Mother's day

It was Mother's Day on Sunday the one day a year that people all over the world celebrate their Mother or Mother figure in your life. A mother doesn't have to be the one that gave birth to you but could be the person that has been there for you no matter what the situation. Its also the person that has influenced you to be the person you are today. My Mother is my main person of course but in fact I have many women in my life that I feel fit the category of Mom and deserves to have a special day.  Now lets get into the card.

When I was figuring out what the card should look like I knew there had to be some flowers in it because that is something I associate with the important women in my life. I come from along line of women that love to garden and have grown some of the most beautiful flowers. My Grandmothers were the ones that started my love of flowers and I have many memories of spending time in their yards. From the large Peonies in my Baba's yard that would be so full the bush would hang on the ground, to my Grandma Helen's red Geraniums as well as her competition with her sister, my Auntie Lil, on who grew the best Gladiolus. Flowers had to be in the picture and the colors need to be bright and full of life to represent  those women in my life as well as their memory.  I decided to use the Abstract Impression Stamp set to do this one because it was a stamp set I had not tried yet and I loved the beautiful images.

This stamp set is a bit different than most in that it is a layering stamp set. What does that mean? This is where multiple stamps inked in different colors are stamped on top of each other to make the image have depth as well as detail. 

To illustrate I have made some examples on how to do that using one of the images which is the largest Flower in the set. Here are the color I used for the example:

For the first example I am using three colors Crisp Cantalope which is retired, Flirty Flamingo, and Melon Mambo. This flower is a three step layering flower so you will be using three stamps to get the full detail. To begin start with your lightest color first then work your way to the darkest. Here is a picture of the them stamped separately so you see how the order should go. The lightest color is always your base stamp that usually is the largest stamp. As you add more detail the stamp will get smaller and show more of the detail. On the far left is the finished flower and you can see the three distinct layers. 

.

So you don't have three colors that would go together can you still use the set? Of course you can. To do this you will use a technique called 2nd generation stamping.

Here are some examples of how I did it using Melon Mambo. Here is the finished example below. Using second generation stamping.

To do this you want to start with your base stamp which is the lightest color so to get that using Melon Mambo you ink it up like normal and stamp it off on a scrap paper twice before stamping on your card.

This is the example of third generation stamping below.

For the second layer you will ink up the stamp and only stamp off on your scrap paper once before stamping it on your card. Here is the example of second generation compared to stamping directly after inking. The third layer is just normal stamping and will be the true color of Melon Mambo.

Now Lets take a look at the card. To see how everything looks together.

With the card you can see how the layering just adds some nice depth and detail to the flowers and leaves. The best part about the set is because the flowers are abstract looking you don't have to worry about lining everything up. So how did I make the card. Here are my measurements:

Card Base- A2 size Whisper White 51/2 x 41/4

Gorgeous Grape: 53/8 x 4 1/8

Blushing Bride 51/4 x 4

For the sentiment I just used scraps up so I don't know the measurements.

To stamp I started with my bigger flowers first and put them on three corners to form what looks like a triangle. I then filled in the rest with the other flowers and leaves to make it look full.  I was not worried about the stamps overlapping so I did not use any masking and I wanted a bit of white showing too so my stamps aren't close together in some spots. I took a bit of Melon Mambo reinker and made some splatter on the card. I did that by putting a small dot of it on a stamping block and used a watercolor brush to flick it over the card. Again I wasn't worried about it getting all over the flowers so I didn't mask.

I then added some stickles to the card and a random butterfly I had in my stash to finish it off. The sentiment came from the Bloom and Grow set another one of my favorites. I used some of Stampin' dimensionals to pop up the sentiment as well.

Here is the finished card that I later gave to my Mom for Mother's day. I hope you like it.

If you would like to order any of the items here is the link to my website:

https://joyofcraftin.stampinup.net/