Strip Stamping

Today I’m doing a little Strip Stamping. (No sillies, it is not what you think). I’m stamping up some fun embellishments to add to card creations. It’s fun to try new ideas on your cards and I’ve got just the ticket for you using some fun sets like Papertrey's Around & About Sentiments, Forest Friends and Heart Prints. The idea is to make up these little stamped strips in advance, and then use them on your projects later. As always, it’s easy peasy.
To begin, cut your cardstock to the width you want your card to be. Today I'm using 4.25" wide cardstock for all of my projects. You can keep the edges straight or add some fun scallops like I've done below with my Fiskars scalloped edge punch. Decorative scissors would work well too.

Then, it's time to stamp. Pine's (Heather Nichols) Around & About Sentiments stamp set is a perfect choice because there are a mix of long images and sentiments to choose from. I like to use this long clear block with grid lines to line up my stamp.

Continue stamping on more images and/or sentiments like I've done below.

I added a final Valentine sentiment from Heart Prints set. Then it's time to trim my stamped strip. I picked up this smaller Fiskars trimmer and am loving the size of it for these smaller items I need to trim. They can be found at Walmart, Target and possibly Michael's or your local scrapbook store for less than $15.00.

You can then fancy up your stamped strips by inking the edges with ink. Today I'm using the new Fresh Snow ink. Go ahead and add it to your list now.....it's THAT good! The coverage is excellent. And if Pine suggests it, you KNOW it's THAT good. You can use a sponge if you like but I prefer to ink my edges straight from the ink pad.

Go a step further and add some fun sequins or sticky pearls like I've used here. I found these at Archivers. You could also use brads, small buttons, eyelets or small snippets of ribbon or lace.

When you're all done, you'll have a nice little stash of stamped strips ready to go.....like my first photo at the top of this post. When you're ready to create some cards, you'll have some nice additions to add. Below are some of my creations.

This first card uses the fun deer and sentiment from Forest Friends. Paper is by October Afternoon along with PTI Kraft, Dark Chocolate CS and ribbon with some stitching.

Here's the close up of the stamped strips below.

And here's a fun little skunky card that uses images and sentiments from Forest Friends. It was easy to turn my card into a Valentine card just by adding my stamped strip. Paper is from the new Raspberry Fizz collection. Ribbon is Raspberry Fizz Swiss Dot.

Here's a closeup of some of the stamped strips I created for Valentine's cards.

And how about using the strips for little gift sacks instead of cards? Here, I used a small Glassine Bag to create a Valentine treat holder. These would be perfect for teacher treats. I used more images from the Forest Friends stamp set along for the tag. I cut the tag with Spellbinder's Circle and Pinked Edge Circle Die Templates. A big heart eyelet from Stampin' Up! finishes off the tag. Ribbon is Pure Poppy Swiss Dot.

For the stamped strip portion, I used more sentiments and images from Around & About, along with a few stamped and punched hearts from Heart Prints. Some clear sequin stickers finish off the stamped strip. On the inside, I tucked in 3 little mini bags of M & M's.

So there you have it! Just a few fun ideas to mix up your stamping a little bit. If you've created your Valentine Inspiration Station like I showed HERE, it would be fun to create some stamped strips using up those supplies. Then when you go to create your Valentine cards, half the work will be done. Also try adding some of the stamped strips to the inside of your cards. Or you could create longer strips that stretch across an entire scrapbook page layout. Or how about Valentine book marks or across the bottom of tags to add to gifts. The possibilities are endless. I hope you try them out!