celebrating STAMPtember...

THANKS Heidi, from Simon Says Stamp,

 for the invite to participate in your STAMPtember event...

I'm happy to share 

some stamping ideas here today...

I have to say it...

I absolutely...

LOVE stamping! 

One of the things that I especially LOVE about rubber stamps is their versatility. When designing, I always like to have more than one use in mind for stamped images. So for Stamptember, I thought it would be fun to show 2 ways to use one stamp. Here’s the first, using a BRAND NEW...floral collage Stamp-it Stencil-it...

 The Stamp-it Stencil-its all have the stamp and the coordinating stencil in the same package. They make life simple. 
Let’s start with a basic card.

THE SWEETEST MOMENTS CARD

Cut a piece of watercolor cardstock to 3 ¾ x 4 ½ inches.

Working on the smooth side of the cardstock use Jet Black to stamp the floral collage centered, toward the top of the card & dry.

Position the coordinating stencil over the flowers portion of the stamped image, Ink over the flowers with Tiger Lily Archival ink, using the blending tool.

With the stencil still in place, add bit of Buttercup Archival to highlight the tops of the petals.

Reposition the stencil over the leaves & use Leaf Green to add color.

Stamp the largest leaf onto a Post-It & cut it out, right on the line...

Place the Post-it over the large leaf to mask it off, then ink the polka dot stamp with Fern Green Archival and stamp the lower section of the card. Remove the mask and the stamping appears to be under the leaf. I saw this when I first  discovered stamping & thought it was MAGIC! 

Use Jet Black to stamp the sentiment on a watercolor scrap. Lightly ink the edges with Leaf Green & add toward the bottom of the card.

Add watercolor panel to the black card base. Add black glaze pen dots to accent the flower center and the base of the small flower.

This quickly creates a completely flat, easy to mail card. 

The stencil acts as a stencil, so you can add color and it masks off the background at the same time. This allows ink to be added using the blending tool, for quick easy coverage.

Now, let’s use that same stamp again and take it up a notch.

KINDNESS CARD
Cover a sheet of clear, Clearly for Art (CFA) with a thin layer of Glue N Seal. Add Newsprint over the adhesive, burnish & give it a quick 10 second dry.
Cut several small pieces, or use scraps.Ink the floral collage stamp with Jet Black & press the Newsprint side over the inked flower portion of the floral collage stamp and the leaves. Repeat & stamp/cut out 2 flowers and 3 leaves, one of each.

Ink the leaves with Fern Green archival.

Ink the 2 flowers with Sky Blue Archival and add Cornflower Blue to the petal edges.

Ink the vintage text stamp with Watering Can Archival & stamp over the 2 flowers.

Heat the leaves to soften the CFA and shape the leaves, while the CFA is warm.

Heat the CFA to shape the petals. Layer the 2 flowers together, using black foam adhesive. It's a great adhesive for CFA. 

Using the large white Mat Mini Flower Pot, ink over the base & trim piece with Orange Blossom Archival, then sprinkle with Frosted Orange Blossom Embossing powder & heat to melt the powder.

To create frosted powder, mix equal parts of Orange Blossom embossing powder with Frosted Crystal embossing powder. This mix creates an authentic textured clay pot embossing powder. Any colored embossing powder can be mixed with Frosted Crystal to create this "frosted" powder. Frosted Crystal "doubles" your embossing powder options.

Glue the trim piece to the base.

and it looks like this...

your finished pieces will look like this...

cut a piece of manila cardstock to 4 ¼ x 5 inches.

To create the card base, add one drop of Cornflower Blue reinker to the craft sheet and sprinkle with rubbing alcohol. Any percentage of rubbing alcohol is fine. Get the cheapest you can find...
Rubbing alcohol will also remove the archival ink from stencils & your craft sheet.

Use the palette knife to mix the reinker into the alcohol. Place the manila cardstock into the inky solution & it will immediately absorb the fluid. Dry.

As the alcohol is burned off, the ink layers will magically  form!

Use Fern Green to stencil the diagonal stripes border at the bottom of the card.

Mask off half of the "diamond" stencil with painters tape to change the diamonds into a banner stencil.

Position the banner over the stripes and stencil with Jet Black.

Use Jet Black to stamp the sentiment above the border, toward the right. 

Add Hickory Smoke to shade the edge of the card.

LIGHTLY ink the unmounted vintage text background stamp with Tree Branch Archival and randomly stamp over the base.

Test drive the flower pot to determine where to stamp the flourish.

Glue the flower pot to the card as shown. Create a pleasing arrangement with the flower & leaves, then glue in place.

Ink a scrap of manila cardstock with Red Geranium and sprinkle with a custom BRICK embossing powder. Heat to melt, then die cut the tiny hearts with the shapes strips heart die.

this is a great way to use up scraps and create perfectly coordinated embellishments!

to create the custom BRICK embossing powder, mix one part of Orange Blossom Embossing powder, one part of Red Geranium embossing powder, 2 parts of Frosted Crystal embossing powder and ½ part of Watering Can embossing powder.

this creates a textured authentic brick surface...

Glue 3 hearts to the right side of the card.

Add the finishing details...

a little pen stitching to the edges, and some black glaze pen dots to the flower center & to accent the banner points.

Mount to a black card base.

Here's the finished card...

here's a closer look at the dimension...

So, that’s the same stamp, taken up a notch. One stamp...
multiple uses...
use it in full, or just a portion...
and...
it can be flat or dimensional...


and that's why I LOVE stamps!


And here’s idea #3...since this is an open image, wouldn’t it be fun to watercolor it with your favorite markers?


or...
idea #4...


it would be fun to add doodling or 
zentangles to the petals!


I hope this inspires you to look at all the possibilities and ways to change up your stamps.

NEWSFLASH...

here's a CODE to enter at checkout 

to get 20% off my brand of products...

just enter 

WENDY...

it's valid from today to 9/12/15...

A N D...

since we're celebrating...

 I'll end with a GIVEAWAY of one of our 

new ADORABLE accessory bags...

compliments of RANGER!

just leave a comment on this post & the winner will be announced 

on Monday September 14th...

it would be wrong to send an empty bag, 

so I'll add a NEW COOL

DIY archival pad...

again...

a simple comment is your entry ticket...

I hope you'll grab your stamps,

use them to enjoy STAMPtember

 and

make art!

wendy