Christmas Card from an Oldie But Goodie!

 MORE GOOD NEWS!  

THIS CARD IS NAMED A

SPLITCOASTSTAMPERS FAVORITE OF THE

WEEK ENDING - SEPTEMBER 9, 2017!!

I own what is now considered a vintage stamp, produced in 1995 by Personal Stamp Exchange (PSX) Stamps.  It is a stamp I have actually never used, but always wanted to.  There is, of course, a story behind my owning it, but never using it.  Well, I decided it was time to dig it out and use it to make my second Christmas card for 2017, and enter some challenges at Splitcoaststampers as well!  Take a peek below at my finished card, and then jump down to "The Story" below if you are interested.

Ingredients:  Papers: Master's Touch 140# Watercolor Paper (WalMart); Core'dinations Silk Glitter Opulent Oval cs; Stampin' Up Night of Navy (card base).  Stamp: PSX (Personal Stamp Exchange)--Dasher Dash Away All!  Stamp: Ink--Stampin' Up: Night of Navy, Rose Red, Marine Mist; Versamark--Watermark Ink.  Paint: Folk Art Metallic Pearl White (splatters).  Gelly Roll White Gel Pen.  Stampin' Up White Embossing Powder.  Offray Ribbon: White/Silver Organdy (stash).  MISTI Stamping Tool.  Techniques: Heat Embossing; Watercolor background; Splattering.  Size: 4-3/4" x 6".  Inside: Computer verse.

"The Story"

In 1996, I was the office manager for a brand new elementary school to which our staff had been transferred.  The principal was a very classy lady with whom I got along famously.  She really wanted our Christmas card for our new school to be very original, handmade, and using our school colors, which were navy, forest green, and maroon.  I went out on a search for the perfect idea, thus visiting Joanns, Michaels, and the local craft store.  I found this Night Before Christmas stamp that I fell in love with, but didn't really know if it would suit the principal...I could see it with gold stamping mat layers of navy and forest green, with some possibly in navy and maroon.  

I was crafting, but if you've read my blog at all, you will know that I did not become a cardmaker until 2008!  I knew nothing about papers, stamping, ink, embossing, etc., etc....so I had no idea how any of this could be accomplished, but I decided when we made a decision on what we'd do, I learn somehow!

I bought the stamp personally, because I thought it was too pricey for our school budget, and I love it.  My youngest daughter, who was a teen-ager, loved to stamp thinks and had lots of little stamps and cheap inks, so I figured eventually it would not go to waste, right!  I inked up the stamp and tried to stamp it, and found it had lots of gaps in the printing, and I could not get a good, clean image...so we did not use it at school.

When I began making cards, I did not learn embossing right away, so still didn't use it.  I did find that I did not LIKE wood stamps because it was difficult to tell where they would land and were often difficult to ink up, especially if large...so my stamp continue to stay buried away.  As the years passed, I see it every now and then at Christmas time, but by then I really didn't like wood stamps and knew it didn't ink up well.

A year ago or so, I learned wood stamps can be unmounted and made into rubber stamps used on an  acyrlic block, but not being too familiar with this trick...the stamp continue to sit.  Then came my MISTI, and I seriously became interested in unmounting this lovely Christmas stamp to see if I could get a better imprint with my MISTI.  Recently, I saw a challenge on Splitcoaststampers called "Oldies but Goodies," and I seriously became interested. 

A few nights ago, I wasn't sleeping well, so up I popped, the stamp to the microwave and stripped it with foam pad attached from its wood.  The image on this stamp was not an acyrlic sheet glued to the wood, but rather it varnished right onto the wood, therefore, I could not remove it.  My solution for this problem is to ink up the stamp and stamp on a small sheet of white printer paper just larger than the stamped image.  I take this stamped paper and many strips, vertically and horizontally, of my tape runner, and glued it down to the foam pad.  Next, I cover this stamped paper with 3" wide clear 3M tape covering the entire paper surface (at school, we called this library tape) and then fussy-cut around the taped paper up to the edge of the rubber.  When I'm ready to stamp with it, I run a few very small tape strips on the clear tape and stick it to my MISTI.  Now, it's ready to use just like any other stamp!

My first card above is done with Versamark Watercolor Ink in order to apply an embossed finished...in this case white embossing powder, which is heat set with your heat embossing tool (like a very hot mini blow dryer).  When the powder is heated, it becomes shiny.  The stamp was still difficult to ink up and took 6 applications over and over of Versamark to get it all inked, especially the word Vixen and Away, after Dash!  But, I managed and I do LOVE the stamp!!  I'm so excited that I finally used it!