Stampscapes

New Craft Stash Blog Hop: Day One – Creating Sunbeams in Scenic Cards Video

Welcome, today I’m hopping along with some crafty friends, well….just because! Several weeks ago, several of us were chatting about how we have all this “New” product just kind of sitting around, and it occurred to us to break some of that out and have a “just for fun” blog hop! So naturally I thought – I’ll create a scenic card and make Sunbeams on a foggy day with my new Mossy Tree Trunks stamp that I’ve had for eons, but have never used…so “new” to me!

Do you have any craft supplies sitting around that are “new” because you haven’t used them? Break them out!

So here we are – over the next 3 days, we have a fun filled hop each day for you. Come get inspired and be sure to comment along the way to be entered for a chance to win one of six prizes plus a few more from several of the blogs along the way!

How to Create Sunbeams on a Scenic Card Tutorial

Click Here to watch in HD on YouTube

Creating sunbeams is actually quite easy on your project. The most important thing to remember is to pick a lightsource and have everything emminate from that spot as in the video.

Here’s a photo I took while walking in the Black Forest in Germany one morning. See how the sunbeams just pop out of the scenery, and come from one fixed point?

Pigment ink sits on top of paper vs. dye ink that soaks in. So when you layer your pigment sunbeams, they’ll create a diffused ray that sits on top of your stamped image. I chose to wipe a slight ray away from my stamped image to help accentuate this beam of light, but it is not necessary.

One of the most important points to remember is that to really allow your “light” to show – you need dark as well. That contrast is what makes the scene – dark vs. light.

To help give the scene a mystical look, try to keep your background “in the fog”. I was born and raised in San Francisco, so I naturally love fog, and miss it terribly – I know I’m weird. So I thought – let’s put it into our project! To create that mystery in the background, don’t over stamp or color. Keep the light in the scene – and make sure you’re stamping any background images really light. In the video, you’ll see that I stamped the images off onto scratch paper up to 4 times before stamping on the glossy cardstock.

I use Kromecoat 12 pt. glossy cardstock for my scenic cards. It’s a nice heavy weight glossy cardstock. You’ll also want a dye ink that doesn’t dry immediately – I like to use Memento, Distress Dye and Catherine Pooler Designs inks along with the Colorbox Stylus Tool with sponge tips. This card is sized 5 x 7″.

Of course, to see all the tips and tricks along the way – you’ll have to watch the video, don’t worry, I sped a ton of it up – this project took me nearly 2 hours to complete – but is so realistic, it was worth every minute. There’s a great transition at the end of the video that showcased the evolution of the card.

If you’d like to see another fun project I created using pigment ink in a scene, be sure to check out my Harry Potter Scenic Card here. In that one you’ll learn how to use pigment ink in a circular way to create an explosion of light. There’a a video too!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

Comment to Win Prizes

We have some amazing sponsors & Prizes:

Stampscapes – 2 prizes – choice of Nature Sheet Stamp Set ($26.50 value)
CAS-ual Fridays Stamps – $25 gift certificate
Catherine Pooler Designs – $25 gift certificate
Right at Home – $20 gift certificate
Stamplorations – $20 gift certificate

PLUS….

I’m giving away a prize pack to one lucky commenter from one of my blog posts! So be sure to leave comments on all the blogs – all three days for your chance to win!!

So now it’s YOUR turn to hop along and be inspired by some of my crafty friends. Thanks for taking the time to hang a bit with me today. I’ll be back in a few days with a mixed media project for you. And stop by tomorrow as well – I’ll post that hop list too!

Day One Blog Hop List:

Day Two Blog Hop List:

Till then – keep those fingers inky –

Supplies

To make finding the supplies I used in these projects a bit easier for you, here are a few clickable links. Compensated Affiliate Links are used when possible. Click here for disclosure. Happy Shopping!

Filed Under: Blog Hop, One Layer Card, Scenic, Stampscapes, Uncategorized, Videos Tagged: Catherine Pooler Ink, distress ink, Dye inks, scenic stamping

Harry Potter Inspired Card Video Hop

Written by Ingrid Blackburn 126 Comments

Have you ever been inspired by a favorite book or movie? Today I bring you a fun little video card hop, inspired by the Harry Potter series and a few of my crafty friends for a Harry Potter Scenic Card Tutorial!

