Sunday, August 3, 2008

"Basic Grey" Tee: 2-Step Stamping Tips

You did know the "Little Tees" short sleeved images were 2-step, right? If you haven't seen anyone use them that way in a sample yet, I wanted to show a couple techniques you can do with the bold tee and outlined tee on the same card...

In these next pics I'll show you how I made my own tee to coordinate with my DP on the card. I stamped the outline tee first. (not pictured) Then I inked the bold tee in Blush Blossom (this ink looks terrific with the Sugared paper, but you can't really see it in the photo on this red rubber). The way you ink a bold stamp, either tapping on your pad, swiping, or "swirling" it around will change the "texture" of your tee when you stamp it, enjoy experimenting with that) Next I rolled the edges on my Burnt Umber pad...
and "kissed" on Asela's daisy with the same ink.
Now the trick to 2 step tee stamping: Peek under and line up the collar "tips" (each corner) with your stamped line art tee collar tips at the top, then lay it down gently toward you, still peeking til you get to the bottom of the tee. (normally I would hold the block with both hands but I had to take the pic!)
If you are careful and self correct as you finish it at the bottom(meaning wiggle it slightly left or right as you come down to line up, it's easy to see this edge that's closest to you), you should get a perfect match without a stampamajig, ta da!! Doesn't that look cool?! A colored, shaded tee with a design on it in that one step without needing to mask, I love it!! Just for fun I went in later and added a tiny bit of More Mustard ink with my Aquapainter to my daisy before stamping "birthday girl" over it. Don't I have a great-looking artsy, vintage tee now, a terrific match for that weathered looking Sugared Basic Grey paper? (I'd wear that!...actually, I think I have one that looks a little like this!)
Try it when you're paper piecing, too! With this shading, now your pieced shirts won't look as "flat". (You could cut the shirt out and just sponge the edges, too, but the effect will be different from rolling) If you try stamping the bold tee first I will tell you in my experience, getting the two to line up the two is very difficult, I won't say impossible, but I have yet to get it right doing that way, so please save yourself some frustration!! You can see a side by side comparison here of me switching the order...
SO, outline first, bold second (an easy way to remember this, just like when you stamp and image and then color, you need an outline before you can shade :)


More card details: I added the "Sugared" glazed brads to the punched out SU! Photo corners after stamping them and my DP layer with this Kelly Panacci stitching (it's on the corners too but I don't know if you can tell from the pic). (Added a little sponging with the Burnt Umber on the white mat, too, so it wouldn't be so bright) One other thing I did here was cut my DP on the bias so I could have my print going diagonally, rather than the flowers just going up and down, just to be different, a way to change the look of you pattern. Simply turn your DP in the cutter and slice off a side, then turn so that cut side is lined up with the bottom of your cutter and cut the second side at a right angle, repeat til you have a square mat. (You will have some excess, but these scraps are great for tags, punches etc so go for it!! I've learned life is too short to hoard LOL!!)


Hey, please tell me what you think: do you prefer seeing the finished card at the top of the post so you can skip all the yadayada after it if you want, or see each step and then BAM! surprise! here's the card!! hmmm....


PS Yes, I know my stamps and blocks are terrifically inky/dirty. Don't you know cleaning them only when it's absolutely necessary* frees up oodles of time to stamp?? (Carolyn and I agreed on this point at CHA: if you're going to use a color, clean your stamp, otherwise "just leave 'em black..."**)


* Cleaning them to take nice looking photos for your blog is not considered absolutely necessary. You know what a clean block looks like already, don't you? :)

**I know half of you are shuddering at the thought, but the other half are saying "right on!!!" ;)

19 comments:

  1. I like the sample at the top and then I can scroll through for the yadda yadda if I need more deets. (Tim Holtz does it tha way on his tutorials, so it must be good, right?) I so agree w/ you about cleaning stamps too. I rarely clean my sentiments as they are usually stamped in black. Love the shirt details and the card BTW.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've never let me stamps stay "dirty" but now I'm rethinking it - especially the images that are always stamped in black.....Hummm Oh and I Love the T-card! And that's a "T" I would wear as well! Thanks for sharing all your T-tricks....I'm gonna ink mine up again in a little bit...

    (and I like the pics at the top!)

    Laura Jean

    ReplyDelete
  3. I also like the sample at the top cause I´m curious, can´t help it. :)
    And this Tee is so cute, the technique is fantastic and I would like to see so much more about what to do with the Tees. Maybe my Tees arrive in a few days, almost can´t wait to get them.
    By the way, I always clean my stamps right away, but you make me think about it once again. Maybe I should have a try...

    Love your blog an ideas! Greetings from Germany, Tina

    ReplyDelete
  4. I like the build up to the surpise at the end, but I can see why it would be handy if folks don't want the details to have it early. They can scroll though, we can "unsee" it once it is there.

    Love all your sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oops. I need to preview my comments. I meant "unsee" once we have seen it. They can scroll down to it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love your card and great two-step stamping lesson.

    I have to clean my stamps. It's a compulsion.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I really like the sample at the top. I love to open the blog and POW! There's a great piece of art. I have gotta get this Tee set. I always clean my stamps, that way I never have to be concerned about any color transfer because I always know. But hey, I certainly do not have any complaints about what anyone else does with theirs! Also, I love this daisy tee. If only the shirts in the stores were this cute. . .

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oooooh....yeah!!! I'm LOVIN' the Basic Grey for these amazing Tees!!! Wish they really made some this awesome in my size!!! LOL

    I also love the finished sample at the top 'cuz that's the EYE-POPPING candy!!!! I **do** enjoy reading your post and seeing all the steps too!!

    And this cheerleader is one of those saying "RIGHT ON"!!!!! If I spent time cleaning every image I use with mostly permanent black ink....where would my creative time go??? I wouldn't have any!!!! LOL

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love both shirts. Thanks for sharing how you make your beautiful cards.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Great card, I would love to have one to wear. Thank you for the tip on lining up the stamps, what a time saver. I have to clean my stamps right away, I am a little to OCD, to not clean them. And to answer your question, I like having the whole card at the top of a post. TFS

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yep, I like the finished product first! Too funny(about cleaning your stamps0! I wish I wasn't so neurotic so that was an option for me!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I just love the daisy on the tee and the sponged edges thanks for showing us this. And yes, I love the finished card on the top of the page because thats how I determine if I want to scroll down and read on. As far as dirty stamps, I say a dirty stamp is well-loved stamp. I don't understand why fellow stampers feel the need to have clean and pristine stamps. Dirtiness doesn't affect the image! Anyhow, better for me! I can get my stamps off of ebay much cheaper if they are dirty than if they are clean! LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I love the effect, I would have thought for sure it was paper pieced! I'll have to try this but I'm not holding my breath for a perfect alignement, I suck at this! LOL That's why I prefer acrylic stamps so much! ;-)

    And I like the pic at the beginning of a post. It's true that sometimes after reading details you have to go back to check them out, but having the picture last wouldn't help cause I would have forgotten the details by the time I reach the pic!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Super cute card. I like the card after the tutorial. I found myself scrolling back up after each step.

    ReplyDelete
  15. This is awesome!! Love the tutorial. It doesn't really matter to me where you put the finished pic as long as it's on there somewhere! :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. this is gorgeous! fantastic tutorial!
    And, you know I'm with you on my stamp cleaning. I'm so bad with it. I'm always moving on to the next thing, trying something new, and too busy to go back and meticulously clean my stamps. Besides, I actually think they work a little better that way.....

    ReplyDelete

Your generous feedback helps make my work and this blog better! Thanks for inspiring and motivating me! :)