Background Technique - The Maine Stamper

Beautiful Day In Rococo Rose

May 18, 2020

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, Beautiful Day. This stamp set only contains 5 stamps, but I managed to use all of them in my card (something new for me!). If you would like to see another floral project that features a Monday style card, click here.

Beautiful Day Stamp Set, item # 145915 — Beautiful Day Stamp Set, item #145915

As always, I use 1 stamp set for my minimal supplies card. I also use 2 ink pads, and for this card I feature Early Espresso and Rococo Rose. Additionally, this card is completed with 2 colors of cardstock, Rococo Rose and Very Vanilla. Minimal supplies for a Beautiful Day, indeed!

A Monday Card

The Card Recipe

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

Rococo Rose CS: 2 3/4 x 3 1/2″ and 1 x 5″

Very Vanilla CS: 4 x 5 1/4″ x 2 (one for inside, optional)

Very Vanilla CS: 3 x 3 3/4″ and 3/4 x 1 1/2″

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 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.

I suggest stamping on scrap paper, as this technique has you stamping off the edge of your cardstock. Starting at the top, I stamped the big flower from the Beautiful Day Stamp Set in Rococo Rose Ink. I applied the image 4 times around one of the 4 x 5 1/4″ Very Vanilla CS pieces.

Large Flower stamp from Beautiful Day Stamp Set

Next, I stamped the Beautiful Day phrase “Always thinking of you” in Early Espresso Ink onto the Very Vanilla CS in the remainder of the space available. I varied the placement of letters from the stamp phrase along the edge of my paper as well. The middle will be covered in layers later on, so don’t focus on that!

Sentiment Stamp from Beautiful Day and Early Espresso Ink

Flag Me

A great way to add paper elements to cards without the use of punches or dies (this is a minimal supplies card, after all) is adding a flagged piece. On my 1 x 5″ Rococo Rose CS, I used my Paper Snips to flag one end. I always start in one corner and cut toward the middle. Next, I cut in from the other corner, continuing each side cut until the flag is complete.

It’s time to add some pieces to our card front. I adhered the stamped Very Vanilla piece down first. After that, I attached the flagged piece on the right side of the card front.

Remember that little triangle piece that was cut away when I did my flagging? I added that on top of the flagged cardstock, giving the look of a fancy fold paper. I encourage you to use all your scraps on your projects in unique ways.

Butterfly Focus

The focus piece of the card is always the most fun part to work on. For this card, I stamped the large butterfly stamp from the Beautiful Day Stamp Set in Early Espresso Ink onto the 2 3/4 x 3 1/2″ Rococo Rose CS. I angled the butterfly, allowing the image to fall off the edges.

Butterfly Stamp from Beautiful Day Stamp Set

After stamping the butterfly, I added the trio of flowers stamp in a random pattern on the same cardstock. This time, I used Rococo Rose Ink. I tried to focus on the outer edges of my paper. This little stamp is adorable, it reminds me of sequins, with the small open center on each flower.

Trio of small flowers stamp from Beautiful Day Stamp Set

Once this stamping was completed, I adhered the Rococo Rose CS to the 3 x 3 3/4″ layer of Very Vanilla. I love to frame my pieces with additional cardstock, giving them an air of importance. This assembly attaches flat to the card front as well.

Finishing Touches

It’s time to stamp some more words. This is the fifth and final stamp in the Beautiful Day Stamp Set. Because I wanted the sentiment to be a smaller image on my card front, I chose to mask off part of the stamp.

This is optional, of course. For the masked version, I used a piece of Very Vanilla CS measuring 3/4 x 3 1/4″. If you choose not to mask and want to use the entire stamp image, it is easily completed on a 1 x 3 1/4″.

The Art Of Masking

Masking part of a stamp allows us to use part of the image. This can be done using masking tape, painters tape or washi tape. I prefer painters tape, as it is less sticky than masking tape and stickier than washi. Happy medium!

