French Script

Those of you who know me well, know of my obsession (one of my many) with France. Well, when I saw this card at my friend Caroline's studio, I went nuts!! I had to know what that background stamp was. I LOVED how her friend aged the more mustard piece to make it look like a piece of parchment.

Well to my disappointment, I was told that it was a retired Stampin' Up stamp called "French Script". Bummer......... Well, that didn't stop me, I headed straight for Ebay. And low and behold, I managed to pick one up for $15. I was pretty pleased with myself. The other day I got to play with it finally!!! The first one I made, I totally screwed up the stamping. It smudged!! There is a real technique to working with these background stamps, and I am far from an expert yet. But I managed to make this copy look okay. This was a multi-step process. First I masked an area of the paper I was inking with the space I required for my Eifel Tower by taping a piece of paper on top. I then inked the stamp with my brayer. I then placed my paper on top of it, and then another piece of scrap paper, and ran the brayer over that. Once the paper had the stamp on it, I removed the piece of taped on paper to reveal the white square. I then dry embossed this space with a template I had made earlier. I punched out my Eifel Tower from a Quickutz 2x2 die and stuck it on the page. Et voila! I was quite pleased with the outcome. But I really wanted to do something like the card I had seen at Caroline's. Back to the drawing board.......

The second card I made I did a bit differently. First I inked up my brayer and stamped the image as I had done on the first one, but this time with out a mask. I then took that piece of paper and cut out a "Top Note" with my Big Shot. I then inked the edges of this to give it the aged look. I adhered this to my card. Then I punched out another Eifel Tower and adhered that. I then decided that it was missing something and dug through my ribbon stash and found this beautiful piece of black ribbon. Et voila!!! I was quite pleased with the outcome. My husband Ed said that if only I know what I know now, when we got married. This could have been our invitations!!

1st Card-Products used:
Stampin' Up "French Script" stamp (Retired)
Stampin' Up Card stock- Whisper White, Basic Grey.
Stampin' Up Ink- Basic Grey
Accessories- Brayer, Quickutz Squeeze, Eifel Tower 2x2 die.

2nd Card-Products used:
Stampin' Up "French Script" stamp (Retired)
Stampin' Up Card stock- More Mustard, Basic Grey.
Stampin' Up Ink- Basic Black, Chocolate Chip
Accessories- Brayer, Quickutz Squeeze, Eifel Tower 2x2 die, Sizzix "Top Note" die, Big Shot, Ribbon.

Cheers,