How to Ground an Owl

You don't. You put it on a branch.

Yes, I do know my statement that you don't ground an owl is factually inaccurate. We regularly visited an adorable little burrowing owl who lived in a hole in the ground outside our apartment complex in Sacramento, California, in 1988. But mostly, I think of owls in trees, so here's an owl in a tree.

Let's get back to the card. Okay?

The sentiment is from another Clearly Besotted set...a nice, large sentiment with cool fonts. The branch is clearly too short for the owl because you can't put the owl on it AND attach the branch to anything. What good is it to ground tree the owl if the branch itself is floating around the card?

No good at all.

So putting the branch to the right of the sentiment creates a sense of connectedness. Think of it this way..."Happy Owl on a Branch Birthday." That's how it reads, left to right, and then down to the next line.

I hope that makes sense. Sometimes things sound better in my head than they read on the internet.

And now I have used every single stamp in the Woodland Pals set. It's happily stored in my stamp stash box labeled "Fauna." Yay!!!


Supply
stamps: Clearly Besotted
ink: Hero Arts
paper: Papertrey
accessories: rhinestone flowers

Hazards of Stamping

Okay, so I'm a dork who recently had toilet paper hanging out the back of her jeans.

In public.

A friend noticed.

We laughed.

I didn't even blush, but I did think, "Susan, you are a class-A dork. Meh. There are worse things you could be."

So when my husband noticed tiny yellow bits of paper stuck to my sleeve, I didn't even bat an eye. Of course I have tiny bits of post-it note stuck to me randomly because I just cut a mask for a deer. Have you ever cut a mask for tiny little deer legs? My husband clearly hasn't because he acted like I was crazy or something.

There are WAYYYY worse things than having bits of yellow paper stuck to your sleeve.

As discussed in this post and this post, Clearly Besotted's Woodland Pals set inspired me to work up different ideas for grounding the critters in it. We don't want critters floating around with no gravity, right? The idea for this one came when I noticed the spots on the fawn and the mushroom and remembered this very, very old border stamp from Hero Arts, which I stamped twice here (reversing the direction so the dots didn't line up perfectly, which would have looked weird).

Two observations about this card...

1. The sentiment spells dear properly for its meaning, which makes me happy. I don't mind puns, but misspelled words bother me. We're going to pretend that there's a comma after thanks, though. Because there should be. Oh, there should be.
2. I like how the deer is looking back toward the sentiment and the mushroom, and the way the three elements form a nice triangle. But please tell me it doesn't look like the deer made a giant, mushroom-shaped "business" in the forest. That's just my English-major mind, right?

And that's all I have to say about that.

Supplies
stamps: Clearly Besotted Woodland Pals; Hero Arts border
ink: Hero Arts
paper: Papertrey
accessories: none

More Woodland Pals

As I worked my way through Clearly Besotted's Woodland Pals set, my focus was on finding different ways to "ground" the critters so they weren't floating around in white space. After I'd stamped the hedgehog, masked his feet, and stamped the ribbon (from Papertrey's Faux Ribbon set), I thought, "Well, the hedgehog has ground, but what next?"

Then, the die cuts of words connected to some sort of base popped into my mind. Those are so cool, but as I don't have a die cutter, they've never seemed possible...until now.

By stamping the sentiment in the same ink as the ribbon, and connecting the two, you'll get a similar look to the die cuts without the expense of machine or die! Love how this turned out!

I didn't have any card stock that matched the ink (Fresh Ink celery), so I stamped a circle onto a scrap of white, punched the butterfly, and like magic, everything matches. Because in my world, everything must match, or it's a universe-ending tragedy, right?

Of course I'm right.

Doesn't it look like the hedgehog is saying hello to the butterfly? Adorbs!!! I love the unity of this card so much.

Supplies
stamps: Clearly Besotted Woodland Pals, Papertrey Faux Ribbon, Hero Arts discontinued clear set for sentiment
ink: Fresh Ink celery, VersaMagic gingerbread
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: Martha Stewart butterfly punch, rhinestone, glue pen

Finally Getting Cute...and Precisely Grounded at the Same Time

Clearly Besotted is quickly becoming one of my favorite lines of stamps. For years, I've mostly eschewed cute stamps. Oh, I've tried the occasional cute set, but rarely did the resulting cards make me happy.

But like I said, Clearly Besotted is changing my mind. Check out this adorable fox from the Woodland Pals set.

Dang, this little fox is adorable...and just the right size! The set (if you're too lazy to click the link) contains five cute animals, a branch, and a mushroom, as well as a few punny sentiments.

One thing about these little animals: they need a ground to stand on. It won't do to have them floating around the card. As I used each one, I played around with different ways to visually "ground" each critter, and I'll share them over the next few days.

This little fox provided a wonderful opportunity to try something a bit different. Rather than use a standard ground stamp, I created the illusion of ground by repeatedly stamping a little stem from Papertrey's Modern Basics set and making a very precise line with it. Even though, technically, this fox is floating, the precise line of flowers creates the illusion of grounding...and preserves the light, airy feel of the card.

Aligning everything was simple using a gridded acrylic block. You might notice that the card looks slightly narrower than 4.25 inches. That's because the flowers are spaced in such a way that it created an uneven edge on the card...so I shaved the left side a bit so the row of flowers is centered on the card.

Cutting a bit off the edge is much easier than trying to work out the math of getting everything centered, don't you think?

I do.