This summer, Justine Hovey and I met up for lunch in Stuttgart, Germany while we were both visiting. I don’t even remember how we got onto the conversation – but we discovered yet, another love that we shared in common – Harry Potter! We thought, that would be a just for fun video hop – and my mind immediately went to my friend Laurel Beard – who I knew loved Harry Potter just as much as me. And Justine knew Jessica Frost Ballas was just as addicted, and this hop was born!

So here’s a fun, book/movie series inspired hop for you – filled with prizes, a little magic and of course – Harry Potter!

Be sure to hop along all four blogs and YouTube channels – leave comments – cause we’re giving away prizes on each blog – Harry Potter themed prizes!! Plus it’s fun to see how each designer was inspired.

If you’ve followed me a little, I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that I just HAD to create a Harry Potter scenic card! Harry Potter inspires me in so many ways – the castle, forest, bricks, owls, forest, dark vs. light, books, forest, wands, magic and oh, did I mention FOREST?!!! Naturally I had to create one of my favorite scenes of all time (Spoiler Alert) – the Dementor attack/Patronus charm at the end of Book 3.

Harry Potter Scenic Card Tutorial

I knew the perfect stamps to use too…Stampscapes. Kevin Nakagawa’s gorgeous line of stamps would perfectly evoke that larger than life feel I wanted to create along the frozen lake deep into the Forbidden Forest. Here’s a video of exactly how I created this beauty.

Click Here to watch video in HD on YouTube

The Tree Trunk stamp was perfect for this card. But I needed it at different heights – and what do you do when your card is larger than the stamp? That’s part of the beauty of Stampscapes stamps. The way Kevin has beautifully drawn these scenic elements is with little dots. So it’s very easy to naturally stretch and build onto your scene with it looking effortless and part of the original design.

So in this image, the left most trunk is actually only 4.5″ tall and the card is 5.25″ high. So how do you stretch your image so that it goes the full length? Simple – flip the top of the trunk around and stamp to fill that area. Now, you can’t have your tree get fatter – so you’re limited to a small part of the stamp, but see how it seamlessly lines up?

For the bottom – fill in the area with a little bit of color – add some dots with a micron pen and some distress markers. Then take the bottom of your stamp – ink it up and fade out the edges on it. That leaves you with the gorgeous texture – use that to fill in your trunk base. It just blends effortlessly! With more shading, and there’s zero chance of anyone noticing that wasn’t meant to be. Would you have seen the seam if I hadn’t pointed it out to you?

To bring the Harry Potter Scenic Card to life, layer your ink colors light to dark into your scene from the edge in. I used Kromekote Glossy cardstock – 12 pt for a strong base that let the colors glide with the Colorbox Stylus tool. Blues, Greys, Greens and Browns – your nature colors fill the scene with depth.

The key to this scene is the dark mystical nature of the Forbidden Forest. Without it, and it’s just another forest scene. We need the play of good vs. evil here – light vs. dark. Since I wasn’t sure how I could create a Dementor, I used dark shadows to get that effect playing off the bright explosive Patronus Charm.

And to get that bright glow – emboss the large buck (my Harry Patronus – the stag) and surround it with the white explosive glow. To get it to look just right, I had to play – and as you see in the video…a few ways just didn’t give the right feel. Swirls with a paper towel and some Hero Hues Unicorn Pigment ink did the trick.

Some finishing touches of white gel pen to emphasize ice and cold along the lake edge and glow in the tree trunks mixed with the perfect dark edging pulls the scene together. I didn’t have a greeting that worked for me, so I created my own with a downloaded Harry Potter free font.

I LOVE the third movie – and this is one of my favorite scenes. I think I love Harry and Hermine climbing over the huge roots at the base of these monster trees the most. The forest is so mystical and dark – I can do with out the dementors – they always freak me out…so it’s a good thing I can create my own Patronus – at least in a Harry Potter Scenic Card form!

What’s your favorite book/movie? Do you have something about this series that inspires you? Colors, characters, elements? When you start to create yourself – tag us with #CraftyPotterHeads! We’d love to see what you make.

