Marvelous Metallics

 

This Thursday It's All About...Marvelous Metallics!  Our wonderful sponsor this week is Crafty Individuals, who provided the design team with a page of unmounted trees, tiny birds, and sentiment stamps, like the ones used in my card, above, and my tag, below!

 

The background image is taken from Dover clipart of an old masterpiece (I'll let you guess which one...), onto which I stamped the trees, birds and sentiment with black VersaFine.  You will see how the background color shifts from the original autumn rusts and yellows used by the artist, to a misty, patina-like green in certain places, somewhat resembling haze or fog.  This effect is achieved by heating an inkjet image which is printed onto laser paper, with a heat tool.  The color shifts as it is lifted and changed by the high heat.  I rimmed the image with a copper Krylon pen, and mounted it onto a very unusual metallic cardstock.

About a year ago, I found the most wonderful metallic card and bought several sheets.  It is paper, and it is metal, and it's very hard to describe, because I've never seen or heard of anything like it, before or since, and it forms the base for this card, and in my pieces above, it's what sits on the substrate of black cardstock. 

It is easiest to tell you what this paper is not, in order for you to understand what it is.  It is not paper with metal flecks.  It is not metal with paper flecks.  It is not a 50/50 fusion of metal and paper.  It is, somehow, paper with metal fiber, as opposed to paper containing metallic fibers.  And it has a copper/green/goldenpatina, with a hand that is entirely cardstock in feel: smooth, but matte, and at the same time, definitely metallic, but not metal in and of itself.  Get the picture?  Probably not, but it's the best I can do to describe this fabulous find, which originates in Japan, and is perfectly in keeping with this week's theme!  

And because of the unusual nature of the paper, the subject and the method, I decided to not to confuse this week's challenge with a variety of ways to use the stamps in artwork, which I'm sure you are all aware is as many as the number of artists that use them, and instead chose to keep these very complex and unusual materials as simple and Zen-like as possible in design.  

You will want to make sure to add your metallic pieces to This Thursday's challenge, and stop by the blogs to see what everyone else is doing with the theme!  There is a fabulous prize courtesy of Crafty Individuals, and you'll want to make sure that you're entered in the draw!!

Have a great day, Everyone! 

Comments

[Patti]

Awesome artwork !!! Love it !!
Patti xx

[Hermine]

Absolutetly gorgeous, great colours and stamps.

[Denise]

Absolutely stunning, both pieces of art are wonderful, such lovely rich tones. I am curious to know which Dover image you used!!!

[~*~ Patty]

Love the coppery glow you've achieved with inks and stamps = wonderful creations Barbara!

[Rosie]

These are so beautiful Barbara - enchanting! It's good to see them on your blog as the slide show didn't do them justice!!
I understand the back-logged bit and I'm so pleased to hear you found the pictorial user-friendly!! So when you get round to it, domino-drilling will be a piece of cake... and we love cake, don't we?!!! xoxoxo

[Debbie]

Barbara thank you for popping over to my blog. ;) :) Yur projects for this thursday are amazing - you do beautiful work. You have achieved some beautiful effects too,. :)

xxDebbiexx

[Lisa]

Barbara, these pieces are so beautiful and have such depth. I feel like I could just walk into the scene. Gorgeous!

[carolann]

These are absolutely stunning hun well done xxxxx