As I've been working with some of my new stamps over the past week or so I've had time to revisit a topic I've often referred to as "Stamp Ownership". We're all familiar with financial ownership of a stamp. It happens when we pay for and take physical possesion of a stamp. Creative ownership takes a little longer. It may involve a lot of playtime and trial and error. It means using the stamp or combination of stamps in many ways until you start to get a feel for the creative possibilities the image has. Creative ownership isn't an endpoint but rather an evolving process.
Sometimes I can start on the road to creative ownership on my own - just sitting down with rubber and ink and playing. Othertimes I might be feeling creatively challenged and I need to look, and maybe copy, the creative work of others. Once in a while going through the process of recreating someone else's work starts my own creative wheels spinning and soon I'm off in a new direction of my own. Whatever you do to get going the main thing is to get your stamps out and stamp with them! You'll never develop creative "ownership" if your stamps just sit in their box.
Fabulous Flowers, especially its large mum or dahlia like flower really demands this process from me. This was one of the first images in the new Stampin' Up catalog that I was drawn to. It's different from other flower images I've worked with, though I grow both dahlias and mums in my own garden. It's a very dimensional, textural flower in real life and bringing out that dimension with this image through various techniques should keep me busy for a while.
This first card, above, was done with several Earth Elements craft spots and a layer of Glassy Glaze embossing powder. The dahlia layer is Groovy Guava; the card base is River Rock, both of which are new In Colors this year. I sponged Chocolate Chip classic ink over the embossed image, feathering it out at the edges. The ribbon treatment is just me playing with the new Theatre Ribbon Originals collection. The chocolate is threaded through openings made with the slot punch. I used the two tone green satin, tied in the center to create a bow effect. I like how the shiny satin ribbons play off the embossing.
Here's another dahlia stamped with the same craft inkspots but not embossed. I tried the little chocolate image in the center, I think more to play and emphasize the darker middle. It certainly doesn't seen botanically correct to me. I also huffed on my stamp a got a few more lighter images on the background of my Barely Banana cardstock. The "Dare to be Fabulous" message is stamped in Timber Brown Stazon and colored with More Mustard and Really Rust markers. The Chocolate Chip border is done with the slit punch and tied off with some brown gingham ribbon I found at Micheals. IRL you can see that I used a scrap of chocolate Chip carstock that was already stamped with teh retired Cheesecloth background. The Ruby Red card is stamped with Linen. Wouldn't the Dare to be Fabulous message be a great send off to a young person heading out on their own this fall? Of course this mom would have a hard time not adding a "...and take good care of yourself" note on the inside.