Kickin' It Up A Notch!

Hi Stampers! Would you like to kick your stampin' up a notch? It is easy to do if you take it one step at a time.

Start by designing a basic card layout like the one at the right. I designed this pretty but simple Thank You using a Spring-like color scheme of Certainly Celery, Taken with Teal and Tempting Turquoise. The card base is Certainly Celery and it is layered with a Taken With Teal and a Certainly Celery mat. I stamped "Thank You" from the Wonderful Word stamp set in Tempting Turquoise directly on the Certainly Celery mat and tied off a length of 5/8 inch Certainly Celery Grosgrain ribbon around that.

I then stamped the flower blossom from Fabulous Flowers in Tempting Turquoise on Whisper White card stock and trimmed it out leaving a bit of Whisper White shadow at the flower edge. I adhered the flower directly to the card base for an additional layer.

The next sample shows background stamping added to the basic card design above. You can achieve this look by stamping the coordinating flowers from the Fabulous Flowers set with Certainly Celery directly to the card stock mat and in a random pattern. The addition of background stamping gives the card an entirely new feel and it is a very easy technique to add to your stampin' repertoire if you are a new stamper.

Many of Stampin' Up's sets include several stamps that coordinate nicely together and nicely with other SU sets. This is one of the many advantages over purchasing one stamp at a time from your local craft store where you often find one stamp you really like only to take it home and see that it doesn't coordinate with any of your other stamps. Loose stamps generally cost the same as an entire set of Stampin' Up stamps too which is a bonus.

To really give your stampin' a Wow! effect, add dimension and embellishments as in the final sample here. This is a little more time-consuming, but you will be pleased with the results. For this card, I actually stamped the flower three times: twice in Tempting Turquoise and once in Taken with Teal. I cut out one entire flower in Tempting Turquoise, one of the inside layers of petals from the Taken with Teal, and then inner most layer of petals from the second flower stamped in Tempting Turquoise. I also stamped one of the coordinating flowers in Certainly Celery on Whisper White card stock and cut that out. I layered the three smaller pieces and connected them with a Square Ice brad and popped these up on the base flower using Stampin' Dimensionals. This last photo is an attempt at a side view
of the result so you can see the embellishment popped on the flower.

So, give this a try and see how you can easily kick your card designs up a notch by adding a bit more stamping, a couple of more layers and maybe some bling or hardware.

Have a great week! EdieB