Boy oh boy! Was I a happy bunny when I got these fabulous stamps from Elena. I hold my hands up (see them? REAL HIGH!!!) I more or less insisted I was on Elena's team, such is my love for her wonderfully quirky designs. I must have had a wild look in my eye because Leandra and Elena took pity on me and I have had an absolutely ball playing around with these images.
You can already see how amazing they are for yourselves, but hopefully I can show you a hint of how versatile they can be using a few different styles, mediums and substrates. Where you take them after that is entirely up to you...
Throughout, we used a colour pallette of Claret, Rose, South Pacific, Bora Bora, Haystack, Pumpkin Soup, Tinned Peas and Chalk Fresco Finish Paints.
I've also used Smoothy Card (both Heavy and Regular) and Grey Board throughout.
Here goes...
I love this little piece I made using one of those lovely large sentiments from ZA08 as the focal point surrounded by some of the smaller elements from ZA05 and ZA06.
I curved the spikey sun shaped pieces upwards with a ball tool and filled it with glossy accents to really catch the light. They look like little puddles of water.
I like to play about with things a bit so I've made the gorgeous flower head from ZA06 into a fish just by turning it sideways, adding an eye and a leaf for a tail. The leafy fronds were stamped onto painted Smoothy card, fussy cut and layered to make them look like weeds. I've used Kim Dellow's lovely stencil to make the ripples and added one of Elena's little detail stamps for bubbles. The sentiment around the edge pulls it all together.
I've gone a bit clean and simple for my next project. My first EVER shaker card and I think it might be one of my favourite pieces. I absolutely love the design of this large square dotty flower head with it's quirky leaf "hair". I can see so many things to do with it but the first thing I thought of was a shaker card. I've puffed the little birdies with a ball tool and added eyelashes by dotting a fine black marker around the edge of their eyes.
The little button girl is one of my favourite characters from Elena's previous release. I've coloured her with my Copic alcohol markers and used the flannel technique I showed you recently on the PaperArtsy blog to add texture and soften the blending.
There are those cheeky birds again! They're just so cute. I can't resist them. I would love to do this as a journal page and the larger sentiments from ZA08 really lend themselves to larger projects, which I really like. I did a very simple stencilled background and then added the gorgeous holey flowers ("Holey Flowers Batman!" There! I've said it! Sorry! Can't help myself! ;oD)
I stamped the flowers straight onto the background and painted them with Fresco Paints, putting back the detail at the end with a black pencil. It was amazingly satisfying to sit and paint all the elements. I can honestly say the more I paint, the more I like it. It's definitely something I plan to do more of in the coming year.
This one is just a full on Flower Fest! I've emphasised the word "flowers" by cutting large sized letters from greyboard and painting each one with a different colour from the pallette. The rest of the sentiment was stamped onto an offcut of greyboard painted with Chalk Fresco Paint. I then edged the board in black and added glossy accents over the top to give it a bit more presence so that it doesn't just disappear into the background.
I've used a chipboard base which I've painted with Haystack and Pumpkin Soup Fresco Finish Paint. All the stamping was initially done straight onto the board and then I've pulled out various features by stamping them seperately on Smoothy Card, fussy cutting and puffing out the paper with a large ball tool.
I do love a bit of repeat stamping. I've used my Copic Markers for the colouring. I love the fact these stamps work brilliantly on lots of different styles. You can really layer them up and throw lots of product at them OR, as I've done here, you can pare it all right back on a pure white background. It makes them so versatile and the detailing is faultless. They have such character.
Boo!
Mixing things up a little again here. I looked at one of the (genius) House Flowers on ZA05 and immediately thought "Duck!". The more I looked at it, the more it looked like a little duckie and when I added eyes to the windows my little duck was born (there's a baby winking duck lower down on the stalk too...just sayin'). I've used a coaster sized piece of grey board, a sentiment and those gorgeous wibbly circles, which I've glossed. Job done.
Well folks, that's me. I hope you've enjoyed my samples. It really is just the tip of the iceberg as far as possibilities go and I know you will all have endless fun thinking up uses for Elena's designs.
I had the best time playing with these amazing stamps by Elena. She is quite the loveliest, cleverest person alive and her head is absolutely STUFFED with amazing ideas. Why not head off to her Facebook page here and check out her amazing work.
But it doesn't end there.... Wendy Mallas, with her wonderfully wicked sense of fun, has some terrific treats in store for you at her blog Wendy's House.
If you haven't already, do go and visit the PaperArtsy Blog for the full round up of tonight's release. Elena has done a cool YouTube video showing her design process for some of the stamps and you'll see a few of the samples from Team Zinski. There are links to all the blogs and details for approved retailers where you can buy your stamps.
Now I don't know about you but I can't WAIT to see what's in store for the rest of the week so don't forget to check out the PaperArtsy blog at 7pm each evening. Go on! You know you want to....
Lauren x
