The UK is known around the world for its rainy days and its certainly been proving that these last few weeks. So to pass the time, i've been playing with the stamps from the My Minds Eye Christmas releases - Lost & Found Christmas and 12 Days of Christmas.
As you know by now, I love using stamps on layouts to make backgrounds nearly more than using stamps for feature images and that often is the way it works for my cards too!
I tend to try and keep things very simple with my cards as they are often sent through the postal system so they need to be as flat as possible but that doesnt mean completely flat - I am addicted to foam adhesive and a little can go a long way.
I have been lucky to have great friends who gifted me a new heat gun as I had to leave mine in Canada (different power supplies) so I've been a bit embossing powder happy :)
Often I get an idea and play with it to see if it works as well on paper as in my head - I think I've working on a 75% success rate - the biggest thing with stamping is to play and play with the images and textures you can make.
This is one of my favourites becuase it took a round image but instead of me using a circle punch, I went with a heart punch to try and create a theme with shapes rather than the actual image.
I am though addicted to this Tree stamp from the Lost and Found Christmas set - It is just perfect to me and doesnt need much to set it off to be gorgeous.
But if you struggle with whole sheets to stamp with, start with tags - I do this a lot and often they can make a card or layout just that little bit special.
Also you can stamp backgrounds and then cut them to shape - like these baubels.
Please remember if you are doing cards for Operation Write home - NO GLITTER or sparkles.
and if you are sick of christmas cards, here is something using the butterfly from the Lost and Found Blush stamp set and a tiny shrinkiedink (aka shrink plastic) tag.Thats also just one stamp pad - basically ink up your stamp, stamp and then stamp again (and again if you want) - this gives you a dark and a light image from one inking.
So I hope you have a little starting point to use your stamps - I'd love to see what you have done with them either here or on the My Minds Eye Facebook page.
