Beyond words...

Hello there and a very warm welcome to the new follower who's joined us:  its good to have you with us, and I hope you will continue to find some inspiration.  I'm back with another couple of my samples from last weekend's Claritystamp One Day Special shows on Hochanda.  No wonder the new word chain alphabet stamps sold out so quickly:  I just love them!

 

As you can see from my play sheets below;  I wanted to experiment using the letters as shapes and patterns in their own right, rather than just to spell out words (although they're great for this too). 

These are just a few ideas I tried out...

 

 

If I'd had a bit more time, the "L" border below was next on my list to use for a sample.  It reminds me a bit of a Grecian key border. 

 

 

For this first sample, I used Mod Podge to collage old vintage book pages onto some card.

 

 

Then I started stamping my rainbow zig zags using the capital V and distress paints.  Can you spot the mistake?  I decided to just keep going and worry about how to cover it up later:  a word chain sentiment should do it.

 

 

You can see below that I went through the colours of the rainbow.  Only now did I decide that the green I'd used:  twisted citron, didn't make enough impact. 

 

 

Luckily paint is a bit more forgiving than ink, and I was able to overstamp in lucky clover.

 

 

Some chipped sapphire distress ink brushed and blended lightly over the joins and around the edges.  Gilding wax and glamour dust glitter to finish the edge, and a word simply stamped in black archival on a scrap of stencil card and edged with a black sharpie pen.

 

 

The ingredients for the second card are:  the heart stencil, hugs and kisses word chain, and of course the fab word chain alphabet, black archival, black soot and barn door distress inks.

 

I cut a 7" x 7" piece of stencil card card into 4 pieces, each 3.5" square and used the upper case X and O on one square, the lower case x and o on another.  Hugs and kisses on the 2 remaining squares.  The squares were then trimmed back to 3" square.  I masked off a single heart on the heart stencil, and brushed through with barn door distress ink.  On the other 2 squares, I brushed around and in from the edge, leaving the centre white.

 

I went very, VERY gently around the edge of each square with a blending tool and black soot distress ink.  Your Clarity blending mat will help the ink go on nice and smoothly too.  Simply matted onto a piece of black card with a hand made heart embellishment in the centre:  just a little heart shaped piece of card coloured with barn door distress ink to match and triple embossed with detail clear embossing powder.

 

I hope you like these latest makes and feel inspired to try out some patterns of your own.  Its amazing what you can do with just a set of alphabet stamps.

Thanks for stopping by...  I'll be back soon with another of my samples from the show.  Till next time.  Xxx