Tuesday, February 10, 2009

"Stamping" without stamps

Okay, technically this isn't stamping, but there are rubber stamp companies out there beginning to sell "digital stamps" - aka clip art!

That got me to wondering ... Just what is available for free over at the Microsoft clip art gallery? Here are a few of the images I found and then colored:
I'll post the cards as I make them. So far, these are just colored and waiting for the "perfect" card idea. And in case you're wondering, I printed them onto 3" squares. That seems to be a good size for my cards.

By the way, I am loving my BIC Mark-It markers. I didn't realize until a week or so ago that they are alcohol-based markers and thus similar to the mega-expensive Copic markers. Not exactly the same, but for the price difference, I'll take my Mark-Its and be deliriously happy! I'm learning the whole shading and blending thing, and I really like the results!

Anyway, let me show you a few cards I made with more of the free clip art images I downloaded.

I made this one with my husband in mind. You know, my husband the eagle-lover. It was sooo easy!

If I had it to do over again, I'd use something other than colored pencils on this coffee mug. But it's done and it's not terrible, so I'm going to use the card. (And no, I didn't break down and buy Nestabilities. I'll post about that wonderful embossed edge sometime soon!)


This is one of my favorites, but it's also one of the easiest. There was so little coloring to be done with this bird, and he looks fabulous. He looked like he was singing, so I used my new Allegro embossing folder for the card base, rubbed over it with black chalk, and then just popped the image off the cardfront. It was a quick and easy card, and I really loved it.


This last one was the one I gave my Secret Sister with her Valentine's Day gift. I'm not sure I'd use the image exactly lile this again, but I knew she'd like it anyway. I think in the future I'll layer the image onto a diamond shape or something.
On a side note, check out the card background. I put the two plastic doily pieces together (see the last post) and embossed them onto this card. It's a pretty effect!
If you want to download some clip art to use for a faux stamping look, I'd suggest searching for the black and white images. Look for clean lines and you should find some nice images! I'd love to see anything you come up with. :)

1 comments:

Susan said...

Great ideas! I've used the Microsoft clipart for quite a while now for images for my Sunday school graphics. I make visuals for the songs we sing, so I just enlarge them, color them, and stick them on the song pages I make. I have a friend who makes beautiful cards who rarely uses a stamp - she gets all her "stamped images" from her computer.

 
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