Joy & Peace – Sunday Stamps SSC349

This week for the Keep Christ in Christmas Insta Hop, I pulled out some of my retired products to create a beautiful focal image of Bethlehem town.

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I die cut the village scene from Basic Beige, Mossy Meadow and Garden Green Cardstock, layering the Basic Beige die cut with Stampin’ Dimensionals. Then I added some extra trees in Garden Green. The actual die is long enough to fit across the entire card but I wanted to create a different look with this die.

The little village scene was added with Dimensionals and a little bit of glue at the bottom so it would sit under the torn paper. You can substitute the main image with some of our current products like the Yuletide Village stamp set which has a beautiful church image in it.

My card has been inspired by the colours of Sunday Stamps Challenge #SSC349 where we had to use a minimum of 3 colours. All these colours together are such an elegant palette.

At this point, I really was missing Evening Evergreen – one of our retired colours. It would have been the perfect shade of green for this challenge.

I chose Mossy Meadow/Garden Green, Basic Black and Gold.

I tore up some paper from the Thoughtful Journey Designer Series Paper then die cut it with the Spotlight on Nature circle die. This created a cohesive look as I was able to perfectly align it with my Basic Beige circle. You could do this technique by adhering the paper first to the Cardstock and die cutting it all together.

The sentiment I chose is from another retired Night Divine stamp set on a label which I made smaller to fit the sentiment. To do this, re-align your die over the image and run it through the Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine until you get your desired size.

TIPS

While this project features some retiring products, it’s filled with ideas to inspire your creativity today! Here are a few tips to help you adapt and personalise it using what you have in your stash:

  • CASE the Sketch – The sketch I used is versatile and can be transformed to suit your needs. Try swapping the circle for a different shape or even an image that complements your design.
  • Add Texture with Torn Paper – Get playful with paper! Tearing it creates lots of texture and adds an organic, artistic feel to your projects.
  • Layer Your Die Cuts – Bring dimension to your designs by layering die cuts. Experiment with colours and textures to make them pop!
  • Resize Your Die Cuts – Adjust the size of your die cuts to better suit your project. Sometimes, a little tweak makes all the difference.
  • Think Outside the Box – Look for other products that can be used in unexpected ways. In this project, I cut apart a card from the Calming Creek Mix & Match Cards & Envelopes to create a striking panel for this card.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you have a Blessed Sunday!

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Handy Hint for Assembling Cling Stamps

My handy hint for you today is to do with assembling the new cling stamps. I for one absolutely love that our stamps have gone from clear and wood to cling. You still get the the same great rubber stamp image but you don’t have to worry about the stamps falling off the blocks. 

I thought I’d share this tip with you because it’s something I learned as a result of a mistake. Now, it maybe something you already know but it’s worthwhile sharing so you don’t make the same mistake I made. The image stickers that come with the cling stamps are S-T-I-C-K-Y. They stick to anything they touch.  

In this photo you will see what I did. 

I took the backing off one side and then released the other side which immediately got stuck onto the other half of the image. That sticker is clingy! It was stuck really well and I had to work calmly to pull it apart without ripping it. I was fortunate and this may not always work. 

Here’s how I avoided it happening again. Remove the backing off one half of the image and position your stamp on top. Then place your finger between the section that has been attached and the other half you are going to pull the backing off. This stops the 2 halves from sticking together as it just sticks to your finger. Then release it gently and align on the rest of your stamp. 

 

Hope this little tip helps you when you put these stamps together. If you haven’t tried them already, I am certain you will love the stickability of the new cling stamps. 


Cut Your Stamps for Double the Fun with Butterfly Gala

Yes it can be done and it doesn’t hurt the stamp one bit although it takes a bit of courage to do it the first time. 

I have a little tip for you today using the Butterfly Gala stamp set. This stamp set comes with 4 sets of butterflies – large and small – joined together. So when you stamp, you get 2 images. The benefit of this is that the Butterfly Duet punch will punch these 2 images at the same time. 

However, there are times you may want to just stamp 1 of those butterflies. You could mask it off with a post-it-note or washi tape and that would fine for a one-off but if you wanted to stamp a background of butterflies flying in different directions, it could get messy and you would need a few post-it-notes. Today I was creating a card and wanted a background of stamped butterflies and I really couldn’t be bothered masking each time. So after a bit of thought, I took scissors to stamp, and cut them apart. It felt good. My butterflies were free. 

How to Cut Apart Your Stamps

As these are photopolymer stamps, fine tip scissors work fine. You just need to make one clean cut across. If you need to stamp it together, they will fit back like a jigsaw puzzle (see last picture) and you will be able to punch both images together. No harm done. If it’s a rubber stamp, I recommend you use a sharp scalpel and the same method of a nice clean cut so you can put it together when needed.

This is the card I was working and it shows how I’ve used the larger of the butterflies as a background image. This would also come in handy when you want to add an image to the inside of your card or the envelope.

I hope this inspires you to look at your stamps to see what options you have if you cut them so you can get more use out of them. 



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