I created this card for a new catalog swap that I participated in at the beginning of the summer. Ages ago I shared the other card that I created for the swap, but I’ve been dragging my heels for some reason in sharing this one. I really like how the bright colors that I picked come together to create this pretty greeting. This stamped image really deserves to be the center of the creation – it is really quite stunning.

I devised this color combination when I designed this card. There is the pretty color combination in the catalog sample, but I wanted to create something different. I tried a couple of combinations and settled on this one as the most balanced of the ones I tried. I really like how bright and cheerful this one is.

I have to confess that I didn’t realize how challenging this stamp set is to work with when I picked it for the swap. It doesn’t look like it should be tough, but you really can’t be off even a millimeter before it is obviously off. Thankfully I devised a trick, and the Stamparatus (aka the Stampasaurus) made it easy to reproduce in bulk.

To make it possible to reliably line up the images I created these stamped guides. There is no need to create a guide for the first image (the stamps are numbered in the case). For the rest of them, I stamped the image using StazOn ink onto clear window sheet. I can then line up the stamp with the stamped image, and then line all of that up perfectly with the stamped artwork as it progresses.

This is a close-up of the guide that I created for the second stamp in the set. Once I have the stamped guide (with the stamp on top) lined up with the stamped image (image #1 in this case) on the whisper white panel, I lower the Stamparatus plate to pick up the stamp in the perfect spot. Then I removed the window sheet guide and stamped that image, and I was ready to repeat that process for the remaining two layers to create the finished artwork.

Here you can see the Stamparatus all set up with the images on the grid doors. It is easy-peasy to have four different images all set up to create perfectly aligned images with this fantastic stamping tool. The removable plates make it possible to have stamps on both signs, this doubling the capabilities of a single plate. And having two hinged plates means that you can double that again – giving you four possible positioned images with one tool. It’s da bomb!

I used this sketch as the basis for my design. I rotated the layout 90 degrees clock-wise to create the finished card layout that you see here. This is a sketch from back in 2015, but it is still fabulous for current creations today. I love that the sketch challenge sites that I frequent keep old sketches around because there is design gold in those archives.

Product List

Stamparatus

$49.00