Hello everyone, if you are in one of the places full of snow, I hope you are staying warm and cozy. (And may be even get crafty? :D)
In today’s post I am going to share a nifty little trick which can help you use your crafty supplies in new ways. I will share how you can mask an area of your stamp and alter the original image. This is a cool way to stretch your supplies (and your crafting $$$), so let’s dive right in.
Before we begin with the card for today, I have to tell you something. I have never created a card with critters before – at least never stamped & colored the critters till today (except this bird card may be? Not sure if you’d call that bird as a critter though). Most of my cards have been floral or geometric or I’ve used stickers / patterned paper to have a critter show up. Today is the first time I created a card with a critter on it. I felt good about myself. :-) Yes, there are (lots of) improvement areas I can find in my coloring and creating-a-scene (On the card. And that’s a is a good thing!) department, but at least I got started :-D
The critter I used today came from the Gifts of Love stamp set (part of Simon Says Stamp December 2015 kit). This is really a Christmas stamp set, but if the shoe fits, right Princess? ;-)
When he first made public appearance, there was a debate in crafting community whether he was a cat or a dog or even a mouse. But by and large people thought he was a cat. So that’s what I made him :-)
I wanted him to be holding a heart in his hands, but in the original image, his left hand is hanging down while he is balancing something with his raised right hand. So, I had to alter this stamp image for my card.
I masked off his left hand using a piece of masking tape and then applied ink on the stamp. I removed the piece of masking tape which had got ink on it and then stamped the image to give me the cat without a left hand.
I then used a normal black gel pen (which I use in office), to draw the left hand and complete the missing part of his belly. I used my craft knife to separate his left hand from the rest of his image, so that I could slide the heart beneath it.
I fussy cut Mr Cat out and colored him using Zig Clean Clear Brush markers. I added the pink and the red colors on his scarf to get a color close to the Hot Lips ink from Simon Says Stamp.
I colored a piece from the same SSS white cardstock with the same pink and red markers and die cut a heart out of it using the MFT stitched hearts stax dies. I used the smallest heart from the set and tucked it under Mr Cat’s left hand and secured it with a bit of glossy accents.
I added a bit of gold embossing to the scarf as well as the heart by using a Ranger Embossing clear pen and Martha Stewart antique gold embossing powder. I love how this pen lets me add lines or words by myself and heat emboss them. The embossing powder came with Martha Stewart heat embossing starter kit.
Once I was completely happy with Mr. Cat, I worked on a card base. I first stamped the Mr. Cat where I wanted him to be. Didn’t worry about masking this time because I knew I would be covering him with the fussy cut image.
I stamped several little solid hearts from I See You stamp set using Versa Mark ink. This stamp set came with the October 2015 SSS card kit. I heat embossed these with Martha Stewart antique gold embossing powder. I also stamped several more small hearts with outline (same stamp set) using SSS Hot Lips ink and added the sentiment in SSS black ink. The sentiment came from SSS Labeled with Love stamp set. After this, I used the largest of the stitched rectangle dies to die cut this panel.
Finally, I adhered the critter on his place using foam squares. Had to cut some really tiny pieces, specially for his tail :-)
To finish off, I adhered the card front panel onto an standard sized shiny red card made using Imperial Red shimmer cardstock from SSS.
There you have it. It feels like a lot of steps, but once you get started, it will just get you in the flow. And of course, you could simplify a lot of things like sticking to only one stamp set to make things easier. Or reduce all the embossing and just stamp with an ink like the SSS Duckling ink, may be?
Hope this inspires you to play with the stamp images and get more out of them.
I am linking this post to SSS Wednesday Challenge – Create with Critters.
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Supplies List
For your convenience, I am sharing links to the supplies I’ve used – click on the picture or link to go directly to the product. Wherever available, I have used affiliate links, which means when you make a purchase, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I truly appreciate your support!
xoxo, ~Varada
