I've been meaning to do a write-up about an awesome product from Impression Obsession for a while now. I saw their new Mega Mount and thought, oh, I don't need that! I can stamp just fine without it! I had the
Tapestry Cover a Card background stamp and used it to make
this card a while back. I used one of my cutting plates from my Big Shot as a temporary mount, and it worked....sort of. I didn't get a very crisp, clean image, and it was very awkward to use. I actually had to lay the stamp down on my table, face up, then lay the paper on top, praying it wouldn't move!
I love the background stamps so much, I got another. This time
Thick and Thin stripes. I love striped DP, and am always struggling to find the color combos I like. I knew with this one, I could make my own. For the above card I wanted very specific colors from Adirondack.
I love Cranberry, Caramel and Pesto together for Christmas colors. It's a lot easier to ink these large background stamps with small ink cubes, which I made myself since Ranger doesn't offer the Adirondack inks in little cubes. Each cube covered three wide stripes easily, and I just alternated colors until the whole stamp was covered.
The Mega Mount is around 6" square, with a very comfortable handle. It's slightly curved, which makes stamping large stamps easy as pie! I'm sure if you've tried using large stamps before, you faced the same problems I have using a flat acrylic block. You RARELY get a complete image. Or some areas are too dark, and others too light. This is why the curved surface is so helpful. The natural motion is to rock it front to back, ensuring all areas of the stamp come in contact with your paper. It works really, really well. I use it for ALL my large stamps, not just backgrounds. I get near perfect impressions every time.
Anyway, after stamping my stripes, I did some distressing around the edges. I wanted some shimmer too, so I took my Versamark Champagne shimmer ink pad and rubbed it all over. It's a very subtle shimmer, so I spritzed it a few times with my home made shimmer mist too (Adirondack Caramel reinker with Pearl Ex & Gum Arabic). It was a little splotchy, but that looked cool, too. Kind of like old, slightly stained ticking.
The
Small Wreath stamp is so adorable, with the little saltbox house! I colored it up real quick with colored pencils, added some Liquid Glass on the ball, and it's done! The 'Merry Christmas' is from the clear set
'Sentiments II'. I love the way this card came out, very 'Folk Artsy'!
Hope you like it too, and learned something at the same time. Thanks for stopping by!
Stamps: Impression Obsession
Ink: Adirondack, Vivid, Distress, SU
Paper: Papertrey Ink, Stardream, Coredinations
Accessories: Martha Stewart simple scallop edger punch, gingham ribbon, PTI button/twine, colored pencils, OMS, Liquid Glass, Copic Spica gold pen, Nestabilities, McGill Label punch
When it comes to small gift giving, my all time favorite is this hot chocolate folder that I first saw on Sonja's Scene blog last Christmas. The template is bit confusing, lots of cuts and folds, but so worth it IMO. And of course, the little Forever Friends bear holding his mug of chocolate is perfect for this project. This is my favorite FF stamp!
I decorated the inside as well outside with patterned papers, and added a ribbon loop to the spine of the folder so I could slip some candy canes in it.
I had a large canister of Ghirardelli peppermint hot cocoa mix, so I scooped up one generous portion into individual clear bags and sealed them up really well. The little cocoa poem was printed and cut out with my Spellbinders die. 
