Text Boxed Revisited

It's true. Reverse images like the ones from Text Boxed always scared me. The stamped images were bold,there was nothing to color in and I was always stumped for ideas. When Nichole announced that Text Boxed was the set the Senior PTI Design Team was to use for the August challenge, I knew I would have to put my thinking cap on.

The idea just popped into my head like that. I wanted to add some muted colors to the solid, reverse image so it could blend into backgrounds better. I chose three inks to coordinate with my chosen patterned papers...Aqua Mist, Sweet Blush and Summer Sunrise. I started with the Sweet Blush ink pad and applied the color by smudging it onto the middle of the stamp. Next I used the Summer Sunrise and Aqua Mist to blend in on each side. I don't worry about my ink pads...I just wipe off an major color splotches, apply some re-inker if needed and move on. The stamped images results in a dreamy, muted, stamped image with sherbet-y colors.
I continued to re-ink my stamp three times and the result was a long strip of stamped, starry images that I could use on my cards for today. The images are stamped onto some Sassafras Started Pages, perfect for a collage look I was going after. You can see how my stamped images coordinate well with my mixy matchy selection of patterned papers.
And here are my two completed cards. I used different size strips of the stamped images + patterned paper to create a collage look on my card fronts. I love that the papers blend into one another so nicely. It's kinda hard to tell where one paper starts and the other ends.
For the sentiments on my birthday cards, I used *make a wish* from the Think Big Favorites #1 stamp set. One sentiment was stamped with only Aqua Mist....the other was stamped with a mix of the Summer Sunrise and Sweet Blush. I stamped on some little stars from the Text Boxed set along with some splatters from my spray mists. I love the inked edges...zoom in to see that I used all three ink colors to go along with the blended color look.
And here's a fun closeup of the stamped star boxes. I used the largest star from the set to stamp inside the white stars then added some glitter. I also took the words *dream* and *wish* from the stamp set and stamped them over the coordinating color of ink. This makes for a very subtle look too.
I'm usually not a big technique-y type of stamper but I'm just thrilled with these results. I've even left my supplies out so I can go play some more with my inks. Hope you enjoyed my projects today and I hope you give my inky technique a try. Definitely nothing new to the stamping world...just smudging some inks around....but it sure was fun!

If you'd like to see what the other Senior Team Papertrey girls have created with Text Boxed, be sure to check out their blogs here:

• Nichole Heady
• Heather Nichols
• Dawn McVey
• Lisa Johnson
• Betsy Veldman