Over the past several years, I have become addicted to rubber stamps. And there are so many wonderful ones out there. I had always loved stamps as a kid . . . there's something about the images . . . being drawing-challenged, stamps are a great way to create without having to put pencil (and mostly eraser) to paper.
Many of the stamps designed by Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous, especially his "mini" blueprint series, have found their way via the UPS truck to my house. ("What can brown do for you? Hah!) I own the set pictured below, bought originally for the stack of books in the lower right (that librarian thing . . .)
The baby-themed images were perfect for making some note cards for the soon-to-be mom to use as thank you's or whatever.
Below is a grouping of some of the cards made - four of them using the blueprint stamps. I didn't take individual pictures of the cards . . . so squinting is necessary . . .
The images were stamped on watercolor paper and color applied using Ranger Distress markers and ink pads (Spun Sugar, Faded Lilac, Scattered Straw, and Evergreen Bough). The ink pads were stamped onto a silicone craft mat and using a wet brush, the colors were picked up and slashed across the image . . . in all honesty I can't really call what I did "painting." Shading was added with the markers in places I thought shading should be. I do confess to watching a YouTube video or two to see how other people worked with the inks and just went from there.
After the images were dry, I tore ( the ABC blocks) and cut the images to fit on patterned paper that was layered onto a blank card. All in all, I was pretty happy with the results. And so was the mom-to-be.
The "onesie on a hanger" cards are made with a stamp I picked up at Michael's, stamped in red ink on white cardstock with a pink mat on cheerful paper. The clothesline card is made from some paper I unearthed from my thousands of sheets and added onesie puffy stickers to "hang" on the line.
For the "Where's Waldo fans, if you look closely and compare my bear card to the image on the bear blueprint stamp, you may notice a difference. It's the eyes. Intended to be buttons, the original eyes on the stamp are way too big and spooky-looking for my liking.
So . . . out came the craft knife and those button eyes were history - sliced right off the stamp. (You can change anything with the right tools.) A circle of black marker makes a much nicer eye while a heart punched from red cardstock and a bow tied from red DMC pearl cotton complete the look. One handsome bear.
Until next time!
S.
