Stretch Your Stamps: Day 4

Day 4 and I am still keeping up. This isn't the norm for me when I takes classes like these. Usually I start falling behind by day 2, lol. Today's class was all about graphic style stamps. Up to and including today I have been using stamps that I already own and not what they taught with. I figured the idea was to stretch the stamps I all ready own instead of buying a whole bunch on new sets. That being said I did order (and am currently waiting for delivery) of 6 of the 11 stamps they are teaching with. The reason I bought those six was because 4 of them I wasn't sure if I had the style in my collection. The other two I got becuase I just wanted them (and those two were from Day 1 & 4). Today's cards were created with PTI's Mod Squad and Gracious Vases (for the sentiments). I chose this set because I consider to be my only "graphic" set, and because every time I see it I can only of think of the 70's. Since this class is all about stretching our stamps I thought I would give it a try. I love how I was able to create two completely different cards and neither look 70ish to me :)

Left Card: This is a very simple 4.25 x 4.25 card using the smaller border graphic along the bottom and a sentiment just above it. Both were stamped with Shomky Shadow ink from PTI. Since I used a grey color I soften then card a little by just rounding the corners. Jennifer McGuire used a Paper Smooches set to create some flowers for her card and when I pulled out this set I thought I could do something similar.

Right Card: I wanted to keep with the CAS style but also wanted to make something a little more elegant and in a different size (this is 6x3). This is a style I have never considered before with this set. In fact, up until today I really only thought it would be good for retro 70's inspired cards. I used two different graphic images to create the petals and the leaves. The petals is the reservse stamp of the image I used for the leaves. I stamped each "petal" a second time so that I could curve them and give the petals some depth. I added the bling in the center to cover where everything meets up to give the flower a finished look. The flower looked to stark against the white for my liking so I pulled a frame from a WMS set called Vintage Labels 1 to frame the flower. I stamped it in a light grey and used the same ink for the sentiment. For a finishing touch I added a strip of 1/8" score tape and then covered it in glitter. Simple yet elegant. What I really like about this card is that even with the depth and curved petals it is flat enough to send through regular postage :)