Tuesday 8 April 2014

Basic Card-io Stamping






Hello, it’s Kirsten with my regular Tuesday post – it’s also a Card-io promotion post, you’ll need to remember that.
 
Card-io stamps were completely new to me when Lisa pointed them out to me at the trade show in February & I have to admit, I struggled with them in the beginning. Not because there's anything wrong with them, it was simply that I didn't know where or how to start building an image. Poor Lisa was demoing at the NEC & she was getting frantic text messages from me, all along the lines of “I don’t know what on earth I’m doing!!” A few weeks down the line & I think I’ve improved somewhat. Today, I’m starting with the very first card I made, see if you can tell how panicked I was!
 
 
The first thing I did was check the colours of the Versacolor inks, using an image from the
 Greenery 1 collection. I really like these inks. The colours are gorgeous, the ink pads very juicy & because they’re pigment inks, they’re suitable for heat embossing.
 
 
A word of caution; because they’re so juicy & slow to dry, it is very easy to get ink where you don’t want it, namely on your project. I lost count of the number of pieces of card I ruined because I got ink on my fingers & transferred it to the card.
 
It’s also important to apply the ink to the stamp, with light tapping. The ink pad is raised quite high off the base & if you’re too forceful you’ll get ink on the acrylic block as well as the stamp.
 
 If you’re not using embossing powder, make sure you dry the image thoroughly with a heat tool, or leave it to one side to dry on its own.


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                              I used a Spellbinders die as a template & drew an oval shape on my card.


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I started stamping with various stamps from the Greenery I collection, using Versacolor Bamboo & Turquoise inks.
 
Note: these pictures are not the same as the finished card. I tried various stamps & colours, discarding most of them until I was happy & along the way I forgot to take photos.



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I switched to the large branch stamp & the solid flower from the Majestix Sweet Birdhouse clear stamp set.
 

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I added more stamping with Versacolor Atlantic ink & the tiny solid flower from Sweet Birdhouse.


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                            Using a craft knife, I cut out the oval & added more stamping.


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I filled in gaps & over stamped with both of the sketchy flower stamps from Sweet Birdhouse, using Versacolor Neptune ink & stamped the Penny Black sentiment through the oval onto another piece of card.
 

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Matting & layering onto black card & adding some black organza ribbon & tiny amounts of Stickles glitter glue to finish. Not brilliant, but not too awful either for a first attempt.
 

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Sweet Birdhouse      Greenery 1     Clear Acrylic Pegs     Versacolor Bamboo     Versacolor Atlantic

                                               Versacolor Neptune     Versacolor Turquoise


           Thanks for looking. Remember the GIVEAWAY – leave a comment! See you next time.
 
Kirsten

7 comments:

  1. Such a beautiful card. I love how you have built up the design and the colours are gorgeous. Thank you for your clear instructions and handy tips too.
    Sue xx

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  2. I think your card is lovely, thanks for sharing your first attempt, it's so delicate and pretty,xx

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  3. It ended up as a pretty card! Wasn't sure at first from the pic, whether it was an aperture or a raised sentiment. I think either would have looked good. Looking forward to seeing more! Thank you, Jan

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  4. Have seen the Card-io stamps before and I am not sure either about how I would use these. I will be watching the blog for tips, tricks and 1!inspiration

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  5. A beautiful card. Love how you have built up the image a little at a time. Will have to dig my Card-io stamps out and have a go.
    Mags
    x

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  6. It's a real beauty and I would never have thought to use the stamps that way - so thank you for sharing. The finished result is so pretty and I can't wait to see more Karen x

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