...January 2010 Release Day 2 Big Man type hugs to you!!

Welcome to the second day of samples for the new clear photopolymer stamps releasing tomorrow! I know, I told Bonnie the 4th but there's something I really need to show you before I can open the sets for sale...forgive me? LOL!!

The first card here makes great use of the knitted border from the Faux Fun set. You have Bonnie to thank for this stamp - it was Ms Bonnie Sharp that suggested a knitted background to me first, it just happened to tie in nicely with an idea I had for lace border stamps too, and Faux Fun was born!!!

There are 3 'knitted' stamps in Faux Fun, a huge background/border stamp that you can see stamped down the entire length of the card in the first pic.

The second is a small rectangular shape, also in the knitted pattern but in a slightly heavier 'weight'. This is good for creating a panel for a focal point, like I have done in this card.

The third is a little knitted stitch line that's good for accents, you can see it used under the sentiment 'Big hugs' from Sweethearts.

This is a stellar background for all sorts of things - Man cards! baby cards! Christmas cozy cards!! Oh come on, we only have 350 odd days to get ready!! lol!



This brings me to Sweethearts. I have included a number of 'plain' heart shaped stamps in the set. I have a very specific reason for wanting these. Sure patterned hearts are pretty but they might not always match my project. So, using a plain heart and a 'stamp kissing' technique, you can always be sure to have a patterned heart to match your project!!!!

For my focal point above I inked up the knitted pattern stamp and then kissed a plain heart stamp against it to pick up some of the ink in a knitted pattern.

Then I stamped it on the cream card and used a EK success punch to punch it out, The result was that it looked like it was a knitted heart stamp!!! I'm hooked!!!

I did it again with a smaller heart, I had to trim this by hand as my smaller punch hasn't arrived yet! lol! but you can see the possibilities!!!! Use these plain heart stamps with other background stamps to get similar effects, I'm itching to try it with the herringbone border from Little Box labels!!!!!

Now, there are a couple of different ways to try this technique.

Above I stamped with the heart, but below I stamped the rectangular knitted panel that was left after I 'kissed' off the heart - there is a very subtle lightening of ink in the centre of the rectangle, a sort of ghost heart - very suitable for the interior 'Guess who?' sentiment!

You can see it better if you move your eyes back from the computer screen! LOL!


This is the effect you get if you ink up the heart fully BEFORE kissing it against the inked up knitted pattern! it kind of musses up the pattern and gives a lovely dense pattern version of your original pattern! What fun!


OOps inky fingers...lol


Another thing I love to do with solid stamps is to just ink up the outline like I did with the heart on the inside of this card!



And I'll leave you for now with a wee Valentines treat bag I made using the Lace pattern embossed in white. I just love that wee touch of lace for Valentines and other lovey dovey things! I expect my Mum will see it all over her Mothers day cards this year too! LOL


The heart was punched with the EK success heart punch mentioned above and I then used it as a template a drew around it onto white card. I cut it out with pinking shears to make a dinky wee mat that helps 'lift' it from the red background!


Hope they tickle!