SSS Receding Squares Stencil

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

It's been quiet here lately, I've been busy with crafty things, but nothing I can share yet.  Lots of new designs coming your way later in the year, and also prepping for a new release next week.  I did get a chance to create a couple of quick cards using my Receding Squares stencil though.

I think it's really interesting how innovations change the way we use products.  A few years back stencils mostly meant that I was using sprays or paste.  I used blending tools some, but not like I do these days with the advent of blending brushes.  For these cards, I'm throwing it back to the old days.  I love the variegated look you get from sprays, plus it's so much faster! 

I used Uncharted Mariner and Speckled Egg Distress Sprays and watercolor paper.  There's so much great color/product on the stencil when you use the sprays, it is a shame to just clean it off, so when I removed the stencil each time, I laid it directly onto a second piece of watercolor paper to create the panel that was used for the card on the right.  The pattern doesn't come out as defined, but still a fun background.

For the sentiments, I pulled out a couple of products that work very well with geometric backgrounds.  I used the Block Alpha Words for the card on the left stamping the sentiment itself with Dusk ink and the negative portions with Speckled Egg.

For the card on the right, I went with a sentiment from the XL Stacked Greetings set.  The sentiments for both the cards were popped up with foam tape for a bit of dimension.

That's all for me today, thanks for stopping by!

Hello, Block Alpha Words

  *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

Hi all!  I've got a fun monochromatic card today mixing some old and some new.  

I love this robot from a retired Mama Elephant stamp set.  The added bonus is that robots are pretty easy to color since you can just go with a neutral.  This guy was stamped with Gina K Black Amalgam ink, and then colored with Copic Toner grays, I used 0-6.  Once the coloring was done, I die cut him, and I used a craft knife to cut out the spaces between his elbows and body because I wanted the background to show through.

For the background, I used the Sunshine stencils.  They were masked off to cover the sun portion, one was inked with Flannel and the other with Charcoal.

The completed panel was adhered directly to my card, and the robot popped up with foam tape.

I then stamped the sentimenr, from the Block Alpha Words set, using Flannel ink for the negative spaces and and Versa Clair black for the sentiment itself.  I was actually going to cut out each letter and pop them up individually, but liked the look of the whole sentiment popped up, so went with it.

STAMPtember, Block Alpha Words

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

Hi friends!  I've got a couple of very clean and simple cards to share today using my new Block Alpha Words stamps from the STAMPtember release.

This is a fun, graphic, typography set which I think works perfectly for more masculine cards.  Each of the large words in the set consists of two stamps.  One which stamps the word itself and the second which stamps the negative spaces.

For the first card, I started with the negative spaces stamp.  This was placed in my stamping platform, and I stamped each of the sections separately using a different color for each:  Cherry, Pucker, Sunbeam, Lucky, and then Marine, although that ended up being a little too light, so I added a bit of Royal with a blending brush to darken it up a little.

Once that was done, I placed the second stamp into my stamping platform and and stamped with Versa Clair black.  I also added the secondary sentiment which is also from the set.

I wanted to keep the card very simple, so I adhered the panel to a dark gray cardstock base, and popped strips of black cardstock up over the top and bottom of my panel.

For my next card I did the opposite of the first.  This time, I used color for the letters themselves and black for the negatives.  I started by arranging 'Love You' on my stamping platform and inked using Bubblegum, Sweets, and Taffy to create an ombre sentiment.

Once that was done, I went back and stamped the negative spaces with Versa Clair black.

The secondary sentiment, also from the set, was stamped in black as well.

These were very quick and easy to create.  This would be a great stamp set for creating card sets, and for those folks you want to thank or celebrate who aren't the cute or flowery type.

Thank for visiting, much more STAMPtember goodness to come!