Stamp Obsession

I have had an obsession with stamps for five years. Prior to that, I did not even know what they were for short of address labels, dates and other work-related purposes. I started my collection with a couple of wooden stamps and over the years my collection has grown to hundreds. That is not bad enough, I still keep buying.

Yesterday I went to Tuesday Morning. It is a great place to pick up craft items really cheap. It is hit or miss, sometimes they have stuff, other times they don't. Yesterday I found a fabulous "self healing" craft mat for 50% less than I would have paid retail. I also found large wrapped canvas boards way cheaper than Michaels (even on BOGO days). But it was stamps that got me, again.

Often I buy stamps and put them away and forget I have them. It has gotten that bad. This week before I put my purchases out of sight, I decided to use them in my art journal.

My first page

I bought this stamp at Scrapbooks by the Sea on the clearance table. I thought mixed media when I saw it. I used a water soluble dye ink because my Archival is lost and my new one doesn't come until tomorrow. then I spread an aged mahogany distress oxide on my work table and mooshed it all over my page. I also used some gelatos, textured crackle and clear gesso then splattered with sepia ink.

The next page is just a lot of backgrounds, again, I thought mixed media

The 6x6 background stamp looks like tree bark and those numbers and letters! OMG. I also picked up Ranger words--I thought they were stickers -- rub ons. I am not fond of rub ons, they never want to rub off. On top of my page I used some shimmerz dimensional paste. It gave me a shimmer and made it sticky.

Lastly I used two other stamp sets, one was Ranger vintage things. The stamps are card size, but I thought they were so cool, also there was another set that came with dies, that one I could not pass up. I used Oil Pastels for color on this page, then used a baby wipe to spread them out.

So there you have it. I used my new stamp sets rather than just filing them away. Maybe some night I will dream about how I want to use them. That happens to me often, but it is a story for another day. Thanks for stopping by.