My personal design challenge for 2008 - is to get more out of each of my stamp sets. AKA - use them more than once!! As I was posting last night's card I kept thinking about a design using the new Heart Buttons SH020021 Release from Rubber Stamp Tapestry in a more black and white format...which is where last night's design started...but as my husband put it - the finally design had a real bumble bee look with the black and golden rod. So I went to bed thinking about how many other designs there were to be made with this versatile set. I also thought it would be nice to show you more step by step photos of the design process and to remind everyone - that you don't always see my first attempt at a design - sometimes the designs just fall onto the paper and sometimes what seemed like a great design idea does not translate into paper or perhaps what at first seems like a mistake becomes a brilliant discovery. So today I thought I take a little time to share with you the design process.
First I started by die cuting a scalloped rectangle with my Spellbinder's Nestability set in White Luster from The Paper Cut. (I love this white cardstock because it is Copic Compatible and readily available in many Brick and Mortar Stores.) Then I placed my die cut on a piece of scrap paper and I stamped the tiny leaves from this set in graphite black brilliance. I purposely stamped each leaf twice before re-inking - so that I would have depth in my vine work and I also stamped the image off the scalloped edge so that part of the image was on the die cut and part of the image was on the scrap paper. Then using the Congratulations form the Rubber Stamp Tapestry Clear Phrase Stamp Set - I stamped the word in graphite black brilliance.
Next I die cut a slightly larger scalloped rectangle using my Spellbinder's Nestabilities set and I also decided to dry emboss it with the Cuttlebug A2 Textile Folder. I placed these together and tried to decide which designer paper I would use next. I decide on GP051 from Best Creations.
Now the 12 x 12 sheet of paper is absolutely stunning - but as you start chopping it up for cardmaking - you begin to loose the strength of the design. So I used the large Flourish from Rubber Stamp Tapestry's Flourish Plate 1 set to strengthen the paper design by embossing in super fine detailed black embossing powder from Ranger.
Wow- what a big difference a few simple flourishes can make. Next I stamped a few tiny heart buttons in Rocket Red Brilliance....but I chose to only stamp the image on the card the 2nd, 3rd and 4th stamp of the ink...the first stamp I stamped onto scrap paper as I wanted the heart buttons in the background to be softer so that I would be able to build my hearts up from the back to give them a more 3 dimensional layered effect.
Next I added in more tiny heart peg stamped images in Rocket Red Brilliance - by re inking between each stamping to get a deep red heart button which would sit at the top of the design and then I added additional stamp images which were the 2nd and 3rd stamped image of the same ink loading of the stamp.
Next I decided to color in the button holes of my buttons using my B110 Copic Sketch Marker.
Now along the way I did put a smudge on my project which allowed me to try something that I certainly would not have dared to try on my finished stamped image...I dry embossed the entire stamped image with the A2 Textile Cuttlebug Embossing Folder...I didn't think it would work ...but it did and I loved the dimension it added to the card. And since the embossing folder is slightly translucent I could also decide which part of the textile design I wanted to use for the center of my card.
I hope seeing how the card was designed inspires you to design your next Creation. My next New Year's Resolution was to use the scraps left over from my projects...so stop back tomorrow to see a fast simple card I designed using the leftover pieces of the Best Creation's Designer Paper.
