Valentine Bandit...

It was beautiful sunny day in Houston but I didn't get to see a bit of it- the day imploded early today. I can't really complain because it was better than yesterday, but goodness what a crazy month it has been- I am ready for February!

As those of you who have seen the new Occasions Mini catalog have noticed, Stampin' Up has started to offer clear mount stamps, as well as the traditional wood mounted stamps. The important difference from other clear mount stamps is that theirs are still the deeply etched red rubber stamps, but with cling foam on the back. You just peel them off their storage case, adhere them to a clear acrylic block and stamp. After you clean them, you peel them off the block and stick them back in the storage case- the cling foam makes them stick to any plastic surface over and over again- kind of like Colorforms. Because they don't come with wooden blocks, they are less expensive and the thin DVD storage case they come in makes room for many more stamps in the closet!

DD saw this "Love Bandit" stamp set and insisted we make a card right away- so one for her and one for my class this Friday! I started by punching out a heart border on two 1" Very Vanilla strips using the new "Pinking Hearts" punch. The Stampin' Up punches have also changed style and are now flat, easier to store and come in coordinated corner and edge punch sets. After punching the border, I layered those pieces under a strip from the "Sending Love" Designer Series paper pack. It's hard to see here, but the Vanilla flowers are covered with glitter- super sparkly!

The ribbon was tied from some of the new Vanilla satin ribbon and a black button tied over the top with black embroidery floss for contrast. The greeting was stamped in Basic Black, punched out using the small oval punch and layered onto a Real Red oval punched using the large oval punch.

Now comes the absolute beauty of clear mount stamps- being able to lay out multiple stamps into a scene before stamping them! I arranged the tree and the raccoon where I wanted them on the acrylic block, colored just the parts I wanted with markers and stamped them in exactly the right place on my Vanilla cut-out because I could see where I was stamping-so fabulous!


 My little raccoon scene was mounted on some red and black and the card was done- super cute and simple!

Hope you have a great rest of your day- thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps: Love Bandit
Paper: Real Red, Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Sending Love DP
Ink: Basic Black, Real Red
Accessories: Clear mount block, Vanilla satin ribbon, small and large oval punches, Sizzix machine, nested dies, button, embroidery floss