One Stamp Set, Two Ways: Cardmaking and Art Journaling with Art Inspirations

When I get new stamps or papers, the first thing I do is make whatever comes to mind. Not necessarily to create the prettiest project in the world, but to play with the designs and see how they work.

That even applies to designs I've created myself!

When I'm designing stamp sets, I'm working with drawings on a screen or in a sketchbook. It's different when the stamps are in my hands and I can actually start using them. That's when the creative discovery begins.

For these projects, I used the Art Inspirations The Only Person A5 stamp set, starting with the main focal image.

Starting with a handmade card

The first thing I wanted to try was using the main image on its own, with a stamped background to bring everything together. For me, creating a backing design is an easy way to do this, whether I'm making a card or an art journal page.

I cut a piece of watercolour card slightly smaller than an A5 card base, stamped the main image roughly in the centre and then started stamping around the edges to fill the page.

I got into the habit of doing this when I was learning to stamp off the page. Sometimes, it was simply the only space left to stamp!

Once I was happy with the design, I kept the watercolouring really simple: blue for the background, green for the leaves and a soft, pale warm grey for the main image.

When everything was dry, I added the panel to my card base and finished it with a sentiment.

Taking the idea into my art journal

With that first idea as a starting point, I grabbed my small Dylusions journal and stamped the image slightly in from the edge of the page. I repeated it underneath because I thought it would be fun to cut around the outside edges and create a decorative page.

This time, I used much more colour. I also coloured the film strip black, because, well, it's a film strip!

Once everything was dry, though, the page felt as if it was missing something. I tried placing different quotes on it, but none of them quite worked.

I often add very fine lines to my art journal pages using a 02 or 03 Micron pen. They're drawn outwards from the image and kept quite close together.

Because the stamped image has lots of curves, I used a ruler to draw the lines. I liked the contrast between the curved image and the straight lines, although this certainly isn't a quick addition!

The page was getting closer to what I wanted, but it still needed something else.

I stamped the small background stamp three times onto another piece of card, then cut the stamped lines into narrow strips and added them to the page. They're quite subtle because they're so small, almost melting into the background, but they helped bring everything together.

Then came the quote. For once, I found that part surprisingly easy because the quote seemed to answer the sentiment stamp.

The sentiment stamp reads The only person stopping you is you.

The quote I chose was Believe in yourself as you believe in others.

What would I change?

Now that I'm writing this post, there's one thing I'd do differently if I made the journal page again.

I'd follow the same starting point as the handmade card and stamp the main image in the middle first!

It's funny how an idea can work one way on a card and take you somewhere quite different on an art journal page. And even when you're using designs you've created yourself, there's still plenty of room for experimentation, unexpected decisions and things you'd change next time.

Until next time, take care,

Lou
xxx