August 2001
Plant a Lace Garden
Designed By Judi Kauffman

At first glance the Lace Garden stamp sheets I designed appear to be a random assortment of branches, leaves, buds, petals, and small motifs. But they were conceived for use in groups as well as each one on its own.

On closer inspection, I hope you will find that the soft outlines are hand drawn to look like embroidery - because that was the inspiration for them - and I hope you will discover that there are endless possibilities for combining the stamps.

Please use the ideas as a starting point and PLANT YOUR OWN GARDENS. Note that some of the cards are almost realistic, some are decidedly fantasy gardens, and others are more random with leaves and small motifs going every which way and not "planted" at all.

MATERIALS

Lace Garden 1 - 49100

Lace Garden 2 - 49110

Red Castle Rubber Stamps:
- Lace Garden 1 - 49100
- Lace Garden 2 - 49110
- (assorted accent stamps - Heart pattern/background, Essential Words, Rango Zoo, Tactile Impressions 6)
Assorted inks
Colored pencils and markers
Gel pens
Card stock - light colors
Glue, adhesive, glue stick
Decorative scissors
Craft knife and straight edge

NOTE: Gel Xtreme pens from Yasutomo, Marvy markers, Prismacolor pencils, 3M Adhesive pen, Beacon Kids Choice Glue, Fiskars Deckle paper edgers, and Ranger Big & Juicy Rainbow and Adirondack dye inks were used for all projects.

General Instructions:

Use scrap paper to practice combining and overlapping stamps. Experiment and be playful. Connect small branches to make bigger ones. Add motifs or more leaves at the ends of branches to create flower clusters and larger plants.
Use a real garden for inspiration, or let your imagination be your guide and create fantasy gardens that are uniquely your own.
Turn things upside down or stamp repeatedly to create new images.
Don't re-ink your stamps every time -- see what happens when lighter images appear.
*If you stamp an image that is less than perfect, incorporate it into your design instead of discarding it. Look closely at the samples to see how often I do this on purpose -- a partial image is very useful for making a garden look soft and inviting.

If you prefer a more polished look, use masking techniques or a stamp positioner for accuracy.

Project Instructions:

Combining Petals -- Several stamps are shaped like individual petals or leaves. They can be used alone or combined in groups of two, three, four, five and more. Use either the rounded portion or the pointed end at the center as desired. Flower centers can be made with the X-shaped motif, small dots, double bud, or hand drawn.
Be of good cheer -- Use small petals to create assorted flowers. Stamp leaves, phrases and small motifs between flowers. Stamp folded card with a branch of leaves for an allover background. Color with pencils or markers. Stamp, color and cut out extra petals to make some of the flowers dimensional (roll petals over a fingernail or pencil to make the curve. Layer center area of card on two complementary colors. Center on folded card.
Flowers and butterflies -- Stamp flowers, leaves and motifs in light colors. Color with pencils. Add bold details with black and gold gel pens. Layer stamped card on plain lime green card stock, then adhere both at an angle on a folded black card. Add clusters and rows of gold dots with gel pen.
Big garden -- Use orange section of rainbow pad to make large flowers. Stamp aloe-shape (half-circle or fan shape of leaves) several times in different directions like a starburst for full flower, in same direction for side view flower. Stamp "pompom on a stick" stamp for flower centers. Use olive section of rainbow pad to make aloe border at bottom (same stamp as used for flowers in step 1). Stamp assorted leaves, branches and small motifs to create an overgrown garden around the flowers. Use light lime portion of rainbow stamp for the areas that will appear as background, darker bolder colors for accents that will appear in the front. Color with pencils. Add fine gel pen details as shown or as desired. The gel pen details on the stems help the large flowers stay prominent, the fine "running stitch" style line around the top and sides makes a nice border.
Garden wall -- Stamp sections of woven look stamps from Tactile Impressions to make a wall. Stamp plants on top of the wall areas. Color with markers. Note that there was no masking used for the bottom of the card, but the top and center areas were masked so the plants appear to be growing out of the wall at different heights.
Fantasy garden postcards -- Play with stamps, gel pens and markers to create imaginary landscapes. Layer onto complementary card stock for sturdy postcards (or onto folded cards if preferred)
Long garden postcards -- Play with stamps, colored pencils, gel pens and markers to create long narrow postcards. Cut narrower card stock for bookmarks; small rectangles, circles or triangles for gift tags. Use scissors or craft knife to make a wavy shape at the sides as shown card with turquoise background. Outline with marker and draw small gold circles with gel pen.
Add Rango Zoo bug or other critters for a little bit of whimsy. Use black gel pen for extra details and patterns.	picture added soon
Lacegarden 9A The large heart with center details looks good on its own or over a heart pattern background. Sometimes a garden can be very simple. Lacegarden9B Limit yourself to one ink (shown - Adirondack Eggplant) and combine stamps to create a bold card. Note how the small leaves fit inside the fan shape and how the heart is turned upside down below the fan to form a tassel. The border around the phrase is made with a long, narrow curved stem stamp. This style card would look great embossed, tone on tone, or in black on a mottled or rainbow background.	picture added soon