Life is short. Break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that makes you smile. We're not quantified; there's no chart of desire. When the roaring flames of your heart have burned down to embers, may you find that you have married your best friend. [Steven Tyler]

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Stampbord Creations


This is Stampbord.........Well it was before I altered it! It's now a very individual piece of jewelry. The Stampbord started out as a 2" x 2" plain square. I sponged colour onto the board using dye based inks. The image was stamped using black Stazon ink and then coloured with Sakura pens. I made a hole in the corner of the board using a Cropodile. Finally, the whole surface was daubed with VersaMark ink and a coat of clear fine embossing powder. To complete the piece I fixed a brass eyelet to the hole and applied Wonder Tape around the edges of the board and dipped the piece into Bedazzles. A Junkitz pin balez was adhered to the back using superglue and threaded with a brass coloured ball chain from LB Crafts. Finally, a length of brass chain had beads and charms applied and I used an antique brass dog clip to fasten it through the eyelet. Simple - but very effective.

I am a huge fan of Stampbord - having used it for so many projects including embelishments on box lids, cards and tags, book covers, embelishments on box lids.... and the list goes on. But I really do love creating pieces to wear. It is ispirational and it makes inks so vibrant and blendable and the stamped images are crisp and prestine on its clay surface.

This piece was created with another 2" x 2" square. The process for creating the background was the same as the piece above and this time several images were stamped as a collage using Tim Holtz distressed inks - the colours in this ranges are truly wonderful. Three small holes were punched across the bottom of the piece and I repeated the process of glazing the surface with a coat of clear embossing powder to protect the clay surface. This time I covered the Wonder Tape with micro beads and fixed brass eyelets in the holes. Metal charms, beads and chain strands were attached through the eyelets and a Pin Balez added to the back. The gold coloured ball chain was found in Specsavers (it's a spectacle chain that I addapted) and Hey Presto! another peice of wearable art.

The great thing about the Pin Balez from Junkitz is that you can wear your jewelery as a pin or a necklace - very adaptable, I found them at Art from the Heart in Harrogate. All of the amazing rubber stamped images are by Elusive Images. These stamps are just perfect for projects of this kind and lend themselves perfectly to the technique of Collage. The stamps, Stampbord, ink pads, embossing powder and Wonder Tape are all available from Graphicus.