Friday, July 19, 2013

Using Background Stamps: Part 4

One of my favorite uses of background stamps of any size is to create scraps for punches. Decorating a scrap of card stock with a pattern--particularly small patterns--makes it ideal for clean-and-simple punching!

Consider this card:



The script stamp is a small background stamp (discontinued) from Hero Arts, and the small size is perfect for punching small butterflies.

It may be hard to tell in the photo, but the sentiment and bling are brown. When gluing down the butterflies, I put dabs of glue only in the center, where the butterflies' bodies are. Then, I used a butter knife to bend the butterflies' wings up. It's simple, adds a touch of interesting dimension that will survive hand delivery, though perhaps not mail delivery.

To make this work, the pattern must be at a scale that works for the punch's size and shape. If the scale of the background is too big, the punched shape will look weird. For instance, yesterday's cloudy sky background wouldn't work at all for these little butterflies.

Also, it helps to punch holding the punch upside down so you can see exactly where in the pattern you're punching. I punched without looking the first time, and one of my little butterflies only had script over a quarter of one wing, which looked decidedly odd.

And that's all I've got for background stamps until I can get back to work in my craft room. While we've thoroughly enjoyed our week at the lake in Minnesota, I'm eager to get back to normal life (*snort* there's nothing normal about my life). Also, I've checked out the new Hero Arts holiday catalog online and ohmygoshi'minserioustrouble!!! Plus the latest Papertrey stuff is calling its siren song, too.

Oh, life is very good, don't you think?

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: Martha Stewart butterfly punches, rhinestones, glue pen

9 comments:

  1. I love this idea! Why did I not think of it before? It's perfect for me. I can't stand, so I often find I don't get enough pressure with a bg stamp to get a good, even image. If I punch out things like butterflies and such from the stamped image, it won't matter! I'll just only punch the parts where the image is good.

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  2. I'm proud to say that this is a concept I know and have used. I probably picked it up from you sometime earlier :)

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  3. This is a great "series" - I am definitely using one of these techniques TODAY :)

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  4. I wish I could agree with you that life is good... but I can't. But for distraction from all that, I did look at the new HA catalog yesterday as well as the new Stampendous catalog. I'd love to be able to get everything I want from both of them. Since HA seems to be going in a different direction these days, I didn't see as much from them that I "need" as I usually do, but Stampendous had several stamps that I would love to be able to get one of these days. This "CHA" time of year is just so difficult! Too many new goodies to wish for. LOL!

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  5. very pretty. Glad you enjoyed your trip!

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  6. I love this script and butterflies idea. Thanks so much for the background ideas series. BTW - it's much cooler today in MN. Glad you were here!

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  7. This is a great idea. It works for large, but not background stamps as well. I used the general idea on the 'Inspired By..' challenge over at ABNH. It gives larger stamps so many more uses. Your card is beautiful. Calm and soft. Quite lovely. Bev

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  8. I'm enjoying this series immensely. I've done this before, just not with butterflies since, as you know, I have a problem with them--ha! I like the effect, though, and can see myself CASE'g it with other punches. It's a great way to justify buying some stamps that one might think serve only one purpose.

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  9. I have just seen that it's great. Thank you.

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!