Monday’s Are Hard, Stamping Shouldn’t Be
Monday’s are hard, but in this card making series, I will show you that stamping shouldn’t be. In fact, it’s quite easy. And with minimal supplies and minimal efforts, you can get fabulous results! To see last week’s Monday Card Tutorial, click here.
Today’s Monday Card features the stamp set, Inspiring Iris. This great stamp set is made up of 16 photopolymer stamps, with 3 different kinds of flowers. That’s right…not just iris.
Inspiring Iris has two-step stamping capability. Two-step stamping involves stamping an outer image, and them stamping the filler, or inner, image(s) separately. It is a fast and easy way to add instant color, but this does not limit us to using it as intended, and soon you will see why!
So with just one stamp set, Inspiring Iris, two colors of ink, Memento Tuxedo Black and Gorgeous Grape, and two colors of cardstock, Highland Heather and Whisper White, we are creating an easy Monday card. Let’s put this one together!
A Monday Card
The Card Recipe
Highland Heather CS: 5 1/2 x 8 1/2″, score at 4 1/4″ for card base.
Highland Heather CS: 1 1/2 x 5 1/4″, 2 1/4 x 3″
Whisper White CS: 4 x 5 1/4″ (inside)
Whisper White CS: 2 x 5 1/4″, 2 x 2 3/4″, 3/4 x 1 7/8″
Stamp And Assemble
This Monday’s Are Hard, Stamping Shouldn’t Be Card starts out with the typical “fold in half” and score with your bone folder to get a great crisp card base. Let’s not break tradition.
However, my TIP to you is to score once, invert the fold and score again. Your inner crease is now as crisp as the outer one. This makes for a professional looking card base!
Create Your Own Designer Series Paper
With the minimal supplies used in this card, we are not adding designer series paper to it. We are making our own! This great background pattern can be used with any stamp sets you own, and every Monday I am showing you how to incorporate this technique into your projects.
For our Inspiring Iris card, we are stamping backgrounds, times 3! Once in black ink, and twice in purple, one with lighter images and one with darker images from the same purple ink pad.
Background #1
Starting with the card base you just folded and scored so nicely, stamp the ‘mystery flower’ (rose? begonia? peony?) leaf filler using Gorgeous Grape Ink that is stamped off. By stamping off (releasing ink) and using the second generation ink, you will get a lighter stamped image. I was able to get 5-6 images in the center of my card base from top to bottom, inverting the stamp orientation each time to vary the look.
Background #2
On the 1 1/2 x 5 1/4″ Highland Heather CS, stamp the carnation leaf filler (this one resembles a tulip silhouette on a stem) using Gorgeous Grape ink. This time, do not stamp off, use the fully inked stamp to create a darker image in a random pattern. I like to have my flowers peeking inward.
Background #3
Our last background technique involves the 2 x 5 1/4″ Whisper White CS and Memento Black Ink. To get my lines as straight as possible, I took advantage of my grid paper (you could use graph paper or make your own grid if need be).
You can use a post-it note to hold the white cardstock in place, or washi tape. If using washi, be sure to remove some of the “stick” first to avoid tears on your paper during its removal. Simply dab the sticky side of the tape on your clothes to lesson the stick factor.
I carefully lined up the background stamp that resembles circles with diamonds in the middle, and starting from the bottom, worked my way up. On my card, I tried to stamp a full circle each time on the same edge of my paper to make a uniform design. Grid lines keep the tendency on the straight and narrow side.
Floral Details
The theme of our card is Inspiring Iris, so let’s stamp the iris! First, take the iris outline stamp and use Memento Black Ink on the 2 x 2 3/4″ Whisper White Cardstock. Leave a little blank room at the top, and stamp the lower leaves off the bottom of your cardstock. Don’t crowd your iris, give them room to grow!
While my Memento ink was out, I stamped the sentiment for this card on the 3/4 x 1 7/8″ Whisper White Cardstock. It is easier for me to line up my saying on a small paper. Somehow using larger pieces just leaves room for larger errors, plus do-over’s don’t waste valuable cardstock when minimal scraps are used.
Next, we color our flower. Using the iris flower filler stamp and Gorgeous Grape Ink, stamp over the black flower outline. This stamp is designed to give you high and low color saturation, so it appears that you worked ‘extra hard’ to create this look, without the ‘extra hard’ work.
Lastly, it is time to stamp the leaves. Normally one would use green to create realistic leaves, but this card with minimal supplies gives us the option to use purple or black ink. So purple it is. I created the leaves in a lighter purple by stamping off the Gorgeous Grape Ink first. As well, this creates a variation in color from the flower and leaves.
Finishing Touches
I like to assemble my layers before I add them to the card front. For this card, adhere together the white cardstock stamped with black circles and the purple cardstock stamped with purple flowers. Place this assembly to the far left of your card front. You should be able to see the stamping we did on the middle of the card base peeking out.
Next, adhere the stamped iris on white cardstock to the 2 1/4 x 3″ Highland Heather CS. This layer will overlap the first, longer layer on your card front, and become the focal point of the card.
For the final step on the card front, add your sentiment. There should be room toward the bottom right for it to fit perfectly. This is helped by the longer layers positioned previously to the far left, and the sentiment piece being as tiny as possible.
The Insider Job
Your card is beautiful on the outside, now lets make it pretty inside too! I like to mimic some of the outer stamping into a corner of the inside card. This way the card has continuity and there is still lots of room to add your own sentiment or written thoughts.
Here, I used the same technique from the stamping of the iris image to add that inside interest. I stamped the iris lower on the inside corner, with the flowers just over the bottom of my cardstock. I also added the fun circle background stamp in black to create edging on two sides.
Step It Up!
Any card can have more! If you have ribbon or bling lying around, it would look fantastic with the beautiful Inspiring Iris card. I chose to add some Stampin’ Up Tri-Color Ribbon, item #149708, as it constitutes 2 out of 3 colors used in this card today: Gorgeous Grape and Highland Heather.
Keeping with our purple and white theme, I added a bow using the Whisper White Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon, item #151326. And pearls and purple were meant to be together, so onto the card they went!
I hope you enjoyed making this easy card on a hard Monday with me. My video tutorial can be found on my FaceBook page, as well as my YouTube channel. If you need any supplies for this card, please feel free to visit my online store, https://juliemakson.stampinup.net, at any time. See you next Monday for another installment of:
Monday’s Are Hard, Stamping Shouldn’t Be!
