New stamping techniques ... at least for me!

I have so many stamps and use so few! I have so many Spellbinder dies and use so few! What to do? Hey how about mixing the two! The easy way would be to stamp then die cut ... but of course I had to go about it differently. I decided to  die cut first to create a stencil/mask and then stamp inside the inside of the stencil.

Here's what I came up with. The two cards are basically done the exact same way ... just different colors and different embellishments. 

Each time I started with one of the mid size the Spellbinder Labels die and cut out the design in the center of a small piece of copy paper. I  overlaid the stencil/mask on a white piece of paper and then stamped the text (Stampin Up! French script). Then using the same ink color as the stamp, I edged the stamped text before removing the stencil/mask. For one card I cut down the stamped panel and mounted it on matching color paper, for the other I trimmed the stamped panel with a deckle scissor (Fiskars) and edge the new panel with a contrasting but coordinating color.

The stamped background panels become a basic background patterned paper ... the embellishments are what finish the cards. The best part is that the stencils/masks are re-usable and the die cut inset can be used in the opposite way in future cards.

Multi-media Easter card.

I like to mix and match my media as I create my cards; which is what I did for this card.

I started with a stamped image from E.K. Success/Inkadinkado of a bible with a sprig of flowers. I used water color paint to carefully color the image, including metallic gold paint for the page edges. Then using a Spellbinder die cut set, I cut out the stamped image and a matching mat. These I attached to a size A2 white card. As I looked at the painted sprig of flowers, it just didn't seem bright and expressive enough. So I covered it with an E.K. Success/K&Company 3D glittered flower sticker; which luckily matched the mat color. To finish off the card I added a sticker text from Mark Richards.

Mrs. Grossman's Campaign.

As many of you know I have a long standing love affair with Mrs. Grossman's stickers. Over the years I have amassed a huge collection of her stickers and have recently been asked to be part of their team by creating cards using their latest stickers to be posted as inspiration on their Face book and web site. That's great ... but what about the stickers that have been retired? Those are some of my favorites, especially the Design Line and the laser cut ones. These are no longer available (except in one place) and as my supplies starts to dwindle I've decided to start a one man campaign to convince Mrs. Grossman's to re-issue some of these incredible classics. To  make my point I've been making cards and sending them in to Mrs. Grossman's. Here are some examples ... from the super simple to the multi-layered.

The first one is made with four stickers: a teddy bear, a small red heart, a single red rose and a laser cut text colored in red using a marker.What makes this card special is the laser cut text. These script type texts were cut from a white paper but can easily be colored with markers or ink pads.

The second one is made up of three Christmas wreath released on different years embellished with small sticker bows and a text sticker. The one wreath is rather large and to make the most of it I cut so I could spread it over the card.

The final one was made a couple of years ago using the Design Line Lace edge, which I used to trim the card and mitered the corners. I also use a Laser cut lace heart as the background for a rub-on glittered heart.

I plan on making more cards and posting them in as many places as I can ... who knows many it will work!

Corner punch frenzy!

There are many types of hand punches out there and one of the latest  is the edge and corner sets from E.K. Success/Martha Stewart. The corner punches can be used by themselves to create interesting small medallion.  Start with a stack of 2" x 2", 2 1/4' x 2 1/4' or 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" squares pieces of solid colored paper and then punch away.  Once you've done punching start stacking them into different combinations. I turned mine into "fake" medals by adding some paper trim, bows and bling.

Halloween 2013

One thing I learned early on with stickers is that they don't need to be used as they are packaged. Stickers can be cut apart, dis-assembled and re-assembled as needed and some even colored. I took advantage of these techniques in making these two cards.

 

The first card started with a laser cut over sized sticker from Mrs. Grossman's picturing a tree with several small crows. The sticker's original shape was rectangular which I changed to oval by adhering the sticker to an ivory piece of paper and then using an oval die cut to eliminate the original square frame. To emphasize the crow concept I added a large glittered crow sticker from Martha Stewart/E.K. Success, whose eye I colored with some red glitter glue.

 

 

 

The second card also started with a laser cut Mrs. Grossman's sticker. This time I adhered it to a white piece of paper and then colored the background as needed. The paper background was trimmed to fit the frame of the sticker and then the panel was added to a pale green card. This time I added glittered bat stickers from Martha Stewart/E.K. Success to emphasize the haunted house theme.

 

 

The original stickers are great by themselves but a little personalization never hurts!