I Challenge You Wednesday: 1 Stamp, 5 Ways

It was my friend's turn to pick the challenge this week, and she really picked a challenge! We were supposed to take one stamp (and only one) and use it to make five different cards. I still didn't have anything done as of yesterday. I was hitting a brick wall in the inspiration department. I couldn't even decide which stamp to use! :)

After the tenth time through my entire stamp collection (including digital images), I finally decided on this cross stamp, since Easter is just around the corner. It's from a clear stamp set by Inkadinkado.

I'm still not sure that I'm 100% thrilled with all of these cards, but it was a stretching experience, and that's always good! This certainly got me out of my comfort zone. :)

So, without further blabbing, here are the cards, in the order that I made them ...



No, you're not seeing things. The brown smudges on the main image were an accident, but after I spent the time coloring the image, I decided to try to make it work by adding a few extra smudges here and there. Other than that very obvious goof, I like this card.

I embossed the image with gold embossing powder and colored it with my BIC markers. (By the way, does anyone know of a company that makes gold embossing powder in the finer "detail texture"? This is just a little too thick for my liking.) The main panel is one of my cheap graduation cards, then a layer of vellum punched with my MS Iron Gate border punch set, then two Labels 8 Nestabilities (on dimensionals). Tucked behind the Nestabilities die cuts are halves of the circle medallions made with the same MS Iron Gate corner punch. They looked a bit like a crown or rising sun to me, so I added the rhinestone to each.



For this card, I used another cheap graduation card base. I embossed the image with gold embossing powder again, but this time I didn't color it. I cut apart some old Easter sheet music and punched the corners with the MS Iron Gate corner punch. (Yes, I'm addicted!) I used my Nestabilities Labels 8 on the next two layers. Then I added another of those circle medallion halves to mimic a crown at the top of the die cuts and a big satin bow at the bottom. The final touches were the gold rhinestones at the corners and on the "crown".



This one was simple, but I like it. Again, I gold embossed the image, but this time I put it on black cardstock. The card base is another cheap graduation card, followed by two layers of Nestabilities Labels 8. The first layer is cut from the same Easter sheet music as the last card, and the last layer is popped up on dimensionals. The gold glittery dew drops were made with a glitter glue stick and my glue gun.



And here is where my migraine was kicking into high gear. (Can you tell?) This is a 5x7" card, and I used paper scraps for it. I stamped this image in brown ink and colored it with my new dye-based markers (courtesy of last week's 50% coupons). Then I added iridescent Stickles glitter glue to the white lilies to accent them.

I've had this brown CM paper for years. It looks like tree bark, but usually that's not a look I'm going for. I've always thought it was so ugly they probably couldn't give it away, but it actually worked for this card since the cross is wood. I punched the corners with my MS 3-Dot corner punch, added the raspberry panel, added the main image, and then applied the pearls with dimensional paint.

It's not the fanciest card I've ever made, but I do sort of like it. And for being in the middle of a migraine when I made it, I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. Hey, at least it matches, right? :)



This was the last card I made. I stamped the image with brown ink and highlighted the lilies with iridescent Stickles glitter glue.

This is an odd-sized card because the dimensions just weren't working for me. I started with a 5x7" card, but there was too much white space. I couldn't figure out what to use to fill in that white space (without pulling out any sentiment stamps), so I just cut the card off to a 5x6" card. I tend to make weird decisions like that when my head feels like it's about to explode. :)

Anyway, I used all scraps on this card, too. I basically nested the rectangles to be 1/2" greater all around with each layer, then punched the corners with the MS Iron Gate corner punch. I popped each layer up on dimensionals, and it gives it the elegant look I was after. All I did to finish it was add the pearls in the corners with dimensional paint.

Well, that's all for me today. You can stop by my friend's blog to see what she came up with for the challenge.