Thursday, August 07, 2008

To Be American


I made this artist trading card for a patriotic themed swap. I have been getting a tiny bit better with photo stamps. I find that inking them with a hard rubber roller helps to get ink evenly spread over the surface of the stamp. Then, when I make the impression, I leave the stamp on the glossy paper for a few seconds. Somehow, this helps. When you are using a photo stamp, be prepared to experiment, and even when you think you have a winning combination of ink, stamp, and paper, be ready to make more impressions than you need.

The stamp is "Marching for America" from The Queen's Dresser Drawers, but I probably bought it at Stamp Diva. I just did a quick google and couldn't find this stamp listed anywhere, so it might be out of production. I stamped it with Adirondack Pitch Black ink on glossy paper, then sponged over the image with Tim Holtz distress ink in Vintage Photo. It's a little dark, but that's okay. The statue of liberty head stamp is from StampFrancisco.

The atc is a folded card, and the Emma Lazarus poem excerpt from "The New Colossus" is on the inside. I chose a Copperplate font for the poem because the design of those letterforms remind me of engraving and monuments. This poem was written to raise money for the Statue of Liberty. You can read more about it at the National Park Service, including the full text of the poem.

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