Western Bandanna

This month's challenge on the Ranger group is to create something using Robin Beam's bandanna technique (also in the latest Technique Junkies newsletter). As you may know, I love this tech and wanted to try something different with it. One of my friends told me that it looks really good using brown ink instead of black....this made me think of rustic Western style, so that's what I went for. I had tried the wrinkle free distress technique before and could never get the look I wanted. Well, I finally did it the right way (using watercolor paper) and it came out fab! I almost hated to cover it up, to be honest. But I took a chance and loved how it came out. Background stamps are from Innovative Stamp Creations and cowgirl photo stamp is from Oxford Impressions' Cowgirl Blues plate.

And Now For Something Completely Different

This is something I made for the CCS Yahoo group. It's for a double tag bandanna swap. Trish and other members have posted such awesome artwork - I don't know when I've been so inspired by a group's art! I pulled out a bunch of stamps I haven't used in ages....the type of stamps I loved when I first started stamping. There are so many it's hard to ID them all, but I'll try! The main image w/the A is from Inkadinkado. The Bingo numbers, pen nib and create are all from Time to Stamp/I Brake for Stamps. The word 'Art' is part of a stamp from Vickie Enkoff (I miss her!). The mesh on the top and bottom is from Innovative Stamp Creations. The eye and diamond background are from Stampabilities. The quote is from Hampton Art. Whew! I was almost afraid that I'd crowded too much into the space, but I really like it that way.

The base is plain white cardstock that I sponged with several colors of Adirondack dye inks. I used the Signo white gel pen for highlighting. I hope my partner likes it!!

Halloween Bandanna

This stamp from Artistic Outpost it just perfect for the bandanna technique! The background is purple and crimson Memories dye ink, sponged on white cardstock. I almost threw it away...I didn't really like the way the colors came out at first. I decided to use it for practice and ended up loving the color. To make the swirls go all the way around the card, I inked that portion of the stamp and kept stamping and rotating, until it was covered. I hated covering it up - it was so pretty! I have a friend that says you're not supposed to fall in love with your backgrounds. If you do, you're supposed to paint over it and start again....or something like that. Ack! If I did that, I would never get anything done. Am I the only one who hates covering up?