Aloha, all!
As you can imagine with my living in Hawai’i, the new Seascapes Stamp Set is an early favorite from the new Stampin’ Up! 2021-2022 Annual Catalog. In the past, to make a sea-themed card, I’ve used whatever background image might be in the stamp set or an embossing folder Stampin’ Up! might have in its catalog to create a background. With this catalog, however, there’s another stamp set entirely that has the perfect image to create a sea-themed background – Watercolor Shapes.
Creating the Background
I love the different colors that I can sea in the ocean around our island. Sometimes it’s blue, sometimes green, sometimes blue-green. I love trying to get that sense of changing colors when I made my cards. When I first started working with the Watercolor Shapes I first checked out some of the projects displayed in the catalog. That’s when I saw the overlapping stamped rectangle images. So I tried that out with today’s card.
I didn’t just use one color to stamp, though. There are three different colors in this card – Pool Party, Coastal Cabana and Bermuda Bay. I stamped them in that order, top to bottom. When I used the Coastal and Bermuda colors, I “stamped off” the colors, I did that by first stamping a fully-inked stamp onto scrap paper, then stamped what would be a lighter shade onto the project.
A hint for getting those stamped rectangles nicely lined up: place the stamp on the acrylic block so it’s pretty well centered right to left on the block. That way I could easily use the edge of the block to keep my stamping centered all the way down.
The Seaweed
At the same time I was demonstrating the stamp sets, I was also demonstrating the Gilded Leafing. Why not make the seaweed a shimmering gold with the leafing? So I did, and really like the way it came out.
To stamp an image using the Gilded Leafing, first stamp the image using VersaMark. Then apply Heat & Stick Powder, melting it with a Heat Tool (use it full heat). Finally cover the area with the heat and stick with the Gilded Leafing, sponging it off until all that’s left is what’s actually sticking to the Heat & Stick.
I keep my Gilded Leafing in a shoe-box size container and just lay the inked section on top of the leafing. That picks the leafing up very nicely.
The Seahorse
My first instinct when I used the Seahorse die was that something was wrong. The image didn’t get cut all around. After a bit of research – that is, looking at the catalog images – I saw that it was meant for the seahorse to be part of a rectangular layer. Then I noticed that there were several distinct sections where the seahorse was attached to the rest of the card stock. It was easy to snip those with my Paper Snips (those sharp tips are perfect for that) and, voilá – I had a seahorse free from the cardstock!
Oh, and you’ll want to know the color of the seahorse. It’s Flirty Flamingo. You might wonder why I chose Flirty Flamingo. Read on.
Finally, the Ribbon
I knew before I got halfway through this card that I was going to want to tie some ribbon around the stamped layer. In looking around my somewhat scanty ribbon collection, I spotted the Flirty Flamingo 1/4″ Metallic Ribbon. I thought that would be a perfect complement to the almost turquoise blues that I used for the background stamps. So that’s how I chose the Flirty Flamingo cardstock for the seahorse.
The Bottom Line
I have so much fun combining different products from a Stampin’ Up! catalog in a way I haven’t seen before. It really makes me feel creative, even though Stampin’ Up! makes it so easy for me to put their products together. I challenge you to grab two Stampin’ Up! products that you have but have never used together before. Let me know what you come up with!
Happy Stamping!
