Sunday, July 24, 2016

New Experiments and a Pro Tip

I've been doing more experiments with cut Stacked Journaling, playing with the scale and line thickness of my lettering. So far, these have all been done with some type of paper, from mat board to 60# copy paper. I'm also playing with contrast between the background layer, which is usually just painted, and the foreground Stacked Journaling.  


Normally, the smaller the printing I use when Journaling, the more linear the design gets, as in this piece below. This isn't a bad thing, but it isn't always what I'm looking for.


It seems that the larger I go with my printing, the better I like it, and letting it fall off the background, along with its more open shape, makes the whole process feel more liberated, to me.

 
 

My favorite pieces so far have been the ones with a vibrant colors (big surprise, huh?) but I plan to do more experimenting with neutral colors and a black-to-gray scale. 

Also, being a frugal artist, I wanted to share this little pro tip with you today. If you're like me, you've collected your fair share of alphabet stamps. Frankly, I stopped using them years ago, but I uncovered them recently, and wondered what kind of background noise they're create if they were all stacked together willy-nilly and held together with rubber bands.



Easy-peasy.

As I was constructing my new tools, the little vulcanized rubber letters kept falling off the posts (these sets are probably 10+ years old by now).


Not one to waste an opportunity, I got out the Elmer's and glued the letters together on their own wooden block.



Three new mark-making tools in about 10 minutes! These little things make excellent, repetitive patterns.



Until next time, create (your own tools!)

6 comments:

Deb H said...

I love your new stacked journaling! And thanks for the tips about stamps. It got me thinking about all the stamps I have and no longer use. My mind is awhirl with the idea of re-glueing them on a board in a random group and maybe even, cutting some up :-)

Lisa Chin said...

I always LOVE your stacked journaling. It's awesome but Oh my gosh! I love the idea of printing all the stamp letters together AND especially of taking the fallen off tops and glueing them all together. I have a few sets and put them aside because they kept falling off and they were a pain to take apart at first and then glue back together. I think I got them for a dollar a set. I now have a new reason to take them out and play with them!!! Thank you Judi!!!

Sue Marrazzo Fine Art said...

VERY nice post!

Sonia said...

Thanks for all your handy tips Judi. I shall be trying out the banded letter stamps (and will remember to save the tops once they start falling apart). I have recently done something similar with some Softcut stamps I made - individual flowers and leaves glued to backing board, I then cut stems and added these to unify the small arrangement. By the way, what ink/paint do you use for stamping? I tend to use gesso, sometimes tinted with fluid acrylics.

Stephanie said...

Judi - these studies are great! Thanks for sharing.

elle said...

So glad to see you back sharing such great tips!!!