Street Team Crusade # 18 - Cut It Out

I have taken on the GPP Street Team Crusade #18 - Cut It Out (http://www.michelleward.typepad.com/how_cool_is_that/) and carved some new rubber stamps of my very own ! I have done this before and love the fact that pieces I do with my own stamps keep my work original and uniquely mine ! My favorite use for the stamps is adding layers and texture to my own painted papers which I then cut up and use in my collages.

Every once in a while I grab a pile of all kinds of paper, old dictionary pages, hand made Indian papers, plain old photocopy paper, music sheets, etc. and choose a color scheme to work with. I splatter acrylic paint (Golden Fluids if I am feeling decadent - those little bottles are pricey but a little goes a long way!) onto all the sheets of paper with a large brush, watered down and/or with some glazing liquid added in. I let the paper dry a bit on a old shower curtain on the floor. The first ones are usually dry when I get the last ones covered. Then I grab my stamps, some stencils and a make-up sponge or two, and stamp and stencil another layer of acrylic paint all over the papers . Make-up sponges are my tool of choice for applying the paint to the stamps and for using stencils. It allows for nice even coverage. I often add in Lumiere fabric paints for their beautiful metallic quality. Voila, a whole new pile of hand painted papers to play with !

I can't wait to make a new batch with my new stamps !