Karen Bearse Designs: Happy 3rd Birthday Topflight Stamps Blog Hop!

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Happy 3rd Birthday Topflight Stamps Blog Hop!

It's Topflight Stamps 3rd birthday and to celebrate, I’ve teamed up with some great designers
to showcase birthday cards using the unique products available at Topflight Stamps. Please hop
along with us and see all the beautiful talent from this group of amazing designers! You should
have arrived here from Jennie Colacicco's blog. If not, no worries, catch the details below.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS

*CONGRATS TO #16 Shell B* this giveaway is closed...

*Affiliate- some of these companies have given me product to use, play & experiment with. The ideas are my own but I tend to work with companies whose products I like, so enjoy the inspiration.
**some of these links are affiliate, I receive a small percentage from the company at no cost to you. This helps me deliver free content!

I love when companies bring you products that build on their existing products, giving you more ways to use them. Darkroom Door is one such company & I have been buying their stamps since way back in the day when they came in tins! I have had this quote stamp for a couple of years & now it has the most brilliant matching frame.

There is also a video that has start to finish making this card. I cut out all the extra goof ups along the way or the video would have been 2 days long!!! I hope you get a chance to follow along & make your own card.

I am not a card maker so this was a challenge for me & I made lots of alternative plans along the way so I will add in some other options for you.

Let's get started! All of the products used today can be found on the Topflight Stamps site, & there is a supply list below. Step 1: Putting paint on the stamp with a dabber & moving fairly quickly, apply paint to the stamp & then heat emboss with a clear embossing powder. I wanted a chunkier one so I chose Eileen Hull's Glistening Glass. This made the colors pop & creates a resist if more color is added which was my idea to start with. If any spots are missed go back in with a fine paint brush & Wow Mixed Media embossing then re-emboss. Makes fixing mistakes easy.

Step 2: I added some paint to my background, adding water to create a water color look. Originally I was going to just pop this on top of the frame background so I cut it out. Not happy with the way it looked made me change. I decided to make my card all on one piece of card stock. The paint colors are Mermaid & Sargasso. Use a baby wipe over the words to get any residual paint off and help the words shine.

Step 3: Not sure of the how the frame would look so many test runs were done. This does give options and also was a great way to experiment to come up with different ideas. Most of these frames just did not create enough contrast. I wanted to showcase the frame as it is so cool. Option 1: Stamped with multiple colors of Prism inks & then embossed with the Glistening Dimensions. I loved this one but the colors were too much like my background.

Option 2: Painted the frame with a dabber & Pea Coat paint, added the clear emboss. Really love this just didn't get enough emboss on it & wanted a more dynamic frame color.

Option 3: Using an embossing ink to try & get a better coated image then the paint which is drying too fast. Used Etched Pewter & Crusty Copper. Lost some of the image which is OK I can do it again but it was too pale. Love the copper though & in the end went with that.

Option 4: Took the frame idea from option 3 & added some infusions powder to it. Love the look but it was too dark for this card. I see this being turned into a grungy art journal mini.

Step 4: In the end I went with the Crusty Copper & made the bold decision to adhere it straight to the background. 1st the middle of the stamp was cut out to make positioning easier.

After carefully marking my position & with all my supplies at the ready, embossed with the copper & it worked!!! I think making all my practice runs definitely helped me get it right in one go.

Step 5: The background mat is a piece of scrapbook paper with stamped edges to create more interest. I used a few stamps from different Darkroom Door sets, along with Prism Ink.

Step 6: Decided to add a triple mat and a piece of webbed material. The material came from a gear sports bag. To turn this into a birthday card all that was needed was the sentiment.

Step 7: Topflight Stamps has lots of Happy Birthday words to chose from, however I did not have any on hand so mine was printed out on the computer, distressed with Cinnamon Swirl, then adhered to muslin. The final touch was to add some white & black pen work. I love how my inky, messy card turned out.

Here is another option, this was just done with ink & a stamp platform- easy peasy & still looks cool.

Paint was added as well to the background, there is not as much wow factor as the emboss but this was fast & simple! You could also cover this with the clear emboss after. The yellow bottle missing is Ochre.

I hope you had fun today & continue on the hop... so much great inspiration to be had now go get inky!!!

Follow along here and if you get lost you can always start at the Topflight Stamp Blog.