I’ve been trying to K.I.S.S my cards over the past few weeks. No not ‘Kiss’ – as in ‘kiss on your cheek’. K.I.S.S. Right now you might be saying “What the heck is K.I.S.S.?” . . . . K.I.S.S. is short for: ‘Keep It Simple Stupid’.
I’m a bit of a lover of embellishments and falderals. I love those extra little happy touches. But the problem with these things is that it adds so much depth to a card which means having to make deeper boxes for them, and then that adds to the cost of posting them and … well I told myself that I had to try harder at making cards which were less ‘deep’. I challenged myself to make K.I.S.S. cards.
As you can see from this card – I failed slightly. I ‘had’ to add a butterfly to it. Forgive me … I needed some sparkle and joy. But this butterfly, although on the large(ish) size, it isn’t actually that deep, so it still fits inside a regular envelope! (although … I’d add a little layer of either bubble wrap or line the envelope with extra card to protect it).
This was an incredibly easy to make card. Here’s what I used:
The stamps all came from ‘Emily’s Garden’ collection from Card-io Majestix Stamps.
Card-io Stamps are such versatile stamps and you can make so much from them, for all sorts of things from Tags to large cards to Scrapbooking, for all through the year or for a particular time of year such as Christmas. (I’ll do a post just about Card-io Stamps at some point as I’d love you to ‘meet’ them.).
I chose colours of stamp pads, and got to work.
Using a 6×6″ white scored card, I masked off a section of the card which would be wide enough for the ‘rub on’ sentiment I’d chosen to fix to the card.
Although I have masking tape, I’ve never got great results when I’ve masked off on cards, and have found that it can pull off sections of card stock. So I now use Washi Tape. (hence the roll of green Washi that you can see in the photo).
Once masked off I then stamp theleaves and ferns – in the green ink pads I’ve chosen. Wiping my stamp off between changing colours, using a baby wipe. Then do the same with the flowers (only using the other colours you’ve chosen for the flowers) – again wiping the flower stamps between colour changes.
Once done remove the Washi Tape carefully – and the next bit is optional: Using a Micron pen, I butt my ruler up against the stamping and draw a thin line along it on both sides. But – again – this is optional.
Add your sentiment – either a die cut or rub on, or sticker, and Voila! You can finish the card right there. Or you can be like me and go on to add a little something extra to make it yours.
This was so SO close to being a K.I.S.S. card. I was almost there. I shall try harder next time.
Well that’s me done and dusted. 🙂
I trust that you’re going to have an excellent Wednesday. If a gremlin gets into your day then just mentally show it the door and be done with it. It’s just a day … really doesn’t matter what it’s called, you just have to make the decision that it’s going to be a good one.
Sending oodles of love and squishes to your corner from mine…
Yesterday we went through the Rules (there aren’t any) and Guidelines for getting better images when stamping. We learned the importance of a mouse mat. We stamped the same image a few times. We stamped it in different colours too and saw what a difference that made to the end result stamped image. We chatted about stamping an image in different colours all at once. And we did a bit of colouring of images once they’d been stamped, using a rainbow selection of coloured stamped pads.
Today we’re going to move on to something a bit more fearful. Sorry. I meant to say …Fearfully Easy. An impressive bit of stamp magic which, if you don’t know about these types of stamps yet, you’ll be surprised about.
A blog I follow (PaperPuff ) summed up these particular stamps beautifully when she herself tried them for the first time a few weeks ago. She called them the stamps of the Three ‘Oh’s. smiling to myself here because I knew what she was talking about and she’s right. They really are Three Oh’s. You’ll see why … Shall we begin? Seatbelts on… handbags on the floor …. Let’s go!
These are Altenew Stamps. I’ve blogged about them before, but this time I’m talking about them because I think anyone who’s having a problem with their stamping should absolutely have this set (or one of their other sets) in their ‘armoury’.
There are a couple of brands of stamps which allow me to put together a ‘story’, in stamped images, in different ways. Even if I use the exact same stamps over and over, I can actually still make one-off cards – each of them totally different from the last.
