When I saw this card was going to a man who had served in the Army, to celebrate his Hero Flight, I immediately thought of the "Americana Blueprint" stamp set. I haven't used it often, but ultimately the star stamp felt like the best choice, since the star is in the U.S. Army logo. I stamped it first onto a red-&-white striped paper. The stripes kind of competed with the star, though. So I decided to whitewash the patterned paper with a thin layer of acrylic paint. The Snow Cap dauber turned out to be the perfect tool for this! I coated it once, then dried it & gave it a second coat. Of course, the paint also lightened the stamped lines, so I tried stamping the star again over the paint. Thank heavens I was using my MISTI for all this! I had to dry the ink with my heat tool, as it didn't seem to want to air-dry, but it didn't rub off after that - yay! I stamped the image again on a grid/ledger paper from the same pad. I fussy cut the star from the striped paper, & glued it over the star on the ledger paper.
I assembled my card front as per the sketch. I had wanted to use a die cut "U," but the only such dies I have are either too large or too small for this design. So I used one of the stamps from "Big U Words." I stamped it in embossing ink, sprinkled gold powder on it, & melted the powder. Thankfully, it all worked the first time, with no gaps where the stamp went over the brown strip. I used Charcoal Brown to stamp the thank word as well, cut that into a label, & glued it over the U. Finally, I adhered my card front to a white card base.
Date: Friday, April 28, 2023 GMT Views: 174
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Registered: February 19, 2011 Location: Fullerton, CA Posts: 15259
Fri, Apr 28, 2023 @ 3:54 PM
I love these blueprint stamps and this star is perfect of this Tea Party. I'm impressed with all the painting and cutting and layering you did. And I'm especially impressed with the gold "U" over the various layers. Isn't it amazing how you have so many versions of stamps and dies, but you often just don't have the exact right one...LOL...your switch to the stamp was the ideal solution. Great card.
Registered: February 22, 2007 Location: L’etoile du Nord Posts: 6451
Mon, May 01, 2023 @ 5:21 PM
Great card! Love all the details!
------------------------------ -----Liz "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, ..." ~~1 Thess. 4:11 (NIV)
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Registered: July 27, 2007 Location: Dublin, Ireland Posts: 132005
Tue, May 02, 2023 @ 12:45 AM
Those blueprint stamps are always great. You did a good job toning down your DP with paint. I usually try to use Archival inks over paint to avoid risk of smudging, but it looks as if you solved that by heat setting it. Lovely card.