Monday’s Are Hard, Stamping Shouldn’t Be

Monday’s are hard, but in this cardmaking 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!

Today’s Monday card features the stamp set, Sweetly Swirled. This stamp set was released new, from the 2019-2020 Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog. It includes 14 photopolymer stamps, 3 of which feature sweet swirls.

These swirls make great accent images for any of your cards or projects! And two of them coordinate with dies, in the form of Layering Circles or Layering Ovals.

However, since we are using minimal supplies, this Monday Card only uses the stamp set.

That’s right, one stamp set, Sweetly Swirled, two ink pads, Balmy Blue and Memento Tuxedo Black, and two colors of cardstock, Balmy Blue and Whisper White. Please follow along!

A Monday Card

The Card Recipe

Balmy Blue CS: 5 1/2 x 8 1/2″, score at 4 1/4″ for card base.

Balmy Blue CS: (2 of) 1 x 3 3/4″, (2 of) 1/2 x 1″

Whisper White CS: 4 x 5 1/4″ (for inside, optional)

Whisper White CS: 4 x 4″, 3 3/4 x 3 3/4″, 1 1/4 x 4″, 3/4 x 3 1/2″, 1/2 x 1 1/4″

Stamp and Assemble

This Monday’s Are Hard, Stamping Shouldn’t Be Sweetly Swirled Card starts out with the typical “fold in half” and score with your bonefolder 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.

First, I stamped a fully inked flower onto my 3 3/4″ square of Whisper White CS using Balmy Blue Ink. Next, I immediately stamped the shadow flower beside it, offsetting slightly. This is known as second generation stamping.

Be sure to add some darker flowers to the outer edges. It’s okay to stamp off the edge of your paper to create your individualized pattern. I always have scrap paper behind my work in progress to catch excess ink.

The largest circle swirl stamp fits nicely into the flowered square. I stamped this swirl in Memento Tuxedo Black Ink in the middle of the square. Because there is no up, down or other orientation to this stamp, it is easily placed.

For another random pattern, I used one of the Balmy Blue 1 x 3 3/4″ CS pieces and Balmy Blue Ink, and a different flower stamp from the first choice. This time I did not shadow stamp my image. Mixing things up creates variation interest.

Faux Sponging

A great way to add color to the edge of your cardstock is to sponge some on. Since this card requires minimal supplies, we are making this happen in another manner.

Hold your ink pad in one hand and swipe the edge of the ink pad onto the edge of the cardstock, going around the entire square. This will add needed contrast between the card layers.

You’re Really Missed

Are you a victim of crooked sayings? You can use your grid paper to line up those photopolymer stamp sentiments. Here’s how:

1. Place the stamp (image side down and flat side up) along the grid line.
2. Adjust stamp as needed, so that it is nice and even.
3. Then, simply add your clear block by placing it over the stamp.

I used Memento Tuxedo Black Ink to stamp my sentiment on the 3/4 x 3 3/4″ Whisper White CS. For me, using the smallest piece of cardstock for my sentiment helps keep the saying centered. Less paper=less room for error!

To emphasize the “really” in this sentiment, I added Balmy Blue Ink with the smallest swirl stamp around this word. So that it wasn’t too bold, I stamped off onto my scrap paper first.

Finishing Touches

As cardmakers, we tend to have lots of little scraps of paper lying around at any given time. In this card, I put some of them to great use as accent pieces!

The half-inch wide strips flag easily. I use my Paper Snips to cut from the corner edge toward the middle. Repeat on the other side, until your triangle falls off.

To dress my flags up, I added contrasting colors in tiny circles. If you have don’t have a small circle punch, check your office supplies. I used an ordinary hole punch for this minimal supplies required card. Tiny drops of glue, or small glue dots will hold them fast.

Assembly

This Sweetly Swirled card has quite a few layers, but they go together quickly. Here is a picture showing the “layout of layers”.

I like to put each layer “set” together before I adhere it to the card base. Typically, I start from the top and work toward the bottom.

The Insider Job

Your Sweetly Swirled 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.

Now is a good time to add some stamping to your envelope too! You could choose from the swirl stamps, the flower stamps or the sentiment stamp.

Step It Up

If you have Pearl Basic Jewels, item #144219, you can use your Stampin’ Blends to color them. This will create some bling in the color you need for your project. I used the Dark Balmy Blue Stampin’ Blend, item #148542, to color some of my pearls.

Easy Monday Stamping

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. To see another Easy Monday Card, featuring Beautifully Braided, click here.

If you need any supplies for this card, please feel free to visit my online store, https://www.juliemakson.stampinup.net, at any time. See you next Monday for another installment of:

Monday’s Are Hard, Stamping Shouldn’t Be!