I LOVE Stamping!!

I LOVE stamping!!  There I said it out loud, but it's true and needed to be said.  I think most crafters that work with paper, card, etc start out stamping and then either lose their way or get so amazed by new products on the market that they meander away from the path of stamping.

I've made a lot of cards lately that could be described as CAS Clean & Simple styling.  Something about those crisp white card bases and regimented patterns.  But every now and then, I rebel!!  I get out the inks and get messy.

One of my favourite Stamp companies is Visible Image.  I love their quality and the unique designs and so when i saw the brand new sets from the 'more than words' collection, I knew I had to have 1 or 2 or 3 (I ending up buying 3)  I believe I do have another on the way but that's another story :)

I chose the 'Thank You' set to work with, has a lovely verse and is very versatile with the flower head stamp included which is great to make backgrounds as well as focal points.

So I planned to not plan my card!!  I just assembled some basics from my craft stash, like distress inks, archival ink, gilding flakes, water spritzer etc and set to work.

 

First I thought I'd make a sheet of patterned card.  I blended dabs of distress inks in 3 colours all over a white piece of card, taking time to blend the colours all over.  Used 2 main colours of Spiced Marmalade and Worn Lipstick for larger areas and used the Tea Dye to help blend the two together.  Then I thought I'd have more messy fun and filled a spritzer bottle with water and gently sprayed it randomly over my newly coloured card.  I left the water droplets for a few seconds before blotting with tissue.  You can leave the water longer if you want a more dramatic look of course.

When the card was dry, I stamped the flower head from the set all over it randomly, using the 2 main colours of the distress inks.

A sentiment verse from the set was stamped onto a panel of white card using Black Archival Ink, and finished the panel with a couple of stamped flower heads to match the base.

After trimming my background cards to size to suit my design and the 6x6 card blank, I then dabbed gilding glue around the edges of both sheets and applied the gilding flakes.  Love doing this, it's extra messy but worth it, especially when you 'burnish' the flakes to reveal their variegated shades. 

I wasn't finished stamping though, I decided to 'stamp' a couple of the flower heads in gilding glue and gild them too, helping to bring the sentiment panel and background card together.  I thought the card still needed something extra to balance the black, and so I used the 'Thank You' stamp from the same set and stamped in black at the top right and bottom left of the card.

Then just a little matting and layering with my favourite black cardstock (papermill) and the card was complete. 

I really like the look and warm 'feel' of this card, and the 'thank you' repeated twice is like saying 'thank you, thank you' and gives extra meaning to the sentiment, I think?  

I need to get my 'Challenege Mojo' back and so I am going to enter this card in Visible Image's March Challenge
http://visibleimage.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/use-your-favourite-visible-image-stamps.html

Which this month is all about using your favourite stamps, and this new range of stanmps is currently my Fav!!

Challenges entered:

Visible Image - March Challenge - Use Your Favourite Visible Image Stamps
 http://visibleimage.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/use-your-favourite-visible-image-stamps.html



Shame my camera work does not truly reflect the gilding flakes, they catch the light and provide extra interest to the card.

Materials Used:
White stamping card from Oakhouse Studio
Distress Ink pads in 'Spiced Marmalade' and  'Worn Lipstick', also 'Tea Dye' to blend
Black Archival Ink
Black card from Papermill Direct
Gilding glue 
Gilding Flakes in 'Brighton Pier'
White 6 x 6 Card Blank from Craftwork Cards