Perfect Repeating Pattern w/Dawn ft. HAPPY WISHES

Hello crafty friends! I have a fun technique to share today. And I'll warn you ahead of time, it is addictive!

I don't know about you, but I'm a sucker for a pretty pattern. However, I have a love/hate relationship with patterned paper. I love to look at it, but I hate to cut into it! Hence why I love to stamp out my own.

I can't tell you how many times I get halfway through stamping out a pattern only to stamp an image too close or not close enough and then the "seamless" is off, or one area overlaps that shouldn't. Now normally I go with the flow and figure out a way to cover or cut out that area, but sometimes I have to start over.

Today's technique shows you how to take out the guess work and stamp perfect patterns every time. With the tiniest bit of pre-planning, you'll be stamping out as many pretty patterns as you'd like.

Watch above or watch in HD at YouTube

Bonus? Once you've set up your "template", it can be reused again and again with different color combinations!

Let me apologize up front for the poor picture quality today. My DSLR settings seem to have mysteriously gone awry, combined with a rainy day(s)...and well, you get the point. I'll have to figure that out.

This is one of those that is definitely a show, rather than tell technique, so be sure to watch the video. Here, I'll go over each card along with the color combos and products used. You will need a stamp positioning tool for this - I've used the standard sized MISTI - but whichever you have will do. As the name suggests, repeating pattern, you will be doing a lot of repetitive stamping of a simple floral motif. The MISTI makes this super quick, easy, and best of all...accurate.

All of the patterns today were stamped using the Happy Wishes stamp set. (All products will be listed at the end of this post for reference) This first pair of cards comes from the same pattern. I stamped out a 6x6" inch pattern using the following Wplus9 PURECOLOR ink color combination:

Color Combo 1

• Warm Wool
• Flamingo
• Fairy Dust
• Wild Mango
• Last Leaf

For the first card, I trimmed a 4 x 5.25" panel from the patterned paper and mounted it to a standard card base with foam tape. The sentiment, also from Happy Wishes was stamped onto a die cut circle using the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Circle wafer dies. To accent the sentiment, I stamped a few extra floral elements, die cut them using the Happy Wishes Die and used them to flanked the sentiment with a few floral clusters.

I had some left over pieces of pattern from where I trimmed out the panel from the first card, and used them to die cut a couple of envelopes from using the Love Notes Die. I also cut a few of the floral images from the patterned scraps using the Happy Wishes Die.

I arranged all of the pieces in a little vignette and stamped my sentiment below it.

I knew I wanted to place all of this on a white base, but it felt a little too plain with all of the white on white, so I added a little bit of texture to the background using my score board and stylus. I have a video on this technique in this post for more on how to do that.

The next card uses the same color combo as the previous ones, except I chose to use a bit more of Last Leaf. Switching up which color you use more predominately in a pattern can give it a whole different feel.

I trimmed this one down to 5" square and mounted it to a 5.25" card base. Again, I used the same main sentiment and added the "on your special day" and placed both on a hexagon label die cut from the Clear Cut Stackers: Hexagon Die. More little floral images stamped and die cut flank the top and bottom of the sentiment.

This time I added some texture to the background by using a couple sizes of the Clear Cut Stackers: Hexagon Die to dry emboss instead of cutting. I nested them in the center of my background and swapped out my cutting mats for my embossing mats in the Big Shot. This allows the dies to emboss rather than cut.

The next card uses many of the same colors, but I swapped out the Fairy Dust for Miami Spice. I also changed my floral motif a bit and used some different images from the set.

Color Combo 2

• Warm Wool
• Flamingo
• Miami Spice
• Wild Mango
• Last Leaf

I trimmed the paper down to 4 x 5.25", cutting from the side rather than the middle makes the pattern appear to be more random. If you prefer to retain the "radial" effect of the pattern, be sure to cut your panel from the center of your paper. Again, I used the Clear Cut Stackers: Hexagon Die to cut a hexagon from my pattern and nested a smaller hexagon inside with my sentiment. This time I used the Bold Banner Greetings stamp set.

And this final card really just lets the pattern shine. I used the following color combo:

Color Combo 3

• Warm Wool
• Sweet Nectar
• Shell Pink
• Nautical Navy
• Last Leaf
• Sea Breeze

This time I used the MISTI to stamp out only the largest elements - the large leaf segment and the large flowers. I then came in and hand stamped the rest of the filler images in a more random pattern to fill in the empty spaces. I made sure to repeat some of the same elements across the clusters but didn't worry about making them exact. For the sentiment, I stamped "you're the best" from the Basic Labels stamp set in the middle.

I hope you enjoyed today's projects and that it gives you some ideas on ways to use this technique. Try it with different images like critters or basic shapes, layering stamps and outlined images. The possibilities are endless!

Thanks for stopping by and I will see you next time!

Featured Supplies

For your convenience, here is a list of the featured supplies used on today's project(s), along with links to purchase. Please note: this list contains affiliate links.

