Stamp of Approval and Gerber Daisy Tutorials!!

Here are the tutorials I promised for two of the patterned papers from our Counterfeit kit of the new Front Porch kits! I loved the look of both "Stamp of Approval" and "Gerber Daisy", but I had nothing like either of them in my stash. I decided to try and re-create the look each of them. I really enjoyed the challenge of creating my own patterned paper! It's definitely not something I'd do every day, but it's fun to try.

Gerber Daisy Tutorial:

Here is the real deal "Gerber Daisy" by Fancy Pants:

My kit version:

I thought this paper could be re-created by a repetitive stamped image. This was not hard to do, but was time consuming. For my example, I used a 4" X 4" piece of paper, and it went very quickly. On the sheet in my kit, I used two different flower stamps, which made things even trickier. For simplicity, I used just one flower stamp in my instructions.

You will need card stock, or other paper to stamp on, a small flower stamp, acrylic block, black archival ink pad, ink pens to color in your flowers (if desired), and a white Uniball Signo (or similar) pen to outline your flowers.

Step 1: Begin stamping your flower image in the middle of your page, but not dead center. The idea is that you want to stamp the image as randomly as possible. I've heard that if you group your stamped images in groups of three, you can avoid an obvious pattern. Remember to turn your paper and stamp to avoid the image always going the same direction. Continue stamping until you cover the entire page. If your image is light in one area, you can color over it with pen, but it probably will not show after you color the image in. Don't worry too much if you leave a small gap, or your flowers run into each other in spots. You really will not notice it later. Don't forget to have some of your flowers run off the page, for a natural look.

Step 2: Color your flowers in, if desired. I chose to color my flowers brown, because I have other browns in my kit I wanted to match. If your stamp is solid, you can skip this step. I also colored the center yellow (on the blue paper in my example, the yellow looks more green). Allow the ink to dry before going to the next step.

Step 3: Using your Uniball Signo pen, outline each flower image with a line of white. This really makes the image pop. On my large page, I used a lighter green cardstock, which did not show off the white outline as well as the blue of my example. Try to do one section at a time, because this ink takes awhile to dry, and it can smear. If you make a little mistake, don't worry about it! The overall effect will be whimsical and charming!

Stamp of Approval Tutorial:

Echo Park "Stamp of Approval:

My version:

To complete this project, you will need two sheets of paper (one darker, one lighter in color. The original has a grid pattern on the light paper, and a lined paper on the dark.), a paper trimmer or exacto knife, ruler, pencil, and a circle punch (mine is a 1"). All of the measurements I've included are with the use of a 1" circle punch. A 3/4 punch would have created a look even closer to the original, but I went with what I had. If you use a different sized punch, you would have to figure out the proper measurements. It's also helpful to use a magnetic cutting board, with lines for measuring, but it's not completely necessary.

First, cut 1" off of two sides of your lighter colored paper, making it an 11" square.

Next, measure 1/2" in on each side of your paper, drawing a line along the entire length of each side. You can work on the back side of your paper, to avoid your lines showing later.

Mark the edge of your paper at 1/2", 1 1/2", 2", 3", 3 1/2", 4 1/2", 5", 5 1/2" (center), 6", 6 1/2", 7 1/2", 8", 9", 9 1/2" and 10 1/2" on all four sides. These will be the guides for punching your half circles. The measuring is the hardest part of this project! Once you measure, everything else is fairly easy. I tried to do it "free hand" and it did not turn out well.

Turn your punch over. Using the lines you marked as guides, and starting in the middle (the 5 1/2" mark should be dead center in the middle of your first punch), use your punch to make half circle marks along the edge of your paper.=. You will end up with 7 equally spaced half circles, and a 1/2" space between each half circle, and at each edge.

I inked the edges of my grid paper with green ink, to simulate the look of the original paper, which has a green edge. You can omit this step, if you wish.

Adhere the punched sheet to your darker sheet, and voila! I hope you get a chance to try making your own patterned paper this month. You might really enjoy it!