Leave me a comment and I’ll enter you into my Harry Potter drawing! I’m giving away a couple decks of Harry Potter playing cards – to be delivered by Owl Oct. 1st….okay…I guess USPS will have to do. Back to reality for this muggle…

Thanks for stopping by! Now Accio Firebolt – hop on and visit my crafty friends for more chances to win and some creative magical inspiration!

Harry Potter Magical Blog Hop List

Ingrid Blackburn – You are Here
Jessica Frost Ballas – Head on over here Next!
Justine Hovey
Laurel Beard

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Supplies

Filed Under: Blog Hop, Distress Ink, Inspiration, Scenic, Stampscapes, Techniques, Uncategorized, Videos Tagged: distress inks, Harry Potter, Ink Swipe Technique, stampscapes

Shaped Cards – Snowflake Tropics

Written by Ingrid Blackburn 14 Comments

Creating shaped cards just takes a little imagination and a large die. I thought this week I would put a little spin on my snowflake Christmas card and create a tropical scene – why not?!! After all, I did just spend 10 years in Florida!

This month at Happy Little Stampers, the Christmas Challenge focuses on Shaped Cards. Since it’s been snowing a little every day here in the forest, I thought a snowflake card would be perfect!

We also have a great guest designer this month – Rahmat – Cards & Cooking Corner Be sure to check out her blog and project too!

Tomorrow I’ll have a video to show you for this card as well, so stop on by!

How to create Shaped Cards – Tropical Snowflake

Measure your snowflake die and cut a card base slightly larger. Mine measured 3 3/4 tall by 4 1/4 wide folded. (7 1/2 x 4 1/4″)
Score your card at 3 3/4″ and mask off the back flap with a post it note.

Stamp your water using 139H Seaside Cove by Stampscapes in Early Espresso. Tip – you want to have the glistening part somewhere on your card.
Mask off the horizon line at the top of your stamped image (the sky) and sponge in your bottom. Try to keep the glisten part light. I used Broken China, Mermaid Lagoon and Peacock Feather Distress Inks and Mini Sponge Tools by Ranger.
Add a little extra color to the horizon line.Flip your mask so that the water is hidden.
Cut a sun mask using a 3/4″ circle punch and post it note. Tip – if you can’t get the mask to punch cleanly, place your post it note in between a folded piece of copy paper and punch.
Sponge your sky in your desired colors. I used Tattered Rose, Worn Lipstick & Seedless Preserves Distress Inks.

Create a stencil by punching the same punch in the center of a square post it note.
Remove the sun mask and replace it with a sun stencil. Sponge with Fossilized Amber, Mustard Seed and a tiny bit of Spiced Marmalade at the bottom.
Stamp your Palm Tree (Palm Stalks 123F [Stampscapes] – cut apart) & Palm Fronds – Stampscapes fronds #2 & #3 in Espresso.
Add the birds either with a stamp or draw by hand. I used a partial stamping of Gulls #302A with an Espresso Marker, and free hand drew a few more.
Stamp your greeting – I needed a small stacked greeting, so I used this one from Christmas Bell Medley by Stamplorations.
Now that your scene is done, we can create the shaped card.
Keep your card folded as you run it through your Big Shot or other die cutting machine.

Be sure to slightly mis-align the top so that the card fold remains intact – meaning you have a flat edge at the uppermost top two snowflake arms (for lack of a better word!)
Cut your die, make sure it cuts through both pieces!
And there you have it – a snowflake shaped card.

Now this card is rather small, but it’s cute and would actually make a super cute tag or ornament – you could even pop a photo on the inside in the shape of a circle.

So I hope that inspired you a bit. I’m looking forward to seeing what you create. Don’t forget to check out the design teams cards too – we all have different shapes! Enter the Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge here.

Earlier this week, I saw my super talented friends Kristie and Bonnie play along with tropical themed Christmas cards for Merry Monday, so I thought I’d join them by combining the two challenges for this project! Be sure to check out those amazing cards too!

Hope you give both challenges a try. I’ll be back in a few days with a Mixed Media one!

