2018 #18 Stamping Platforms: Hawaiian Girl with ETS {by Lucy Edmondson}

 2018 Topic 18: Stamp Platform Techniques

One of the magnificent things about using a stamp platform is that you can keep on stamping in the exact same position until you are happy with the image. This is particularly useful onto fabric where ink can be unpredictable.~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Lucy from Lucy's True Colours here with you today with a fabric project to showcase the benefits of the Tim Holtz stamping platform and the gorgeous Tracy Scott stamps.

I've always loved working with fabric because it's so tactile, but I had become frustrated with the quality of stamping that could be achieved. Then at Ally Pally in April, my friend bought me the Tim Holtz stamping platform for my birthday. It has revolutionized my stamping! 

There are so many things you can do with a platform. I have dug out some of the pesky stamps I had had trouble getting a decent image from in the past, (not PaperArtsy ones I might add) and have revisited some difficult techniques and surfaces. It's great when you want a really dark image, or when you want your image to be darker in some areas than in others. It's also great for multi-coloured images. Fabric can be tricky, especially if it has a heavy weave, but you can re-stamp the image several times until it is dark enough and any patchiness is fully covered.  Some ink pads perform better than others and for this project I used Archival, Versafine, and a new one to me, Nuvo. The Nuvo arrived in the post whilst I was in the middle of working on this and I was very impressed with its performance.

I had so much fun working with Tracy's stamps! I have had several sets for a while, but I specifically wanted what I have dubbed 'Hawaiian Girl' for this project, and she is new to me. I grew very attached to her and she developed a personality and a story as I worked with her, and she has been dressed for a beach party - in Hawaii of course!

I decided on a canvas make up bag as my project as I am currently making items to give as Christmas presents.  

The canvas has quite a heavy weave but still came out well after three presses in the stamping platform, using Versafine Onyx Black for the girl from Eclectica ETS17.

Instead of the magnets, with an awkward bulky item like this, i found using something like masking tape to hold it in place worked well. Because of the corners/gussets of the bags, I used the tape to press these down so they didn't prevent the stamp itself making contact with all areas of the fabric. I was really amazed with the quality of the impression. I gave the ink a quick blast with the heat gun which you need to do with Versafine as it's quite oily and helps with permanence onto fabric.

I decided I wanted to use both Fresco Finish paints and coloured pencils for my bag, partly as I was experimenting, and partly because I wanted a mixed media project. The pencils I used were Prismacolour and they are absolutely wonderful on fabric. They were recommended to the group when I was lucky enough to attend a Lin Brown class many years ago. The blending with them is glorious; they blend on top of themselves. Here I have started off the face with Fresco Finish in Blush.

Here I have gone on to add some shading and highlighting to the face and body with the pencils. It's quite subtle, apart from the doll cheeks. I used Fresco Finish in Chocolate Pudding for the hair and later added some highlights with the pencils. I've taped the bag back down to stamp the butterfly from Eclectica ETS20
 and used the grid on the Stamping Platform to line the words up beneath it.

Here, the butterfly and the headpiece are coloured with pencils, but the dress has been painted with Fresco Finish in both Peach Nectar and Tango as I wanted it to look like folds of shot silk, catching the light with an iridescent glow. I used a brush to add a little watered down Fresco Finish Metallic Glaze to emphasize this. I added a little touch to the white at the centre of her pupil, and on her lip, and I mixed some in with Wisteria Fresco Finish for her eyeshadow. By this time we were chatting away and she was telling me what colours she wanted for her eyes!

For the orange flower, I painted a piece of calico [I could have used canvas sheet] with a selection of Fresco Finish paints: Peach Nectar, Tango, Tangerine Twist, Mustard Pickle, and Pansy, and stamped the flower from Eclectica ETS17 again using the stamping platform to get a good, dark image. For the mauve flower I stamped the flower from Eclectica ETS17 and coloured it with the pencil, adding white dots with a paint pen. I stitched beads into the centre and stitched the layers together. 

The butterfly is from Eclectica ETS20 and has been coloured with pencils and finished with Fresco Finish Metallic Glaze. I used the long beads from the bead set and two of the half moon shaped ones threaded onto wire to make the body and antenna of the butterfly to add to the mixed media look I was after.

To finish off, I added some pale pink velvet ric-rac below the zip. In this close up you can see the embellishments and the beading better. I like to have a bit of beading and stitching if I am using fabric.

I enjoyed making this project SO much! I find Tracy's stamps such a joy to work with; they are so relaxing and enable you to make beautiful things with ease. One thing I might do differently next time is I got carried away with the aesthetics and forgot practicality with the 3d embellishments which could catch and get tatty in a handbag. Next time it would be fun to make the whole headdress into a layered brooch on a brooch-back which could be removed by the recipient and form an extra gift. Also the zip didn't have a hole at the end, and it would have been fun to stamp my Hawaiian girl onto shrink plastic and add a zip dangly with beads. 

I love the stamping platform as it makes you feel confident that your project isn't going to go wrong half way through because an image hasn't stamped out clearly. As I love mixed media, this frees me up to use a range of more challenging substrates which are often too costly to throw away when everything goes wrong. It has opened up a whole world of possibilities to explore!

Lucy x

Blog: Lucy's True Colours
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