Joseph's Coat!

Hi! How are you?
I'm revisiting an old technique today; Joseph's Coat.
You heard of it?
It creates a fabulously vibrant patterned background and is made just with glossy cardstock (or plain), inks, clear embossing powder and some solid stamps.

The choice of colours is entirely up to you. I've gone a little bright, but it gives a whole new look to your stamp sets. This set is perfect for this technique; the more solid the better.

Forgive all the photos- here's how you can re-create the technique.

First up, add some splodges of ink, I've used Distress Inks but any ink would do.

 Keep adding colours randomly until all the piece of cardstock is filled. You could do stripes too.

Now stamp randomly using Versamark. You'll find that the more images on the piece of cardstock, the more pattern you'll end up with.

 Now add the clear embossing powder onto the images and heat to set.

Choose a colour to cover over the inks. You need to have one that is darker than every colour you've used previously. I used a dark blue. With the glossy cardstock, you'll need to add layers of ink. With ordinary cardstock, you'll probably use less.

                                                

Once you've reached the desired shade, simply get some kitchen towel and rub over the embossed parts to remove any residual ink and buff up the shine.

To help lift the card as the pattern is quite dark, I've used the 'Friend Like You' die also from Concord and 9th

Do give this technique a go- you'll be able to use your own colours and stamps. Your ordinary line stamps just won't work very well so do pick solid stamps.

See you next week!

Happy stamping,

Keren xx

1 Step Stamping!!

I love multi-step stamping. Those sets which give wonderful dimension. Some people find them tricky to line up, and if you're just starting out stamping, you might feel a little nervous about using them.

Thing is, you can treat them as one step stamps too!

I wanted to make a really simple card. The hardest bit is fussy cutting- which you don't need to do necessarily, you could simply stamp a one layer background.

I've used two products from Concord & 9th;

Flourish stamp set

and this amazing die 'Friend Like You'

Do notice that it cuts the black lines- so it is a solid die with the brackets being detachable from the main die. You can't die cut a 'friend' aperture by itself although if you positioned a piece of thin paper across where those letters are, you could die-cut one single word. You obviously have the middle bits of the negative letter shape that you could add in, but I liked the look of it without.

 Simply stamp the background and stamp the outer flower a few times, cut out and add to the card using foam pads. I backed the sentiment which a nice contrasting colour and added it to the front.
I obviously had letters left and thought I'd make a quick tag.

This time I stamped two of the 3-step flowers separately and trimmed them out. The idea with the set is that you start with the largest flower shape with the lighter colour, stamp the next sized down shape in a darker colour and then over those two, stamp the smallest image with the darkest colour.

These outline shapes are perfect for no-line copic/watercolour techniques.Add in detail with pen or pencil and really kickstart your creativity. I die cut one of the brackets from the tag and it gives a lovely aperture to back with another colour (as well as cutting out some bracket shapes to play with too).

I've had great fun with this set- do have a go too!

See you soon,

Keren xx