Aloha, all!
The Stampin' Up! Only Challenge for this week is to make a greeting card WITH NO LAYERS!!! How in the world do I do that?
Oh, I'll grant you that that's how I started out making cards. But that was before I learned about all the cardstock and printed paper that's out there in the paper crafting world! And, with Stampin' Up!'s great color coordination among the cardstock and their Designer Series Papers, why would I want to make a card with no layers?! Actually, there are several good reasons for trying this now and then. The one I find most compelling is that this challenge required me to pay more attention to how my rubber stamps are inked up and how their images work with one another. After I struggled a bit, I found that some of my original techniques started to come back to me. Now I just need a bit more practice!
To make this card, I decided I wanted some kind of floral design that would cover a large part of the card. I ended up going back to a stamp set that's been around a while, Flowering Flourishes. While I've used the smaller images in this set a few times, I've never used the large one. Well, now it's been used! But before I could use it to apply ink to cardstock, I needed to decide if I wanted anything else besides that stamp on the card. Butterflies!
For the butterflies I used two of the images from Papillon Potpourri. Since I wanted them to be "flying" in front of the flourish image, I needed to stamp them first. Then I would have to mask them before stamping the flourishes stamp. This way the ink from the flourishes stamp that would have gone onto the stamped butterflies instead went onto the paper that I used to mask the butterflies. The best thing about this part with these little critters is that there are punches that pretty well match both stamps! So I didn't have to do any fussy cutting to get the masks done. The same was the case with the image from the stamp set, Four Frames, which is shaped like the Decorative Label Punch.
But I had to figure out a way to determine where those butterflies should appear on the cardstock. Here's how to do it:
- Ink the flourishes stamp up lightly and stamp a piece of scrap paper.
- Punch out some scrap butterflies and glue them onto the flourish
- Place the whole piece of scrap paper over the blank card and arrange it as you want it on the card.
- Use a straight pin to prick through the scrap layer onto the card at several points. I placed one at the bottom of the flourish and another near the top (I had to remember where!). I used the same pin to prick between the wings of each butterfly at the bottom.
- Stamp the butterflies and frame onto the card placing them according to the pin pricks you made.
- Place masks (plain paper cut into the shape of the butterflies and the frame; even better, use sticky notes!) over the stamped images.
- Color the flourish stamp and, using a Stamp-a-ma-jig, stamp it onto the card front.
- Remove the masks and the picture is done! All that's left is to add in the sentiment in the frame.
I did a little hand work on the card when it was done, including drawing a border around the smaller butterflies. I thought that helped them "pop" a bit more than they did before.
So – a lovely card and there's no paper on this but the Very Vanilla Cardstock that made up the card base!
Other features of this card are a scored border 1/4" inside all four sides of the card, scored edge to edge and some Rhinestone Basic Jewels on the large butterfly. Colors on the card are Always Artichoke, Pear Pizzazz, Marina Mist, and Tangerine Tango. About the antennae on the butterflies… The stamp set comes with a stamp for that! Unfortunately, I managed to drop that tiny stamp and I have no idea where it ended up! So I hand drew those on this card, too.
There are many ways to make a "No Layer" type card, and the Design Team members over at SUO Challenges have all done theirs a bit differently. Go check them out! Better still, make one yourself and enter it in the challenge that started today and runs for 10 days until February 8th! I'm sure you'll have fun with it!