Hey Procraftinators!
Today, I am part of a fun hop sponsored by Kitchen Sink Stamps! Several of us are going to be featuring their multi-layered stamps. This is also a giveaway hop, open to American and Canadian Residents. The giveaway rules and link to the giveaway are over on my YouTube channel, in the description box. So, be sure to go check that out, you don't want to miss it!
Before I started this project, I took the SVG files that were included with the stamp set that I am working with, which is the Lilies stamp set and I made myself a layering jig in Cricut Design Space. I will be releasing a separate video on the exact process on how I did this for anyone interested in how to to make a jig like this for stamp sets that include SVG files. I did a separate video for that, as not everyone has a Cricut and this video was teetering on the long side for a video hop. The link for that video is HERE, for anyone that is interested in watching how to do that. But I will be using my layering jigs throughout this demonstration to show you how easy they are to mass produce layered stamped images.
I started by stamping the largest single flower in the Lilies stamp set. To use this jig, you can either line up each stamp one by one as you need each layer or you can line them all up before you start any stamping. It's up to you. For this flower, I am going to line them up one by one. I found for the flowers, it was easier for me to do it that way The first stamp, is the most solid layer and is the easiest to line up. It fits right in this jig hole perfectly snug. 
Once I get it stamped, I will line up the second layer stamp. move this first die cut to the second position and bring in a new die cut flower for the first layer position. The second layer stamp, also fits snugly in the jig hole, so this one is also extremely easy to get lined up.
Once those are both stamped, I take the first die cut and I move it to the third position and I use it to line up my third layer stamp. I had difficulty lining this one up just using the jig hole. By placing the stamped flower in the hole and looking through the stamp, I could see how the ink markings and the markings on the stamp line up together. To me, this seemed intuitive, honestly. However, Kitchen Sink Stamps has some great guides on their website to help you out, if you get stuck. Then, the second flower gets moved the the second position and a new die cut flower gets brought in to the first position.
After all three of these flowers are stamped, then I line up the fourth layering stamp. These last two stamps look tough, but these layering jigs make this pretty easy, I promise! I found that with the fourth and the fifth layers, the trick here was to get those stamen perfectly locked into those stamen cut outs in the jig. They need to be perfect or your stamen will be white and it's going to look funny. Now, keep in mind, it's a delicate area of your jig. I cut my jigs out of 80lb Neenah Solar White cardstock. So, they aren't extremely flimsy, but it's not super thick cardstock either. So, you have to be gentle but they will kind of pop into place. Once they are perfectly in there, the rest of the stamp just kinda falls into the right place. I just kept stamping in this assembly line fashion of moving each flower up one position and bringing in a new one for that first position until I got a bunch of flowers stamped. I wasn't exactly sure how many I wanted to use, but I wanted enough to play around with. I did this for both this large flower and the smaller flower in the set and I did two slightly different color schemes. A light and a dark pink. I will show two completed flowers and the ink colors I used for each layer on the screen. I didn't want to make you sit through all that stamping, as it was a lot!
Light Pink Lily
Blush Blossom (for layers 1 & 2)
Pink Passion
Melon Mambo
Baroque Burgundy
Dark Pink Lily
Pretty in Pink
Regal Rose
Pink Passion
Rose Red
Bravo Burgundy
Next, I moved on to the leaves. This template has both single leaves on it and the single flower bulb in the middle. I only did the leaves and we are going to go through this real quick. Again, I did 2 slightly different color variations and I will flash those up on the screen when I am done stamping out one of each complete leaf. For the leaves, you can see that I started with all my layering stamps in place. It was super easy to do this, as the leaves all pop right into the template. The stamps aren't different shapes and sizes like the flowers are.
Light Leaf
Certainly Celery
Pear Pizzaz
Mellow Moss
Dark Leaf
Certainly Celery
Pear Pizzaz
Always Artichoke
Now, here is where things get a bit fancy. When I was trying to decide what I wanted to do with these gorgeous flowers now that I had stamped a TON of them out, I looked through my dies and came across this Spellbinders Tiara Rondelle Die. When I saw it, I immediately thought of this gorgeous mirror with flowers adorning it. I cut it out 4 times with 80lb white cardstock and once with a metallic white gold Neenah cardstock that I have and stacked them on top of each other. I started playing around with placement of the flowers and wasn't happy with it at first because I wasn't getting the dimensional look that I wanted. It was getting a bit late in the day and I like to spend the evenings with my husband. So, I closed up the craft room and went upstairs, but I was still thinking of how exactly I could achieve the look I wanted. I was just stacking them on the frame and thinking I could put some foam tape on some to give them dimension. However, it came to me that I had a whole other place to put them - inside the frame. The next morning, I went down and started thinking about how I could put them inside. My original train of thought was that it would be easy. I could lay them where I wanted them, trace the frame onto the flowers and snip off the excess. I didn't think about the swirly decorative pieces inside the frame. I couldn't just put the frame on top of the flowers, because I have a piece of Tonic Holo Waves cardstock that I cut with the inside piece of the die that fits snug in that circle area that you will see later to act as the "mirror." So, I had to devise a plan to use the die to cut my flowers to fit the inside of the frame exactly. So, I took some zig 2 way adhesive, applied it to the back of my frame and let it dry to make it tacky. This way the adhesive wasn't permanent. Then, I played around with the placement of the flowers to get them exactly where I wanted them.
