Christmas in July - Winter Scene

I made this card to try out a new Spellbinders die set I bought to frame scenes, Regal Frame.  I started with a piece of glossy paper.  I die cut the frame and left the die in place to keep the edges ink free.  I then used a ripped piece of paper to help me ink a hill.  I stamped the cabin, snowman, trees and sleigh and then used different shades of blue ink to the page.

I die cut a darker blue frame for layering and added some light blue snowflakes.  Once the card was layered on the white card base, I dded some white gel pen snowflakes.

Japanese Dividing Screen Card

This is a card I made for a former student in Japan.  The card had to be fairly small in order to fit in the package I'd put together, which is why I made it into a dividing screen card.  I stamped the images on glossy cardstock (Stampscapes and a Torii stamp I carved myself), then used two shades of red, brown and black ink to shade in the image.  I left the path to the mountains lighter than the surroundings to draw the eye.

I cut a piece of black cardstock and scored it twice.  I carefully trimmed around the legs on the bottom.

When the glossy panel was dry I cut it into strips and used adhesive to attach the strips to the card base.

Winter Stampscape Scene Card

Today's card is similar to yesterday's in that I stamped Stampscapes onto glossy cardstock.  I used a piece of scrap paper to mask off the hill so I could ink in some light blue to make a snow bank.  I didn't think to add the snowman right away or I would have done that first and masked it.  Ah well.  I added a bit of liquid applique, let it dry and then used my heat gun on it to make puffy snow.  I also inked in some snowy clouds in the sky.

Once again I scored the cardstock base above and below the panel.  I lightly inked my die cut tag and then stamped the sentiment.

I wanted an accent and so made a metal wire tree, which I attached using hot glue.

Santa Flying Over the Mountains Card

I started this card by stamping the mountains and trees using Stampscapes stamps on glossy paper.  The santa stamp went next.  It's a wooden stamp with one reindeer, so I carefully lined up my stamp and only inked the deer to get the extras.  I inked the card using a mixture of greens and black blended in at the edges.

I originally had it mounted on a plain dark yellow base, but I didn't like the yellow, so I blended some gold and dark yellow gelatos into the paper.  I scored it above and below the green panel and die cut a label and stamped my sentiment on it.

Space Scene Card

Since I posted a space card yesterday I figured I'd post another one today.  I made this card for a science fiction fan I know using Stampscape stamps and techniques.

I used a piece of glossy cardstock to stamp on, so I could blend the different inks.  I started off by stamping the astronaut, then I masked an area off to be the planet and stamped the satellite (so part of it would be behind the planet, making it look further away.

I stamped the astronaut and satellite again on scrap paper, which I fussy cut out and sprayed with repositional adhesive so I could use them as masks.

With the figures masked, I masked off the sky and started inking the planet using different shades of red and black.  I used a marker for the black spot.  I then masked the planet and sun and inked in my background space in shades of blue with black at the edges.

After removing the masks, I inked the sun and gave it an aura of yellow glitter glue and added some grey marker to the satellite and astronaut.  I then stamped in some meteorites to show that space isn't empty.

I mounted the card on black cardstock and added 2 mini spaceships die cut out of metallic cardstock.

Green Mountain Waterfall Card

This is another stampscape card I made.  I stamped the images in black ink on glossy paper and then used a mix of yellow, green, brown, grey and black ink to colour the paper.  I mounted the image on grey cardstock with a medium green card base.  As an accent, I added two Lawn Fawn maple leaf sequins in the bottom left corner.  They overlap a bit more than I wanted but I used a glue gun to make sure they stuck on properly and couldn't adjust them afterwards.

Stampscapes

I recently bought a bunch of Stampscape stamps.  It's a company and technique using silhouette stamps with inked backgrounds.  As they're mostly all nature stamps, I figured they'd make amazing masculine cards.  I also went through the stamp sets I already own to find other silhouette images I could use (mostly for foreground elements).

Here are a few of my starter images.  The point is to do rough stamping, rather than carefully measured and arranged works.  The images are stamped on glossy paper (I got mine from Local King Rubber Stamps at a craft show a few years back).  The stampscapes site recommends against using photo glossy paper.  I'm not sure what the difference is.

Here's a finished card, with foreground, focal images and background images.  I've inked it with several shades of blue, and black around the edges, and finished it off with some white gel marker highlights.  I mounted it on dark blue cardstock with a black cardstock mat.

Ink 'Painted' Christmas Card

I discovered this site for stampscapes a while back.  While I love their stuff, their shipping charges are too much for me, so before taking the plunge and buying a bunch of stamps (to justify the shipping fee) I tried their paper saturation / 'painting' techniques to make a card and then use stamps I already own.

I used make up sponges to apply the many layers of ink on glossy paper, then stamped over it all with the closest silhouette stamps I had.  It didn't quite work (and I tried using a marker to increase the silhouettes, which was a mistake - the lines show up darker than the stamp ink, so it looks strange) but I can see myself trying this again when I have more time.  I haven't mounted it on cardstock yet, but I except I'll do so on black or dark blue.