Using Every Stamp in a Set at A Vintage Journey

Hi everyone it's good to see you. Today sees the start of a new challenge over at A Vintage Journey where we are being challenged to use every stamp in a set. As ever, there are lots of reasons to enter including the chance to win a gift voucher from our sponsors Country View Crafts. 

I'm loving using Artist Trading Blocks as boxes for storage purposes in my craft room (what's that saying, "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." William Morris) There's a bit of a collection building now and this is the latest, using every stamp from the SA 'Classics #3' set. Bet you can't guess what's going in it!? Letters - of the die cut or chipboard variety of course!!

Now to the 'how to's'... it was fairly basic with an offcut of TH French Industrial paper stained with Old Paper on one side and Antique Linen on the other. The main panel from the stamp set and the diamond pattern were applied to the paper with Archival Inks before they were chopped up and torn to fit each side. Of course every edge was inked and then I added a little white gesso to give the whole thing a more aged look without going too dark.

What next? Oh yes, more of that stained paper die cut in different shapes added over the initial layers before I reached for some black embossing powder for the finer detail of the third quadrant pattern. After including some altered Chit Chat stickers the layers were beginning to get lost. This was easily rectified by outlining the die cuts and stickers with a Pumice Stone Distress Marker before blending it out with a fine nib water pen.

It all looked very neutral so I painted Peacock Feathers, Fired Brick and Scattered Straw onto some of the quadrants. These colours were also used to illuminate the chipboard layered 'Letters' addition on the front of the box. You'll see above that even the top and bottom of the box were given this treatment, with brass box corners added and a handle attached to the lid. Finally I die cut a lock and key and stamped out another key (from the set) colouring them all with Metallic Distress Stains before applying a coat of Glossy Accents.

Every stamp in the set used - check. Another handy Artist Trading Block completed - check. Somewhere to finally store those fiddly letters - check. Hurrah! I'd say that was pretty successful. Now it's time to head off over to A Vintage Journey to see what everyone else has created this time (and there are some stunning makes over there, including one from our latest recruit, Jools).

It occurs to me that this is a stamp set I very rarely reach for so for that reason I'm entering the current
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - 'I ought to use this more!'

For now have a great weekend and take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

All Tim Holtz products can be found at Country View Crafts