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Cherry Pie
Dyan Cross - Captain's First MateStamping Deck Crewmember
Aaahh - cherry pie. The name evokes images of warm summer days with pie a la mode, or even that unique American story about our First President and the cherry tree. Well, this is NOT your mother's Cherry Pie. Marina Lenzino's Cherry Pie stamps are arty, often edgy, with fabulous designs, and many are based on her favorite artists and Old Masters, with her unique twist.
I always like to know how artists started stamping and especially why they started a stamp company. Marina, who is from Italy, now living in Florida, tells it this way:
"Many years ago I received a small friendship book that contained an ad from the US. A woman was selling a collection of teddy bear and kitten rubber stamps. I was wide eyed! I had never seen anything of the kind. A rubber stamp was an office tool for me. I actually owned an address stamp myself, but I had never thought of a designed one! I immediately wrote for her catalog and spent hours looking at each image. Then I remembered that I could actually draw!
I sent some quick sketches to see if she would be interested, and shortly I had a large number of my own designs turned to rubber. I was hooked for life.
In 1991, Cherry Pie was born. I started with a cute line that soon evolved to my scenic line where I have images drawn from my own photos taken around the world. Nowadays the Cherry Pie line is mainly "artsy" though."
I couldn't have said it better.
I started with one of my favorite image types - Cherry Pie's Face Watch & Calligraphy. I enjoy using collage elements and Marina has a wonderful variety on her site - bunches of watches, keys, hands, and snippets of all kinds of text. I layered pieces to a crackle background made with Plaids Crackle Medium - full directions are on my supply list - and finished off with a piece from an old watch.
I love the Venus image based on Botticelli's painting and thought that chalks would show off her delicate features. Decorative papers in a patchwork pattern worked well for a background, and a bit of ribbon and lace added to the feminine look. The Venus is just one of a large collection of "women" images, including stamps from many cultures as well as those based on classical paintings. There's even a great stamp of Janet Leigh entitled "Psycho Scream!"
When I saw this image, the first things that came to mind were "garden nymph" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream." I computer generated the rectangles, stippled the background and stamped the image. I stamped two additional doves, covered them with glitter and Glossy Accents and attached to the card with foam tape. I created the Midsummer Night's Dream background using a gradient filled font. Starting this month, I am writing a feature each month on Fonts and will do an article on Font Backgrounds, giving you step-by-step directions.
Cherry Pie also has a whole page of manuscript rubber stamps that would make fabulous backgrounds, including some unusual Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindu and Egyptian choices.
Cherry Pie has a whole series of Postoids that makes Faux Postage so easy. Check out her "Women of the World" postoids - this Venere is just one of more than a dozen images. The images were colored with watercolor pencils, and I used Twinkling H2O's for the background - you can't see in the scan, but they shimmer so nicely in person. I used Cherry Pie's watch face collage to stamp over the H2O's and in keeping with our visit to Italy this month, I used a Madonna postage stamp on a tiny tag attached with fibers.
This stamp is an image based on one of Marina's favorite artists, Gustav Klimt, whose swirls are fantastic and so versatile in any kind of stamping. The background of the "Swirly Portrait" stamp had the Klimt swirls as part of the design, and I paired it with the larger swirls on a separate stamp for a layered background. Marina has a whole series of Dali-inspired stamps, melting face and all, and other stamps based on classical paintings.
Well, I haven't covered all the categories yet - Cherry Pie also has pages of the following images: Cats, Asian, Men, "Round Stuff," Things, Decorative Elements, Angels. I hope some of my artwork has inspired you to check out the Cherry Pie website - here's a link directly to the stamps -. Cherry Pie Stamps
As I mentioned above, you will also find me in the Ship's Digital Suite writing a new feature each month on Fonts - be sure to check it out on the Ship's Digital Suite menu.
Dyan Cross
dyancross@ssreflections.com
Captain's First Mate
Stamping Deck Crewmember
S.S. Reflections, Inc.
See more ideas, techniques and product reviews at our sister site Scramping Central