An Artist Trading Block

If you read my blog, you saw the fun we had with the Artist Trading Blocks from Sizzix that went to CHA, so I thought I'd create a relatively simple one....really it is....trust me...and share it here.

 

I literally took more time taking pictures than I did making this! It's that easy once you get things rolling.

 

 

I just set it on an unfinished wooden pedestal here so you can see it better.

 

 

They start out like this with 2 pieces cut from mat board. You can use any size "block" you like. They come in various sizes from 1 1/2 in. to 3 1/4 in. squares.

 

I painted the edges all around with black acrylic paint. Bend the mat board so you can get the paint into the creases.

 

The Scoreboard that cuts 3 different sizes from Eileen Hull should be in stores in February. See it here.

 

The 3 1/4 in. one can be seen here.

 

This one is 2 1/2 inches.  I cut 6 pieces of Specialty Stamping Paper 2 1/4 in. square so I have a border around the papers.

Then I randomly added, without trying to make a big deal out of it, Picket Fence, Festive Berries, Dusty Concord, Seedless Preserves, Tarnished Brass, Brushed Pewter, and a bit of Antique Bronze Distress Paints.

 

Spritz with water to let them run. Here the picture shows up more "reddish" since it's under artificial light. The lower left one, you can tell, didn't get enough water....or so I thought. But it turns out just fine once you stamp on it.



 

The Compass piece is the one I didn't think I'd like as well, but all of them turned out great, and different.

 

The Pewter is really cool on the Dragon Fly and Brushes, but just shows up gray here.

 

I used the Mixed Media Chicken Wire stamp and Sepia Archival Ink to randomly stamp each square first, and them Jet Black Archival Ink on the other images.

 

 All the rest of these pictures are taken in natural daylight....Vampires creating at night must use what they have for the interim pictures.....

 

 

Even the bottom gets a stamped image. Here the brushes are from Tim's Artful Tools Set.  

 

 

The Eye is from Oddities. The Butterfly on top is from Papillon, and the Dragonfly, Compass and Pear are from  the Classics #1 Stamper's Anonymous sets.

 

A glue stick works great for adding the paper to the block, and the last thing is to add Wonder Tape to the 4 tabs and put your Block together.

 

Pay special attention to the direction of the pictures when you glue the papers to the blocks.

 

The 2nd set of pictures are a bit tricky to figure directionally.

 

Good luck and have some fun!

 

Most products can be found at Inspiration Emporium  by clicking the links above, and you get 10% off your order when you use iecain81 for a coupon code.

 

Linda