Sending Hugs...

Remember how I once (or twice) mentioned how I like to mix up my sentiment stamps to make up a "customized" sentiment? Yep...today I did it again. :) And what's even more fun is that I used a Christmas sentiment stamp set to make up a sentiment that has nothing to do with the Christmas holiday season.

The sentiment set I'm talking about is Lili of the Valley's Set 35, Christmas Handwritten Phrases. I'll be showing more cards in the weeks to come using these phrases on Christmas cards, but today's card shows how versatile this clear photopolymer stamp set really is.  In addition to the LOTV sentiment set, I also used the clock stamp from Set 66, Grunge Elements as the base for the small floral cluster...

I stamped the clock onto a piece of heavy cold press watercolor paper, colored it with Tea Dye Distress Ink, distressed the edges, and adhered it to the sentiment block with foam tape.  The cluster of tiny brightly colored roses on top of a tilted seam binding bow leaves plenty of the clock showing beneath the cluster...

It helps to decide on your placement of the clock piece and floral cluster before you stamp your sentiment, so you can decide where to place the words. I lightly penciled the edge of the clock on the sentiment piece and then stamped the sentiment.  

"Sending" came from the "Sending You Festive Cheer" stamp, "Hugs" from "Love & Hugs x."  "Across the Miles" is a stamp in the set, but I needed to split the words to fit the space, so I carefully cut "Across" from the rest of the stamp to place it above the other two words. 

All of this is to say, when you look at your sentiment stamp collection in a different way now and then, you might be pleasantly surprised with the number of different combinations you can make from stamps in your collection to customize your sentiments...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   Prima Almanac collection (coral);   Echo Park Dots & Stripes/Metropolitan collection (aqua stripe);

LOTV "Beach Bliss" collection, Susan Darter/Raspberry Road Designs for Lili of the Valley  (sentiment block); 

LOTV "Antebellum" collection, Raspberry Road Designs for Lili of the Valley  (tan/brown behind sentiment)

Clock stamp:   LOTV Set 66, Grunge Elements          Sentiment stamps:  LOTV Set 35, Christmas Handwritten Phrases

Dies:   Memory Box Elegant Scrollwork;   My Favorite Things Royal Leaves

Edge punch:   Martha Stewart Doily Lace          Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts          Pearls:   Recollections

Laces:   local craft store          Hug Snug seam binding          Miscellaneous:   cheesecloth, Wilton doily

Thanks for visiting today!