Brought to you by Linda Harrison- your Independent Close To My Heart Consultant

Idea of the Month

Creating Shadows with Texture Stamps

This technique uses C1059 Lighting the Way, but it  can also be adapted to your other stamped creations, too, especially outdoor scenes where you have a source of light such as the moon in the background.  The magical shadow effect is  created with one of our very versatile texture stamps found in the D1054 Speckled Backgrounds set and several shades of progressively darker inks.   

Supply List:

Stamps:

C1059 Lighting the Way (set of 8)

D1054  Speckled Backgrounds

Papers:

Close To My Heart® Cardstocks in Black, Glossy, Buttercup and White Daisy 

Inks:

Black, Buttercup, Indian Corn Blue, Outdoor Denim and Majestic Mountain Exclusive Inks TM Stamp Pads

Miscellaneous:

Z697 Round Sponge,

Buttercup Exclusive Inks TM Marker

Step 1:  Stamp the Basic Scene First

Stamp the scene above on a piece of 3.75 x 5" glossy white cardstock.  Stamp the lighthouse and rocks with the black Exclusive Inks TM Stamp Pad.  Use a sponge to apply Buttercup Exclusive Ink TM around the top of the lighthouse.  I also used a Buttercup Exclusive Inks TM marker to color the windows for more intensity.

Step 2:  Begin Adding Shadows

Use the dotted texture stamp and the Indian Corn Blue Exclusive Ink TM and stamp randomly all around the card, except don't stamp over the yellow "light."

Step 3:  Build up the Shadows       

The main idea here is to continue stamping dots all over, using progressively darker shades of ink and drawing further away from the light source with each color.  I used the colors in this order: Indian Corn Blue Exclusive Ink TM (you did this in Step 2), Outdoor Denim Exclusive Ink TM, Majestic Mountain  Exclusive Ink TM, and black Exclusive Ink TM.  The effect is to create deeper shadows farther away from the light source.  You will probably want to stamp several times around with each of the darker colors, especially the black, to get the effect you want.  Cool, huh?

Step 4:  Mount your Scene

Always mount your creations (and photos!) on colors that appear in the artwork itself.  (SFTM Club Members have access to this and other principals of Paper Layering... see the Past Ideas of the Month page).  Be sure to include a Buttercup layer to accentuate the yellow light.  I like adding a layer of black to accentuate the deep shadows, too.

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