Softening Detailed Stamp Images with Graphite (Video)

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When you read this, I'll be in Arizona at the Creativation Show, so be sure and check out my Facebook and Instagram feeds for updates!

Picket Fence Studios will be in the Stamping Village this year! To celebrate, they have a huge Creativation release I'll be showing you peeks of (with a video!) today. It's a real beauty!

They have three large, showy florals in this release - a bridal bouquet, a bird with flowers and leaves and this huge Barberton Daisy.

I found a new podcast this past weekend, and I binged it while painting this gorgeous daisy - it covers the deaths of Princess Diana, Natalie Wood and JFK Junior in the seasons that are out now. It's excellent. Done by a former Aussie detective. Highly recommend. Whatever I'm listening to, I remember when I look at what I was painting at the time, and I painted this gorgeous daisy listening to the Princess Diana season.

I originally intended to cut this down to card size, but when I was done, I like it by itself, so I might just frame it and give it to someone as a gift. To give you an idea of how big this background stamp is - I stamped it partially off the page on a 5x7 piece of cold press watercolor paper in Fadeout Ink, and then painted it with just four Daniel Smith Watercolors - Phthalo Blue Green Shade, Quinacridone Purple, New Gamboge and Aussie Red-Gold. The greens are Undersea Green, Rich Green Gold. (All from the Lydia Split in my split group on Facebook.) For me, this is hours and hours of painting, so I don't film full sessions of these, but you can see my method in my watercolor playlist or my no-line watercolor playlist on YouTube.

Next - my FAVORITE BUNNIES ARE BACK! Peach and Piper have returned in this new happy-mail themed set! It's so sweet, and it comes with matching dies for all the critters, as well as a mail-themed background stamp! I stamped these in Fadeout Ink and painted them with Daniel Smith watercolor. So cute! I actually filmed this card and my phone ate it. Bad phone. But I do have another video for you today so don't despair!

Now this one is off kilter, because I had to tilt it to show you the amazing shimmer on this gorgeous swallowtail image! All I did was paint the whole image with my Peacock Sparkle Pen - that's it! I love the ginormous scale of this image. I didn't even need a sentiment!

Finally, another large background stamp really grabbed me - it's these tennis shoes from my childhood. It comes with lots of inspiring sentiments, but I wanted to do something simple with a very simple art supply - just graphite. I wanted to do something that made the shoes feel soft and well-loved, because aside from jeans, there's nothing better than an old, soft, broken-in pair of tennis shoes. So stay tuned below for the video. I just paired it with a simple "hey" word die-cut so that I didn't obscure the image. I stamped it in Whisper ink first, and then you'll see how I shaded it very simply in the video, and I'll give you some random trivia about shoes. :)

So here's the video! Enjoy!

Barberton Daisy [ PFS ] Peach and Piper Checking the Post [ PFS ] Peach and Piper Checking the Post... [ PFS ] Swallowtail Beauty [ PFS ] Walk, Crawl or Run [ PFS ] Hey You Die [ PFS ] The Stamp Scrubber [ PFS ] Spectrum Noir VINTAGE HUES Sparkle... [ SSS ] Amazon.com: Pentalic Art 6-Piece... [ AMZUS ] Gina K Designs WHISPER AMALGAM Ink... [ SSS ] Fadeout No Line coloring Detail Ink [ INK ] VersaFine Clair Ink Pad, Nocturne -... [ ELH | SSS ] Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors [ BLIC ] Escoda Versatil Round - BLICK art... [ BLIC | INK ] Da Vinci Cosmotop Sable Mix F Brushes... [ BLIC | ELH ] Fabriano Extra White Cold Press... [ BLIC ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSP | HA | SSS | ELH | MFT | UNT ] Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 [ SSS | ELH | CST | ART ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] Nesting Porcelain Bowls - BLICK art... [ BLIC ] Tombow MONO MULTI Liquid Glue Two... [ SSS ] LightView 2in1 LED Magnifier for... [ BRG ] Art Anthology BIG CRAFT MAT 24x36 311473 [ SSS ] Heavy Base Weight Card Stock- White [ GNK ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH | SSS ] Crafter's Companion GEMINI... [ SSS ] Scor-Pal MINI SCOR-BUDDY Scoring... [ SSS ] Essentials by Ellen Storage... [ ELH ] Die Storage - Clear Storage Pockets... [ CHC ] XL Stamp Storage Pockets [ ELH ] Mermaid tidy towel case and glue... [ ETS ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ]

LoveyameanithopeIseeyouattheshowbye.