Don’t Worry, a Dropped Stamp is No Big Deal

I was intending to prepare a post about the creative ways to use 6×6 and 6×8 paper pads to make cards – you know, how easy they make it – when I did the unthinkable. I dropped an ink loaded stamp onto my patterned paper.

Gasp!

What to do? I was filming it too!

Instead of turning off the camera and starting over as if the accident had never happened (I mean, you’d never know, right?) I pushed on and created these cards. And before you watch the video, can you tell which one has the GIANT “oopsy” on it?

Take a look at this video to find out which one it is.

Did you guess it was this one?

I think I did a pretty good job of both keeping my cool, AND making it work. There is a saying in the paper crafting world: “There are no mistakes in scrapbooking, only opportunities for embellishment.” I think that holds true for card making too!

Before we go down the rabbit hole of fixing our mistakes, let’s circle back to the original intent of my Friday Inspiration blog post. And that’s using a 6×8″ paper pad to create cards of all sizes. This size of pad makes it so easy! Whether you’re making standard A2 sized cards (4.25 x 5.5″), slimline cards (3.5 x 8.5″), or mini slimline cards (3 x 6″), they all work.

Here’s a look at the first card I made in the video – the slimline.

I will admit to making a mistake with this one too. One I didn’t mention on camera but realized as soon as I placed my cut piece of paper onto the card base. I should have cut that woodgrain to 3.25″ wide, not 3″. That would have given me a consistent frame of white card base around it. It turned out just fine, but in case you are bothered by uneven margins, now you know how to fix that particular mistake!

For this card I relied on the coordinating embellishments to, well, embellish the card. Typically when companies design a paper line, they design all sorts of items to coordinate. This line is a scrapbooking line so the accompanying embellishments are more geared to scrapbooks than cards, but that’s not to say you can’t use them to make cards. As I hope I proved here. Next time you are in your favourite scrapbook shop, look to see if they have brought in coordinating stickers, enamel dots, stamps, or die cuts to go with the papers you’re interested in. Consider buying some of them to make your scrapbooking or card making that much easier. I am all about easy when it comes to crafting. This is supposed to be a fun hobby, right? No need to reinvent the wheel each time you sit down to make a card or layout!

Another way to embellish your cards is with stamps. Most card makers are familiar with stamping a sentiment onto either the front or the inside of any card they are making (and sometimes in both places). But have you ever used your stamp set to create a patterned paper? For the next two cards I made in the video I did just that. Actually, I made a piece of patterned paper even more patterned!

Let’s look at this card again. I picked one of the patterns that is a tone-on-tone texture rather than a more distinct pattern like stars or stripes. Textural patterns like this read like a solid, so adding stamps isn’t too distracting. Then I chose Distress Oxide colours that coordinate with the colours in the collection – specifically, Chipped Sapphire, Festive Berries, Carved Pumpkin, and Mustard Seed.

Using a stamp set like Circle Party from Catherine Pooler is a quick and easy (and fun) way to create an abstract pattern. When doing this technique, start with your largest stamp and work your way down to your smallest. Alternate your colours and the placement of each colour on your piece of paper. Stamp some images off the edge so it looks more like the paper was designed that way – like it’s a piece from a larger design that was specifically cut to your desired size. This works with any size paper too so if you want to create a whole 12×12 background for a scrapbook layout, it’s the same principle. It’ll just take you a bit longer.

Once I’d finished all the stamping, I cut a piece to fit the A2 Card. And I went directly to the part of the paper than had the “oopsy” on it. When you are dealing with an accident like that, I find it best to just get it over with, so to speak. Tackle the problem head on and then you can move on. Trimming the paper to minimize the stamping error is the first step to dealing with an issue like this. Then you simply cover it up with die cuts and pieces cut from other patterns in the collection, until you’d never know that under all that gorgeous layering is a horrible dropped stamped image!

There was plenty of that pattern left to make the mini slimline card pictured above. For this one I could let the stamping shine. Adding some sentiments and a few gems is all it took to finish this card.

And there you have it. Three different cards. Three different sizes. One size of paper works beautifully for all.

Don’t forget to check out the Alison’s Fav 49 sale on at my store. Any online orders over $100 (before taxes) will ship for free anywhere in Canada and the US. The sale lasts til the end of September. And if you are curious what all is on sale, you can see it all in black and white here.

Have a great weekend everyone. See you on Monday for the return of Make It Monday!

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