You've Got Flair card

As a consultant for Close to my Heart I try to show off the stamp of the month in cards, layouts and paper crafts during the month the stamp is available. The stamp of the month deal is a good one because if you spend $25 on products you can get it for 25% off. If you spend $50 or $75 in products you can get the stamp of the month for 50% or 75% respectively. The best deal is to spend $100 and get the stamp of the month for free. For July, the stamp of the month is one of my favorites because it's full of paisleys, it's called You've Got Flair. For me this immediately gets me thinking, "random stamping!" Not only do I love to random stamp but I also saw potential in this particular stamp set to try a technique I've wanted to try for awhile, baby wipe stamping. What is that, you ask? Well, keep reading.

Supplies you will need (not all shown):

Paper trimmer, Bubblegum and Creme Brulee paper, Bubblegum, Creme Brulee and Garden Green re-inkers and ink pads, a sponge, Glue Dots, the You've Got Flair stamp set (not available til July so choose another stamp set up til then, the Gratitude set is great for random stamping), a square window charm, stamp blocks, buttons and waxy flax that match, adhesive, a ruffled border punch and scissors.

My good friend and fellow consultant, Valerie Black, taught me how to use re-inkers with wipeys to make a multi-colored stamp pad. Up until I saw that I figured that I wouldn't have too much use for re-inkers until an ink pad goes dry but now, of course, I want them all! All you do is stack up 4 or 5 baby wipes in a pile and then squeeze droplets of the reinkers on them, allowing the colors to touch but not to mix too much or the colors will get muddied. Because I was using a large stamp I made sure that my inking area was large too.

Now here's the important part. Each time you stamp, using the wipeys as your stamp pad, you need to clean off your stamp. Because it's nearly impossible to place the stamp exactly on the colors the same way each time, you need to clean between stampings or the colors will get mixed up and brownish.


Now stamp over your paper. With random stamping it's good to try and think of making a triangle with every three stamps. Imagine that each time you stamp you are making one third of a triangular shape so that you could draw an imaginary line between the shapes that formed a triangle. It gives a little more purpose to your randomness, ha ha. With this particular stamp I also tried to turn it often to add variety to the stamping.

Once you've filled your page (don't forget to still use a sponge underneath your paper for good full stamp impressions), use a smaller stamp, I used the tiny flower, in between the larger stamps. This time I actually dipped my stamp purposely into the color of my choice, still using the wipes so that I could use the small flower as an accent for the big paisleys and complement the colors.
Cut the stamped paper about 7 3/4" by 5". Distress it with the Garden Green ink pad and a sponge. Then cut an 8 1/2" by 5 1/2" piece of Bubblegum paper.


Punch a ruffled edge along the short end of one side of the pink paper, distress then score and fold both pieces in the middle.
Attach the paisley paper to the pink, one side at a time works best so it folds smootly.

Stamp the sentiment on a strip of Creme Brulee paper you've cut 1 1/2" by 5 1/2" Attach to card about 1/4" above the paisley paper.

Choose another stamp off from the set you're working with and use it as an accent piece. I cut this 2" by 2" and then turned it diagonally. Distress and stamp the design.

Add the paisley embellishment to the left hand side of the card, about 1/4" above the bottom of the Creme Brulee strip.

Thread waxy floss through the buttons, tie them at the top, attach with glue dots.

Finally put the square window charm (remember it's self-adhesive)to the top of your embellishment, great 3-d look. You're all done, now go play and don't forget to check out the deal of the day.