Beautiful Eclectic Mediterranean Waterfront

When I attended my first Stampin’ Up!® workshop, I had no idea what “rubber stamping” was. The hostess, one of my dearest friends, said, “We’re going to make greeting cards using rubber stamps.” The only rubber stamps I knew about were name and address stamps. I wasn’t sure how in the world we were going to get pictures and greetings using those, but I liked Kathy, so I agreed to go. And, of course, I was very interested in how we were going to get cool stuff out of boring name & address stamps. But, in typing class, we typed the letter “x” in patterns and ended up with a cat (if we typed correctly!), so anything was possible.

I was surprised and pleased to see all the different rubber stamps that were available. Of course, I was totally overwhelmed by the catalog (sound familiar?), but I got over that quickly. Just a few years later, I signed up to be a Stampin’ Up!® demonstrator and I’ve never regretted it.

My favorite style in the beginning was collage stamping. You’d stamp different images over and over, sometimes overlapping, sometimes upside down. You could use different colors for the stamps – or not; it was very easy to do and almost impossible to mess up. Even if you had a smudge, you could stamp over it or sponge and cover it up.

I decided to go back to my roots when I saw a shirt my friend Lorraine wore to our stamp class last week. It was so sweet – and I immediately had an idea. I forgot to ask permission to post the photo, so you’ll just have to imagine how awesome it was when I show you my card.

This card came together really quickly and was super simple. First, I stamped the café scene from the Mediterranean Moments Stamp Set several times on Whisper White Cardstock using Tuxedo Black Memento Ink. Then I stamped the open flower from the Oh So Eclectic Stamp Set a few times, also using the Tuxedo Black Memento Ink. Finally, I added some palm trees from the Waterfront Stamp Set in Soft Suede and Mossy Meadow Classic Ink.

To add a little more interest, I stamped some scribbles from the Beautiful You Stamp Set in Crumb Cake and Mossy Meadow Classic Ink. Then I colored the bricks on the café wall with Cajun Craze Stampin’ Blends (light and dark) and the bottom flower using Crumb Cake Light & Dark Stampin’ Blends.

I adhered the stamped layer to a Cajun Craze 4″ x 5-1/4″ cardstock layer, then adhered it all to a Mossy Meadow card base. Super easy! The last thing was to add the sentiment. I stamped enjoy your retirement from the Itty Bitty Greetings Stamp Set in Cajun Crazy on Mossy Meadow, then punched with the Pretty Label Punch. I cut most of the “pretty” off so I’d have a simple rounded rectangle. For a final touch, I stamped the Beautiful You scribble several times on the edges in Sahara Sand (stamped off twice).

I thought about adding some twine or embellishments, but I kind of liked the pattern standing alone.

This is a wonderful card for a beginner class, because even though there are lots of stamp sets used, there’s little coloring and only a few snips off the punched piece to fussy cut. And it was really fun to go back in time and enjoy a technique I haven’t tried for awhile.

Thanks for stopping by Stamping with Buffy. Have a lovely day!

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