Keep those fingers inky –

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Filed Under: Cards, Challenges, Clean and Simple, Scenic, Stampscapes, Uncategorized, Videos

Vintage Christmas Star

Written by Ingrid Blackburn 10 Comments

Today’s challenge keyword is star – so let’s learn how to incorporate that into this vintage holiday card. This month’s challenge at Happy Little Stampers is to use a star in some form on your card. I have to admit, I started off in a very different direction…then ultimately decided to create a simple card with a vintage masculine feel that could showcase the ultimate Christmas star.

I guess I’ve been in a vintage kind of a mood these past few months. At least here on the blog! I don’t know what it is that seems soothing about this color palette to me, but I’m really loving the feel. Maybe it’s because I’ve been injured and not able to walk as much as I would like in the woods…who knows?!! Here’s a quick tutorial for you, and be sure to stop by again next week for the video!

Creating a Quick Vintage Feel to your Holiday Cards –

This project was done on kraft colored paper – not white. It helps with the overall look and feel.
I find that the brown tone fits this style better than black. So ink your stamps up in a dark brown – something earthy. I used Ground Espresso by Ranger Distress.
Stamp the Stampscapes Pines & Rocks Lg on the left and the left side of Lakeside Reflections Lg to the right Tip – use a torn piece of paper towel to mask off the edge and create a seamless scene.

Place two post it notes in copy paper and punch out your moon with a 1 1/4″ circle punch. This will be your mask.
Place your moon where you’d like it before adding blues to the sky
Use a mini sponge tool and some blue hues to shade in your water and sky.
Stamp Cloud Strips Lg by Stampscapes in Stormy Sky Distress. Be sure to overlap the moon slightly.
Once you have the look you’d like – add a little shading with s neutral like Weathered Wood Distress to the rocks.
Sponge the entire scene around the perimeter with a brown – I used Gathered twigs for a slightly different feel than the trees.
Add your star and emboss in Pewter. I used the Nativity Angel Stencil by Stamplorations.

The perfect sentiment makes this card and nails the vintage feel. Here you see one of the many sentiments from Mixed Christmas Sentiments by Happy Little Stampers. Emboss it in Pewter for a great look, rather than something bright.
The scene is matted onto Vanilla card stock for contrast before being popped up on fun foam onto an Espresso card base.

I do hope you like this card – it’s actually a great one to mass produce and goes much faster than you think! I hope this inspired you to create something special with a star for your cards. Be sure to enter them into the Christmas Challenge at Happy Little Stampers!

Keep those fingers inky –

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Filed Under: Challenges, Christmas, Distress Ink, Inspiration, Masculine, Scenic, Stampscapes, Uncategorized Tagged: Christmas Cards, happy little stampers, scenic cards, stamping tutorials, stampscapes

Sparkly Moonlit Evening

Written by Ingrid Blackburn 48 Comments

We had a fun first month with the new Christmas Challenge at Happy Little Stampers – well the fun isn’t stopping there! This month the theme is Sparkle, so I figure what’s more sparkly than Snow?

I whipped out some of my favorite stamps for this beauty – Stampscapes. And I have a treat for you today – I filmed it too! The first video is about the Ink Swipe technique using a Colorbox Stylus and Sponge Applicator. I’ve always admired Kevin Nakagawa’s (Artist and Owner of Stampscapes) videos and creations, so I hope I do his technique some justice! It’s quite a bit longer than my regular videos, so grab a beverage, and enjoy all the creative tips along the way!

The Second video shows you how to put the Sparkle in your card – that’s the Christmas Challenge theme after all…and how to create the snowflake window with your scene. That one’s a bit more normal length…lol! Both showcase a very cool idea, so have fun with them. They are completely step by step.

View Scenic Card Portion on YouTube

View Snowflake cutout card portion on YouTube

The videos will teach you how to use the Colorbox Stylus tool on glossy card stock for a mystical moonlit scene. It’s loaded with tips and how to’s so enjoy! And I can’t wait to see YOUR creations at Happy Little Stampers for the Christmas Challenge – be sure to play along!

And if you didn’t get a chance to visit any of the challenges at Happy Little Stampers…be sure to stop by to see the new Stamps! What???!! Yes, there is a new stamp company in town – get your hands on the first series. Definitely check out the shop here.

