2020 #9 Pretty in Pink with ESA {by Helen Chilton}

2020 Topic 9: Collage It

Helen has taken the grunge out and replaced it with gorgeous. She's looked creatively at one of Seth's stamp sets and created something new with it. The collaging is light and delicate and I love the use of special fabric to give a real softness to the cards.
~ Keren, Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Helen with you today, and I'd like to share with you a project on the theme Collage It.
I'm using some of the new Seth Apter stamps but I didn't want an industrial, grungy feel. In fact when I first saw this stamp set, I saw a flower and a stalk, so that's what I went with. I decided to make the collage elements myself and chose three shades of blue paint for the backgrounds which I painted, stamped, stencilled and then ripped up!

Get your paints ready.

And brayer onto white card.

I love this Sara Naumann stencil, especially that little leaf spray.

I've used the same paint colours to stamp and stencil.

I thought I might want some blocks of colour, so made this as well.

Then you can start tearing bits of the collage that you like and arranging them on your card. I could spend hours doing this - it's very therapeutic!

I didn't want to use a black inkpad on this as it seemed too heavy, so I've stamped in colour. My leaves are cut out from a green stamped pattern.

I decided to add scraps of fabric and wool to mine - the fabric is just pieces of dresses that my girls wore as toddlers - that's going back a bit! Here are some more cards all made from the same background.

I hope these cards show that you can create any effect you like with any stamp set just by varying your colours and what you put with it. I've gone for a pretty, clean look, not something you might first of all think of with this style of stamp set. I love a bit of a challenge and experimenting with different ways of using things, getting the stamps to really work for me.

If you don't want to make your own backgrounds, pull out some bits of patterned paper - if you're like me, you'll have a drawer full of scraps. You can then layer them up and use the stamps and stencil over the top to pull them together.

Whatever you do, have fun!

Helen

Blog: A Splash of Colour