2019 #16 Stamp Carving: Tissue Paper Marking with ELB {by Jennie Atkinson}

2019 Topic 16: Stamp Carving

Jennie's pinky, soft and ethereal trio kicks off the stamp carving topic so beautifully. Layer upon layer of images and marks creates mini dimensional works of art. She's got some great tips about using tissue paper with her gel plate too!

Hi everyone, it's Jennie (Live The Dream)  with you today sharing a trio of ATCs using tissue paper to showcase Lin Brown's fabulous Artful Blooms stamps which look just as though they had been carved into the rubber.

I have become somewhat obsessed with the combination of tissue paper and my gelli plate and thought these stunning outline style stamps would be just perfect for creating a delicate impression on the tissue paper. I have also combined this technique with two wonderful new PaperArtsy Frescos which being pink are just up my street!

To finish my ATCs I have also used stamps from Scrapcosy's ESC18 and quotes from Alison's EAB01 set.

ELB03

ESC18

EAB01

It is difficult to photograph the technique of using gel plate and tissue paper as you do have to do things quite quickly before the tissue paper sticks to the plate! I brayered Byzantium, Taro Milk Tea and a little Tinned Peas onto the gel plate and stamped the large flower stamp here and there before taking a print using the tissue paper. It's a "one pull" technique!

A word about tissue paper: not all tissue paper works! Sometimes the supermarket tissue works well and sometimes not! if you can get something a little thicker and has a shiny side and a matte side you can use the matte side down and this seems to give the better print. 

Also another tip is to make sure you always have a flap of paper at one side so you can peel it off the plate, otherwise you will find that if you smooth everything down it is a struggle to get it started and it starts to tear.

When it is wet the tissue paper is crumpled and it is difficult to see the marks. Don't worry about white spaces where the paper creased - this all adds to the effect!

The tissue has now dried and I have stuck it down using Collage Medium onto an ATC which has had text stamped on it with Jet Black Archival Ink. Now that the tissue paper is on a white surface it becomes translucent (despite the paint and the stamp image), wrinkles and "missed bits" really stand out.  I just love the way the carved image becomes part of the background and is why I  often get asked "How did you do that ?"  (I should add that this photograph was taken on a very stormy day in the craft room and the colours are completely different!)

I didn't want to spoil the ethereal look so have used my stamps on tissue paper and layered them onto the ATC. I do find that the thicker tissue paper is not so great for this and normally revert to something a little thinner so it blends into the background.

I have used Watering Can Archival Ink for the background stamping as it is lighter in tone which allows the quotes to stand out in the black ink. As I have stamped on tissue paper and adhered with collage medium the image is slightly blurry which is why some of the stamping looks out of focus in the photographs - it is not so obvious when viewing the ATCs.

I have tried to place my stamping so I don't lose the Artful Bloom image and the beauty of stamping on tissue allows me to experiment with placement.

These ATCs make a lovely little trio for swapping or, as you have probably seen me do in the past, they look fabulous layered onto plain white Smoothy cardstock for birthday and any occasion cards. I always have quite a stack just ready to make into cards! 

I do hope this inspires you to have a go at this technique. It is absolutely perfect for mark making stamps which do not have too much detail which can get lost when layered onto the text stamped cardstock below. It is quite addictive, so have plenty of tissue paper cut to size before you start !

Jennie x

Blog:  Live The Dream