Stamping on Layouts

As a scrapbooker one of the challenges I faced was trying to figure out how I could incorporate stamping into my layouts. To most of you that may come naturally but for some reason this seemed to pose a serious challenge for me. It was only once I started stepping out of my comfort zone of only using patterned papers and started creating my own background papers that I finally found a use for my small stash of stamps I had slowly accumulated. Before that I assumed stamps were exclusive to the card makers of the world.....LOL!

I'd like to share ways I've used stamps on layouts in three of my projects to maybe inspire any other scrapbookers out there who may have the same reservations I had about stamping and scrapbooking. For the above LO I used a flourish stamp from Rubbernecker stamps on some pale pink cardstock. I first stamped and embossed the image with clear embossing powder. I then inked over the entire piece of cardstock with a combination of worn lipstick and aged mahogany distress ink. The embossed stamped images acted as a resist to the distress ink thus creating a pattern on the cardstock. I also stamped the same image on some transparency with StazOn ink which I then cut out and used as flourishes for my flower clusters.

For my second project I first stamped some random Rubbernecker stamp images onto some coloured tissue paper which I then tore up into smaller pieces and layered onto some cardstock using gel medium. Once that dried I added some black soot distress ink to the borders. This technique adds great texture to a LO and depending of the stamps you use can be used for various styles and themes.

For my final project I used some tiny Technique Tuesday floral stems to stamp a border around the edge of my carstock. I applied two colours of ink to the stamp to create the multi-coloured border. The butterflies are also a Technique Tuesday stamp which I stamped on some transparency with StazOn ink. I then added stickles to the reverse side of the image and once the stickles dried, I cut the images out and shaped the wings before sticking them on the LO.

These are just three simple ways of using stamps on a LO. I'm always looking for new techniques so please feel free to leave me a link if you know of any other tricks.