Tuesday Technique: Stamp Your Heart Out

There is a new challenge up over at the Lily Bee blog...it involves using stamps to create your own cardstock background.

I am really enjoying stamping these days.  When Melissa Mann issued this challenge, I had an idea.  I decided to use all the word blocks to create my own grid.  I inked, stamped and tried out my idea...I did not like my design.

Back to the drawing board.  Sometimes this happens.  When it does, I walk away.  It is like a fight with your spouse.  Leave the situation, give it space.  You love it so you will return with fresh eyes, ready to fix things.

Often times, a new idea presents itself in the time I have walked away.  Such an idea popped in...I was determined to make my own spider web using the Lily Bee stamps.  I looked up how to draw a spider web and discovered that you should start with an X.

Off I went, back to repair things with my layout.  I feel like we made up.

To create this web, I drew my X with a pencil and then added other straight, diagonal lines.  I grabbed the dotted line stamp from the Christmas Cheer line...that stamp went right over the pencil marks to form my straight lines.

I decided to make the curved lines using a line of hearts stamp from the Persnickety collection.  I placed the heart stamp on a curve on my stamping block.  Then I just planned out how many hearts I would need to ink.  The top curve required 8-10 where the inside curves only needed 3-5 hearts inked.  It really was a piece of cake.

Out for Publication!!

With such a big element, I kept the rest of the layout simple.  A journaling index card and some banner triangles...just a few patterns and colors.

Lily Bee stamps offer so much...how will you use them on your next project?  Head to the blog to see how to participate in the challenge!