Measurements:

Card Base – 11 x 5 1/5″ top folding card
Card Front – White – 5 1/4 x 5 1/4″
Glossy Card Stock for Scene – 4 3/4 x 4″
Glimmer Paper, Navy Card Stock – Stampin Up

Supplies:

Stamps – Small Lakeside Cove, Doe – Stampscapes
Stencils – Winter – Memory Box
Dies – Handlettered Holiday – WPlus9, Festive Flurry – Stampin Up (Retired)
Inks – Tuxedo Black – Memento; Ranger Distress – Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Stormy Sky, Chipped Sapphire, Pumice Stone; Illuminate – Stampin Up, Frost White – Colorbox
Other – Colorbox Stylus Tool with Sponge Applicator, Fun Foam, 2 Way Glue Pen, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter – SU, White Gel Pens, Q-Tips, Mini Sponge Tool, Liquid Glue

Creative Tips –

Be sure to add a light layer of ink (Distress, Adirondack Lights) to your glossy card stock first to help the rest glide with the stylus tool.
To keep your scene elevated evenly use fun foam to mount it for a bit of elevation off the main card.
Sponge lightly but thoroughly. Try not to press too hard through your stencil to avoid unsightly marks from your sponge tool.
If you don’t have a pearlescent pigment ink like Illuminate – try silver, white or even versamark.
If you’re not into scenic cards – throw a photo in that spot!

I also love to play along with other challenges – another one of my favorites is Muse Christmas Visions – and this week the inspired card had snowflakes in it. Even though the stars spoke out to me too, it was the snowflakes that ended up on my card to provide the sparkle. Cool how it all tied in!

I also played along with these challenges too this month:

So, now that you’ve learned a little here – be sure to check out all the other great inspirational projects at the Christmas Challenge at Happy Little Stampers! I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

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Filed Under: Challenges, Christmas, Distress Ink, Stampscapes, Uncategorized, Videos Tagged: Christmas Cards, Christmas Challenges, happy little stampers, Ink Swipe Technique, scenic cards, stamping techniques, stampscapes tutorials

Blue, White & Gold Muse: Christmas Visions

Written by Ingrid Blackburn 40 Comments

This week I’m playing along at at few Christmas challenges, but my inspiration came from a new one – Muse: Christmas Visions. It’s no secret that I love clean and simple cards, and Ardyth Percy-Robb is the queen of Clean and Simple. I love all her creations and am inspired by her work. I encourage you to check out her blog – Maskerade. This past week, she started a new Christmas Challenge which is a spin off the weekly challenge – Muse. It’s called Muse: Christmas Visions.

I’m excited to play along in their first challenge. The way the Muse challenge works is a design team member posts a project and you use that as your Muse for your creations. The first challenge was created by Kimberly Wiener and here is her card:

Kimberly’s card has several possibilities to pull from, but I chose the core – Blue, White and Gold. The colors immediately inspired me to think of the Christmas Star and a frosted scene, so I decided to grab one of my Stampscapes stamps and make a scenic card. Here is my creation:

If you would like to see the exact video for this project, it’s in our project library at The Creative Grove VIP Community. Click here to find out more about becoming a member.

Creative Tips –

To get the soft winter glow in the sky, you’ll want to try Distress Inks as they blend quite effortless – Click Here for a video on how to blend distress inks
For the snow banks, I used a few shades of blue to create depth and interest among the drifts. If you’d like to learn more on how to create snow drifts – Click Here for a video on Snow Drifts

The Leafless Limb stamp by Stampscapes was stamped twice, once in versamark, then again in Versamark/Espresso just slightly offset. They were then both embossed in clear embossing powder.
Embossing your limbs gives you that frosty shadow and allows you to use the emboss resist technique preserving your image while you create the scene around your image.
I wanted to have some stars, but wanted a little more gold in my card, so I created several dots with my Versamarker and drew a north star before embossing them in gold.

The greeting is cut from Brushed Gold card stock and the Hand Lettered Holiday dies from WPlus9.
The scene is matted onto a brushed gold card stock layer before going onto a Night of Navy layer by Stampin Up.

I’m also submitting this project to three other great challenges that I encourage you to check out:

Merry Monday – Embossing is the key this week – wet or dry!
Just Us Girls – Embossing this time around
Addicted to Stamps – Holiday

I love the feel of this peaceful frozen evening, I hope you do to! I encourage you to play along in all the above challenges, I had fun creating this one, and am excited for a few more at Muse: Christmas Visions.

