Grab your favorite inks and use the direct-to-stamp method to blend those reds and greens for the perfect Christmas card background.
Today our designer April is using the Direct-to-Stamp method for her festive Christmas Card. This is a technique for applying ink or other color directly onto a stamp surface before pressing it onto paper, which allows for blended, multi-colored effects. Follow along for steps to recreate this look.
- Ink the Christmas Background Mash-Up Stamp using a stamp positioner (will need to stamp multiple times) and Color Fuse #4 Crimson Ink. Use the direct to stamp method: tap ink cube on the top 2/3 of the image. Do this several times until your image is covered.
- Ink bottom part of image with Color Fuse #11 Grass Ink. Make sure to not cross over into the red too much as these two colors do make brown. Stamp multiple times until image is fully covered.
- Die cut panel using the largest die from the Nested Rectangle Scallop with Holes Die Set.
- Splatter both inked sections of this panel using the same ink colors you stamped with. Use a piece of scrap paper to cover section not being splattered to keep the two colors separate.
- Add a piece of red ribbon to cover where the two colors meet. Adhere to back of panel.
- Go direct to paper with the Color Fuse #11 Grass Ink to the edges of an A2 white panel of cardstock. This creates a coordinating background panel for the card.
- Stamp sentiment from Holly & Cheer Stamp Set using Color Fuse #12 Hearth Ink multiple times to get a nice dark grey for the sentiment color.
- Die cut sentiment using the smallest die from the Nested Rectangle Scallop with Holes Dies. Line up bottom of die with the sentiment and run through your die cut machine, then line up top with where you want it above your sentiment and the scallops with holes on the sides to create a custom sized sentiment strip. This really stretches the use of your die sets.
- Use Large Blending Brushes to add a small amount of Color Fuse #4 Crimson Ink to the top part of the sentiment strip and a small amount of Color Fuse #11 Grass to the bottom. Leave some blank area between the two so they do not mix colors.
- Pop up the stamped background panel on the custom green panel with foam tape, then pop up sentiment strip with foam tape over the ribbon.
- Adhere to heavy weight card base.
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