Hi there Crew!! Happy Tuesday to you! I finally got some time in the studio to just play so I've got some fun stuff to share with you today. First off, I have to tell you a funny story....
Sometimes my husband does the thing that almost all men do when they get a tv remote in their hands. He flips the channel. And he flips the channel. Flips again. More flipping. Drives me batty! Hahaha! BUT, the other day he flipped over to one of those poker tournaments on ESPN and I happened to look up just in time to see this little graphic pop up in the lower right hand corner of the screen. It was a little deck of cards and as the players did something with their cards, laid 'em down, flopped 'em, called, checked or SOMEthing, the player would make some sort of move and the little deck of cards on the screen would flip over to reveal what card he'd drawn or whatever. (Can you tell I know absolutely nothing about the game of poker?? Haha!) So anyway, I promise I have a point.... :) The tiny little deck of cards on the screen had the CUTEST diamond pattern on them and I said to Bart, "OH! That's pure poppy and berry sorbet!!....and wouldn't that be SO cute stamped with Damask Designs???" (Yes, Bart knows that those are the names of PTI's colors!) Soooo, the point to this story is that there really is inspiration all around us. You just have to keep your eyes open for it!
SO....as soon as I got in the studio next, I created a strip of this patterned paper modeled after the poker cards! LOL!! BUT, I nearly swooned when I started stamping this! It turned out SOOOO COOL looking!! And you can totally do this yourself!!
I thought I'd show you how to recreate this pattern with Damask Designs, because some of you have said you have a hard time creating a pattern like this on your own. It's really easy once you get the hang of it and you can be a background pattern stamping machine!
Before we get into the details of stamping this pattern, let me just interject a tip for you. I keep my card stock stored in magazine organizers on my desk, with the paper standing up on it's side. You can see that in THIS PHOTO. Most of the cards I make, are generally the standard A2 sized card - 4 1/4" x 5 1/2". So that means that when I want to create a card, I take a sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" card stock and cut it in half either long ways or across, giving me two pieces of card stock for two card bases. I'm sure this is probably what most of you do as well. If I'm only going to use one of those halves for a card, I go ahead and slide the other half right back in with the rest of my card stock in that same color. This way, it's easy to grab one when I need another card base in that same color, so I'm not cutting up card stock unnecessarily.
So, for this patterned paper, I grabbed one of those halves of an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of berry sorbet card stock. This one measures 4 1/4" x 11". I always start with the image in the center first so that my pattern will be centered on the paper, and I also start on the very bottom edge of the card stock, so it's easy to build my pattern sort of like laying bricks. That bottom edge gives me a straight edge to follow.
Next, I stamp evenly along that bottom edge, on either side of the first stamp.
Now, I tuck the next image down in between the two images on the left.
Now, repeat on the other side.
You'll repeat this all the way to the top of whatever paper you're trying to fill.
Now, see that little gap over on the left? You'll end up with that 'hole' along the edges. Hole = bad. Filling hole = good. :)
So you just ink up the side of the stamp and stamp in that space. If you're not sure how to line it up, look at the little leaf on the side of the image, and line that up with the leaf that's already there. That way you'll be sure and keep your lines straight.
And this fabulous piece of patterned paper will be what you'll end up with. Um, YUMMO!!
So, after I had stamped this dreamy strip of patterned paper, I wanted to make enough to wallpaper one of our guest rooms with it, :) but instead, I decided to use it to make a set of 4 cards. I wanted to use up every last inch of this paper, so I did just that! Mustn't let this yummy stuff go to waste!
As you'll see, there are a few things I repeated on each of these cards to keep them all coordinated, yet totally different. You'll notice, besides the yummy damask, I've used flourishes, scallops, rounded corners, buttons, ribbon, text backgrounds and of course dots.
This one contains a sentiment I contributed to the Handwritten Notes stamp set. Smooches!
I'm in love, love, love with the new Fancy Flourishes stamp set and I'm loving mixing the new Background Basics: Text Style in here and there. So versatile!! And of course, you know me and Polka Dot Basics.....that's a love affair that's not ending anytime soon!!
I told you I wasn't letting ANY of this paper go to waste! I had these two little strips left over and used them with some foam adhesive on this card! I loooove how they look on here!
Here's another tip for you when it comes to stamping and color: If you stamp a colored ink on a different colored piece of paper, the ink color will become sort of distorted from the color it was intended to be. For instance, if you stamp berry sorbet on white card stock, you get the true berry sorbet color. Right? But if you stamp berry sorbet on lemon tart card stock, the berry sorbet ink changes to look more orange because you've stamped it on yellow. This is important to know and be aware of because if your ink now looks more orange, but you're using other items to coordinate with the berry sorbet color, they may start to clash. OR, that new orangy color may totally be what you're going for and that's just fine too, but you want to be aware of that for purposes of getting everything color coordinated.
The reason this patterned paper turned out so well stamping one color of ink on another color of card stock is because they're monochromatic colors. They're in the same color family and I've stamped the darker color on the lighter color which just intensifies the ink color and makes it WORK! Now, keep in mind that I have absolutely no formal training in design.....but I'm hoping that if I share with you things that work for me and things that I keep in mind when designing, hopefully it'll help you as you're designing too. Color coordination is what I LOVE, so these are things I think about when I really want my colors to shine. :) Let me know if you find these tips helpful or if you'd just like me to shut up and show you the pictures! Hee.
Back tomorrow with my 'Kristina Card' for her color challenge this week!
Smooches!
{Damask Designs Cards supplies}
Paper: kraft, stamper's select white, pure poppy, berry sorbet
Stamps: Damask Designs, Fancy Flourishes, Polka Dot Basics, Background Basics: Text Style, Mega Mixed Messages, Handwritten Notes, Everyday Classics (2008 free anniversary set)
Ink: pure poppy, fresh snow, dark chocolate, SU! sahara sand
Other: pure poppy classic grosgrain ribbon, saddle stitch ribbon, topnotch twill; corner rounder punch, SU! scallop edge punch, SU! Bigz Butterflies die, MS butterfly punch, dark chocolate vintage buttons, hemp twine
