Black and White and Then Some

I got my CardMaker magazine for July 2010 the other day and was inspired to get my silhouette stamps out and make a card using my interpretation of a different technique (pg 14).

I used a Penny Black stamp called "nature's dance" and black ink and stamped several times on scrap cardstock.  I took my 1 1/4" square stamp by Paper Studio and punched out six squares.  I made sure that one of them included the blackbird image.  Next I cut six  1 1/2" squares from black cardstock and attached the stamped square to the black square with a foam square for dimension.  Lastly, I attached all the squares to the front of a white carstock base card.

Window View

This was a fun card to make.  The butterfly on the circles is actually on the inside on the yellow spotted paper.  The scroll shape is a cut out window.  I used an emery board to "sand" the edges of the scroll window.  The other butterfly was cut out of the same yellow paper and attached to the front of the card.

For the final touches I added a ribbon and two green stripes.  The words were printed out on the same yellow paper and glued to the front.  I used three different scallops that I punched out and the butterfly was made from an Anna Griffin punch.

What a Pane :-)

I was looking for a new way to use a favorite stamp of mine..."Correspondence/Quill Collage from Hampton Art Stamps.  I stamped the image on white paper with brown ink and then used my watercolor pencils to block in different colored sections.  Then I took a cotton swab, wet it and rubbed the image to blend the colors together.

I cut the image apart into nine equal parts, spread them out on the blue cardstock and carefully glued them down so they would look like window panes.  Then I backed this with the tan and glued to the card base.  I added a strip of tan and a piece of the blue to the bottom and glued and used a decorative brad to attach.  Then I took two words from the inside sentiment, stamped, backed and attached to the tan strip.

I carried part of the front pattern (simplified) to the inside.  The middle column was stamped with the complete sentiment and viola' I was finished.

This technique is very similar to the "Serendipity" technique which can also be thought of as a collage or mosaic.  In my card the grid pieces are the same size and are in the same direction.  However if you change the size and/or direction you will get a totally different design.

Here are further sources of information...

   Serendipity Technique  

   The Stamper's Mall 

   Art Without Anxiety