Paper, Ink and stamps..oh my!!!

One of these weeks when you are bored and don't know what to do.....give this one a try! It only took 16 hours and it was my first attempt!



This was made using sheets of white glossy cardstock, Rangers Adirondack inks and stamps. It's the same thing as the card that I posted yesterday. Each layer has 4 cards placed together on the ends with a sheet of cardstock across the top. This is known as a tabletop structure. By layering 2 of these structures together (the lower one is a smaller structure), I made a faux lantern.



Each of the 4 sides on both levels is different. I made this will taking a class from Michelle Bodensteiner and she learned this technique from Joyce Hazen of a Stamp in the Hand. Now, take a closer look. To attach the cards to the platform, I used inked, foil wrapped mini dominos edged with dice. On the bottom, asian coins are glued together to create "legs".



On top of the platform, I used dice and domino tiles again, but added the mini amulets filled with beads. The cuts were made with a craft knife. Background inks were stippled on. Ya need loads of elbow grease to do this....imagine stippling ink onto 8 sheets of glossy cardstock!



And then I had to invent my hanging aparatis. I used copper wire inside of copper tubes. All 4 wires came up through a center bead, then I wrapped the wire to form the top hanging closure.



The wires come down through the platform, I added beads, then twisted the wire back up over the beads.



All 16 corners on this lantern are done a little different. You can spend hours looking this thing over!



I love the idea of tiny glass bottles filled with glittery glass seed beads, topped off with a wood bead. Just so much fun!



Again, you can see how each corner is a little different. Also note the sequened fiber running along the platform edge.



16 hours of sheer creative fun! And while I did this one with all oriental stamps....I can just visualize it done with paper dolls and little girl stamps! I know that Michelle made one that was country western and draped soft leather over the top. I'm not sure anyone else has ever made one of these.



Imagine what a little paper, some ink and some stamps can do! Who would have thought it would turn out to be a paper lantern? I really do not consider myself to be a stamper....but perhaps I should reconsider that! LOL!!

Time flies

Now, remember, I'm not a cardmaker, I'm not a stamper....I just play! LOL! This is the card that I did for the Ranger Design Team call. It was fun!



And when you open up the card....just some totally fun rubber stamps, inked and colored. Yep, once again, I started with white cardstock and used black ink on the stamps, then colored the whole thing with Ranger products.



You can see that a craft knife was used to make all the little cuts and then they are folded in the opposite direction of the card's folds to make them "pop".



Gives it a very 3D look. It's one of my favorite techniques!



Michelle Bodensteiner was my instructor who first taught me how to do this technique. She stamped the images on flat paper, made the cuts with a craft knife, then made the folds. But I figured out how to use my wizard and geometric dies to make the cuts. Just take the thin spacer plate and position the dies and hold them down with some scotch tape. Next, cut thin strips of the tan polymer pad and postition them where you do NOT want the dies to cut. This would be the part that is the fold on the card to make it pop.



This was difficult to photo, but you want to place the mountain fold of the card in the center of the dies. I did mark my center with a black marker so I could easily line them up. The top will cut a circle, but remember, it won't cut where the tan polymer pad is. The bottom one will cut a small square.



When done, simply flip your card over to the other 2 mountain folds and cut them with the circle on the bottom, square on the top. Then position your stamps over the cuts, ink and embellish. People will think you spent hours doing intricate cuts like I did for this sample....but all you really did was run it through the Wizard a couple of times!

I figure the more shortcuts I can come up with...the more time I have to play!!!