During my craft room reorganisation one of the things I love is rediscovering old projects. That’s especially true when it reminds me of a technique or design that I haven’t used in ages. Today’s card came about as a result of one of those discoveries, and it’s all about the block stamping technique.

SIMPLE BLOCK STAMPING

I began my project with a 2-1/2″ x 3-1/2″ piece of Shimmery White Card that I found among my scraps. Shimmery White Card takes water nicely so is a good choice for this technique.

Next I took a D size acrylic block and two Stampin’ Write Markers from the Subtles collection. Using the brush tips of the makers I scribbled Pear Pizzazz ink over the bottom 1/3 of the block. Then over the top 2/3 of the block I scribbled on Balmy Blue ink.

TIP – It can be hard to see the scribbled ink, so I put the block on a piece of white card to make it easier.

Once I’d completed the scribbling stage I spritzed the surface of the block with clean water using a Stampin’ Spritzer. Then I turned the block over and pressed it onto the Shimmery White Card. I thought that the colour was a little blotchy so just I spritzed the block again and pressed in down a second time. The card curled up a little so I used a piece of kitchen paper to dab the edges where the ink began to pool. Then I set the piece aside to dry thoroughly.

Meanwhile I could get on with preparing my card base from Thick Very Vanilla Card.

Using my Paper Trimmer I cut and scored the card, folded it along the scored line and sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder. To add some subtle interest I then placed the front of the card into the Brick & Mortar 3D Embossing Folder. Then I ran it through the Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine and set it aside.

BAMBOO BEAUTY

Now I was ready to begin stamping using the two leafy images from the Bamboo Beauty Stamp Set.

First, using Old Olive ink I stamped the two images in the bottom right-hand corner of a 4 x 5-1/4″ piece of Very Vanilla Card. By stamping them at an angle so that the bottom of the stems crossed, the two images now looked like one. Then I fixed the layer inside the card base with Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow).

Once the block stamped panel was dry I then stamped “Sending caring thoughts” on the right-hand side. With that in place I could now see where to fit the two leafy images and stamped them as before. Then, with the stamping done, I mounted the panel onto a 2-5/8″ x 3-5/8″ piece of Old Olive Card using liquid glue.

I was almost done but wanted just a little more texture. So I wrapped some Linen Thread around the layers and tied it in a simple knot on the front.

Finally I used Stampin’ Dimensionals to attach the assembled layer to the embossed card front and my project was complete.

Block stamping is so easy to do I have no idea why I don’t do it more often. I think I might try it again with much richer colours and see what I can make with that. Is it too early to think about autumn?

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