Weeks of Wonder: Go ahead, be selective!

Spring has sprung and here are some great artwork ideas to help you hop into the season. Have you ever reached for a stamp set and realized you don’t have exactly what you are looking for? You want part of a phrase on a stamp or the elements aren’t quite the right size for your needs? One way to adjust for this is by masking off part of an image but cutting out masks can often be time consuming. An easier way around this dilemma is only applying ink to a portion of the image that you want stamped—a quick technique known as selective inking. My Acrylix clear stamps make this easy because you can see exactly where the ink is going.

Take the floral card for instance: the leaves needed to extendfurther than the stamp design. It was easy to just ink portions of the leaves and stamp them in the desired direction. I adore the combination of stamps shown on the Happy Spring card, but would you have ever guessed the stems, large flowers, and small accent flowers come from different sets? (Happy Moments, C1437; and Spring Up, B1365. Combining stamp elements is one of the things about stamping that's so great, and that makes each combination truly unique.

Take a closer look at the great Easter wall hanging. The background flowers were the perfect touch to bring in the season. And I love the floral image in the stamp set A Hop (A1112) but felt the flower was a little large and would be distracting for the background—easy to selectively add a different image!

The small flower in Beautiful Butterflies (B1373) was the perfect size, but the wisps seemed like they might clutter the look of the project.Using a combination of the two was the perfect mix.

Start the project using the small flower ensuring only to ink the flower, leaving the little "wisps" ink free. Stamp the flower using Tulip ink on scrap paper twice then random stamp the image on your chipboard piece, repeating until the design is finished. Keep in mind the stamping should be well spaced to accommodate the floral stems you'll add in.

Finish the background by repeatedly inking the stems of the flowers with Garden Green ink, stamping it once on scrap paper then lining it up with each stamped flower. We stampers are choosy folks—and it's easy to be selective when you have a great variety of versatile stamp sets you can mix and match and ink to create the perfect artwork for any season, any time. Happy spring!