Tutorial Twofer Tuesday with Lori

Stamping Your Own Patterned Paper AND Masking

Happy Tuesday everyone, and welcome to our first installment of Tutorial Tuesday for April!  This month we're focusing on stamping, and since I am the self-proclaimed Simple Stamping Guru, I'm jumping right in with two easy techniques today.  Initially, I was just going to focus on making your own custom patterned paper, but I needed to mask an image for my card anyway, and since it's an easy yet oh-so-useful technique, I just added it right in.  Trust me, I don't like doing things that are "hard", require a lot of products, or take a lot of time.  So, make yourself comfortable and see for yourself how easy stamping can be!

Let's start with a technique called "random stamping" to make your own patterned paper.  It's really a misnomer, as it's not random at all, but when you're done it certainly looks that way.  This is such a useful technique, for times when you don't want to search for the "right" paper for a project, or just don't have something in the right colors.  I have been known to be slightly obsessive (OK, maybe not slightly) about my papers matching my pictures in my scrapbook pages; to the extent of making my own patterned papers that match the clothes my kids are wearing in the pictures.  But that's a story for another day...

I'm making a card, because the smaller size makes it easier to learn the technique.  (If any of the pictures are too small for you, just click on them to see them larger.)  To begin, stamp a single image near the center of your paper.  I stamped right on my 5 x 7 card base, choosing to make my entire background patterned.  For this project, I am using a single stamp for my pattern, but as you practice, you can add more stamps, and/or rotate the stamp(s) for more variety.

Next, stamp the image twice more, forming a triangle shape with the three images.  I chose to keep my images all facing the same general direction, but you can rotate for a different effect.

Continue stamping images, creating more and more triangles on your paper.  Make sure that when you approach the edges that you allow the images to go off the edges of the paper where they would naturally fall.  (Ever notice that patterned paper you buy doesn't usually contain only whole images, that shapes run off the edges of the paper?)

Since I used a line drawn stamp, I chose to color my images with Copic markers.  I colored using a very informal style, freely going outside the lines, as it was easy to color each petal and leaf by simply laying the brush tip against the paper for each one.

Don't worry about making your image spacing or your coloring perfect.  Trust me, no one will notice when you're done!  Now, on to masking:

This technique allows you to group images together, making them look like one is in front of another.  There is no limit to the number of images you can combine into a scene, but I most commonly use only two images together.  It looks so much more "advanced" when you mask than if you just stamp the images next to each other.  The only additional supply needed is a Post-It note (or if you don't have any, use a piece of printer paper and adhesive tape.

First, stamp the image you want to appear in the front of your scene on your cardstock.  Then stamp it again on your Post-It note.

Cut out the image you stamped on your Post-It, and stick it directly on the image you stamped on cardstock.

Next, stamp the other image right next to the first, slightly overlapping where you want it to appear behind the first image.

Peel off the Post-It note, and voila! You have a masked scene.  For my purposes, I cut out my masked images, added some extra detail and colored them.

To assemble my card, I also stamped and colored a border and cut it out.  I trimmed 1/4" off the right edge and adhered my border image and some ribbon.  Then I popped up my stamped image on a matted panel, added a custom sentiment, and DONE!

I thought this would make a great card for a  couples shower, casual wedding, or a fun anniversary card.  Just add the additional sentiment to the inside of the card and you're ready to roll.

Products available at Cutters Creek:

• Clear Art Stamps from Crafty Secrets, Kitchen Classics
• Acrylic Block starter set
• Memento Ink, black
• Copic Markers, in R20 Blush and YG07 Acid Green
• Cardstock