Ephemeria and Artistamps: What and Why

Artistamps in Use - Show and Tell

What Are Artistamps?

Long ago in a kingdom far far away, I found my face on an "Artistamp" from the imaginary land of Bingolia.

It actually came in the mail, by hand of the letter carrier, to my mailbox. It was pasted on an envelope and was accompanied by US postage that looked absolutely plain and boring in comparison.

Oh my. This was just WAY too interesting to ignore.

I did some reading, talked to other artists, and in short order I too was designing faux postage so I could use it in all sort of applications.

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Thus was born the wholly imaginary, but nonetheless quite Estimable, Empire of Ephemeria

In the years since then a realm grew up around the stamps it issued.

Princes, Duchesses and holidays were "conceived," garb adopted, heritage concocted and events created all for the sake of the art.

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New artistamp issues are designed to commemorate actual events plus those which occur only in the flights of fancy of our imaginations.

Thus were born auspiciously bizarre events like the Empire of Ephemerias' Chin Hair Apreciation month - along with the more legitimate Ohio Statehood Commemorative issue.

Understandably, as with any postal service, unexpected things happen in the Empire including image problems, spelling mishaps and other happy accidents.

Of course these just make those stamps more collectable and fun. You can make puns from them and create all sorts of mischief.

So cross your fingers and pray for the error-prone among us.

Are they like Rubber Stamps?

No, they are not rubber stamps - they are actually saved as image files, and then printed on paper right from your desktop printer. 

Sticker paper, vellum, tracing paper, photo paper, cardstock, whatever. If it can go through your printer it's workable

And as you see in the sample above commemorating Ohio's statehood, and the collaged bookmark and envelope at right, it's easy to enhance artistamps with rubber stamps, embossing powder & other craft supplies to create artsy, classic, vintage, or fun and funky looks.

You can add the Artistamps of Ephemeria to;

• your snail mail,
• art of any kind,
• transfers
  
• collages,
• altered books,
• art tags,
• your journal,
• a postcard,
• scrapbooks,
• greeting cards,
• Artist Trading Cards,
• glass-slide art,
• your whatever!

Easy Bookmarks

At right an artistamp is added to a book-mark which has been collaged with semi-transparent layers of paper, and then rubber stamped with a faux cancellation stamp and some text stamps.

Adding metalllic touches along the edges with direct to paper application of an ink pad or mounting the dark paper on  a lighter  one, perhaps deckling the edges would  provide  more options.

In the other example here, more than one artistamp is used on card stock that has been collaged with torn paper and accented with rubber stamping.

The colors and images selected give totally different looks to these two projects, both of which start with paper, Ephemeria's artistamps, ink pads and rubber stamps.

Ribbons, fibres, buttons or beads, charms or other ephemera can help create the perfect feel for your project.

Whether printing artistamp on plain papers, labels or using them as transfers or even iron-ons, your imagination is the only limit to the use of artistamps.

Tags, Tag Card and Shrine to Flowers

For the flower shrine Homage Aux Fleurs, a tin from mints was collaged with music and other text paper.

Then flower themed artistamps were added to both the tin and a darling little corked bottle from Skybluepink which was my inspiration to even start this.

Ribbons and silk flower petals were added and a strand of ribbon connects to both. The tin closes with bottle inside or sits open for display.

Rubber stamp or otherwise adorn to your heart's content. The sky's the limit on this one.
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The Tag Book needs only tags purchased or created from card-stock, rice paper to layer, raffia and fibres to wind together for attaching the tags to each other and Asian themed Artistamps from Ephemeria,
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For the Tag Card a simple tag is slipped into a pocket created from paper which has been stamped to suit the theme of your card.  The pocket is mounted on sturdy card-stock or cover weight paper.

Tag and pocket are adorned with Ephemerian Artistamps of similar theme and color family. Frou-frou fibres are added to the tag for panache.

Just Frame Them

One of my daughters framed some butterfly artistamps a few years ago and they look beautiful hanging in her room, so with that inspiration I started making larger prints from my designs and made them available both framed and unframed at Cafepress- not to mention some on mugs and tiles.

Though the mugs and tiles will be harder to reproduce, it's easy to create a print for your wall yourself, add a mat and frame from the local craft store, and have a quick piece of art or a nice gift without too much work or expense.

This is a simple example, a free download from Artistampede, my ever changing catalogue of artistamps. I just printed out the image on the paper that made the image look best. in this case it was a matte photo paper but your choice is as good as mine. I then matted in a clean white so as to not overpower the pale spring green of the image.

The lines of the brushed aluminum frame in a deep blue/black are a perfect way to define the lines of the piece and pick up the contrast in the image itself.

You know you can do something like this easily. And I'd love to see what you do and where you use it.