When I received Traci Baustista's new book, Printmaking Unleashed I was excited and amazed to see so many printmaking ideas! Beautiful projects seemed to spill out of every single page. First I looked at all the photographs, and then I began reading, first skipping around and then from back to front. Tracy's joy and playfulness in her creating process became a joy to me as well!
Tracy also sent me a packet of very fun and unusual tools for me to experiment with and I have to say, my very favorite was the adhesive craft foam! I have wanted to cut more of my own stamps for some time, and have been looking for this wonderful product!!
I looked up symbols on Pinterest, and other ideas on my Hand Carved Stamp Ideas page here. Then I began to draw and cut up my stamp ideas on the foam.
I cut out my new stamp designs, pulled off the protective backside and pressed the sticky side on to cardboard.
I was happily surprised at how securely my designs stuck to the card board pieces!
Next came the very fun part of making images with my stamps and trying different inks! I printed on tissue papers and rice papers, silk and gauze and linen, even notebook and graph paper. Then I tore or cut out each individual image and started playing with collages!
After I found a collage design I liked, I used Traci's adhesive and adhered my images on to pieces of watercolor paper that I had already covered with a light weight piece of rice paper, fabric and white gesso.
Finally when my projects were all finished I added a bit of stitching.
Thank you Traci, for sharing your amazing and inspiring book with me and the world!!