Scottish Thistle Card ... and a new technique to try today

Hello Everyone,

I like trying out new techniques ... some work out well, others might be a complete disaster and some are, like this one, distinctly odd  - whatever, I'll put just about anything to the test. Today I've been trying out something I spotted Ali Reeves of Stamps Away demonstrating on a recent television appearance.

I said it was an odd one! It's a homemade stamp block created with garden twine and an off-cut of wood released from captivity ... well, the EM's garden shed :) Ali thought of doing this when she wanted a background stamp that gives only the appearance of script, without actually being legible and, therefore, distracting. One side is kept specifically for a clear watermark type of pad, e.g. VersaMark, and the other for coloured ink which is what I have used for my trial. Here's the result:

You can see the effect of the stamp block in the background. For the topper, I first inked up the stem, sepals, etc., with distress markers, Aged Mahogany and Peeled Paint and the flower head with a combination of Milled Lavender and Shaded Lilac before stamping. That done, it was masked off before stamping the background with the twine block inked up with Shabby Shutters. Finally, the topper was cut using a small X-cut oval die and matted on to an oval, the next size up, cut from black cardstock.

And this is the finished card.

Normally, I'd give a list of materials used but apart from the white card base and the patterned background, recycled packaging, all the supplies came out of the snippets box. Because I'm saving my pocket-money to spend on holiday ... we're booked to go to the Highlands in just a few weeks time ... I've re-doubled my efforts to clear out the snippets and use what supplies are already stashed away in the craft space.

In the spirit of waste nothing, spend nothing, the inside and back have been decorated with the off-cuts from the recycled packaging.

And, of course, having used up quite a few snippets, I'll be hopping over to Pixie's Crafty Snippets Playground, again ... can't keep away from the place :))

So there you are, the something new I tried today ... fun to make, simple, and compared to the cost of most background stamps, very inexpensive.

Will you be trying this too? Let me know if you do ... I'd love to see anything you make using garden twine and a block of wood :))

Happy crafting,