Wplus9 White Cardstock Shop at: WP9	Wplus9 PURE COLOR Nautical Navy Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	3M Scotch DOUBLE-SIDED FOAM TAPE Shop at: SSS	Ranger Multi-Medium Matte Shop at: SSS
EK Success CRAFT TWEEZERS Precision Tip Shop at: SSS	We R Memory Keepers TRIM AND SCORE Board Shop at: SSS	Wild Mango PURE COLOR Dye INk Shop at: WP9	Flamingo PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9
Wplus9 Basic Labels Stamp Set Shop at: WP9	Wplus9 Dove Grey Cardstock Shop at: WP9	Wplus9 Gift Card Layers Die Shop at: WP9	Miami Spice PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9
Last Leaf PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Sea Breeze PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Sweet Nectar PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Warm Wool PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9
Tombow MONO Adhesive PERMANENT Tape Dispenser Shop at: SSS	Bold Banner Greetings Shop at: WP9	Fairy Dust PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Simon Says Stamp STITCHED CIRCLES Wafer Dies Shop at: SSS
Happy Wishes Shop at: WP9	PURE COLOR Shell Pink Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Clear Cut Stackers: Hexagon Shop at: WP9	Lawn Fawn Glue Tube Shop at: SSS | EH
Tim Holtz Tonic GLASS MEDIA MAT Shop at: SSS	MISTI Precision Stamping Tool Shop at: SSS | EH	Gemini Junior Shop at: SSS	Happy Wishes Die Shop at: WP9
Love Notes Die Shop at: WP9

GUEST ARTIST FEATURE: Hello & Thanks w/Norine Borys

Hello friends, this is Norine Borys and I’m very happy to be back with you again today for a guest post. I have 3 cards to share with you, because as usual, I couldn’t stop at just one stamp set or card design. I stamped all of today’s cards onto Strathmore Bristol smooth card stock and colored them with Distress Markers and a water brush.

The first two cards are a variation of each other, one being a vertical design and the other a horizontal card. I stamped the images for each with the MISTI so that I could get the same placement for each one.

For both cards, I stamped with Versamark Ink and heat embossed with gold embossing powder. I began by stamping the Fierce & Fabulous sentiment, but I wanted to simplify the sentiment by letting it just say “you are fabulous”. I did this by placing my stamp in the MISTI, then covering the “fierce” and “amazing” with two strips of tape, inking up the rest of the stamp, removing the tape and then stamping on the card stock and heat embossing. Next, I put the card stock back in the MISTI and stamped again with two of the floral sets from the Hello & Thanks stamp set again, positioning them to fit the arrangement of the word “fabulous”.

For the card above, I colored the flowers and leaves with some of the same colors as I used on the first card I shared. I used a water brush to blend and move the color, and shared some of that color to blend into the background behind the flowers and the sentiment words and finished off with some water brushed ink splatters. I used a stitched rectangle die to cut out the card panel and popped it up onto a card front covered with a couple of coordinating patterned papers.

For the second card, I left a few of the flowers white, lightly shading them with some grey ink so it didn’t look like I just forgot to color them (grin), and color-painted the leaves blooms and background as I did above. I die cut this panel smaller and aligned it on a portrait oriented card front with a coordinating cardstock mat and some striped patterned paper. Once again, some Tonic Studio Nuvo Drops complete these cards.

The last card I'm sharing today, again uses the Hello & Thanks stamp set, but this time I've paired it with the Tossed Florals stamp set.

The background is stamped all over with the Tossed Florals stamp using Versafine Onyx Black ink and the focal image is a combination of images masked and built with the Hello & Thanks stamp set, the teacup, saucer, one of the floral bouquets and the “hello” sentiment.

I used the same colors of markers for the teacup image as I’d used for the background to keep everything cohesive, and once colored (painted?) and dry, I splattered with the same colors by scribbling onto my splat mat and picking up the color with a very wet paint brush and tapping lightly above the paper to rain down tiny sprinkle dots. Then I stamped the sentiment over top and heat embossed with clear embossing powder to help it stand out. I die cut the focal image with a stitched square die and matted it with a grey card stock that matched my ink color and popped that up with some dimensional foam tape. A few Tonic Nuvo Drops in silver grey complete this card.

Thanks for stopping by today and thank you to WPlus9 for the invitation to be a guest designer today! I always love playing with WPlus9 product and I’m delighted to be able to share that with you! If you’d like to see more of what I do, you can find me at www.thevelvetlemon.com or on Instagram: @norinehope. Have a wonderful day!

Norine

Using Small Images w/Kara ft. GARDEN BUDDIES

Hello again. It's Kara. With Spring fast approaching, I decided to bring out another great set centered on gardening called Garden Buddies.

This is such a cute set. For me, the best feature of this set are all of the small details. The watering can, spade, bird... All these tiny images are so adorable and versatile.

I used them here to create an all-over background design as well as part of the focal point. For the background I added all of the stamps to an acrylic block and stamped them all at once. Then I just kept turning the stamp until that background was full. It looks random, but took no time at all to stamp.

I love this little girl with her arms outstretched. She appears to be juggling all of those little images. I colored them with Copic markers. The circle was cut with the large circle from Love Mom Layers and colored with a little yellow Distress Ink.

Super simple to create, but an adorable way to send some sunshine to a friend or loved one!

Featured Supplies

For your convenience, here is a list of the featured Wplus9 supplies used on today's project(s), along with links to purchase.

Wplus9 White Cardstock Shop at: WP9	Wplus9 Black Cardstock Shop at: WP9	Wplus9 4 Bar Stitched Rectangles Die Shop at: WP9	Wplus9 Love Mom Layers Die Shop at: WP9
Garden Buddies Shop at: WP9	Garden Buddies Die Shop at: WP9