First, place the tape over the part of the stamp that you don’t want to use. In this case, I am keeping Happy Birthday open for inking and closing off the remainder of the sentiment.

Second, ink up your stamp, tape and all. Just pretend the tape doesn’t exist. Make sure the rubber image you want to use has enough ink on it before stamping.

Third, and most important step! Remove the tape before you stamp your image. If you forget this step and leave the tape on, you will have a splotchy mess under the image you wanted.

Fourth and final step, apply the stamp to your paper. I focused on centering the Happy Birthday portion on my cardstock, rather than the complete stamp.

Happy Birthday Stamp from Beautiful Day Stamp Set

Masked Sentiment

Un-Masked Sentiment

The Insider Job

Now that your card is beautiful on the outside, with the addition of your stamped sentiment piece, let’s add some glamour to the inside. I love to mimic some of the stamped images from the front of the card and carry them to the inner layer.

For this card using the Beautiful Day Stamp Set, I stamped the large flower image in Rococo Rose onto the bottom corner of the remaining 4 x 5 1/4″ Very Vanilla CS. Next, I used the smaller trio of flowers in Rococo Rose Ink, stamping them off first before adding them, for a lighter ink image.

Inside Stamping With Beautiful Day Stamp Set

Step It Up!

I like to feature the same Monday Card Recipe with the addition of a few extra details, in an effort to show you that you can always add more. For my stepped up version, I added some Scalloped Linen Ribbon in Rococo Rose under the sentiment popped up by dimensionals.

Other new features here include 2 butterfly punched images, the larger in Very Vanilla CS and the smaller in 2019-2021 DSP, adhered together and given a lift with a dimensional. On top of my butterflies, I added a 2019-2021 Faceted Dot in Rococo Rose.

Stepped Up Version of Beautiful Day Card

Stampin’ Up makes color coordination easy with so many items to choose from. If you need any of the products I used for this card, head over to my online store, https://juliemakson.stampinup.net/, and get them while you can. Some of these items are retiring very soon, so don’t miss out!

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. See you next Monday for another installment of:

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

Rare Blessings In Soft Sea Foam

May 11, 2020

Monday’s Are Hard, Stamping Shouldn’t Be

Today’s Monday Card features the stamp set, Rare Blessings. This one is soon retiring from the 2019-2020 Annual Catalog from Stampin’ Up!. If you would like to see more about the retiring items in 2020, click here.

Our Monday card makes great use of many of the stamps from the very lovely Rare Blessings Stamp Set. We are also using two colors of ink, Soft Seam Foam and Poppy Parade, and two colors of cardstock, Soft Sea Foam and Whisper White.

A Monday Card

The Card Recipe

Soft Sea Foam CS: 5 1/2 x 8 1/2″, score at 4 1/4″ for card base.

Soft Sea Foam CS: 3 x 4″ and 1/2 x 4 1/4″

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

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

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 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. It is especially easy when there are “background” style stamps included in your stamp set.

I suggest stamping on scrap paper, as this technique has you stamping off the edge of your cardstock. First, I used the “splotch” stamp and Soft Sea Foam Ink. I went around the entire outer edge of my card base. It is okay to overlap a bit, and not necessary to rotate the stamp.

Splotch stamp from Rare Blessings used to create background pattern on card base. — This tone on tone technique creates a soft wash of green on the card base.

Floral Details

For the second portion of background stamping, I used the single flower on its stem, with the curled leaf. Again, I stamped along the outer edge of my paper, using the Soft Sea Foam 3 x 4″ piece and Poppy Parade Ink.

When I stamped my flower, I did rotate the image and vary the pattern. Most of this stamping will be covered up as we assemble the card, but the effect is still an important component on our card!

Small flower stamp from Rare Blessings in Poppy Parade Ink.

Flower Focus

Here comes my favorite part! The large floral image. I stamped it in Soft Sea Foam on the 2 /12 x 4″ piece of Whisper White CS. This green is such a light color, the image will be very demure in nature.

