Welcome to my blog, whether this is your first visit or one of many. I've taken much of the last week off from stamping and blogging but I'm back today with a post about the Stamparatus, the Floating and Fluttering Bundle along with links for a blog hop so you can really get your fill of Stamparatus ideas.
While this set was designed to arrange the butterflies after they've been die cut, the stamps also make wonderful backgrounds, especially when you add the Stamparatus. I've had fun experimenting with different ways to work with these two. While I meant to do a video, I've had trouble getting the lighting right while we are staying up near Lake Superior so I hope the extra pictures will help.
- This card takes advantage of the wreath technique. This technique makes use of a template that has two perpendicular squares cut into it. I used a square from the Stitched Shapes to cut this pattern:
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- If you want to make sure that you make the die cuts evenly, score two perpendicular lines to mark the center of your template. You can use these to line up your dies.
- I then used a Seaside Spray square cut with the same die as the base for my wreath and the small leaflet stamp to make my wreath.
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- Rotate your square base, stamping an image in each spot until you have eight images forming a circle. I moved my leaflet to a second spot on my Stamparatus plate and repeated the process to get to total of 16 leaflets in my wreath.
- I added a butterfly and greeting from Itty Bitty Greetings to finish off my wreath element. That tiny greeting works perfectly as a little tab much as you might find on a pocket. Itty Bitty Greetings will retire at the end of this month.
- I used a background piece I had stamped earlier, softening it with vellum on top of my white card base. I think I did it with the Stamparatus - but didn't write down how I did it. Arghhh!!! I did keep track of how I did this next card:
- I wanted to see if I could make a template that allows you to stamp on a rectangular piece.
- I started with a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" (A2 Cardfront) as my pattern and also cut a 7 3/8" x 7 3/8" piece which is as large a square as you can use in your Stamparatus:
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- It might help to score/mark the center with a diagonal (optional).
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- Then you will want to lay your A2 pattern on top so that it looks like all of your A2 corners are about equidistant from the edges of the template square. Trace and then do a quarter turn, line it up again and trace again.
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- I used my trimmer to cut a little "x" into the middle for a place to get my scissors started. I think it is faster to trim this out with my scissors but you could choose to do so with the trimmer itself.
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- Here it is all cut out. It is the same piece - I'm taking these pictures up near the lake. I either have too much light or not enough so it's hard to keep them consistent.
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- Here is how it looks in the Stamparatus.
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- You will want to practice a bit on some scratch paper to make sure you get your multiple butterfly image just where you want it.
- Then you rotate it through a quarter turn between each image stamped. You will get a few blank spots with this particular image. Use the tiny leaflet to fill them in or incorporate the blank spots into your other images.
- This template can be used with any other stamps. Just have fun playing!
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- This was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored in with Granny Apple Green Blends. I trimmed it down to allow a black and white border.
Now it's time to check out some other ideas! You are at Chris Smith's blog. The next stop on the hop will be Vicki Kello.
I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.
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