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Serendipity Tutorial
Written by France Chevalier in May 2003 for
OrientalStampArt's
Stamp Artist of the Month
(clicking on the thumbnails below will open a new window where you can see a
larger version of the image.
The large images are stored at Webshots.)
Serendipity? Merriam
Webster defines it as "the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or
agreeable things not sought for" (word dates back to 1754)
Serendipity is the technique I share with the group.
I have not
invented the technique, and there are heaps of tutorials for this technique, on the web, and
there are many ways to do it. What I love about Rubber Stamping is that if you
follow the basic rules (i.e. don't use pigment ink on gloss unless it's the
quick drying type or you plan on embossing) you can't go wrong. I love taking a
technique and making it my own, adapting it to the stamps I have, and to the
materials I have. I think that makes the difference between someone who creates,
and someone who copies. Though there is nothing wrong with copyists either.
Materials list:
Full or half page of cardstock (colour is up to you, I used white)
Strips and bits of paper, you can use tissue paper, textured
paper, coloured paper, you can use paper you've stamped on, bits of cards that
didn't turn out right. I would only caution against some surfaces on which ink
doesn't always stick, but I still use them. You can also use pictures from
magazines, bits of books or dictionary or newspaper, postage stamps, bits of
doilies, pretty much anything you are comfortable working with, which can be cut
with a sharp blade (X-acto, craft knife, or fancy cutting items!). You can even
use only stamping gear if you want as per the
Arts Without Anxiety
tutorial, which was one of the first techniques I tried for one of my first
swaps!
Glue - it's messy but that's part of the fun. You could possibly
use Jac paper (film that is sticky on both sides and comes with protective
backing, on the front and the back) but you would need to cover the whole surface (which can be done
with whatever you want, glitter, sand, confetti, etc.), you could also possibly
use your Xyron on the back of the papers you want to adhere to your main piece
of card (not sure, I don't own one and I've never seen one used).
Ink - some people use one colour
(this example was done in black ink), others like to use a few
colours (3) to give the stamping a bit more depth. You can also use an embossing
pad and embossing powder to make your images, on the serendipity surface.
Stamps - some medium, some smaller, and some even smaller. You want to
stay away from stamps that are too large, but then again, it is really up to the
individual artist.
Cutting tools - Something that cuts well and precisely, a cutting
gizmo such as a Fiskars cutter, a guillotine, X-acto and metal ruler... even a square punch can be used
(even a triangular one!)
and last but not least, a Pencil.
Method (or madness?):
First thing I did, was think of what bits I was going to use. Last time I
went with beige background card and light toned papers (see
this image), this time I tried something a little bit bolder, using red
papers, some with some gold, all layered on white card.
Tear or cut, whichever you prefer, strips of your chosen paper. If using
mulberry, paint a fine line of water where you want to rip, that helps tear the
paper, and leaves a nice fuzzy edge. Glue your bits and pieces randomly on the
page, you can go completely randomly or follow a pattern. I went for the
vertical and horizontal lines (that
was learned here). The end results were gluey fingers (I did have to clean my hands very often
doing this) and the image below. The efforts are worth it.
Tip: When you've stuck all your bits like the image above, you want
to make sure they will stick. I usually either turn my page over and rub it from
the back, but you can also turn it over a non-stick surface like the protective
paper on cold laminate or Jac paper. That way if there is glue showing, it won't
stick to the surface under your work. I guess you could also roll a brayer on
the back to make sure all's sticking to the piece of card. Look for bits that
aren't stuck, and apply glue to them. You want a nice surface to stamp on
and not bits of paper that stick out.
When the glue is dry, now's the time to use your stamps. I used a Noh mask, a
butterfly, a dragonfly, a willow, and a few small bits of text.
I like using simple line drawings stamps for this technique as opposed to
photo stamps, for instance.
