Joyful Christmas Cards and Stamp Surgery Tips by Taheerah

Hey everyone, happy Tuesday! It's Taheerah here today to share a couple of Christmas cards created with the help of some stamp surgery!

First up, let's check out the cards!

Don't they look awesome?! I bet you can't tell where the stamp surgery took place! *wink*

Usually I am the *last* person to resort to stamp surgery. Those poor stamps! I almost always opt for selective inking and/or masking instead. But in some circumstances stamp surgery is the quickest or best option. I came across such a scenario when I was using the Bible Journaling and Christmas Journaling stamp sets.

I had the word 'JOY' from the Christmas Journaling set, but I also wanted to spell out 'TO THE WORLD' - and those stamps don't exist! So I decided to take a look at the words that did exist in the sets and do a little stamp surgery to create what I needed!

I noticed I had a 'WORD' stamp which was just one letter away from being 'WORLD'. I worked out that by doing some stamp surgery on it and on the 'LIFE' word, I could put together the word 'WORLD' and be able to stamp it all in one go! If I had used selective inking or masking then I could have still put the word together, but it would have taken longer to do, and might not have lined up properly. I also worked out that I could get the 'TO' from the word 'TODAY' and 'THE' from the 'THY' and 'LIFE' stamps.

So far so good!

What I didn't bank on was that there were subtle differences in the sizing of the words in this set! So the 'E' from 'LIFE' was too big to go with the 'TH' from 'THY'! So I had to resort to a little more surgery, this time with a stamp from the Christmas Journaling set!

The 'E' from 'EARTH' was the right size - hooray!

Here are both cards again:

Some other notes about how these cards came together. I really wanted the wording to be the attention grabber for the cards, so I decided that the only other embellishment would be the three watercolour stripes down the front, in different metallic shades. These were my abstract interpretation of The Three Kings - neat huh?

I did my watercolouring first, using a mix of different diluted shimmer sprays for my metallics. I then mixed a little glue and glitter together and smeared it over the stripes, to add an extra subtle layer of glitz, then finally stamped my sentiments. I was able to line up all my stamps in my Mini MISTI and stamp them all in one go with perfect placement - go MISTI! I just love the end results!

Stamp Surgery Tips

So I promised you a couple of tips for successful stamp surgery, right? Here we go!

1. Use a decent pair of scissors when cutting your stamps apart. The last thing you need is to botch the cut because the blades aren't cutting the photopolymer well!
2. Ink up your stamps with black ink first! This might be a little messy (you can stamp them off slightly before cutting if you like), but this tip is a great one to help you see exactly where the stamping surface is - and where your blades should avoid! Especially important with intricate designs or when elements of the design are close together, like these letters were!
3. Take the stamp between your fingers and bend it in on itself, with the stamping area on the outside. This will bend the design apart a bit so you can get your scissors into the tighter areas more easily!

I hope these cards and tips have helped to take some of the fear out of stamp surgery - and helped you to see how you can stretch your stamps and create with limited supplies! I'd love to hear what you think about this! Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Letterpress 110lb Cardstock	Christmas Journaling Stamp Set (Neat & Tangled)	Bible Journaling Stamp Set (Neat & Tangled)	VersaFine Ink Pad, Onyx Black	Heidi Swapp Color Shine Mist - Gold Lame (EH)
Distress Mica Sprays	Ranger Multi Medium Matte Mini - 1/2oz

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Easy-Mail One Layer Scenes

Hey there crafters, Happy Thursday! It's Nina-Marie here with you today to share a set of one layer scene cards featuring some of my favorite Neat & Tangled stamp sets!

I love creating sets of cards as I am working, as it allows me to have more cards on hand when I need them. A card design like this was super easy to make multiples of, especially when you do each step all at once on every card.

I started off my card by stamping all the elements first; the speech bubble (from A Lot to Say),  the sentiment "live for today" (from Bible Journaling and Christmas Journaling), and also the bird (from Itty Bitty Welcoming Committee). 

After stamping, I masked off the speech bubble and added ink around the outer edges using Simon Says Stamp's Maliblue ink. I also masked off an area to be the ground under the bird using a piece of paper die cut from a hill border die (the ink I used was Lime Green from Hero Arts). 

I then added color using my Copics; I colored the bird yellow, added grass blades on the ground using green markers, and created an ombre fill inside each of the letters on my sentiment. I love how the ombre gives the sentiment a lot more interest and helps it stand out off the card. 

For a final finishing touch, I used Morning Dew Crystal Drops and White Blizzard Glitter Drops from Nuvo to create some pretty texture to the sky, and I also used a white gel pen to add in a few smaller dots. They remind me of little raindrops in some ways, and gives the card a more whimsical feel. 

