Friday 27 March 2015

Stamping Master Class Week - Neil Walker





Morning all,

Welcome to day two of our Stamping Master Class week.

It is Neil's turn today and he is 'stamp flipping'!!

Neil says .....

"Stamps are so versatile, there are so many different images and
 styles around I'm sure we all have loads in our crafty stash.
 Every now and again though, I look at a stamp and wish I 
had it facing the other way. (I know, there's no pleasing some
 folks is there?!) so today I thought I'd share how
 I "flip" my stamps 


Begin by stamping your chosen image onto white paper in archival ink
 and cut it out.


Brush a layer of Gesso onto the surface and while wet press your
 stamped image face down. Press down well and leave
 to dry thoroughly.


When dry, spritz with water and gently begin to rub the paper off to
 reveal the image. The keyword is gently! If you rub too hard
 you are liable to rub off the image too. 



If you stamp your image again directly onto the surface you can
 see how you have a mirror image which I think is pretty cool.



I think it's a fun technique to do though I will finish off with a 
few suggestions which hopefully will minimize any frustrations......

Remember that by doing this with a stamp you are reversing
 it so writing will not work.

Also remember that your reversed image is not going to be as
 crisp as the original so I would personally recommend that
 you use them separately as putting them together on one 
project kind of "highlights" the fade making it look shabbier than
 if you used it on it's own.

So, to illustrate my point; I used both images on this card.....




You can see that the image on the left is faded much more than the
 image on the right which is stamped onto the dry gesso.

I've coloured both images with the same Distress Marker and the one
 on the left has not blended as smoothly as the right because
 it reacts differently. The reason being that it is effectively a 
different surface to the gesso as it still has paper residue on it
 which both absorbs color into the fibres causing bleeding and making
 it harder to blend.

So generally not a very successful card. 



However, if we then split the images (Literally, I just sliced the card
 in half!) and use the pieces individually I can make a card
 using the flipped image which I think looks so much better
 because it is no longer competing with the crisper image.


The other piece mounted onto a 10" tag covered in Tim Holtz
 Tissue paper makes a very pretty matching gift tag too.


This is beautiful Neil and a great tutorial, thank you.

If you fancy having a go, here is what you need -


White paper

I'm loving those Runway Stamps, funny how
until you see something actually used, you don't always
see their full potential!


Ok, well I shall be back tomorrow with our
third tutorial for our 
Stamping Master Class.

See you then,

Jane x




7 comments:

  1. when a stamp is facing the wrong way or hasn't the right size I sometimes just scan the stamped image and enlarge it or flip it and print it. But transfer techniques are always fun also.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi
      I really hate to be Miss Misery and please don't shoot the messenger but I probably ought to just point out that anything that uses mechanical scanning or copying would be a breach of most stamp companies' rights of use for their stamps. Most Angel policies allow for hand stamping only. OK I'm ducking now.......

      Delete
  2. This is very interesting Neil. Does it matter which ink you use? x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Generally I use Archival ink as I know it is waterproof when dry but I assume any make that does this will work.

      Delete
  3. Lucky Gelli plate owners can use the plate to reverse the stamp and print with it. Brayers work too but require a steady hand.

    ReplyDelete
  4. A great technique too, thanks for all the tips and lovely sample Neil, this is very interesting indeed! Coco x

    ReplyDelete

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