Inspire Me Monday: Cut It Out!

Hello Friends!  It’s Christine popping in again today for an Inspire Me Monday Tutorial.  When I stamp Marcy’s images I am always so taken with her art that I want to showcase all of the stamped beauty just as is.  But today I want to show you that these stamps are equally beautiful when you use different methods of cutting the images, creating new effects.  I think it’s a great way to make your stamps even more versatile!  

Cut It Out:  In Panels

A really simple way to give your images a new look is to stamp and colour the image as normal, and then cut the design into panels to separate it slightly, giving it almost the look of a screen.  This can be done vertically or horizontally.  Here I’ve stamped the gorgeous Planning for Magnolias and created a tri-panel design, really showing off that clean and simple style.  Simple details like piercing and enamel dots really give it a bit of an Asian feel.  The sentiment is actually from one of our Christmasy sets, Cozy Cupfuls.  

Cut It Out:  Into Inchies!

Inchies are still really popular in cardmaking and this design is so easy to do!  I trimmed out 1 inch pieces of watercolour paper, then stamped the Azaleas stamp set in waterbased ink onto each square with three different ink colours, using a waterbrush to softly blend the colour a little.  Most of the sections are popped up, but I left a few flat to the card to create some varied dimensional interest.  

Cut It Out:  Showcasing Embossing and Alcohol Inks

This technique only requires a few steps and supplies.  You’ll need some glossy card stock, some reinkers or alcohol markers, blending solution and a clear stamping block.  

Begin by dribbling some reinker colour onto a clear block (or you can just scribble some marker on your block too).  Then spritz a little blending solution onto the block (I used a mini-mister) and immediately smoosh it onto the glossy card stock.   Repeat that step until you have the colour effect you’d like.  

Because I was working with the Poppies set , I wanted to have lots of warm colours in reds and oranges, just like poppies are.   

Then, after I had swiped my embossing buddy on the glossy cardstock, I took some VersaMark ink and stamped the poppies in gold, and then followed that with embossing in white.  From there I just cut larger squares (1 1/2 inches) and placed them on my card.  Isn’t that a neat effect?  A little more abstract, but still a great use of colour and texture.  

A few pretty butterfly die cuts and some Krylon gold edging finish it off.  

Cut It Out:  Split a Design in Two

On this pretty Simply Camellias design I stamped the image onto the deep pink card stock and then coloured the design with white prismacolor pencils adding some greens and pinks over top.  Then I cut the design apart and then cut it so that it would fit within this card base, leaving room for that fun embossed sentiment from Big Scripts.    A few polka-dotted die cut circled give the sentiment a little interest.  

So don’t be afraid to Cut It Out!