These two brands are:
Card-io Stamps– which I adore, these are available direct from Card-io themselves, (their name is a clickable link which will open in a new window) ...
and . . . the fairly recently introduced into this country: Altenew Stamps. You can now buy quite a selection of the Altenew Stamps from various places which you can find on the web. Google ‘Altenew’ and it will give you suppliers. (I use ‘My Mums Craft Shop’ and have had only great service from them – but shop around. You may find a supplier close to where you live.).
For this ‘play around’, I’m going to use the Altenew Stamps, Vintage Rose collection,shown in the last photograph.
Some of the Altenew stamps come in big sets,like the set in the photo above, but within that set is a collection of smaller ‘groups’. In this set, each group makes one rose for you, in different shapes and sizes, and there also different sets of leaves, again, different shapes and sizes.
In this photo I’ve tried to show you how I pick out each group that I’m going to use, and I pop them down in their group (in lines – top row is the large rose, middle row is the medium rose & bottom row is the small stamp) so that I don’t have to keep peeling them off the carrier sheet.
I’ve chosen to stamp a larger rose. The particular stamped image I’m going to stamp has 3 different stamps just to make one rose. In some ‘groups’ of the larger set, there may be 4 stamps to make just one image. Keep reading, it’s not as difficult or as scary as it sounds…. 🙂
One Stamp. One pale yellow colour stamp pad. The combination of which gives us . . . a frankly underwhelming image. . . . . . ‘Oh’ – number one!
You stamp the palest colour first. The paler colour of the roses tones. I’ve chosen the Yellow set of cubes from the Altenew Pads here – but if you have a selection of tones in the same colour way eg: four different shades of red/pink, or blue, or green etc etc, then you don’t have to buy the stamp pads just to use the stamps.
Then, using the second rose stamp in the group and the next colour,which is slightly darker than the first pale colour. . . . ‘Ohh!’ – number 2.
As I mentioned above – In some sizes of roses there will be three stamps, in others there will be four. (Hence the reason that the Altenew mini cubes come in sets of four).
Mmmm.. what’s happened here then?? (I hear you ask)… well, I want to show you OH! number three, but I wanted to make sure that it impresses you in such a way that you really do ‘get it’. I’ve covered up the finished Large and Medium sized roses which I’ve already completed, and this last rose, the small one, is at that ‘second stamp’ stage …That small rose has now had its 3rd colour from the stamp pads, but you can’t really see what I’m trying to show you about how these stamps will make you look like the Stamping Expert of the Year. Let’s continue and see where this goes …This time I’ve covered up all three roses. But … I’ve added some leaves on vines.
If you’re going to ‘build’ a picture with these stamps – in this case a rose, – you have to start with what’s in the foreground and then follow it up with whats in the background. But in order to do this you complete each section at a time, but then cover up that section so that you don’t stamp over it and spoil what you’ve done. As you can see in the photograph above, as I’m stamping the leaves and vines, some of the leaf/vine stamp is actually stamping onto the ‘covers’, – so, imagine the mess they would be making on the roses if I hadn’t covered up the work I’d already done. (If this sounds complicated, don’t fret. It’s honestly not … as you’ll see …..)….
Now the leaves in the photograph are fine and groovy, but … they don’t have any shadows, or veins to the leaves….. so let’s pop some in.
I’ve stamped in the veins and shadows … but I’ve purposely ‘missed’ the right places on the leaves by just ‘off center’ with the stamp. This ‘miss’ is a prolem that can happen to all of us at some time, so don’t beat yourself up or trash what you’ve worked hard on. It’s not the end of the world. Like I showed you yesterday, in part one of this guide, you can ‘paint’ with your stamp pads! So this can be put right really quite easily. Stamp the ink pad on your glass mat (or plate, saucer etc) and then dip your paint brush into a little water, but take off as much of the water as possible but leaving the bristles damp enough to ‘mix’ into the inky blob and then ‘smudge’ & paint the already (miss)stamped bit. Then simply ‘paint’ the veins of the leaves just a little ….. practise this a little on scap card. You’ll soon get the hang of it.No gaps between leaves and veins now. So … are you ready to look at the roses? . . .The third ‘Ohhh!’ . . . You can see how masking off the roses means that the vines and leaves don’t make a mess of the images you’ve already stamped.
