My inky travels along life's rocky road

Wednesday 4 February 2015

Calendar Challenge - February

This month's calendar challenge on the Craft Barn blog has to use the colour red and have hearts on it, so far so predictable. I wasn't in the mood for a traditional Valentine's Day page so I had a play with a new Katzelkraft stamp set with the beguiling title of zigouigouis. I have coveted this stamp since I first saw it and as Katzelkraft were having a sale I decided to succumb to temptation.
Whilst playing around with the curly tentacle shape I thought I could make a heart shape by reversing it so I used a mirror image stamp (basically just a flat sheet of rubber). I used some of the other stamps in the set, cut them out and added them to the page. I was going for a very graphic, bold effect so kept the background plain. I used a heart corner punch on the calendar and added a few gems.
I finally managed to finish binding my book of last year's challenge entries. You can see it here.

15 comments:

  1. This is wonderful!! So very striking. Please would you explain the mirror image stamp in more detail? I've never heard of it, but it sounds essential! :D

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    1. If you Google mirror image stamp you will see a pic of what this looks like. It is just a smooth piece of rubber that you stamp your image on and then stamp that where you want it to go. The impression tends to be a bit lighter than the original because it is a second generation impression. I did have to trace over some parts of the image to darken the lines. I found mine in a charity shop for a few pennies but I wouldn't say it was an essential piece of kit. If you look at your stamps you may find one with a largish, flat area that you could experiment with. You could try the back of an unmounted stamp but I'm not sure that would be smooth enough. Some people have also used acetate for this reverse image technique but I don't manage to get a good impression.

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  2. A lovely page. I like how you mirrored the stamp.

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  3. Very Zentangle! and a very strong page - fabulous!

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  4. Very striking with the black and white against the red and your Quotes book looks good too!

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  5. Wonderful calendar, love the zentangle like decorations, a very striking page x

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  6. I love what you did with the prompts, my thought exactly how predicatble. Great stamp set.

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  7. So cool, love the colour combination. :)

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  8. That's a wonderful page, love the heart.

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  9. Great page and very inventive use of the tentacles stamps. Love Katzelkraft too!

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  10. Love the new stamps - great page have a lovely sunday x

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  11. Yes at first glance I that you had added some zentangle in there, until I started to read through your post. Clever use of the stamps and a striking calendar page.

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  12. I think striking is a very good word to describe your page!! Thank you for joining in the Challenge.
    Jane (The Craft Barn) x

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  13. A very clever page. Reverse stamping is new to me. Thank you for the explanation.

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  14. Fab page, love the stamping! xx

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