2024 Topic 9 : Alison Bomber {by Alison Bomber}

Hi everyone,

Alison here with you today from Words and Pictures. It's been such a thrill and an honour seeing the amazing creations made with my stamps over this month... what a treat! If you haven't seen the nature inspired projects already posted, do scroll back through them - I promise you it will be time well spent.

Obviously, nature is at the heart of my stamp designs, and natural materials play a part in so many of the projects I make that this Nature theme couldn't have been closer to my heart.

It's a busy time of year, so my project is really a very simple one - almost nothing more than assembling some bits and bobs that were already around. But I did have a lovely time adding some magical frosty touches - read on to find out more (though you'll need to see a video for the full sparkle effect!)... 

There's a reason I created a bark texture for my latest stamp designs - I love the texture of bark! I think using these two bark scraps as my background panels gives these collages a real sense of earthy presence and textural beauty.

And creating my coordinating word labels to match the leaves couldn't have been simpler... as long as, like me, you never throw anything away!

Autumn is really the only time of year when bright colours hit my desk, but when they do they really do! The weather outside is always a huge influence on what I'm making, so the turning leaves and our first frosts are the inspiration behind the colour palette here.

At this time of year, I always have a tray full of autumnal leaves ready to grab. I do them in different colours and mediums in different years, creating sheets of colour with paints or inks or sprays etc and then doing a big die-cutting session with all my leaf dies. (You can watch this year's session over on my YouTube channel if you're interested.) And I keep the leftover papers too... which is going to be important in a minute.

I bought the box of bark panels years ago. They're a bit larger than ATC size (10.5 x 7cm or 4 and 1/8 by 2 and 6/8 inches) so they're perfect for a quick make when time is short.

All I had to do now was decide which of my stamps I wanted to layer in to the collaging...

 

I came to the conclusion that it had to be the teasels, from the latest stamp sets, so I grabbed my Eclectica Alison Bomber Winter Teasels Edition, EAB43 - available now from PaperArtsy stockists worldwide. And since the leaves I chose from the tray were fairly vibrant and also sparkly in some cases, I needed the teasel stems to be able to hold their own over the top. 

I ended up stamping both the large sketch and the tiny teasels in Sepia Archival ink and then adding some Crackling Campfire Distress Embossing Glaze over the top to give them an even more fiery look! I did a loose fussy cut, as I wanted the white outlines to start to give the impression of a frosty morning, and I trimmed off the ends of the tall stems to fit the panel.

In order that I could have word labels which perfectly coordinated with the chosen leaves, I had the brainwave of stamping STILLNESS and FROST onto one of the leftover die-cutting sheets. They are stamped in Scorched Timber Distress Ink, my new favourite not-black. (This was the first less-successful stamping - I pressed too hard and the juicy Distress Ink splurged, making the n far too wide. You'll see it's much nicer on the finished version!)

But I wanted a bit more sparkle to my frosty morning. Yes, the leaves have some shimmer to them, but the white outline of the fussy-cut stems wasn't quite enough to give me that icy sparkle. First, I spattered on some PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic in Snowflake and added Rock Candy Distress Glitter to the splotches. But still I wanted more... so I watered down some glue and painted it over the leaves and stems in places, and then dumped a lot more glitter all over the panels! 

There's now a subtle vintage shimmer all over my bark panels, and I love it.  It's almost impossible to capture in a photograph, sadly.  I'll show them moving in the light in a Reel over on my Instagram soon...

So there you have it... a very simple way to create something a little bit special to celebrate the turning of the seasons. 

The bark texture gives you earthiness, the layers give you dimension and movement, and a touch of frosty sparkle will always add extra magic. 

And of course you can use any stamped images you want for layering into your collages.  I now want to make some more panels using the other new wintry stems. I'm off to play! Thanks so much for stopping by today and happy crafting, all.

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Watch out for workshops with me in the UK in January, and you'll find me on the PaperArtsy stand at Creativeworld in Frankfurt in February.