Serendipity Stamps Guest Designer Part 2

Hello there!  I'm delighted to be back today guest designing for Serendipity Stamps September Challenge, "Stamp Your Own Background". 

For my card today I chose what I consider to be a perfect background building stamp set, "Retro Starburst".  This set so so versatile!  For my card today I chose to simply stamp the various images in an eye pleasing pattern and color palette, leaving a space where I wanted to stamp the sentiment.  I used Wplus9's inks, Cockleshell, Bo Peep, and Beanstalk, and Hero Arts Mint Julep and Fresh Peach.  A tip for you, when I want to stamp a pattern such as this one I almost always use a piece of scratch paper cut to whatever size my card is going to be and "practice" stamping the design.  I think I practiced the above card 3 times before I got it exactly like I wanted it.  This can help with card stock waste.  I can't tell you how much card stock I've wasted sitting down and going straight to my stamping without being sure how I wanted it to look!  By practicing first you can eliminate that problem, and it really doesn't take a lot of extra time.  The sentiment is "And I Think To Myself", stamped in black and framed with a gold die cut.  I think this happy, positive sentiment is just perfect with the fun, retro stamps.  I trimmed my main panel and added it to a black card base; I felt it needed a strip of black on the side to "balance" the card.  I added some gold sequins to finish the design.

There are MANY techniques that you could try with a set such as this.  A couple of my favorites:

1.  Emboss/Resist  Stamp using embossing ink, add clear or white embossing powder and heat set.  Use an ink blending tool and distress inks or other die inks to add color.  You could also use a watercolor medium to add color.

2.  Add distress ink to your stamp and spray lightly with water and stamp.  This will give a watercolor look.  You could also try Distress Stains, these don't need to be sprayed with water.

Be sure to hop on over to the Serendipity challenge blog to see what the talented design team members have to show you!

I want to thank Jeanne for inviting me to guest this month, I've enjoyed it immensely!