Artistamps

From Wikipedia:

The term artistamp (a portmanteau of the words "artist" and "stamp") or artist's stamp refers to a postage stamp-like art form used to depict or commemorate any subject its creator chooses. Artistamps are a form of Cinderella stamps in that they are not valid for postage, but they differ from forgeries or bogus Illegal stamps in that typically the creator has no intent to defraud postal authorities or stamp collectors.

The Monday blog challenge at Simon Says Stamp is The Artsy Stamp and I decided to take a bit of a twist and make a collection of artistamps instead. I used tiny bird stamps, some colored pencils for tint, a black fine tip marker to mimic the perforations, and a vintage envelope for the background (which had an interesting embossed design).

The Wiki article further states:  While the method of production is entirely the choice of the artist, creators who exclusively or primarily use rubber stamps are occasionally held in contempt by members of the artistamp community, some of whom refer to such producers as "bunny-stampers."

Well, I don't care if they call me a bunny-stamper because these are actually birds (duh) and they were really great fun to make. The hard part is getting a realistic looking perforation--I opted to use a less authentic (but easy) method by making tiny black dots along the edges.

For Paula

Still working with my "southern belles," this tag was a simple case of cut and paste.

The background is from a sheet of Idea-ology paper stash, the frame was made out of paper called Antique Script by Bazzill, the plantation ruin and my little lady were digital images I printed.

Not much was done in the way of coloring--I only used a little pencil to create a shadow behind the frame. I did, however, knock back the plantation drawing with thin off-white acrylic paint to fade it into the background.

I do wish more papers were made like this one from Bazzill because it is very thin and works so much better in collages than thicker cardstock.

Twilight

Linked to the botanical theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday blog challenge, this tag was an experiment using tissue paper (from a sewing pattern) to unify the composition and impart a vintage color cast.

Click to Enlarge

After pasting down the leaves and butterfly, I completely covered the tag with tissue paper using Mod Podge. On some leaves, I stamped text on tissue paper pieces (Hampton Art/7 Gypsies).

I used transparent acrylic paint (except white) to bring back some of the color softened by the tissue and finished it off with a trip to the sewing machine.