It doesn't really matter if some of the images you stamp aren't perfect, just
keep going starting with a few images with the large stamp(s) and then the
medium slowly filling the gaps, then the smaller ones. You have to make sure
that you don't have more than about a square inch of space with nothing in
it (that's 2.5cm square for the metric people). Here is where you can use
different colours of inks, or you can emboss in gold or black, to suit your
theme.
Try to stamp in the same way as your bits of paper, i.e. either randomly or
in a vertical or horizontal, or both, manner. Remember, there is no rule
Your page will look somewhat (or not at all) like this:
When the ink is dry, now is the time to cut.
I usually will cut a fine strip off two edges of the card, either 1 cm or 1/2
inch. I do that as I find I never quite stamp over the edge like I should. I cut
off the vertical and horizontal edges I like the least, the ones that have the
most card showing.
When that is done, turn your card over. You can mark it at regular intervals
of your choice, or just use the width of your ruler. Mine is about 2.5
cm/1 inch wide, and that suits me fine. Align your ruler along the long edge of
the card, and trace a line all the way from one end of the car to the other end.
Align your ruler on that line now, and trace another line, you will get a number
of ruler intervals. Similar to this:
Then, turn your card 90° so that the edge you trimmed is closer to you. Now
placing your ruler aligned with the bottom of the card, cut a strip of
serendipity paper (similarly to the image below). You will end up with a strip
of paper with marked lines on it.
Take your craft knife or a pair of
scissors and cut along the marks of the strips you just created. When you are finished cutting, you will have a nice little bunch of squares:
I like to play with my squares, sometimes I will reconstruct an image, like
in the samples below, where you can see a pear on the left, and a Noh mask on
the right card:
Other times you will just find pieces that go well together.
Group them by threes, fours, or sixes (or see one of the
tutorials below for more ideas). Some people will use 6 or 8 squares to fill
the front of the card and add some embellishment, or not.
There are no rules on how you must present your squares. Below
is another one variation:
(Sorry, the gold frame did what gold does best when scanned, it
vanished in a pool of black!)
You can paste your squares as is, you can edge them with a
Krylon or other type of leafing pen, with a Marvy Metallic marker, you can emboss the edges, you can layer them on larger squares, and
then layer those squares on a background card or paper. You can affix the
squares to a thicker board, and cover with UTEE (being careful to not melt the
glue). You can cut squares in triangles, or in two rectangles and rearrange the
way you please. Your imagination
is really your only limit.
In the card that was
used for the front page of OSA this month I used a page of a book, on which
I scraped red Neopaque paint using an old credit card. This enabled me to apply
only a thin layer of paint and let some of the text show through. I ripped three
of the four sides of the page and affixed it to a black leather-textured card. I
edged my serendipity squares with a gold pen, mounted them on a strip of black
card which I ripped at the top and bottom, then layered that on a slightly wider
strip of red card which I also ripped at the top and bottom. I affixed that to
the red page. Stamped a chop type stamp in black on the lower right hand side of
the text page, and affixed the dragonfly with Crystal Lacquer (aka Diamond
Glaze, or Dimensional Magic), one could use any other glue of your choice. The
Crystal Lacquer is the only thing I have at the moment that has a fine
applicator. The dragonfly embellishment was done following Dee Hardcastle's
directions, which can be obtained
here.
The other card was
done by rotating my serendipity squares by 45°, and affixing two to a middle one
using red eyelets. The piece was then mounted on black, then gold, then to a red
card which I stamped randomly, in black, with a Japanese Mail Art Set by
Collections Rubber Stamp (available from Limited Edition Rubber Stamps in the USA).
Other Serendipity Technique Sites:
Oriental Stamp Art at Yahoo!Groups:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OrientalStampArt/
Big thanks to Annette, Brenda and
LizzieS for making OSA what it is, and a huge thanks to Lynn for creating this
new feature!
Other tutorials I've written can be found
here.
Humble apologies to
anyone who might not appreciate
my creative license of mixing Japanese and Chinese images in my artwork.
This tutorial and
images © 2003 France Chevalier
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