I hope you've enjoyed today's card project! Be sure to check back next week for the beginning of our July Release Week... the fun starts on Monday! 

Thanks for stopping by and spending some time with me; I'll see you again very soon!

xoxo, Nina-Marie 

SUPPLIES

Lawn Fawn STITCHED HILLSIDE BORDERS Lawn Cuts Dies	Neat and Tangled BIBLE JOURNALING COMPANIONS Clear Stamp Set	Neat and Tangled CHRISTMAS JOURNALING Clear Stamp Set	Neat and Tangled ITTY BITTY WELCOMING COMMITTEE Clear Stamp Set	Simon Says Stamp Premium Dye Ink Pad TWIRLING TUTU ink057 Splash of Color	Simon Says Stamp Premium Ink Pad INTENSE BLACK
Simon Says Stamp Premium Dye Ink TEENY BIKINI ink053 Splash of Color	Simon Says Stamp Premium Dye Ink MALIBLUE Ink030	Hero Arts Shadow Ink Pad LIME GREEN Mid-Tone AF262	Ranger MINI ROUND INK BLENDING TOOLS IBT40965	Tonic WHITE BLIZZARD Nuvo Glitter Drops 758N	Tonic MORNING DEW Nuvo Crystal Drops 677N
Copic Sketch Marker Y0000 YELLOW FLUORITE	*Copic Sketch Marker Y02 CANARY YELLOW Sunshine Cheery Bright	Copic Sketch Marker G07 NILE GREEN	*Copic Sketch Marker YG25 CELADON GREEN Medium Bold	*Copic Sketch Marker YG06 YELLOWISH GREEN Light Bold	*Copic Sketch Marker YG23 NEW LEAF Green Light Subtle
*Copic Sketch Marker YG21 ANISE Yellow Green Light Bright	*Copic Sketch Marker YR23 YELLOW OCHRE Bright Bold	Copic Sketch Marker R21 SARDONYX Medium Pink	Copic Sketch Marker RV23 PURE PINK

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More November Release goodness!

Hi everyone!

Mayuri here to share my projects for the November release - I didn't get to take part with the DT because I was off filming a class for Craftsy! But, I had to play with the new stamps and dies, and show you what I came up with ;-)

First up, its Bright Baubles:

This card uses one of my favourite techniques, where I take one image and stamp it repeatedly with Distress Inks. Here, I laid down an oval mask in the centre of a card base and used the christmas tree branches to stamp all the way around.

I then removed the mask and stamped the large sentiment from Happy Holidays with black dye ink in the centre. I paired it with one of the smaller sentiments from the same set and created a few Glossy Accent embellishments with the small bauble images from Bright Baubles. Next up, Christmas Journaling:

For this card, I stamped one of the sentiments from the set with black dye ink onto a piece of the Cosmo Cricket 'Just Add Watercolor' paper, which I'd already added some colour to. I filled the sentiment in and stamped a couple of the stars from Happy Holidays.

I also die cut some stars and hearts from the panel using the new Little Bits dies before foam mounting it to a card base. I had already sponged some Delicata Golden Glitz ink on the base so that it would show through the little die cut apertures! To finish, I die-cut a sentiment using the Happy Holidays die from some gold foil cardstock. Here's what I came up with for Happy Ornaments: 

This card was really fun, quick and easy to create - I began by white heat embossing the decorative bauble from the set onto a piece of cardstock, and simply smooshing an acrylic block on top! First, you cover the acrylic block with a few dots of ink (reinkers or Dylusions Ink Sprays work really well), and mist with water. Then, you quickly stamp with the acrylic block on top of the embossed area - when you remove the block, the ink starts to move around and blend together!

To finish, I added a sentiment from Happy Holiday and a few sequins! Here's my card showcasing Little Angel:

I used the Classic Tag 1 die to create a tag out of a Distress Inked panel from my stash, and then stamped the Sunburst image with Versamark ink. I lightly brushed the stamped areas with gold Perfect Pearls for some sparkle! I used the Seeing Stars die to add a layer of die-cut stars beneath the tag and adhered both to the card front. 

I stamped a sentiment beneath the tag from Little Angel and then stamped the angel image onto watercolour paper. I coloured her in with Distress Inks before die-cutting her out with the matching die and foam mounting her to the tag to finish. Here's my last card, using Merry Little Christmas:

A simple bit of 'messy' watercolouring can make any stamp set go so far, and that's what I did here. I began by stamping a sentiment and the presents from both Merry Little Christmas and Santa's Ride with Archival Jet Black ink, and then adding some loose ink splats with Distress Inks. For some interest, I also went in with a white gel pen to add a bit of detail.

That's everything for now! I really hope you enjoyed my take on the November Release!

Thanks for stopping by ;-)

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