Hello and hope you had a lovely weekend. John, the kids and I had a lovely day at the Melbourne Aquarium on Saturday. I'd post some pics but I didn't take the camera - decided to just enjoy the day with no peering through the viewfinder! Hannah liked the sting rays getting fed by the divers, and Jack loved everything that was big. "BIIIIIIIGG FISH, BIIIIIIIIIGGGG!"
I spent much of Sunday at Milleara Craft Market and met some more lovely locals. Congratulations to Sharron from Niddrie who won the prize basket this month!
Now for a card I made last week. I had to quickly have a bit of a play with 'Petal Prints' stamp set and 'Fine Lace' background stamp on this particular day. Mum ordered them and dad was popping by to visit and also to pick them up. Thought I'd just make sure they were in good working order first - hee hee.
Background Stamp Tips
Now if you are new to background stamps (as I am) I thought it might be useful to take a few snaps of how I go about working with them. I should say first though that I am certainly not a background stamp expert (as I don't actually have any in my collection yet.) I am however not a bad googler!
Firstly - it helps to place your background stamp rubber side up and swipe your inkpad over it. (I used a wiping motion first then tapped to finish.)
Then I placed my piece of card on top of the stamp and made sure to press evenly all over, and removed it carefully in one motion.
And voila - ready to use on a card.
Our background stamps measure about 11.4 x 14.6cm and can be found on pages 107 and 108. They are $33.95 each and there are quite a selection to choose from.
Now what to do with my background. Well first I had to try out 'Petal Prints.' Thought I'd try it out with my watercolour crayons.
Watercolour Crayon Tips
I have a set of Bold Brights watercolour crayons but wanted some softer colours for this one. Then I remembered that I had 3 other colours from a Simply Sent kit I got early in the year - handy! (Once you have made the cards from the kit you have some tools and stamps you can use again and again. Pg 12 - 14 for the current range of kits.)
I coloured directly onto the stamp with my Perfect Plum crayon.
Added some blue and green.
Now if I had a little water spritzing bottle I would have given it a light mist with the water spray to dampen the crayoning. (Note to self: Buy water spritzing bottle, or use up my Stampin' Mist so I can refill that bottle.) Instead I used my aquapainter. Just a little damp or you'll end up with a gluggy mess. Yep - speaking from experience here, this is one of those techniques you'll want to experiment with til you get it right. Or perhaps that is just me! :-)
Now stamp. Say 'oh, what a gluggy mess!' Repeat above steps but put less water on! Hee hee.
OK ready to assemble my experiments and see if they come together in a card!
I stamped over the Pretty In Pink background with some of the petal
prints leaves (Old Olive -stamped off once.) Sponged the edge of the flower piece, matted it with Perfect Plum and added a couple of matching eyelets. Some Old Olive ribbon with a rub on from my Cherished Memories set to finish.
And now that I'd tested out the stamps they weare ready to go to their new home! Thanks mum. Have fun with them.
Cheers, Sue