Hand-in-Hand Tip Sheet

I hope you will find "Hand in Hand" to be one of the most versatile and unique sets in your collection. Below is a compilation of my tips for it so far, but I'm sure it will grow. As always, I'll be sharing projects illustrating these tips right here on my blog! Links have been provided throughout for projects you can see right now with these stamps.

The simplicity of these line art images allows these hands to be genderless and ageless (no nails, wrinkles or age spots!), to create a timeless look for whomever you need to send a card, man or woman, young or old (except obviously for the images that include tiny hands, those ARE intended to be a baby and a child!)

All greetings can, of course, be mixed and matched with the different images, but they have been placed next to, above, or below a greeting that works perfectly with it and is already centered, so you may want to make one cut in between the greeting and the image and then put them back together on your block when you’re ready to use them both.

Experiment with a variety of flesh tone pencils, markers of watercolors to make your hands match exactly match the two people you wish to represent, see Emily's sample.

No time to color?
They look terrific stamped in a monochromatic color scheme. Imagine pink or blue for a new baby card or announcement!
Emboss images and greetings with EP for easy elegance!
Simply stamp in black on white for a dramatic card.
Piece on colored/patterned or textured gloves or mittens by stamping on DP and drawing a line across the wrist or arm at the desired length, and then cut and adhere to your stamped image.

Think pajamas for the baby(see peek above, full sample coming up!), an elegant dress sleeve and suit for the wedding couple (Kurtis ), etc!

Makes fantastic masculine cards in earthy tones.

The baby hand holding the finger makes not only adorable announcements, showers, welcome baby and baptism cards, but is gorgeous for Christmas as well!

The two images with the hands held down by their sides, can be turned upside down to look like a pair holding their hands up in victory when Pair this with the "Congrats!" greeting! (Very celebratory!) Or pair with the "hope is faith" quote and they look like praying hands, see Asela's sample.

The paired images that are reaching out to each other can be stamped horizontally, or tipped to the left or right, whichever works best for your particular layout, or tilted to convey that you are helping someone UP (or thanking them for helping YOU)!

Stamping greetings on vellum and laying it over the hand images give your card a beautiful, dreamy quality, see Carolyn's sample.

All images and greetings are fabulous framed up in the various Nestabilities shapes!

Place your shaped die around the image and then trace with a pen to give the line drawing a custom looking frame! Choose one that fits exactly, or is just a bit bigger and then extend the lines of the wrists to the edge with your pen.

Sponge around the edges of your mats to give the special hand-holding moment a “glow”, see Theresa's sample.

Have fun with your embellishments by creating bracelets or rings with stick-on rhinestones or halfback pearls for the wrists and fingers!

Adhere fibers around the wrists to make little “friendship” bracelets.

Stamp small images (like the flower or heart with arrow in “Just So Hippy”) or doodle on your own images to look like arm or hand tattoos or like a teen/tween just scribbled on themselves. ( Have fun with that, imagine writing on a phone number or “reminder” LOL!)

Try adding a bit of colored "polish" to the fingertips for nails!

Make a slit on either side of the wrist and pull a little chain with a charm through, this is a beautiful way to present a real bracelet or necklace to someone.

Greetings can go with ANY stamp images in your collection! They also work fabulously with Gina K’s “Kindred Spirit” line of people images (Similarly, the "Kindred Greetings" also go great with these new "Hand-in-Hand"images!)

Make little tags with the separate words: “Sweethearts” etc…

Single words are plural to give you even more options!! Example: ink up the whole word to send a card to a couple that are “Soulmates”, OR omit the last “S”, inking up the rest of your stamp with a marker to give a special card to your “Soulmate” (you can do the same with “Sweethearts” and “Friends”)

Make a “progressive” card or page showing three of the hand vignettes to represent your growing child and relationship with him or her paired with photos, using the words in the stamps to label “Baby”, Child”, “Friend” . This design would make a great waterfall card!

“My Valentine” can be trimmed so that you can use the word “my” separately to make “My Friend”, "My Child", “My baby”, etc. When cutting in between words, I always bend my stamp back on either side so the place I'm snipping is pushing toward me and the words are pulling away from each other, this prevents cutting into one of your letters by mistake!

Ink up just the “Sweet” in "Sweetheart" to create “Sweet Baby”, “Sweet Child”, “Sweet Friend”

The hands with the “Hope is faith holding out its hand in the darkness” is perfect for get well, sympathy, or any “cause” cards you need to create. Great for caregivers, organizations that need donations, etc.

Great for:
Photo projects
Frames
Scrapbooks
Bookmarks
Framed art/Plaques

Memory/keepsake boxes

Polyshrink friendship bracelets/jewelry

Makes Perfect cards for :
Valentine’s Day
Wedding
Mother’s day
Father’s Day
Anniversary
Encouragement
Get well
Sympathy
Just because
Friendship/love
Birth announcements
Baptism
Baby/Bridal shower
Best wishes
Congrats!
...everything!!!)

See my blog http://melaniemuenchinger.blogspot.com/ and the rest of our talented team for more inspiration and samples illustrating each of these tips AND please share your great ideas too, I’d love to see and hear!