Kissed Blossom

This card uses Big Blossom, one of this year's Sell-A-Bration sets, and the Linen background stamp to create the background image for the card. The technique to create the flower image on the cardfront is called "Kissing in Reverse." This creates a tone-on-tone look by using one stamp (here, Big Blossom) to remove ink from another (here, Linen). Here are step-by-step directions for this technique.

Ink the Linen background stamp using a brayer. A brayer is a great tool to use with large background stamps, especially those with small details. Using the brayer ensures that the stamp surface is covered evenly. If you rub or pat the ink pad over the stamp surface, sometimes you'll get lines of ink and those will show up on your stamped image.

Take the Big Blossom stamp and press it over the inked surface of the Linen stamp. This will remove some of the ink from the Linen stamp.

Put a piece of cardstock on top of the Linen background stamp. I find it easier to position the stamp straight if I set the paper on the stamp, instead of trying to center the stamp on a piece of paper. Cover the cardstock with a piece of paper and rub the stamp to stamp the image. I've found that this is a good way to prevent extra ink on the stamp from getting all over me--or all over parts of my project that I don't want inked up!

Lift up the cardstock to see the final image. I trimmed my image a little and matted it with another piece of cardstock, then put it on a cardfront with some additional embellishments.

Materials Used (all from Stampin' Up!):

Linen, Big Blossom, and Tagger's Dozen stamps; Regal Rose, Taken with Teal, and Whisper White cardstock; Regal Rose and Taken with Teal Classic inks; Regal Rose craft ink; Iridescent Ice embossing powder; stampin' dimensionals; small and regular tag punches; rose grosgrain ribbon; white eyelet