Let’s Play!

This week was one of the most stressful weeks of work I have experienced in a very long time. It was the kind of week that makes me glad I have an outlet, a way to take my mind off of it all. My stamp room is my sandbox, my place to play and have fun. After a couple of hours in my sandbox, the world once again seems manageable.

My toy, ahem, I mean, stamp set of choice this week is Flourishes “Kids Play“. I adore this set of silhouettes! For this project, I focused on the little girl blowing dandelion wishes.

I love to make cute packaging, even if it is just to give someone a few pieces of chocolate or a couple of homemade cookies. If it looks good then it has to taste good too, right?!

My box is a small kraft gable box, easily covered with paper to dress it up. It is mostly covered up, but if you look closely, you will see I brushed the edges of the front panel with cream acrylic paint. Silhouettes are so versatile, simply stamping them on a pattern paper gives them a completely different look. The paper I chose has music notes in a color light enough to add interest while letting the image still be the focal point. I stamped her in a dark brown chalk ink which gives really good coverage for solid images like this one. A bit of stitching around the image gives it that texture I like so much.

Since the stitching and extra thread were showing on the backside, I gave it a finished look by adding a second scallop layer to the back. Shhhh, don’t tell anyone, but bows and I are not friends, mostly because I don’t do them well. Knots are a different matter, my Boy Scout sons have taught their mama a mean square knot! The latest craze with seam binding ribbon makes me sooooo happy because even my bad bows look okay, lol.

Part of the fun of this stamping hobby is all the different products and techniques that you can try. The “toys” are endless it seems. I don’t use it often but one of the more fun “toys” is shrink plastic. Maybe the last time you played with shrink plastic was when you were a kid. If so, then it is time you get some again. It is totally magical to watch it shrink before your eyes. I knew this silhouette girl would make the perfect image to shrink. FYI, you can figure your shrunken version will be about 40% of the size of the original. In this case, the shrunken size of this image was perfect for a pin.

First, I used an oval die to cut some transparent shrink plastic, then stamped the image in black Brilliance ink and finally hit it with my heat gun to shrink it down. Shrink plastic shrinks more uniformly in the oven but a heat gun will work. Chasing the plastic around as the heat gun blows it here and there is just part of the fun! I cut a piece of black shrink plastic with a scallop die, shrunk it and then glued the two pieces together. I added a pin back so this “cameo” can now be worn. The tag is simply a nice way to present the pin.

Aahhhh, the joy of playing with stamps, ink, paper! I hope you find time this week to play with your stamping toys and that it brings you joy.