Sending Tons of Love

Today I am sharing a card and matching tag that are part of a set I was commissioned to design and make for issue 196 of Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine using the gorgeous Hero Arts Colour Layering Blue Whale stamp set. 

I created the inked background with Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans and Broken China distress inks, adding a few flicks of water to resemble bubbles.  The sentiment was heat embossed in white onto a piece of black card and added to the bottom right to provide balance with the black boat stamped in the top left corner.

The blue whale images were stamped using 3 different layering stamps in 3 different colours.  I began by stamping the main solid image in Sand Beige.  I then stamped the next image on top  of the first stamped image using Aegean Blue, and finally the detail image was stamped in black ink.  The beige and blue inks I used are pigment inks and so I made sure that each layer of stamping was completely dry and 'set' before applying the next (I used a heat tool to dry and set the ink).  If the pigment ink is not quite dry when you stamp a new layer on top of it, you may find that the stamp will lift some of the previous layer of ink, which will potentially leave you with a patchy mess!

The Hero Arts colour layering stamps come with a layered stamping guide in their packaging.  This includes suggested ink colours as well as a detailed guide of the order to stamp the layered images.  I definitely advise practicing layering the stamps on scrap paper to get a feel of where to position each layer before stamping your final image.  Additionally, a stamp positioning tool can be really helpful when stamping layered images as it allows you to position the stamps exactly where you want the image to be before inking and stamping.

Thanks for dropping by today!