If you’ve collected rubber stamps at all, you have a lot of tiny images. Some are just small ones within big sets, others are planner stamps or full sets of intentionally little ones. You can use them with others in their sets – or turn them into projects of their own! Any brand works – and any coloring media! Let’s explore some ways in today’s tutorial to translate these beyond what we normally might think up.

Video

Watch the video below or click here to see it on YouTube.

The first project is one you can make large if you like – this one is on a sheet of A4 drawing paper, lightweight….I traced the basic shape of a whale, then used frisket film to mask the OUTside parts – then I was only stamping on the INside. I used an xacto knife to cut away the areas for the densest parts of the florals, stamped by applying Tombow water-based markers onto the stamp, then pressing to the paper. (Art Impressions stamps need to be attached to an acrylic block, and AI has some great tiny blocks for that.) For the lighter areas, I stamped those sections last, with only light colors and less dense.

Project 2 is a little complex – a viewer made me this accordion sketchbook a lonnnnng time ago and it sat around here wanting desperately to be used! I had been so busy making card videos for years that it just never made it to the top of the pile – until now. Yay! Thank you to whoever made it! (Some of you send me things from time to time and I really do try to use them!)

I drew out the critters on each page, using a sharpie and some waterproof black ink and a brush. Then I used the frisket film to mask the animals, white tape for the outside edges, and stamped various background tiny stamps— some from Art Impressions, some from Lawn Fawn sets. The backgrounds were colored in with a new set of Zig Clean Color pens.

(DOWNLOAD THE SKETCHES FOR FREE HERE)

The third project is a little lighter on the masking! Only the nose has a sharp edge on my panda, I let the rest just be floating hearts for ears and eye patches – stamps are from the All Inside Bear set, layered with stamping inks, and only the nose and mouth and eyes were masked with the frisket film this time.

Which one might you try out this week? Endangered Species Day is Saturday so see if you can get a project ready to post on your social media to raise awareness and encourage charitable donations!

Join the Peace Love & Art challenge

Last week I announced the Peace Love & Art challenge – I’m excited to see what everyone creates over the next few months! Whether you’re a stamper, a painter, a doodler, journalist – whatever you make….let’s keep going and not let summer take us away from it! Challenges will be adaptable – you’ll be able to create quick small projects (and get ideas for them like today’s video) or start something indepth. Some challenges might send you out to summer activities for inspiration! New classes and bonus content, lots of fun is coming. Oh and don’t forget to get the Artventure App, since a bunch of the bonus content will be in the Tiny Tutorials class! A few challenges will require uploading to the community board there; you don’t have to pay the $3 for the TT class, you can get to the board after registering for the free class. Anyhow – go get the app here. And sign up for the Peace Love & Art email list here!

Supplies

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• Stamps:
  • Art Impressions watercolor stamps (small flowers and plants)
  • Lawn Fawn stamps, various
  • Ellen Hutson All Inside Bear (hearts)
  • Art Impressions acrylic block set
• Papers:
  • Daler Rowney lightweight drawing paper
  • Thank you to the maker of the accordion sketchbook!
• Coloring media:
  • Tombow Dual Brush Pens
  • Zig Clean Color Pens Set A
  • Catherine Pooler inks
• Masking:
  • Frisket Film roll
  • Frisket Film sheets
  • Xacto knife
  • Xacto long blades #11
  • Artist tape 1/2″
• Drawing and black stamping:
  • Sharpie Fine line
  • Platinum Carbon Fountain Pen Ink
  • Silver Brush Black Velvet Round #8
  • VersaFine Ink Pad, Onyx Black