2016 #20 Funky Squares {by Hazel Agnew}

 2016 Topic 120: Squares and Grids

Hi everyone Hazel, from Mellifluous Meanderings here.

Tonight I'd like to share with you this evening a post about creating shapes within squares that work in relationship to one another.

This is a way of playing with stamps where you look at them in a totally different light. Instead of using the whole stamp, it is interesting to explore smaller parts of them.

Step One: First of all I cut up lots of squares of coloured paper and stamped with clear embossing pad and sprinkled with Black Wow powder that had a hint of sparkle. I stamped far too many of them as I wanted to fiddle and play to get my best combination of patterns and colours. 

The stamp is from Eclectica³ Ellen Vargo 03 EEV03

Step Two: I decided to use a sparkly background, influenced by a piece of art by Damien Hirst where he placed coloured circles onto a black glittery background. I placed the shapes onto various background colours before I decided that chocolate brown worked the best.

Step Three: I mounted each little square onto black card to give it extra definition and then used foam pads to add extra dimensional interest to the piece.

Here is another version of this exercise, this time, instead of using one stamp in many ways, this one uses all the stamps from the set. As you can see, I have mounted these onto black glittery card.

Finally, here is my first piece, photographed, mounted onto a linen box frame, showing the 3D effect.

I can imagine that this technique would work well with Christmas stamps and then used to make Christmas cards. You can easily adapt the sizes of the squares or maybe use other shapes in relation to one another.

I hope that you have enjoyed this contribution, I have enjoyed creating it. 

I am Hazel, otherwise known as @craftroomgran on twitter and you can find my blog which is Mellifluous Meanderings.

I think we often forget how effective it can be to use small sections of stamps to create a completely different effect than using it as a whole! I am sure our stamp designers really love seeing such creative take on how stamps could be used. The embossing powder adds another texture to the process, and I love the pops of colour from the card. Nice one Hazel! ~Leandra

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas,  particularly if you were inspired directly by their post, so if you can spare a moment to comment or make your own creative item, they love to see your feedback and what do do more than you realise!

We would love to see how you interpret this Squares and Grids topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #20: Squares and Grids, on this page HERE. The 'Squares and Grids' link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, Oct 30th 2016. The winner will be announced 2  hours later at 19:00.

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store.