confessions of a lazy stamper (or, chalk it up now!)

by Etha Schuette

Ahh, I think it is time to confess, if given the choice, I think I rather go the easy way in stamping, let me share some tricks for you if you would like to try your hand with scenic stamping but you shy away from tedious masking and trying out.
Try out your scene on scrap paper once so you see how the elements work together. An easy way to get a background going is to chalk your paper, I like using shimmer chalks and a small cotton ball. Look at your trial composition and then just put some chalk on the paper. No need to stress or be exact!! Mix some colors and when you have the desired colors on paper, make sure to rub over all of them with a heavy hand to blend them.

Next stamp your background images with a non-black ink. I used a grey versafine in both examples, the above card has the Winterscene stamp (trees with fence and birds) and the bottom card uses the Fir Trees for a background - using a muted color will look natural.
Next decide for the foreground. In the above example I stamped the pretty "Branch Sitting Bird" with black and dark green ink, just so that it doesn't overlap the background, no masking required! I added the Pine Bough to the right stamped in dark green. I am MUCH too lazy to use a stamp positioner, so what I do is to cut a tiny notch into the rubber (that I can see from the back) so that I can align it properly with the branch of the bird. (on a wood mounted stamp, I just draw a small line on the side on the wood). Add a few more partial pine branches around the bird for foreground.
Color the bird with pencils, right over the chalk!

Of course you can chalk your background after stamping. But that can cover the stamped images with chalk unless you are really careful and makes them look fuzzy. Much easier to chalk first and stamp on TOP of that. You can still color in your images with any medium that you choose right over the chalk...

My second example uses the new Oswald the Owl as a foreground image and him I DID mask briefly to add the grass. I just cut out the image from my trial stamping/scrap piece and laid it over him. A touch of pine bow completes the illusion that he is in the foreground and the trees much farther away. The partial fir trees at the bottom right of the card again are stamped in a darker ink than the ones in the background. I have a tiny bit of "sun glow" showing in chalks in the upper right which nicely balances out Oswald's color!

But oops, I forgot to leave some space for the sentiment that I wanted to use! In this case, the lazy stamper just used the sentiment on an extra layer, a bit distressed and sponged to add to the forest feel. Glue it on top, no sweat here :) The foreground fir trees were not masked to stamp the background trees. Just stamp them right on top of each other. I haven't met a clean looking forest yet, so it doesn't matter if they slightly mix!

There you have it, try some scenic stamping next time and take it easy ;)

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