The Bright Side of Life: Take One Stamp

Last week I went to a local craft group and took along some stamped images to colour, one of the ladies noticed a collage image that I had stamped and remarked how lovely it was, but she would never buy a stamp like that as it was too limiting. This got me thinking and so I decided to use the stamp that she had admired and use it to create three very different cards.
The stamp in question was Penny Black's Collage Stamp, Singer's Muse 4309L

Rather than use it as one stamp I took elements to create the following cards

As you can see in this design I took the flower coloured it with Fuchsia and Sun Yellow Inktense Pencils and cut out, the flower was then shaped using an embossing tool and micro beads glued into the centre.

This was mounted onto a Spellbinders D-Lite die Ornamental Tag One S2-031 and the sentiment stamped from the Penny Black transparent set Wishes...30-103 using Versafine Onyx Black Ink. Foam pads were used to attach to the main card.

Two circles were then cut out using Spellbinders Standard Circles LG S4-114 using Madison 80-001 and Papermania patterned paper, I then cut one circle in half using Spellbinders A2 Curved Borders One S5-180 and mounted onto the other patterned paper. Using the same die and some white card I cut a border to hide the join between the two patterned papers. This was then mounted onto a green card base cut using Spellbinders Classic Scallop Circles LG S4-124.

For my second card I fussy cut around the flowers. Here it is with the matching envelope - the card blank and envelope is from the Penny Black Les Petites Berrylicious Range 90-004.

The flowers were coloured using Faber Castell Big Brush Markers May Green and Light Cobalt Turquoise, and Pitt Artist Pen Chromium Green. they were then cut to leave a thin white border, shaped with and embossing tool and set aside ready to glue onto the card with dimensional glue.

The card blank was embossed around the edge with Spellbinders A2 Matting Basics A S5-131 and the Jar from the Penny Black Transparent Set A Bunch 30-174 stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink. (I drew in the stems to add to the transparency of the design.

To get the watery effect in the vase I used the blue big brush pen and put some ink on an acrylic block, a water brush was then used to pick up the ink to paint onto the vase. The sentiment From Penny Black' Transparent set Tweet Tweet 30-156 was then stamped in the corner using Versafine Onyx Black ink.

As an added touch I stamped the whole of the Singer's Muse 4309L onto the envelope using Memento Summer Sky ink. Here is a closer look at the card

For my final card, I coloured and cut out the bird using Faber Castell Design Memory Craft Pitt Pastel Pencils in Green 168, Orange 113 & 109 and Blue/Green 153.

The bird was mounted onto Kraft card that had several strips of Washi tape added down one side. The sentiment was then stamped from Penny Black's Transparent sets Free Flight 30-117 and Round and Round 30-112 using Versafine Deep Lagoon Ink and cut out using Spellbinders Labels Eighteen S4-310, the edges were chalked before releasing from the die to give the light blue border and Ocean Blue liquid pearls were added as a finishing touch.

Don't forget to check out the Penny Black blog for our latest competition details can be found here.