Hi Friends! Last weekend I was able to spend almost 24 hours in my craft room and it was such a good recharge for my crafty soul. I was able to create a bunch of new cards, try some new products and techniques…and watch reruns of Friends and The Office -ha! We are in a summer hiatus, where softball tournaments are over and awaiting the long soccer season to start at the end of the month. School clothing and supplies are bought, the house has been decluttered…I am ready to take some “me” time.
Today I am sharing two one-layer cards using Mama Elephant stamp sets. I find that it varies where I pull my inspiration from, sometimes it can be a print on clothing, pictures, the outdoors and from other crafters. The cards I am sharing today were inspired by all the one-layer cards I see in my social network feeds and YouTube and specifically by the super talented Yana Smakula. I love her eye for design and wanted to give the repeated image background a try. The two cards I am sharing today are using the new Mama Elephant Book Worm and Dragon Wishes stamp sets. I adore these sets…the critters with the glasses just make me swoon and who doesn’t love dragons?!
To start, for both cards, I picked three smaller images from the stamp sets and arranged them on a clear acrylic block. Next, I ensured that the spacing was similar between the images and rotated them so they would be in different directions (overall minimizing having to rotate the card panel). I found this technique of using the acrylic block to be easier than using the Misti stamping tool (which is my all-time favorite) and since the images are smaller, they all stamped cleanly.
For the Apple card, I did not plan ahead to leave space for the sentiment, so I stamped the card panel and added a sentiment die cut at the end. Once all of the critters were stamped, using Gina K Designs Amalgam ink, I colored the images using Faber-Castell Poly-chromo colored pencils. For the glasses, I wanted to add some shine, so I added Nuvo Glaze and set aside to dry. For the sentiment, I die-cut three Hello’s from CZ Design and adhered together using Gina K Connect glue (which is amazing, thanks for the recommendation Jennifer McGuire!). I attached the completed card panel to a 110lb Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock base.
Since I didn’t include a sentiment from the stamp set on the outside of the card, I decided to stamp one on the inside along with one of the images. So, from the Mama Elephant Good Reads stamp set, I included the sentiment “Having you as a friend is like curling up with a good book.” I think we all have friends in our lives that this type of card would be perfect for, I know I do!
For the dragon card, I learned from the oversight of adding a sentiment to my apple card, and began by stamping my sentiment onto 80lb Neenah Classic Crest Solar White card panel using Versamark ink. Next, I did the same with arranging my stamps on an acrylic block and stamped onto the card base with Gina K Designs Amalgam ink, rotating each time.
To color on this card, I chose to use copic markers and outlined the stars with a cool gray color to give it some shadow (and hide some stamping mistakes!). I adhered it to a 110lb Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock base…and viola! I really enjoyed the simple nature of these two cards and is a good use for any small images in a stamp set that are normally passed over.
I hope you all have a chance to carve out some time to get crafty…even if its not completing a project and just getting some coloring done! Until next time, have a great week!
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