Because this image needs a little color, we are adding some. And since this is a minimal supplies kind of card, we are using q-tips to color with. If you have Blender Pens at home, this creates a similar effect.

Large Flower image from Rare Blessings stamped and colored

I dipped the end of the q-tip in my ink pad and immediately touched it off onto my scrap paper. Then, I applied the color in the middle of each flower, gently swirling outward. Practice at home, and keep in mind you can add more color if needed, but won’t be able to take any away.

For further interest, I ripped the end off of my stamped paper. I used the edge of my Soft Sea Foam Ink Pad to brush ink onto the frayed paper. This highlights the rough and jagged design.

If you are not a fan of torn paper, just trim this piece shorter by @ 1/4″, so that it fits on the layered front of your card.

So Sentimental

It’s time to stamp a saying. This stamp set has 4 great sentiments and any of them will work. I designed this card to coordinate best with the stamp “a true friend is the rarest of all blessings”. If you like to have smaller margins of cardstock surrounding your saying, simply trim it to fit.

Sentiment from Rare Blessings Stamp Set — I used Poppy Parade Ink to stamp my sentiment.

Time To Assemble

The stamping is done (for the outside!), so it’s time to put the front of this card together. Ready to layer? Here’s how: start with the 3 1/4 x 4 1/4″ Whisper White CS and add it to the bottom right of the card. Next, adhere the thin strip of Soft Sea Foam.

The layers continue with the Soft Sea Foam piece we stamped with Poppy Parade flowers. This one is directly centered over the white cardstock.

On top of that, I layered my large flower focal point. Lastly, I adhered my sentiment piece. The sentiment is adjustable in location to your preferences.

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 small flower stamp in Poppy Parade Ink, stamping 3 times. Next, I added Soft Sea Foam splotches along the edges and below the tops of the flowers, to add additional inside interest. Note that the splotches, so light in color, extend beyond the flower images on both sides.

More Is More

Typically, this part of the tutorial is where I show you how I added bling and ribbons and all kinds of extras to my card to enhance the fun. However, this time, instead of adding stuff, I simply changed colors.

Yep, this one was so quick and easy to make, I instantly wanted to make more, but this time I wanted to use:

Pink!

Keeping the Soft Sea Foam, I swapped the Poppy Parade for Rococo Rose. The dusty rose color looks fabulous with the soft green. I picked an additional sentiment from the Rare Blessings Stamp Set to focus on. But then I wanted to try making it in:

Purple!

Again, the Soft Sea Foam color is used, this time with Highland Heather. I love purple and green together, so this was a no-brainer. I chose a different sentiment from the last two I previously used. And realized I had one more sentiment in the Rare Blessings Stamp set. So I had to pull out another color:

Blue!

Pretty Peacock is the perfect blue to mix in with Soft Sea Foam. Perhaps of all the q-tip colored flowers, these turned out the best. And I was able to successfully use all the sentiments in the Rare Blessings Stamp Set. This provides great value for the purchase of this set!

Another Monday, Another Easy Card

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://www.juliemakson.stampinup.net, at any time. See you next Monday for another installment of:

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

Country Road In Crumb Cake

May 4, 2020

Monday’s Are Hard, Stamping Shouldn’t Be

Today’s Monday Card features the stamp set, Country Road. We are using 5 out of the 6 stamps in this set to make our card. This stamp set is soon retiring, so if you want to purchase it, time is of the essence. To view more retiring products, click here.

Country Road Stamp Set, item # 151356 — Country Road Stamp Set, item #151356

As with all our Monday Cards, we are using minimal supplies with minimal efforts to get fabulous results. So with one stamp set, Country Road, two ink pads, Early Espresso and Poppy Parade, and two colors of cardstock, Crumb Cake and Poppy Parade, we will get to work!

A Monday Card

The Card Recipe

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

Crumb Cake CS: 2 x 4″, 2 3/4 x 3 1/2″, 2 1/4 x 3″

Scrap of Crumb Cake CS: for wagon wheel and hole punch

Poppy Parade CS: 2 1/2 x 3 1/4″, 3 1/4 x 4″, scrap for star

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 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 technique can be used with any stamp sets you own.

