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Layered Stamps for Card Making

Layered stamps are clear stamps that are used to produce a dimensional image without any adding any bulk to your card. 

The sets contain 2 or more images that are stamped on top of each other to create a beautiful layered look.  This technique is most effective for flowers and leaves. 

Practice your inked layers on scrap paper as it sometimes takes a few tries to align the stamps.

The key is finding the matching points on each stamp. 

Abstract Impressions - Stampin Up!

The Abstract Impressions stamp set from Stampin Up! is a good place to start practicing your layering techniques. 

It's loose style of layering make it impossible to get wrong!

The set has one large 3 layered flower. one small 2 layered flower, one 2 layer group of flower heads and two 2 layered leaves.

Just one ink colour was used to create the large pink flowers using stamping off technique.

It's a great way to ensure that all the colours match!

Turn the paper around before stamping the next flower to make sure the stamp is in a different position.  That way each flower will look slightly different.

With this Gate fold card two different shades of purple were used to create the flower heads.

Altenew Peony Bouquet

The Peony Bouquet stamp set from Altenew makes a beautiful impression.  

It has two 4 layered flowers and two 3 layered leaves along with 2 layered berries and a 2 layered branch of small leaves.

Absolutely stunning!!

The set is so versatile as you can use all four layers for a detailed peony or opt for just two layers or the outline image.

Choosing your colours is easy with Altenew's co-ordinated cube sets.  They are sold in groups of four ink cubes ranging from the lightest to the darkest inks in the same colour family.

Altenew produce a guide showing exactly how to match up the stamps. 

Once you have found these points it's helpful to mark them with a small dot on the back of the stamp with a sharpie pen.

The guides can be downloaded from the Altenew website.

For this card I only used two out of the four layers for the flowers as I wanted to create a softer old fashioned look.

I stamped the peonies and leaves separately onto card and die out using the co- ordinating die set.  

This gave me the opportunity to play around a bit with the layout as I wasn't stamping direct to the card front.

The background was made with a wood effect embossing folder and completed with Raindrops from Lucy's Cards.

The final card uses all four layers of the Peony and all three layers of the large leaf stamp from the Peony Bouquet stamp set.  

I first stamped the outline stamp in black ink but changed to grey ink as this blended in better with the colours.

For the background I used the Watercolor Dots stamp set also from Altenew.

A final word on Layered Stamps.....

Create your own colour combinations for your favourite layering stamps.  Stamp them out with a note of colours used and store with the stamps.

And also check out.....

• Altenew's free online course "All about Layering 2" 

• Jennifer McGuire -  shares her ideas for using basic stamps for a layered look. 

1. Home
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2. Card Making Techniques
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3. Layered Stamps