Friday 30 March 2012

"You don't make friends with salad..."

Maybe not but you can make art.

Here's the story.

I was making a salad for lunch on Wednesday and when I looked at the stump of romaine lettuce I saw a stamp. True story.  I remember Julie trying something similar with a bunch of celery and I thought, "why not?"

It was awesome.
DSC_0924

See the blue? That's the lettuce stamped in Jenni Bowlin for Ranger Paint Dabber in Speckled Egg. Then I used a colour wash (more on that below) and stamped with Tim Holtz Mixed Media stamps in various shades of brown Distress Inks. 

I made a second page so you could really see what the romaine lettuce looks like when you stamp with it.  As an added bonus, the lettuce even adds texture when you stamp.
DSC_0927

On this page, I used the 2-step stamping technique.  I stamped using Claudine Hellmuth Studio Paints in Sky Blue, dried it with my heat gun and then stamped again using more Speckled Egg. I offset the second stamping from the first but you really can't expect precision when you're stamping with lettuce. :)

Once the paint was dry, I sprayed the paper with water and applied Tim Holtz Distress Stains as a colour wash on both pages.  Once dry, the paint resists the Distress Stain so I just wiped the Distress Stain off the paint with a damp cloth.  The next time inspiration strikes, I have 2 great background pages ready to go. 

Will I use this technique for scrapbooking? Maybe.  Maybe not. That's not really why I keep an art journal. For me, it's about following creativity wherever it leads.

I don't know about you but I'll never look at romaine lettuce the same way again!

Happy Friday.

zove
C

ps: Here's the link to Julie's video of celery stamping. I tried stamping with a celery rib but didn't like that as much. Next time I get a bunch of celery I'll keep the heart and try this out.

4 comments:

  1. I love your romaine lettuce pages. What a great idea. I saw Julie's video but never tried.

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    1. Thanks! Stamping with food is fun, cheap and not as messy as you might think. I highly recommend it. :)

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  2. Now I have Homer and Bart's voices in my head singing "you don't make friends with salad"... LOL Neat effect with the 'homemade' stamp!

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    1. Thanks! Sorry for putting the Simpsons song in your head. Well, not really. It's a great show. :)

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