I suggest stamping on scrap paper, as you will be stamping off the edge of your cardstock. Starting with the Poppy Parade 3 1/4 x 4″ CS and Poppy Parade Ink, I stamped the grass image from the Country Road Stamp Set 3-4 times across. It is okay to overlap slightly for this tone on tone look.

Next, I stamped with the phrase stamp, “nothing’s better than…” from the Country Road Stamp Set. Here I used the Crumb Cake CS 2 x 4″ piece and Early Espresso Ink. I did not overlap this stamp, but created a random pattern. I think it looks like newspaper clippings haphazardly assembled.

Both pieces of the newly created background stamped cardstock are ready to be layered on the card front. There is room to keep a gap between the Crumb Cake on the bottom and the Poppy Parade on the top.

Adding background cardstock to card front

Card Focal Point

The focal point of this card is the horse weathervane from the Country Road Stamp Set. I stamped it on the Crumb Cake 2 1/4 x 3″ piece using Early Espresso Ink. This stamp is a tight fit for this paper, so I focused on centering the horse.

Immediately after stamping my weathervane, I folded my cardstock in a crumpling manner. Since my ink was still slightly “wet”, this smeared in a good way.

Next, I held some of the creased folds upward and used my Early Espresso Ink Pad to apply splotches of additional ink. This creates a great “weathered” weathervane. It will be uniquely different each time!

Horse Weathervane Stamp from Country Road Stamp Set

This weathervane is now ready to be layered on our card front. I used the Crumb Cake 2 1/2 x 3 1/4″ piece as the bottom layer. Next, I added the Poppy Parade 2 3/4 x 3 1/2″ piece in the middle. Lastly, I adhered the weathered weathervane as the top layer.

When I placed this layering piece on my cardfront, I was sure to add it to the left and keep a balance between the top and bottom stamped background images. I needed to have room to add my wagon wheel next.

Let’s Get Fussy

For the next portion of stamping, I used scraps, Early Espresso Ink and my Paper Snips. That’s right, time to fussy cut. In my video, I noted that a 1 3/4″ circle punch would make quick work of the wagon wheel from the Country Road Stamp Set. (That would make your Monday even easier.)

Wagon Wheel and Star Stamp from Country Road Stamp Set

After fussy cutting my wheel and star, I adhered them together. The star fits nicely in the center of the wagon wheel. For additional color and interest, I used my office hole punch and a scrap of Crumb Cake CS. The tiny circle is the perfect accompaniment to the star’s center.

Do It Yourself Lift Kit

My Monday Cards are uniquely simple, using minimal supplies. I did not mention Dimensionals in the ingredient list. You will not need them. You can make your own. Here’s how:

When adding an element to your card front that already has some layering on it, the top piece may need a lift (somewhere) to help it sit nicely. I simply count how many layers “up” I need to go to make my piece flush. Then I trim some like-color cardstock in the required number of layers.

After I adhere my home-made dimensionals to the back of my card element, I use adhesive to add it to the card front. With the extra lift where it is needed, the wagon wheel sits flush and does not wobble. No one wants a wobbly wagon wheel!

The Insider Job

Here, I used the same technique from the stamping of the grass to add that inside interest. I stamped once in the bottom corner, using Poppy Parade Ink, then immediately stamped again, overlapping the first image.

Step It Up

More is more. If you like to add more, there is always the option to do so. For my stepped up version of the Country Road Stamp Set Card, I chose to add a copper element from Designer Elements to my wagon wheel center. These elements come in gold and silver, additionally.

The Kraft Rope Trim melds seamlessly with our horse and Country Road theme, but sadly is not a current Stampin’ Up! Product. When you add elements to your cards, make them unique with whatever product you happen to have on hand.

Country Road Enjoyment

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://www.juliemakson.stampinup.net, at any time. See you next Monday for another installment of:

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