Misti Roses

Fill your heart with wonder, fairies and butterflies in a rose garden, a single layer card made with the Misti.

Supplies

InLinkz.com

Putting It All Together

Before I start on the design process, first I have sad news. The camera I have been using decided to take a bit of a vacation. It's not working :( My sweetie is trying to fix it (he's very handy like that), but I might have to get a new camera body, or at least one that's new to us. 

The pictures in this post were taken with my cell phone. It's not a bad camera, but it's not made to be used with a tripod or any other 'hands free' picture taking set up. I'm also having significant issues with my lighting using the cell phone. I had lighting issues with the camera and my room set up, but it's significantly worse with the cell phone. Since I can't set the camera up with a tripod, I usually have to have 2 hands on it to take pictures which means I can't have one in the picture to help indicate any processes. Thus it is not a good long term solution. 

Long and short of it, I'm sorry the quality of images in this post is not as good as other posts (and I still had loads of room for improvement even using the camera).

But, on to the the creating. I got a Misti a month or so ago after I won the prize on a challenge (one which was not random *big cheesy grin*). Since then, I have been wanting to do layered stamping because the positioning with the Misti is so much easier. I made the first version of this card last Saturday but hadn't taken any 'in progress' shots while I was experimenting (I was caught up in the process and forgot to.. as usual *laugh*). So, I decided to make a similar card again so I can show how to use the Misti. It is really a great tool and well worth the price (especially if you have a coupon or gift card *impish grin*)

Side note: This is the shortest supply list I have ever made!

For my layering stamp, I decided to use a set from Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps which was made by one of my fav artists Becky Pearce. For layered stamping, you need to have 2 or more complimentary images that fit together. In this set, there are 2 roses which are the filled in areas and 2 which are just the line areas of those. For some stamp layering sets, the layers will be on top of each other to build the image and its shadowing. In comparison to those, these ones are pretty simple, but I like 'em.

I wanted to have a white border around my image, like faux matting, so I masked off 1/4" on the bottom and sides and also masked at the card base fold line. I used one of the sheets of the Misti's pad because I wanted the side and bottom matting to be 1/4" and the graph paper grid made that easy. After removing it, though, I discovered the absorbency of that paper was a bad thing. In future I will stick to something with a smooth not very absorbent finish. A bit of repositional adhesive on the back of the mask holds it in place.

Put the card stock into the Misti and line it up on an edge. If it's in an edge, it's easier to see if it moves and shove it back into place.

Put the magnets on the card stock where they will help to hold it in place but not get in the way of your stamping.

NOTE: These are very strong magnets. If you get them close to each other, they will leap to join together with a loud snap. If a bit of your finger is in the way when they snap together, they don't care, they'll snap together and pinch that bit of flesh which will result in you letting out a loud yelp. Trust me on this. Do not get the magnets close to each other. Make sure they are at least 2 inches apart at all times. Oh and the Misti only comes with 2. You can buy extras. Two is good to hold most things, but do check your paper alignment before you close to stamp. Lots of things can bump it out of place.

Make sure your stamps are clean and have no wet ink on them. Then, with the stamping side down, place them on the paper where you want to stamp. In addition to the roses, I also want to stamp leaves, so I used the leaf stamp to aid my placement of the first two roses.

It's best to only stamp one colour at a time, especially if pieces of different colours are close together. I took the leaves off before going to the next step.

Then, simply close the door. The door is like an acrylic block. It will pick up the stamps in exactly the place you put them. When you open the door, the stamps will stay on there on the door.

Note: If you have new photopolymer stamps, they might pick up the paper when you open the lid (without stamping anything). Just carefully pull the paper away from the stamps (so you don't move them on the door) and reposition it. After you've been stamping with your stamps a while, they're less likely to do that. But still check the paper position before stamping.

Ink up your stamp(s) on the door. You have to take your pad to the stamp. Try not to get ink on the door. For these roses I am using the ink pads from the August Monthly Hero kit. The first colour I am using is Bubble Gum.

Then, close the door again. It really is that easy! You can give the stamps a little pressure to make sure the stamps fully meet the paper, but not too much. If the images isn't as completely stamped as you want, open the door, ink again, and close again. Ba-da-bing-ba-da-boom. Easy Peasy.

When the stamping of the first image(s) is done, wipe off the stamp with a wet wipe. I used Costco wipes 'cause they're cheaper. You might also find some inexpensive ones at the dollar store. I use a LOT of wipes while crafting.

If you want to stamp more with the stamps, remove them from the door and position them like you did for the first.

Close the door to pick up the stamps, Ink the stamps, Close the door to stamp. You can do this as many times as you want to fill your space.

To do the layering, with the clean stamp, place it on the paper near where it should go. Line up the shapes, turning the stamp as needed. Since the stamp is clear, you can look through it to see where the lines match up.

When you have the stamp lined up where you want it, close the door to pick up the stamps. Open the door to ink them with a co-ordinating colour. I used Orchid.

Close to stamp, just as before. Repeat as necessary.

I repeated that again with the leaves, adding them between flowers using the same process.

Other elements are added the same way until you have what you want.

When stamping isn't as clear as you would like, re-ink and stamp again. Since the door has the stamp in the same spot you don't have to worry about the stamping not being lined up, unless your paper moves. But, as long as you make sure your paper is lined up the same way, just close the door and it's stamped in the same spot.

The inside sentiment with the addition of one flower outline.

And this is why the Misti is such a wonderful tool.

There are three sizes of the Misti, at this time, the 'standard one', which is the one I have, a "mini" which is smaller and only good for card size panels, and a 12" x 12". Unless you go to a lot of crops, the middle size one is probably the most useful. I plan to get a mini some day, to put into my crop bag, and a large one for occasional use, but both are way down on my wishlist.