Nostalgia

Christmas is the time to be nostalgic. Just as we love our Christmas traditions and favourite decorations that have evolved over the years, stampers also love retired stamp sets that we can't bear to part with. Home for Christmas is one of my favourite sets. I also love doing the Vintage-Shabby technique and this is the perfect stamp for that. Take a look:

The recipe is very simple:
Stamps: Home for Christmas, Netting
Cardstock: Soft Suede, Naturals Ivory
Ink: Soft Suede, Crumb Cake
DSP: Frostwood Lodge
Other: Vintage Brads, sponges, bone folder

The technique is also very simple. I stamped the image using Soft Suede ink on Naturals Ivory cardstock. I then stamped over that with the new background stamp, Netting, which I inked unevenly with Crumb Cake. Then comes the fun part! Using a bone folder, I roughed up the edges, made some tears and ripped off a corner. The "splotch" at the top was created un-intentionally! I spritzed the corner to soften up the paper so I could peel the layers apart, and because the ink is water base, it ran a bit and looks like a tea stain, I think. So I went with it. That's the best part of stamping - there are no mistakes, everything is an original!


Using sponges, the next step was to sponge the edges of the image panel with Crumb Cake. The Frostwood Lodge DSP was sponged with Soft Suede. I also rubbed Soft Suede over the DSP as it was just a bit too white for my liking. Add the brads to three corners, and there you have it.

My go-to stamp set

Every stamper has a set she finds herself constantly using. It's a sign of a good stamp set when you find one that can fit almost every occasion and is suitable for either feminine or masculine type cards. My go-to set is Lovely as a Tree. I recently had an order for a masculine birthday card and while I was blog-surfing I came across a card using this set with a sponged and direct-to-paper technique background. I can't remember now whose blog I saw it on but she had mounted the image on Whisper White, which looked very nice. While I used the same colours on the image, I decided to mount mine on darker colours.

To make this image, I first sponged the sky area, using Bashful Blue and Pacific Point on Whisper White cardstock. Then I stamped the image using Stazon Black. For the bottom part, I took the Peach Parfait Classic Stampin Pad and swiped it randomly across the cardstock. On top of that I did the same thing with Early Espresso. Finally, I sponged a bit of Peach Parfait on the area between the sky and ground.

Then I mounted it on Early Espresso and used Cajun Craze for the base. The sentiment is stamped in Early Espresso. Before placing the image panel, I used the Netting Background stamp inked with Cajun Craze to create some texture on the card base. I love the Netting BG stamp! It's new and now maybe I can part with the long-retired Canvas BG stamp that was so great. Or not!