Thinking of Inking

That’s a place I haven’t been for a while… the beach.  I enjoy walking along the shore and letting the waves tickle my feet, but I don’t care for having sand stuck in my swimsuit.  Ick.  LOL

I have a little confession to make about today’s card. I actually made the focal point several years ago.  Like probably 5 years.  Really.  It’s been sitting around, and I came across it last month and decided I’d finally put it to use on my parents’ anniversary card.  I stamped the “congratulations” on it and trimmed it up and matted it and got it on a card base, and ta-da… card done.

So how did I create it?  It’s honestly not quite as difficult as it might look.  It’s a technique that I’ve heard described as “palette stamping.”  I used a large solid rectangle stamp for the base.  I applied pigment ink directly to the stamp in random fashion.  (Hint: the “cat’s eye” or petal-shaped ink pads work better for this than a full-sized ink pad.)  Next I inked the large and medium shell stamps with dye ink and stamped them directly onto the pigment inked-up rubber.  Then I stamped onto the white cardstock.  Lastly, I added the little shell images with dye ink.

Now that doesn’t sound too hard, does it?  Hey, if I can do it, so can you.  :)  If you decide to try this version of palette stamping, please add a comment including a link to your creation so I can see it!

Supplies:
Stamps: Stipple Shells (Stampin’ Up!); Large Straight-Edge Rectangle (Hero Arts)
Cardstock: Whisper White, Blue Bayou, Chocolate Chip, Naturals Ivory (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Chocolate Chip and Really Rust dye ink (Stampin’ Up!); Dune, Harbor, and I’m not sure of the other color of pigment ink (ColorBox)

That’s me.  I’m stuck in a creative rut.  Despite having some new stamps to play with, I just can’t get focused on creating anything with them.  But I did want to post *some*thing. 

I made this card a year ago for one of my longtime friends.  I chose colors that she liked.  I used a Cuttlebug folder to emboss the designer paper, and then I swiped my ink pad over it to make the embossing stand out even more. It’s hard to tell in the photo, but the Chocolate Chip punched circle just underneath the rhinestone brad is crumpled/distressed a bit. I popped the alignment guard off of my corner rounder punch and used the punch to make the scalloped edge at the bottom of the designer paper.

I have to confess that I borrowed the layout idea from a birthday card that another longtime friend made for me.  Dee, if you read this, thank you for the inspiration!

Stamps: Riveting (Stampin’ Up!); Wavy Wishes (Hero Arts)
Cardstock: Blue Bayou, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Fall Flowers designer paper, Spring Showers designer paper (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Blue Bayou, Chocolate Chip (Stampin’ Up!)
Other: Rhinestone brad, corner rounder punch, and Soft Sky stitched ribbon (Stampin’ Up!); “Harmony” alphabet [for scalloped circle] and “Happy Birthday” embossing folder (Cuttlebug)

It seems like there’s never really a “good time” to send a sympathy card.  KWIM? 

I’ve mentioned before that I make and send cards to the faculty and staff of my son’s elementary school on behalf of the PTA Executive Board.  Today I had to mail a card to a teacher whose mother recently passed away. 

For some reason, I often use purple when I make a sympathy card.  It seems soothing to me, I guess.  Today I decided to use one of my Hero Arts floral stamps that hasn’t seen ink in a long time.  I spritzed the stamp with water from a spray bottle after I inked it. It’s probably hard to see, but the card base is stamped with the Stampin’ Up! Linen background stamp.  I reached back into the Splitcoaststampers Challenge archives and used Sketch Challenge #50 for the layout.

The details:
Stamps: A Real Candytuft (Hero Arts); Linen background and Always In My Thoughts (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: Almost Amethyst, Lovely Lilac, Whisper White, Almost Amethyst Prints designer paper (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Almost Amethyst, Lovely Lilac (Stampin’ Up!)
Other: Almost Amethyst, Lovely Lilac, Barely Banana, and Garden Green markers (Stampin’ Up!); spray bottle of water