Mastering the Art of the Silhouette Stamp

Mastering the Art of the Silhouette Stamp

I LOVE the ease and simplicity of combining colorful backgrounds with silhouette stamps! There are SO many cool, inky techniques that can be used to create backgrounds.  And those backgrounds can really "pop" with a simple solid silhouette image (or images) stamped over them.

And then the mad stamping scientist in me wondered: "What would happen if the silhouette stamp image was also approached as we do the background?  What if I turn that solid silhouette into a colorful image with defined sections using both color and dimension?"

And just like that....a fun inky embossing technique was born!

As you can see, the stamp I used was a nicely detailed solid silhouette which makes a great statement when stamped in black ink over a multitude of backgrounds.  (This stamp is from an image I drew for Impression Obsession Rubber Stamps.)  However, adding color to the actual image, along with heat embossed dimension changes not only the entire look, but also the process.  Instead of overstamping the silhouette image onto a colorful background that has already been created, the background is actually created last with this technique.  

Here is how....

Lion Stroll Card

Supplies:

Impression Obsession Rubber Stamps: 

     J7950 Lions

     CC234 Bark

Clearsnap:

    Colorbox®️ Petal Point Classic Pigment Inkpad (Arboretum, Envy)

    Colorbox®️ Embossing Powder (Clear)

    Top Boss®️ Embossing Stamp pad

    Colorbox®️ Premium Dye ink pads: Banana, Tangerine, Guava, Grape, Blueberry

    Colorbox®️ Archival Dye ink pads: Mudslide, Seattle Sky

    Art Daubers

Beacon Adhesives:

    Zip Dry®️ Paper Glue

    Premium Tacky Glue

Heat tool

White, tan, black and decorative cardstock.

Yarn or ribbon trim

Instructions:

1. Place Lion stamp rubber side up. Remove desired color sections from the Petal Point inkpads. Using the tip of each section, apply ink directly to the Lions stamp, blending as desired.
2. Stamp the lions onto 4" x 6" white cardstock. Pour clear embossing powder over the image; tap off excess.  Heat until melted. 
3. Beginning in the center with Banana, use Art Daubers to apply Premium Dye ink. Use the remaining colors in the order in which they are listed to create a sunrise sky. Since the lions were heat embossed, that clear embossed layer acts as a resist mask so the dye ink only sticks to the area around the lion image.  
4. Apply Seattle Sky and Mudslide on the Bark stamp; stamp image onto a 5" x 7" tan notecard. 
5. Trim remaining cardstock; attach all the layers to card using Zip Dry®️ Paper Glue.

And then there was the surprise "Bonus" card.  

Since pigment ink remained on the Lion stamp after the initial stamping step, I wanted to first "stamp off" the ink before using my ink cleaner pad. Then I decided to experiment.  Instead of just using scrap paper, I decided to "stamp off" the image onto a piece of coated white cardstock.  While the resulting image is not the densely colored, crisp image we saw in the first card, the "stamp off" image had instead a softer, more ethereal look with an interesting painterly quality.  I then paired this stamped image with a soft background cardstock and wheat yarn trim (attached around the image using Premium Tacky Glue).  I love surprise inky techniques and am SO very pleased with this second "bonus" card!   

What do you think about these two fun looks using Silhouette stamps???!!!