See you soon –

Filed Under: Christmas, Distress Ink, Inspiration, Scenic, Stampscapes, Techniques Tagged: distress ink, scenic stamps, simplescapes, sponged snow techniques, stampscapes stamps, stampscapes tutorials

Vintage Christmas Cards–How to achieve a vintage look

Written by Ingrid Blackburn 20 Comments

If you have been following my blog for a while, you know one thing you don’t usually see here are vintage Christmas cards! But this week the gals over at Merry Monday threw me for a loop – yes…the theme is to create a vintage Christmas card!

I don’t have ANY stamps that fit this bill, so I pulled out my trusty Stampscapes stamps and sat down to create my own vintage feel. Now if you’re a VIP Community member you’ll get to see exactly how I created this in a step by step video…I know all the members who love scenic cards will just love it. And if you want other exclusive videos, be sure to get the creative tips e-letter!

Every now and then it’s good to step outside your comfort zone and try something new. I know doing just that keeps my creative juices sharp! So how exactly do you make a vintage card.

Well, first I googled it…lol! Yes, I know it seems rather cut and dry, but like I said, this is not my style, so I thought I’d surf for a little visual help. I came across several how to tutorials for turning photos into a vintage look with Photoshop and that gave me my color palette. Basically, muted colors – a little more on the earthy side with some framing – which I would do with a scene anyway.

The scene is built on a foundation of Crumb Cake card stock. I used a stipple brush to color in my scene along with some Stampin’ Up! Classic Ink pads. For the road I used Tea Dye and the stream – Stormy Sky Distress inks. My hills are in Pear Pizazz, the barn is in Riding Hood Red, the clouds are in Midnight Muse and the stamping was done in Early Espresso.

You’ll want to add some concentrated Pigment ink in the form of a q-tip from a white Craft Pad, I used one by Stampin Up and a pigment pen – Signo Uniball Gel pen. I also stippled a little with the white craft ink to get a muted white feel. To get the vintage feel around the edges, use a mini sponge tool and some walnut stain distress ink.

Of course there is quite a bit of masking that went on to build the scene along with coloring certain elements. I just wish I had masked the sky off when I did the hills – at the horizon they are a bit green – oh well!

Overall, to build the scene, I used the following stampscapes stamps – Snowy Covered Bridge, Single Pine & Trees and Hills from Nature Set 1, Tree Duo Sm, Lilly Grass, Snowy Rocks Sm, and Cloud Cumulous Large. I stretched out the scene a bit with an Early Espresso Marker in a few spots.

To keep with the vintage feel, the greeting is embossed in Pewter rather than a shiny silver. The finishing touch of course is the sliver just shy of 1/16” matting in Very Vanilla popped up on dimensionals onto Early Espresso. My card measures 6 3/8 x 5 3/8”.

Overall, I think my vintage Christmas card turned out pretty cool. I’m glad I tried it out! Have a crafty weekend!

Filed Under: Christmas, Masculine, Scenic, Stampscapes Tagged: building a scene with stampscapes stamps, how to make a vintage card, how to use stampscapes stamps, Merry Monday Card Challenge, stampscapes tutorials, vintage stamping

Silent Night…Merry Monday

Written by Ingrid Blackburn 34 Comments

It’s well into the fall season here in Germany, and I love that the Christmas Season is approaching. Making card for the Merry Monday challenge has been a bright spot to my crafting week on Mondays. This week, the task is to create a card that evokes the feel of a Silent Night before Christmas. I think this card works, hope you enjoy it!

For a tutorial this week, I thought I would show you exactly how I create these snow drifts, so I filmed a step by step video tutorial and put it onto my You Tube channel. If you are interested in watching the tutorial How to sponge flawless snow drifts, please click here to see it.

Thanks for stopping by today! And in case you missed my YouTube link above…be sure to check out my step by step tutorial here. Just click this image:

Creatively yours –

12 Days of Christmas starts soon!

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Filed Under: Challenges, Christmas, Scenic, Stampscapes Tagged: how to stamping videos, scenic stamping, sponge snow scene, stamping techniques, stamping tutorials, stampscapes, stampscapes tutorials, technique videos

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