Garden Themed Prayer Flags and Carving a Bracket Frame

   Thankfully we had an entire day and evening of rain the other day which kept me inside to catch up on housework and then reward myself with another stamp carving lesson and finishing 9 prayer flags for a swap I'm in.

   First up: My garden themed prayer flags-

    This swap was hosted by Barb Burkard thru FaceBook after being inspired by the prayer flags picured recently on that site. You can see the first prayer flag I ever made here. Most of the flags on FB had been uploaded by Jane LaFazio who heads up The Prayer Flag Project.  Barb chose a garden theme. There are nine participants. Along with Barb and I are Megan Hull, Martha Brown, Tanya Peacock, G Ian Gioseffi, Sandee Hyde, Nancy Maxwell James and Dawn Gold. I am so thrilled to be amongst such accomplished artists!

   I chose to use a variety of bright floral fabrics, white flowery laces, printed silk flowers (I don't remember where these came from but I had exactly 9 of them and it was perfect that the word "love" along with other affirmations was printed on them!), heart buttons and vintage buttons. The sentiment is an unmounted stamp from Impression Obsession. I stamped it onto a piece of white muslin with a fabric ink (Crafter's-by Clearsnap) which I'm not even sure is manufactured today. I sewed it only on the sides and bottom so it left a "pocket" in which one could slip some names into it if they so choose. My flags are not precision cut or sewn as I chose to give them an "organic" look-meaning really that I didn't want to take the time to mark and measure :). Also, my machine is a bit old and sometimes stitches inconsistently (perfect for mixed media art). I also left edges frayed and left end threads hanging. I'm so looking forward to receiving my flags from everyone and will post a pic of them hanging as soon as I get them.

   And now- my next online Stamp Carving 101 lesson-Lesson Five-the Bracket Stamp. You can click the icon on the side bar at right for a link to the class description and you can see my progress thru the lessons beginning with lesson 1 here. I am thoroughly enjoying the challenges of each lesson and then creating a tag for myself and for Lenna Andrews who's participating with me.

  Getting there:

  

   As you can see, this stamp required ALOT of carving and I did it in several sittings at different times. The bracket is a design Julie gave us to use and I chose to stick with it although some others chose other designs they found. I didn't find one online I wanted to use and didn't want to take more time looking. Print finally looks good and I'm ready to make the tags.

   I placed the tags side by side and stamped my frame repeatedly using Bright Yellow acrylic paint by Americana. Then, of course, I sprayed away with Dylusions spray inks in Pure Sunshine, Squeezed Orange, Fresh Lime, Vibrant Turquoise and Black Marble.

   I LOVE the way this turned out! See how the acrylic paint stamped frame acted somewhat as a resist to the inks?

   And here are the finished tags:

 

   The bracket frame was stamped with Staz -On Jet Black ink then trimmed.The sentiment is an old Close To My Heart rubber stamp and that was stamped in Peacock Feathers Distress ink by Ranger. A few paper flowers, a felt butterfly and a pretty ribbon finished them.

  The next lesson (I'm currently working on) is a damask stamp carving-much more intricate-but I say-bring it on!

  Thanks so much for stopping by. Your comments are so appreciated too. Feel free to contact me anytime if you have any questions about anything on my blog. I will have something very special to share very soon-it has something to do with the wonderful world of blogging and giving. Stay tuned. Until next time,

   "Life is your art. An open, aware heart is your camera. A oneness with your world is your film.    
    Your bright eyes, your easy smile is your museum."  Ansel Adams