break the bank. I settled on a sheet of plumbing rubber (about 8"x8" that I bought at the local Home Depot for under three dollars). To create the mirror image I stamped on the plumbing rubber, which I laid flat on my working surface and then laid the paper over it and using a brayer "rubbed" the image on. A quick tip: the process works better using dye inks. The stamps used in this case were all from Stampim Up! I left blank spaces in both the sky and the water areas for future text or greetings.