Okay! I’m finally getting around to the fun questions that were asked on my Birthday. I printed them all out, cut, folded, and put them in a basket for me to draw from. I plan to answer them all over the next few weeks. The first three I pull out and answer will get a special goodie from me, starting with the first question I pulled today:

Tracie Labonte wrote:

My question for you is what is your favorite stamping technique and why?

I seem to go thru which techniques I like to do in phases, however, there are a few that I tend to use with anything.

Faux Stitching – Ever since Portland when the delightful JulieHRR demonstrated this technique on the stage at SU!’s Regional, I have loved this technique! Sometimes a card or project just feels like it’s lacking something, and I’ve found that adding a faux stiched row here, or some faux cross-stitching there will complete the look without going overboard on embellishments.

Paper Piercing – This goes hand in hand with Faux Stitching. What’s great about Paper Piercing is that it is the preliminary step to Faux Stitching. So you can pierce your project, and if it wasn’t completely what you were looking for, you can add stitch marks. I’ve noticed so many fun paper piercing accents in the gallery on many fabulous cards. Using it as a way to embellish a card by adding some decorative piercing to the corners can really pack a punch. I’ve also used paper piercing as a way to ground my images at times when I thought that stamping, for example, the A Muse oval would have been too overpowering for my images.

Doodling – I love doodling for the same reasons as Faux Stitching and Paper Piercing. It’s a great way to add a little something to a card or project you feel is lacking, without adding the bulk of extra embellishments.

As for the techniques I’m having fun with at the moment:

Crayon Resist – Who would have thought that there really was a way to use all those white crayons!? This is one of those techniques that I tend to forget about, then rediscover why it is such a fun technique.

Transparency Overlays – Not certain if this is really a technique, but I think that in a way it is. I really love the look of the transparency with some selected stamped images over the front of a card. It’s a fun way to layer your images or to add to the embellishment of your card. With the StazOn Opaque colors, you can coordinate the stamped images with your projects, too.

Spectrum stamping – It took me forever to get any Spectrum pads, then even longer to finally use them. My good friend Jami has been a Spectrum Pad fan for a long time and kept telling me that I had to try it! I’m very much a novice at using my Spectrum Pads, but I’m glad I’m using them! I was also surprised to find so many techniques that use Spectrum Pads, going beyond the simple brayering of it onto Glossy cardstock for a background.

As an extra note, I have found that browsing thru the Resources section at splitcoaststampers helps me tremendously when I’m working on an assignment and I feel like I’m out of ideas! It reminds me of all the other techniques I have enjoyed and helps me out of my rut!

Thanks for the question, Tracie! Be sure to email me your address so I can get some goodies out to you!