Next, I needed a way to line the flowers up in the die. I took a piece of computer paper and cut it out with my die. I flipped the frame over that had my flowers attached to it and laid the computer paper die cut on top. I lined everything up and taped it to my glass mat so nothing would move. Then, I took some more post it tape and taped the flowers to the computer paper frame. 
I removed the tape from the glass mat, flipped my frames over and carefully pried the flowers away from the frame that will be used on my card, making sure that they stuck to the computer paper frame. 
I lined the computer paper frame up in the die and folded the post it note tape over the die to make sure everything was secure. I ran it through my die cutting machine. 
The post it note tape served a secondary purpose as well. Even though the die cut through the post it tape in the end, it still left the parts of the flowers I was going to glue down in tact. I did leave a couple small gaps in my flowers and the tape showed through those gaps, so I did need to remove the tape from that area. I actually ended up removing all the tape from one set of flowers, which I later regretted. However, it wasn't a huge deal, but I would suggest leaving it on to make life easier. Just make sure it isn't visible if you have gaps between your images like I did.
Once done die cutting, I brought in the Tonic Holo Waves cardstock that I had previously cut off screen. I popped that into my frame from behind. My stacked frame was so thick that it was easier to pop it in from behind. Then, here's where I removed the tape that I shouldn't have...and I added a large leaf to each side of the bundle of flowers. I started gluing down all my pieces. Which was a little tedious as I had to pay attention to what went on top of what and glue things in the correct order and place. All while trying NOT to get glue on that holographic cardstock. I don't know about all of you, but I swear that when working with holographic or foiled cardstocks is when I am absolutely the messiest gluer ever. I have found that a little bit of rubbing alcohol on a rag can take it up sometimes. It can also take up the color and/or finish on some brands of cardstocks. So be sure to test it on a small scrap before you possibly ruin your hard work on my advice! I have only had it happen a couple times. More often than not, it takes up the glue and nothing else. Always better to be safe than sorry. There were no issues with me doing it on the Holo Waves cardstock. Once I finished the first side, I flipped my card around and glued down all the pieces for the second side. I was smart enough to keep these flowers taped together, so this side went a little easier. Once done, I glued the whole thing to the card front. Which is probably something I should've done in the first place, but I wasn't thinking. 
Next, I started layering on the smaller flowers. I started with the middle flower. Off screen, I glued two of the small leafs to it and stuck a piece of foam tape to the back of it. Then, I adhered it to the top of my frame, roughly lining it up central to my larger flowers. After that, I stuck my two smaller flowers to each side down flat to the frame. This way, I had three dimensional layers to my flowers. The first layer being inside the frame, the second being on the frame itself and the third being the one flower popped up on foam tape on the frame. I repeated the same exact layering for the flowers on the other side of the frame. Once they were all adhered, I carefully applied Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Pen in Glitter Gloss over all the flowers. You have to be careful when doing this over dye inks as they could smear a bit, depending on how reactive the inks you used are with water.
Off screen, I cut the sentiment "Have a Lovely Day" out of a scrap of pink cardstock and the shadow for it out of the same Neenah metallic white gold cardstock that I used on the frame. This sentiment is from Tonic Craft kit #21, which unfortunately isn't available anymore. However, I don't have very many sentiment dies in my stash, as if I am going to use a die cut sentiment, I will typically cut one with my Cricut. I figure that if people wish to recreate my cards, it's likely they are going to change the sentiment to fit their needs anyways. I encourage you to use what you have! I covered the sentiment with Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Pen in Glitter Gloss too before adhering it to the shadow layer and then finally adhering it to my card panel on top of the Holo Waves cardstock.
I don't believe that I mentioned that this card is a 5x7in card. I don't usually make cards this big. However, the Tiara Rondelle frame die was too big to fit on a normal A2 sized card. Once I got this far, I thought that the card was just missing something. In the die set there are these fancy corner pieces. I wasn't intending on using them at first, but since I felt that the corners of the card looked bare, I decided to cut them out of the Neenah metallic card that I cut the frame out of and go ahead and add them. I really think they filled in the corners and added some flair to this already beautiful card. You can't see it in the pictures or the video, but since I only adhered the corner pieces using the tabs on the back of them, they sort of pop off the card a bit, giving them some fun dimension to the card. It's an interesting look that I didn't expect at first, but I kinda like it.
Moving on to the inside of the card, I stamped the sentiment, "Thinking of you, friend" from Altenew's Quilled Elegance Stamp Set in Momento Tuxedo Black ink. I had some leftover flowers, so I took a few of those and glued them to the inside corners of the panel. Once done with that, I glued that panel to the inside of a black 5x7in card base. To finish off the card, I glued my card front to the card base.
I hope that you enjoyed my card today. Don't forget this is a video hop over on YouTube! My video is HERE and all the information you need for the hop and giveaway is over there in my description box. If you enjoyed my video today, I would greatly appreciate it if you gave it a like and subscribe to my channel, if you haven't already. And as always, I hope you have a great day!
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