Hello, crafters! I am sharing my latest card that I created for a fellow crafter from Canada that I have been exchanging cards with for a year. Using friendship and snail mail themed stamp sets are perfect for handmade card exchanges. I would really love to have the Crafty Friends stamp set by Altenew with a variety of fun sentiments to add to my stamp collection, however I am working on craft space reorganization at the moment so I will have to wait on that one.
I recently discovered Flora and Fauna Clear Stamps and fell in love with their product: the images are so whimsical, and the stamp sets offer multiple stamps for scene building and envelope stamping. I am using Snail Mail stamp set today to create my card and a stamped envelope.
My crafty goal this year is to work on scene building, so I started working on this technique with my project. I had a piece of cardstock out on my table and kept arranging the images until I came up with a scene: a snail carries an envelope to a mushroom mail box. I added branches to frame the scene and another mushroom aside the mushroom mail box.
I decided to use my favorite distress inks to quickly create a background instead of die cutting layers. Then I stamped the images over the background with Color Box pigment inks. To make my scene multi dimensional, I stamped a tiny envelope and fussy cut it, and added a heart sticker. The sentiment was stamped and die cut with the smallest of my new unbranded stamp frame dies, then I popped both die cuts up with the craft foam.
I used the stamp frame die to cut a background and added a layer of the craft foam, then adhered it to the A2 card. I added Glossy Accents to snail eyes and spots on mushrooms. To finish off the project, I stamped the envelope with a leaf, another snail stamp, and a mushroom cluster available in the set.
I have recently added craft cardstock to my paper collection; Neenah Desert Storm 100 LB paper is so beautiful and sturdy enough for card bases. The white card stock I used for the card topper is Stamp’ Up shimmery white card stock I had left over. The edges of sentiment and card topper have been distressed with ink using a sponge to add dimension.
I really enjoyed making this card, I hope I inspired you to create a card for a friend or a loved one using distress inks and stamps that you have in your crafty stash. I will continue to work on scene building during New Crafty Year 2018. Create a project today and share it with someone special in your life.
Sunshine and Cards by Lana 