It is already the end of September and the first month of Spring has sprung, or Autumn/Fall if you are in the Northern Hemisphere.
This month the Totally Techniques International Design Team is doing set-back stamping. I didn't really know what this was, but it makes perfect sense - the stamping is set back from the rest of the card.
For my card this month I picked a bundle i hadn't used yet - the Coneflower Celebrations bundle. This was a bundle I knew I was going to buy as soon as it came out, it is a beautiful stamp set, and the dies are amazing.
For set back stamping you stamp your images on a piece of cardstock, often the card base, then you cut out the shapes from another piece of cardstock that you then lay over raised by dimensionals. It is therefore important that the die cut lines up with the stamped images.
When I started this card I hadn't quite considered how tricky it would be to cut the flower outline. The die for the outline is a double die with 2 flower outlines butting up against each other with a score in the middle, making it hard to just cut of the outline of one flower without getting cuts from the other.
So, I lined up the die with the top cutting plate almost to the top of the die so it didn't cut all the way. I then used the other flower die, which is more detailed to cut the remainder of the top and that worked pretty well. Then I cut out the butterfly shape and laid this card stock on top of my card base and stamped the images through the cut outs. This worked pretty well, as it is Photopolymer set, so you can see through. However, I hadn't quite factored in that the double flower shape die is mirrored, so I couldn't get it to line up. I recut and same thing. Finally, I had the light bulb moment and realised I had to use the other end of the die..... third time lucky, it lined up perfectly.
I then coloured my images with Stampin' Blends, in Balmy Blue, Daffodil Delight, Granny Apple Green and Pecan Pie. I had stamped the images with Early Espresso.
I then stamped the sentiment of the cut out piece again with Early Espresso and adhered it on top with Stampin' Dimensionals.
I am really happy with how this card turned out even though it took way longer than it should have.
It is a really great technique and would love to see what you come up with if you try it.
Hop on over to the rest of the design teams' blogs and check out their creations
Happy stamping!