So .. let’s stamp the other corner of the card in the same way …
I’ve stamped a group of 4 roses in the bottom left corner, so that you can see that even though two of the roses are the same, they look different because the stamped images have all been turned around and stamped differently. and the leaves are all different – even though they’re the same!Shall we make a sentiment for this card?In this photo I’ve stamped that same word in three differently places. The top image I stamped on my glass mat. The middle image I stamped on my desk top. (That’s not the light giving that effect … that’s a missing part of the image. And finally … the bottom ‘Amazing’ was stamped using the mouse mat, copy paper and then card sandwich. You can see that the mouse mat really does make a difference.If you don’t have a sentiment which says what you want to say, simply bring in other stamps, stamp them on scrap card and then use them together.
I’ve cut out the stamped sentiments then mounted them on some narrow foam tape and place them on the card. The foam tape gives a little dimension to the card.
I’ve taken three photographs of this finished card, in different lights, so that you can get a reasonable idea of the brightness of the stamped colours which the stamp pads provide.
Lights full on, so that it’s heaps brighter.Some bunnies wanted to say bye-bye!
These stamps really are easy to use, and I highly recommend them – for new stampers and stampers who have been stamping for years. They really are such a great addition to your stamps.
Phew ... well that’s where we end on our hints and tips Guide to Stamping. If there is anything I haven’t mentioned that you hoped I would, then please tell me in a comment and I’ll do my very best to help. I’m not an expert. I’m a crafter, like you, and these are things that I’ve found work for me, and after a plea asking for some help, I made this ‘Guide’ to help a fabulous lady, Mrs. P, but I’m also hoping that it might help someone else along the way too.
Thank you so much for visiting and having a coffee with me. I love your company, as you know, and the fact that you visit really does mean the world to me. So thank you for coming.
May your Tuesday be filled with love and smiles. Sending crafty hugs and oodles of l ❤ve ~ till next time …
My mojo feels like it’s on its way home again, Yay! – so I thought I’d do something which was gentle and simple and not send it running to the hills before it got inside, sat down and had a coffee, – so I stamped a card for either a new baby or a Christening – but with a slight twist. Instead of using the typical blue or pink colours I decided that I’d drag green into the mix, kicking and screaming, and put it to work.
Obviously for a little girl – all those pinks, lilacs, lavenders and rosy colours give that away, the ‘dress’ on the card is totally stamped using Cardio stamps and five colours of Memento inks, and using a three generation stamp technique. The bows and ribbons on the shoulders of the dress are hand drawn, and the butterflies holding the dress up are hand stamped. Tiny dots of glue from a glue pen, right into the centre of each flower and a few shakes of glitter dust gave the dress a little twinkle and some texture.
I blended ‘Lettuce’ from an Adirondack ink pad around the edge of the white card (Neenah card in ‘solar white’, by the way) using a duster brush and my blending mat. The border around the white card is hand drawn using a black micro pen.
The sage(ish) green polka dot layer is card by Anna Marie, and one which I love.
I have a selection of different card stocks from this wonderful crafty lady and I can heartily recommend it. It’s heavy weight, but not so heavy that it drags your base card down, and it comes in an excellent range of colours.
I added a green ribbon bow– in (roughly) inch wide satin ribbon, and finally – added an insert of pale pink, to contrast with the green.
Ta dahhhh! Card made.
I’m quite pleased with this one. I’m not really much of a stamper (despite my huuuuge selection of stamps and my addiction to buying the darn things) but I will admit to having a very big soft spot to Cardio Stamps and their Crystal Clear Pegs. …. If you haven’t tried them I can recommend them. Give them chance, because they’re a different way of stamping than using a rocker block or an acrylic block. Play with them and give yourself time to get used to using those pegs. Once you have I bet you’ll fall in love with them and wish all stamps were made the same way.
The Art of Cobwebs 