Give your stamped images dimension, a pictorial

I get so much satisfaction from taking a one-dimensional image and making it "jump off the page" with layers.  The following are the tricks and techniques I've picked up along the way to really add life to my stamped images. 

I started off by printing my image three times.  Here, I'm using a sweet digi stamp from Phindy's Place.  If you look at the image, you have three levels of depth (4 if you count the bird on the umbrella).  Remember, you can click on the picture to enlarge it.

1.  The puddles on the ground.
2.  The main character.
3.  The umbrella.

If you look at your stamped images this way, you will see how they need to build upon one another. 

The first level here has been cut with my nestabilities and includes the entire image.  This will be my base level that I will build all the other levels upon.  Using Prisma pencils and baby oil, I colored in the puddles at the base of the hedge hog's (is it a hedge hog?) feet.  I also outlined the entire image in blue pencil and blended with baby oil.  This line will give definition to the image, like a shadow.  You don't have to use blue for this shadow, yellow, purple and grey work well too.

From second image, I cut out the main character with scissors, as well as the umbrella.  For really tight places, you can use a craft knife.  The important thing is to make sure you don't cut past the black line.  I used my pencils to just edge the image, no need to blend, with color.

My final image, which will be the one you see on the finished product is colored completely and blended.  I then sealed my coloring with a matte sealer and let dry thoroughly.  I then cut the little hedgie separately from the umbrella. 

I use a black marker to go around all the cut edges.  You wouldn't believe what a difference this makes to the definition of your finished card.

Now, the umbrella as you can see, is convex in this photo.  To get this appearance, I use an embossing tool and a foam pad.  I turn my image over and use my embossing tool to press into the segments of the umbrella, as if coloring them.  This will give a rounded appearance to the image.  I do this with any image that would appear round in actuality. 

Now the fun part, putting all your images together!

I add pop-dots to the back of my second image.  You can also use glue dots for less dimension, or just adhere the image without any space between.  Okay, now add your cut image to your base level image.

You now have a two-dimensional image, which is great, but we can do better.

We are going to add our third and final layer to our base image.  Again, if you wanted to, you could do a fourth level by cutting out the bird on the umbrella and popping him up too.

Add your pop-dots to the third level pieces and adhere on top of the second level.  You can see I keep my dots towards the center of the image, but still supporting all parts of the image.  You will see how this is important next.

You now have a three-dimensional image.  I use a dot of glue to secure the areas that I don't want to appear floating in air, such as the tips of the umbrella, the hedgies feet, etc.  I used some Crystal Effects on the puddles and some gel pen to highligh my image.  You could also add Crystal Effects to the umbrella to make it look wet.

And here's the finished card.  I added a punched border, ribbon, a button, computer-generated sentiment and a couple acrylic drops.  Oh, I also added some dots with a gel pen around my circle. 

Note:  In adding the acrylic dots, I had a little trouble with my fast-drying glue.  Lesson learned, when the glue does not come out easily, don't squeeze harder  Thank goodness I sealed my image!

Well, I hope you all enjoyed this pictorial and will try this techinique on your own.  Now for the blog candy winner. 

The winner is Barbara Diane!

Barbara e-mail me your address at craftyfoody@gmail.com so I can get your stamps and a few other goodies out to you.

Til Next time,