Layered stamping: whether you have one ink color or three!
Hi friends!
It’s been almost a year and a half since COVID-19 has taken over our lives. I know it’s been such a hard time for everyone in different ways. I tried making cards every day for the first few months of the pandemic, which was great for my mental health. But the pandemic made my job more intense, more stressful and I ended up getting creative burnout and just not having time to do what I loved. It sucked. I’m guessing many of you felt the same!
We went through stressful job stuff, family illness, family death and everything in between. Luckily we had small moments of joy when we could. We also had a huge bright spot: my boyfriend proposed to me! I have always emotionally felt engaged to him but getting to plan out our wedding for 2022 has been such a joy. And it is exactly one year from today! We hope COVID-19 has died down, and it’s safe to travel by then! We can’t wait to see all our friends and family. Anyways, I have been following all the amazing artists and card makers all this time, and I’m feeling inspired to create again. Okay, my personal bit is over now haha. Now onto the cards!
I got this floral layering stamp set from Concord and 9th and I was immediately so exited. But I wanted to experiment with different types of ink for layering. I will have four cards that showcase the set with many different shades of ink and then just using one ink for each step.
I thought this first card was perfect describing my feeling about my engagement! My fiancé is definitely the best person ever (in my personal opinion). I have to say I am obsessed with this sentiment stamp set from Concord and 9th. Like - how can you go wrong with a classic bold font and fun, meaningful sentiments??
So this card is using 3 different inks, from light to dark. All the inks I am using today are from Altenew. I really wanted a card with a letterpress vintage look. Even though we don’t have the dimension of letterpress, I think we have such a classic gorgeous look. I loved it so much I created four cards with the same design.
Using my Misti, I stamped the flower first with the three layers, then stamped my leaves and the little vine at the same time.
I added the large sentiment first from the Big On You Stamp Set with altenew obsidian ink.
I then lined up my smaller sentiment right below. I lined up my words so they overlapped a little with the image which I think is really fun.
My next card is one of my favorites - and it only requires one color each for each part of the little bouquet we made. (Is it a bouquet? A little floral scene? Meh, you get it, right?).
So the same design process but for each additional layer, I stamped the base color (which was the lightest, Mountain Mist) one more time.
Meaning, first layer of the flower I stamped once. Second layer of the flower, I stamped twice. Third layer, I stamped three times. If you’d like a more dramatic effect, you can stamp even more times. But I love the subtle, elegant look of the one-ink look.
l repeated the same process for the leaves and the fine. And our bold sentiment really stands out even more!
Our third card uses the same technique but works if you have multiple shades but they’re not darker or lighter. You can use the same double/triple stamping technique with other inks even if you don’t have the light-medium-dark combo. This gives you a more varied look and brings more tones into your flower.
I adore this sentiment!
Our last card is the same as the first card - using three separate inks but with blue. You can see it’s much more vibrant than our one-ink blue flower. But our one-ink blue flower is much more pastel and delicate, and gives us a beautiful look. So you don’t have to worry about layered stamping if you don’t have a lot of inks!
Also I love these cards so much as is I didn’t add ANY embellishments. I’m so proud of myself haha. I literally only used stamps and ink for these cards.
Bonus photo of my cat Toast supervising my art process and judging the finished cards. :)
thank you so much for being here - it’s so great to be creating again! Tell me - which one is your favorite card? What’s your favorite process for stamp layering? Leave any questions or comments!
Supplies
(please note, none of these links are affiliate at this time! I was not given any of these products nor asked to make this post)
Concord and 9th Painted Peony Stamp