This morning I had absolutely no idea what to make for my blog project so you have my daughter to thank for this. She suggested a few things including a card with a supportive message. So from a pile of older but still available stamp sets I pulled out Let It Ride. Then seeing my ‘failed’ block stamped background from the other day I set to work.

BLOCK STAMP FAIL AND SUCCESS

As I said, the background for today’s card was actually a ‘failed’ attempt at block stamping from a few days ago. I took an E size acrylic block and pressed it onto a Balmy Blue ink pad then turned it around and pressed it onto a Pear Pizzazz ink pad. After spritzing the ink with clean water I pressed the block onto some Whisper White Card. Sadly the result was very blotchy and so I tried again and used the second version for my card that day. You can see that project in my blog post Playing with a block stamped background.

Looking back at the rejected piece today I was feeling more optimistic. The idea I had could work with the blotchy background so I decided to give it a try.

Using Early Espresso ink I stamped the galloping horse image onto the background. Then I reinked the image and stamped it onto some Crumb Cake Card. Then using Paper Snips I cut out the Crumb Cake Horse.

TIP – To save time and effort I only cut out the main part of the horse, cutting off the mane and tail completely. Then using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) I fixed the horse over the image stamped on the background. Magically the horse had his main and tail restored, and my sanity remained intact.

SIMPLE FINISH

Now the main part of the design was complete I set to work on the rest of the layers.

My original block stamping ended up crooked on the Whisper White Layer, and I decided to leave it that way. I simply trimmed the piece down a little before mounting onto Crumb Cake Card with liquid glue.

Next I used my Paper Trimmer to cut and score some Thick Whisper White Card. I folded it along the scored line and sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder to create the card base. Then using more liquid glue I added the layered background onto the front.

Going back to the Let It Ride Stamp Set I asked my daughter which sentiment she preferred. She chose “Live as if someone left the gate open”. Using Early Espresso ink I stamped the sentiment onto a strip of Whisper White Card. Then I mounted it onto Crumb Cake Card before adding it to the card front with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

To complete the project I went back to the horse image and Early Espresso ink pad. I first stamped the horse coming in from the left edge of a layer of Whisper White Card. Then I glued the layer inside the card base. Then once I stamped the horse in the bottom left corner on the front of a Whisper White Medium Envelope, I was done.

So what do you think? With the solid horse image glued over the top that background doesn’t seem so bad after all.

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