Mixed Media Tags - The Stampsmith

Quite often I've wanted a vintage photographic image to include in a project but finding copyright free images wasn't as easy as I'd expected.   I'd seen the batches of photos you can buy specifically for  journalling and mixed media projects but I was sure I'd seen images of the kind I wanted online as stamps - I just had to find them!  And find them I did, courtesy of the Stampsmith.  I was lucky to visit during a sale where for every 2 stamps sheets or singles you order, you can e-mail the lovely Estelle for your 3rd free sheet or single of your choice(!).  I didn't need to be asked twice and it helped justify the additional postage cost for ordering from America.  I was thrilled to find my parcel waiting for me on my return from France :)

Now you may not think this looks exciting but the stamps are unmounted (which saves on postage) and you can only make out the images if you look at them closely.  That's because they are photographic quality and a little different to normal deeply etched stamps.  As soon as you apply an ink pad, they come to life...

 Isn't that gorgeous?

It's worth a little experimentation to find the best mix of ink pad and paper.  I used a high gloss Ranger paper and stamped two images with brown and a grey archival inks.  This gave me the best image so I assumed (wrongly) that glossy photographic printer paper would be as good.  You can see below the image is blotchy.  Experiment!

And so, for her helpfulness and to show off her beautiful stamps, I have made a couple of (very quick!) tags for Estelle - The Stampsmith.

I am looking forward to playing with these stamps a lot!