A lot of pictures in this post!
Have you used stamps that are designed to be layered on top of another? These sets create interest, depth, and color in a quick and easy manner. I bought a few Altenew stamp sets a couple of years ago that I was never able to use. That is because shortly after they arrived, my crafting stuff went into storage for our move and subsequent remodel. Yesterday was the first time I have been able to stamp (I KNOW!) in over a year and a half! I chose Altenew's Dahlia Blossoms set to break the stamping-drought. It is such a lovely set and I wanted to create interesting, mailable cards to give to my mother. The 8 one-layer cards are as flat as can be and yet still offer visual interest through Altenew's multi-layered designs.
 |
| Altenew Green Fields Ink Set with Dahlia Blossoms |
One of the questions I had about using these stamps was, "Would the ink I already own work with these stamps?" Obviously, Altenew's ink would be great, but I only had one set of their ink pads. I didn't want all of the flowers to be shades of green, which is the set I bought a long time ago. The other concern was how well they would have held up to storage in Arizona's heat and subsequently in all of the seasons in Oregon. I don't have the re-inkers for the 4 colors in the set. With a little trepidation, I opened the pads. They were in good shape!
 |
| CTMH and Distress Inks with Altenew Stamps |
The exact colors and inks are listed below for the products that are still available. Some of the Close To My Heart inks are retired, so they are not listed. The non-Altenew sentiments are from retired CTMH stamp sets.
 |
| Distress Ink, CTMH, and Altenew Inks |
 |
| Tim Holtz Distress Ink with Altenew Stamps |
The card above has two types of silver tape on it. This will not cost any additional postage because it doesn't add bulk or noticeable weight to the card. After blending Weathered Wood ink around the edges, I splattered it with water droplets.
 |
| Layered stamping without the solid layer for Dahlias |
 |
| 3-layers of stamping surrounded by outline stamped images |
 |
| CTMH inks with Sakura Glaze penned frame |
The card above has a 3/4" white border around the stamped flowers. This was masked with post-it notes prior to stamping.
 |
| Black ink is Altenew with watercolor pencils and Sakura ink on top |
The sentiment, "Sending hugs and happy thoughts" is from Altenew's Beautiful Day stamp set
 |
| Yellows are Distress Inks with Sakura Black Glaze pen outlined over the stamped image |
All of the inks worked with the stamps. However, the solid images had some bubbling/pitting with all of the inks except for the Altenew. On the list for another day of study/play will be to try the solid images with some other types of ink. I used Stampin Up! inks to start with and didn't love the results, so I moved on to the CTMH and Distress Inks.
 |
| Gelly Roll over stamped text |
The one thing that gives some of the cards a little bit of pop and sparkle is Sakura's clear Stardust Gelly Roll pen. It is the easiest thing to use to add a bit of ooh la la to any project.
 |
| Gelly Roll randomly highlighting stamped image |
This stamp set has a coordinating thin-die set. Since the cards are all flat, I didn't need to cut any stamped images for them. But, using the dies to cut out masks from Post-It notes made it an easy and fast way to create lots of masks. I store the leftover masks in the package with the stamps.
 |
| Use dies to cut on the sticky part for masks |
 |
| Store leftover masks with stamps |
It was great to get back to crafting! Next time, I hope to have located my acrylic blocks or MISTI. It would have made things a wee bit easier! But, as the saying goes, "When there is a will, there is a way." It was time to get back to doing something I love and, more importantly, make something from my heart for my mom. Thanks for stopping by today!
Supplies:
