2 Step Stamping – Adding Color and Texture

Today we are talking about 2 Step Stamping by adding color and texture to achieve our desired result.  In this post here, we discussed using the technique as a way of coloring in.

What is 2 Step Stamping?

This is where you use two or more images, as well as two or more colors** to achieve your final image.  ** One of the colors might be a lighter version of the same color, and we will cover that soon in another post.

Today we will be featuring the Painted Harvest stamp set.  Sunflowers are one of my favorite wild flowers, I just love them – and I love bluebonnets (but I am from Texas, so I have to!)

There is just something about a field of sunflowers that just bring joy to my soul.  I love how tall they get, the colors, all the shades of color, all of it combines into just simple beauty.

Here is the stamp set we will be using:

We will use the background and the foreground image of the flower, and then also the flower center.  Then we will also use the foreground of the leaf, but you can use the background too.  The background image is usually a larger image and the foreground is usually more detailed.

Choosing Colors

For this flower, I chose Daffodil Delight, which is my lighter yellow, along with Crushed Curry for my darker yellow.  Most of the time with 2 Step Stamping you will be using different shades, a light and a dark of the same color.  Many people like to make a list of what colors they would pair together.  For me, that would just be one more piece of paper to keep up with 🙂  But the other day I was considering writing it on the bottom of my ink pad in a Sharpie for what color would pair well the ink pad color for this technique.

Where to Start

This comes down to preference as to which image you stamp first.  Over the years I have taught this technique to hundreds of stampers and I encourage them all to try starting with the background and then stamping the foreground image on top, but then also reversing it to see which works better for them.  Overwhelmingly, the first method works best for most stampers.

So that is where we will begin today.

I am stamping my background, the larger and less defined image, in our lighter ink, the Daffodil Delight.

Then we stamp our foreground image on top of that using our darker color, Crushed Curry on top.

Ta-Da!!!

See how using just two stamps and two ink pad colors brings color, depth and texture into one image?  It's really like magic 🙂  And the best part is, this technique takes minutes.  Not 10 minutes, not 30 minutes, all my flowers were stamped and ready to go in under 3 minutes.

Pro Tips

If you are using a pigment ink or any ink that takes longer to dry, I do recommend waiting until your first image completely dries before adding additional colors on top or else the colors can run together.

Only have one ink pad open at a time, this helps you remember which yellow you are using when.  So I recommend you stamp all your lighter images, then do all your darker ones.  I can't tell you the number of times I have filled a card with flowers and on the last one, stamped the wrong color and messed the whole thing up.

Finishing the Card

I wanted to use two greens, but not in a way that overpowered the flowers.  So rather than using the background image of the leaf in Pear Pizzazz ink, I pulled in Pear Pizzazz card stock for my card.  But then the outline image of the leaf was stamped in Old Olive.

The center of the flower was stamped in Soft Suede, as was the sentiment.

While we are talking about the sentiment, let's chat about the happy accident that happened with that 🙂

I had just re-inked my Soft Suede ink pad, so that baby is good and juicy.  I stamped my sentiment and didn't realize that the ink wasn't dry when I stuck my thumb right across my sentiment when I went to pick it up.  When I realized the ink was wet, I lifted off my thumb, the card stock slid and I grabbed it again – of course with my inky thumb.  It kinda gave it a bit of a distressed look, and at this point I figured that this piece of card stock was headed to the trash bin, so why not make it worse anyway 🙂  So I “stamped” it again with my thumb.  Then I decided to crumple it up a bit and curl up the edges.

The result was actually pretty cool!

It was added to a layer of Pear Pizzazz card stock that I dry embossed with my hands-down-most-favoritist embossing folder, the new Subtle folder – which takes any of your card stock and makes it textured – and then onto my card.

Then it was time to grab the 10 Second Bow Maker and tie two pieces of linen thread into a bow and glue dot it onto my sentiment layer.  If you struggle at all with tying bows, be sure to check out the 10 Second Bow Maker – and yes, this is a shameless plug for them.  My hubby makes them and we sell them 🙂

The Supplies

Here is a list of the supplies I used to create this card.  If you want to create stunning cards in minutes, this is a must-have stamp set.  AND, keep this in mind – you could make an entire stack of these minus the sentiment, and have them in your stash.  When you need a card, you can grab a sentiment, stamp it and just add it to the front.

To order any of these supplies, simply click on an image below.  You will be ordering it from me, and I greatly appreciate it!

If you missed the other 2 Step Stamping project focusing more on filling in color, click here.

Wanna Pin It?

Here's an image to help you pin this card for later use 🙂

Thank you so much for joining me today.  We have covered the two main ways of 2 Step Stamping, both in this post here and this post.  Have questions?  That's what I am here for.  Simply leave me a comment below 🙂