I've been so excited for this post day to get here. It is my Design Team day to post projects with the new Cutting Cafe Shop clear stamp set Animal & Bug Love. I've been using Regina's digital files and have been on her Design Team forever (well not forever, but a really long time). Let me say she is one fabulously talented lady and genuinely a good, good person. I was so excited for her when she decided to start a new venture into the clear stamp world. Once my stamp set arrived I just couldn't put it down so I have four cards to show you today. A funny story about my stamps, they are well traveled. They knew they were going to get a real work out at my house so they decided to take a little vacation before arriving, thanks to the USPS. For those of you who don't know, Regina lives in California and I live in Florida. Somehow, my stamps ended up in Honolulu, Hawaii. The post office said they were put on the wrong plane. You think!
My favorite stamp from this set, and I love them all, is the darling little elephant. I love, love, love him. I knew I wanted to do a little watercoloring with this stamp and give it a soft look, like an illustration from a book. I stamped him onto watercolor paper using Antique Linen Distress Ink then watercolored him using gray shades of Distress Inks-Pumice Stone and Frayed Burlap. I used Spun Sugar for the inside of his ear and Worn Lipstick for the hearts. When he was dry I added the grass using Mowed Lawn and the sky using Tumbled Glass. I love how he turned out. Sometimes a clean and simple card can make a big impact.
This next card was easy to put together. I started with black cardstock and a circle die which I decided to place off the paper to the bottom right. Next I added a piece of light aqua behind the circle. I paper pieced the mushroom and bees on this card by stamping and fussy cutting patterned papers. I curved the sentiment stamp on my stamp block so it would follow the curve of the mushroom.
Next up is my snail card. I used a couple fun techniques on this card. First I inked my background with Distress inks on Bristol paper. If you have trouble getting a nice smooth look when inking, I highly suggest you work on smooth Bristol paper. You can find it in the art section by the watercolor paper. It really makes inking a snap. Now when you look at the stamp set you will see that the large snail actually faces looking left. I wanted him to face right like he was crawling towards the mailbox. How did I accomplish this-by using a "mirror" stamping technique. You need a stamp that has a back surface area larger than the stamp you will be using. You mount it on your stamp block with the back side facing up. You may have to add a little adhesive runner to get it to stay in place on the block. Next you ink up your stamp and stamp it onto the flat back surface of the mounted stamp. Then you turn it over and stamp the image onto your paper. Voila, the stamp is now facing the other direction. I colored him with Copics, fussy cut him and added him to the left side of my inked background on foam tape. I stamped the mailbox, colored it in and fussy cut it, too. Before I placed it on the card I added the sentiment over the inked grass to be between the snail and the mailbox. I finished the card off by adding a couple die cut clouds.
Last, but certainly not least, is my super cute Valentine's card. I did a little background inking on this card then added a die cut tree with die cut hearts. For this card I stamped the bird images directly onto the inked cardstock and colored them with colored pencils. To finish it off I added the sentiment stamped in my favorite red ink-Archival Red Geranium.
I've showed you several different ways to use these stamps-watercoloring, paper-piecing, colored with Copics and colored with colored pencils. The stamps are very versatile and don't need to be used strictly for Valentine's day, as you can see. I'll also be using that sweet elephant for a new baby card soon. Thanks so much for coming by today and now head over to The Cutting Cafe Shop to see all the amazing products in the new store.
