Numbers, Numbers and More Numbers

While making Stampers Anonymous samples for Creativation, I heartily embraced a little challenge from Tim and Paula. The challenge was to limit the number of stamp sets used on each card to no more than one or two sets. With some stamp sets this is easy, but with others it’s a little more challenging. So when I put the Merchant CMS331 stamps on my desk, I had to think a bit about how to meet that challenge.

This birthday card is the result of that little additional challenge. I used only Merchant and the sentiments from Glorious Bouquet CMS325 to make this card, and it may be shocking to those who follow me, but I didn’t use any other outside inspiration for this one, just the challenge.

I started by scattering the various numbers from smallest to largest onto a piece of Distress Watercolor Cardstock on my Tonic Stamp Platform, and then applying Distress Inks from light to dark in a sort of ombré style. Before stamping I misted the stamps with water so the Inks would blend nicely on the watercolor paper. Then I used the Distress Splatter Brush and added a few tiny splatters of Chipped Sapphire across the background.

Then I used a blending tool to color the watercolor mats with Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink and misted them with water for a vibrant, saturated color. I found myself reaching for my Chipped Sapphire a lot this time. It was my “go to” blue for some reason. My favorite colors change frequently and I was really feeling Chipped Sapphire while I was designing samples in December and January.

The sentiment was the large 8 from Merchant and the Happy Birthday from Glorious Bouquet. The th for 8th is from the thanks sentiment from Glorious Bouquet and I just inked the first two letters and stamped them after the 8. The mat and sentiment piece were cut from the new Sizzix Alterations Stacked Labels dies.

The decorative border is a 1/2” piece of Distress Water Color paper that was colored with Chipped Sapphire and then I stamped one of the smaller 8 stamps sideways also in Chipped Sapphire.

For the balloons, I stamped two different sizes of Os from Merchant in the various background colors and then used my waterbrush to color them in and make the little tie thingy. I cut them out and adhered some with some pop dots for dimension. Then attached pieces of Eclectic Elements Crafters Thread to each one and tied them at the bottom.

And there you have it, a festive birthday card using only number stamps!