Extend Your Stamp Sets with Zentangle

Hi everyone, it's Ruby here.

Sadly, this will be my last post. I've been struggling to keep up with my design team projects because of trying to juggle life and biz, so I'm sadly stepping down.

Anyway, here's my card for this week. I'm a Certified Zentangle Teacher, so I decided to create a card with some Zentangle on it, and then I noticed Bev had the same idea last week. Great minds think alike! Instead of doing patterns, I've done some simple striping. It's a great way to make your stamped images look completely different and give them a new lease of life.

Here's how it came together:

1. Stamp the floral image onto white cardstock with black ink. I used Altenew's Crafted With Love stamp set, but you can use any open floral image such as these Playful Flowers or these Elegant Flowers.

2. Using a black pen, draw some stripes on each petal. I used a Sakura Micron PN pen, but you can use any black fine liner.

3. Add some pencil shading to create some depth (see image).

4. Colour the leaves in a different colour. I used Altenew's Sea Shore set - Lagoon & Volcano Lake. This teal collection is one of my favourites. My card and colours do match in real life, I'm not sure why they don't look like it in the photos!

5. Die-cut the finished panel using The Greetery's Crimped Frame Die Set. These panels take a card from plain to finished, if you know what I mean. I do love a good die-cut rectangular panel!

6. Next, die-cut a larger panel using the same crimped die with teal cardstock.

7. Attach the layered panels onto a white card base.

8. Stamp the 'Thank You' sentiment from Altenew's Study in Watercolor stamp set. Add to the stamped panel.

9. Add some white gouache and black watercolour splats.

10. Add some clear gems to finish.

Top Tip: Think about how you can adapt your stamp sets to get more use from them. Using Zentangle patterns is a great way to extend them, and make your cards even more unique.

That's it from me. Thank you to Tara and Rick for making me feel so welcome! 

Happy crafting everyone!

Ruby x