Creating a Collage with Stamps / My Scraps & More

Happy Friday, friends!  Sometimes I like to take a break from using actual collections and just feel like making a layout from scratch.  That's what I did for this page.  I created this for last week's Free For All Friday at My Scraps & More. The challenge was to use several stamps to create some sort of collage.

I've had this set of arrow sentiment stamps just lying around for some time, so I decided to put them to use.  I first took white cardstock and traced around where I wanted my photo to go.  Then I took the stamps and stamped all around the square.  I overlapped them, creating a collage effect.  After that was done, I went over the paper with clear gesso.  This helps tremendously when you're going to use watercolors.  The gesso helps prime the paper so it doesn't seep into it and tear it.  I used watercolors, gelatos and Mister Huey's mist to create all that messy color.

Here you can see the stamps and background color up close.  Stamping is such a fun and easy way to create unique patterns and backgrounds.  Make sure you use a permanent ink, like StazOn or Archival to make sure it doesn't run when you add water.  I didn't even need to add any patterned paper to this layout...the stamps and paint did all that work for me!

I used a sunburst stencil to create the sun rays and then machine stitched over them.  I really love the pretty yellow up against the blues. 

One last shot of the title.  I cut "Summer" on my cameo and then paired them with acetate alphas.  I always feel like I need to color or alter a plain white cardstock title, but I left it plain since the background was so colorful.

I hope this inspires you pull out your stamps and give them a try!  It's fun, easy and you really don't even need a lot of supplies to create this type of page.  No patterned paper needed!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful weekend!