good morning! welcome to my first papertrey ink design team tips post! one of the things we talked about during the roundtable last week for the release party live was how we get started on our release projects. sometimes i have a specific design in mind and set to work on getting that one on paper first, but more often i just start stamping die cuts to get the ball rolling and creative juices flowing. i thought i'd elaborate on how i maximize my stamp positioner for doing that efficiently in order to save time and be more productive.
basically, i like to set up my stamps in such a way that i can keep stamping die cuts as needed without moving the stamps and having to line them up again once i settle on a design or move on to the next idea using the same stamp set and dies. this way of setting things up is particularly helpful for multi-step stamping and even allows me to have more consistent stamp placement on my die cuts.
for the birthday cake in particular, this meant making a few extra masks to drop my die cuts in - one for each detail layer since i wanted to stamp cakes in all the different combinations. i also had two masks for the full cake on the cake plate, one for each of the two layers of the cake plate image (i like to layer the cake die cut on top of the plate die cut for a little depth and dimension). first, i placed the stamps on the door and stamped them with the graph paper placed firmly into the lower left corner, then i carefully placed the die cut masks around each image with magnets holding them in place. if you don't have that many magnets, you can use washi tape so you can still reuse them later.
once set up, you simply drop the dies into the masks and stamp. for example, after stamping the full cake in the top left spot, i dropped it into one of the detail layer spots to add the icing detail, like the one still sitting in the criss-cross pattern mask on the second row. ditto for the cake plate, shown after stamping the edge detail bottom right. you can stamp as many as you want without having to move stamps and line things up again. and even if your mask moves, your stamp still matches the image, so you only have to make sure the paper is snug in the lower left corner and realign the mask. you can even stamp more than one die cut at a time.
of course, once you have all those pretty colorful die cuts, it's time to make a card! i tackled today's project organically, stamping the cakes first, then seeing what i could come up with after. i found a leftover light blue tissue paper fiesta flag: birthday flag die cut from my previous release projects (tissue paper ironed onto freezer paper for extra durability) and applied that with spray adhesive for a quick card layer. i placed one cake where it matched up to the flag, along with one more offset on each side of the first to expand on the sentiment, "let's eat cake!" which i added to a banner layered over the banner on the flag.
i just love the fun fiesta cakes in bright colors. this would be perfect for a birthday card or even a congrats or let's celebrate card, any cake eating occasion really! with misti and other similar stamp positioners on the market, stamping die cuts has never been so quick and easy. and consistent too - i barely have mess ups to throw away anymore! so i hope this little tip helps you stamp up a big batch of something fun and put them to good use.
happy stamping!
:) lexi
stamp it:
