Peek-a-boo Desgins: Using solid stamp images

Hello and good evening! ^__^

I'm Halak and and today we'll be discussing solid stamp images.

Out of the three projects that you see in the picture above, I have a pictorial for one of them and written step by step instructions for the other two.

We'll be talking about solid stamp images as we proceed through the tutorial so let's get started!

Project #1

Here are the steps to create this project :

Pictorial

First, I die-cut a lilac oval using the Oval Dual Stitched Die (3rd largest oval) and positioned the stamp and sentiment from the Magical Fairies stamp set on it.

Tip
To ensure even distribution of ink, I always place a 5mm thick foam sheet under my cardstock before stamping.
The black portion that you see here is the 5mm foam sheet.

How to get a perfect impression?
Always always always condition and test your stamps BEFORE you stamp them onto your actual project.

To condition your stamp you can do any ONE out of the following things :

1. Coat the stamp surface in versamark and rub it against the palm of your hand to remove versamark.
Once you remove versamark, the stamp will be ready to use.

2. If it is a solid image and you plan to use it as a silhouette only, then you can stamp the image a couple of times in Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black).

3. The easiest method is to rub the surface of the stamp with an eraser.

Why to do a test run of the stamp?
Because of two reasons :

1. When you pick up the stamp with your acrylic block, ink it and stamp, you won't know what kind of pressure you will end up exerting on that stamp.
Every stamp is different and has different size dimensions so the pressure you exert differs with each stamp.
When you stamp it in rough once or twice, you will get an idea of how much pressure you need to exert to yield a perfect image.

2. Most clear stamps that are manufactured have a chemical coating on the surface which acts as an ink repellent.
Conditioning the stamp once will ensure that this layer is removed and that the ink is evenly coated throughout the stamp surface.

I always do a trial (stamping in rough) before stamping on my actual project.
Here's what my trial looked like :

As you can see, I exerted less pressure towards the central portion of image and more towards the sentiment which led to ink spreading out (in the word "magic").

So once I realized my mistake, I moved onto my project.
Here's my lilac oval stamped :

Tip
It's a good idea to secure cardstock to the foam sheet with washi tape like I did.
It prevents movement of cardstock and helps avoid ghosting. (Image ghosting is where the paper moves and your hand also moves slightly leading to a double stamped image which looks blurry.)

After this, I did some stenciling around the oval using the Leafy Delight Stencil + distress ink.

Pardon me for this image. Funky lighting kinda makes the color look a tad different but it's the same lilac oval.

After stenciling, I lightly colored the wings with purple watercolor and perfect pearl mix to give the fairy a bit of sparkle.

Next, I took the same stencil and stenciled onto white pre-embossed cardstock.

If you look carefully, you will be able to see the faint dry embossed design onto the cardstock along with the stenciled design.

Once this was done, I die-cut a rectangle from Black Cardstock using the Rounded Rectangle Dual Stitched Die (3rd largest rectangle) and adhered a piece of the Graceful Lattice die-cut in silver cardstock to a corner.

All major things done, I decided to embellish the lilac oval with sequins, fussy-cut leaves from patterned paper and a butterfly from a Martha Stewart paper punch.

Here you can see I also added a few bits of paper tape, a star shaped sticker and black bakers twine to top RHS corner of white cardstock.

The white circle in which the butterfly is adhered is die-cut from the Funky Shapes Die set.

I like to do a rough placement of things before I finally glue them down so that is what you see in the image above.

Once I was happy with the way my project looked, I adhered the elements and the card was complete!

So you see, solid stamp images can be great focals and you can build cool scenes around them using stencils, sequins etc.

Let's check out the second project!

Project #2

Tip
If you don't want to build a scene around the solid stamped image, a fun idea is to decorate it with washi tapes and stickers for a pop of color.

Steps :

1. Die-cut a rectangle from Rounded Rectangle Dual Stitched Die (3rd largest rectangle) and matted it onto card base.

2. Die-cut a piece of patterned paper using the same rectangle die, (3rd largest rectangle) gave it an abstract cut and adhered to white rectangle.
At this stage I added bits of washi tape to top RHS of white rectangle.

3. Die-cut oval from Oval Dual Stitched Die (smallest oval) stamped fairy from the Magical Fairies stamp set, added washi tape + stickers, offset the oval slightly and adhered.

4. Finally, added sentiment sticker to bottom RHS.

That's how I did it!

We have one more fun way of using solid stamps! ^__^
After the build-a-scene idea (Project #1) and using solid stamps as-is with colorful tapes + stickers (Project #2), a third option is that you can pair it up with other solid images!

You can check out the third option here :

Project #3

Steps :

1. I used the 2nd largest solid circle stamp from the Solid Shapes stamp set and stamped it randomly using distress inks onto white cardstock.

2. Stamped fairy and sentiment from Magical Fairies stamp set.

3. Adhered stickers and sequins.

4. Matted onto polka dot pattern paper (the stitched border square was achieved by partial die-cutting the Rounded Rectangle Dual Stitched Die) which was finally adhered to Rose Gold card base. (Peek-a-boo Designs sell that stunning Rose Gold cardstock that you see here so if you liked it, you might wanna check it out! ^__^