Now, please forgive me while I get personal. Y'all, I'm not very grounded myself right now...I'm on cloud 9! Yesterday, we found out that Jack didn't get picked to be in the 6th grade talent show. We were so bummed, but then I got a call from the principal, who had heard that Jack's aide, Mrs. Mitchell, had cried when she heard the bad news. Lots of the special education folks were upset, actually. So the principal called and explained that the committee who picked the acts for the show had been worried that kids who didn't know Jack might be unkind if his trumpet squeaked. But since he'd heard how hard Jack had worked to get ready for the auditions, he wanted Jack's hard work to be rewarded! Yay!!!

The committee need not have worried. Not only did Jack do well, he got a standing ovation from about half his pod. (The 500 sixth graders are divided into three pods.) Kids in other pods who knew Jack were on their feet, too. It was awesome!!!

I'm one proud mamma! He put himself out there and did his best!!! Love this kid soooo much!!

Supplies
stamps: Clearly Besotted Woodland Pals, A Little Sentimental; Papertrey Modern Basics
ink: Hero Arts rust; Memento bamboo, cocoa
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: rhinestones, gridded acrylic block

Rock and Roll

One way to add interest to block stamps is to use the "rock-and-roll" technique to ink them up. This technique provides a sort of primitive, soft shading of the images. See?

How To Rock and Roll:

1. Ink a block stamp completely with a light color of ink.
2. Use a rocking-and-rolling motion to apply a darker ink around just the edges of the stamp to blend with the lighter ink.
3. Stamp the image onto paper.

I know this seems like such a hard technique. I mean, it takes THREE steps! Of course, some days, a third step in stamping is a step too much for me to cope with. But honestly, aren't the results worth it?

All kidding aside, though, there are two things that can make this super-easy technique a little tricky. If your stamp is much smaller than the block it's on, it can be hard to angle a full-size pad just right for the rock-and-roll motion of the second inking. If you're using clear stamps, it helps to have a proper-size block to fit the stamp. Also, handling full-size pads is more awkward than using the smaller, dew-drop shaped pads. I used full-size pads of Fresh Ink above on the cactus and pot, and it felt clunky...even if it did work out fine. The flower was inked with dew drops, which were much easier to work with.

This is a very forgiving technique. It rarely looks bad (unless the two colors I've used don't blend well). As often as I've done it, I've never had a problem with the little bit of light ink that transfers to the dark ink pad, either. I can only remember rocking and rolling with pigment or chalk inks, but it should work well with dye inks, too...and you could even spritz water on the dye inks for a blended watercolor effect!

To finish this card, I edged the raised panel lightly with VersaMagic brick ink. The white-on-white look just didn't work for this card, and running the edge of the card stock against the ink pad is super fast and gives a slightly rustic edge that plays nicely with the soft, sponged-effect of the images.

I'm having a blast with this Hero Arts set. It's just so easy to work with, and the combination of outline and block images makes it extremely flexible. Love it!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Stamp Your Own Cactus
ink: Fresh Ink, VersaMagic
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: dimensionals

Why Line Art Rocks

Often, cards made in a clean-and-simple style feature block stamps...where the image is completely (or at least mostly) solid, as on THIS CARD. Outline stamps (or line-art stamps) generally require coloring, which requires a lot of time and energy, not to mention some medium for coloring (colored pencils, watercolor pencils, markers of all types, paint, Smooch, etc.).

Could I have used more parenthetical expressions in the previous paragraph? (Probably.)

Anyway, some designs of line art actually look AWESOME simply stamped in a strong color, and such is the case with the leaves in Gina K's Sun-Kissed Autumn set. These gorgeous images are just right for CAS style!

In the first card, I stamped the three leaves to create a border around the sentiment using autumnal colors.

I love the word autumnal. Say it out loud. Can't you just smell leaf mold and crisp autumn air? Autumnal. Mmmmm.

Those autumnal colors pop right off the white background, making a light and airy card.

For the second card, I used a scrap of paper lying on my desk, a single leaf stamp, a single bling, and a sentiment from Waltzingmouse.

The border on the popped panel was created with a Sharpie marker and a ruler. There are only two layers of white card stock on this card...no colored card stock whatsoever. Just think of the possibilities!

So don't feel that you have to limit yourself to coloring line-art stamps. Sometimes, all it takes is the right color ink and a clean design, and that line art will SING!

Supplies
stamps: Gina K Sun-Kissed Autumn, Waltzingmouse Blessed by You
ink: SU cherry cobbler, Hero Arts orange soda and butter bar, Memento cocoa
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: dimensionals, Sharpie marker, rhinestone

Mad Coloring Skillz

...I do not have. But this cactus turned out better than expected!

Don't you just love how the cactus is hugging the sentiment? Whoever designed this set sure did a great job! The pieces-parts work so well together. Hero Arts, I applaud you.

The coloring is a combination of Copic/Sharpie/Bic markers on Gina K 120# white card stock. Markers will not bleed through on one-layer cards, which is a definite plus for those of us who love making one-layer cards.

Here's another card I colored with the Hero Arts Stamp Your Own Cactus set. There's a little too much going on for me...not enough white space for my eye. But I really love the colors in this. Orange, brown, green, and purple-y reds go so beautifully together, and the combo sort of happened by accident.

And with four cards (two today, one yesterday, and one tomorrow), I managed to use all the image stamps in this set. Yay, me! Now, this set can visit with the other stamps in my hoard collection while I pick up another unused set to get inky with.

Isn't stamping just the best hobby ever?!?!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Stamp Your Own Cactus
ink: Memento black
paper: Gina K 120# white
accessories: rhinestones, Copic/Bic/Sharpie markers