Cutaway Stamped Card

Last Updated on August 20, 2022 by Nancie Waterman

(Thank You: Posh Impressions)

In last Friday’s post about turning a line stamp into a silhouette stamp, I mentioned that the method I used created a flipped image (because the final silhouette uses the back of the stamped image rather than the front.) This of course means that words would wind up reversed.

This morning I got to thinking about working with word stamps and thought I’d try cutting away the stamped text to create a cut-out background instead. In this case, I’m not really turning a line stamp into a silhouette because my text stamp had simple thick solid lines, but I liked the way it turned out. As Robyn pointed out in the comments on my Friday post, if you have a digital cutter, you could use that to cut out a stamp to create this result much more quickly. But if, like me, you don’t have one of these electronic cutters, then a sharp craft knife and a cutting mat will do the trick.

To create this Thank You card, I stamped a text stamp in light colored chalk ink on a dark blue/white duplex card. I like using a lighter colored ink that contains some pigment for this because it is easier to see this type of ink on dark paper than dye inks. I neglected to heat-set the ink though and it smeared a little when I started cutting, so I had to wipe the background just a little bit and then used a heat tool to heat-set it as I should have done in the first place. It doesn’t really matter whether the stamped impression itself is perfect, as long at you can see the outlines of the image. You just don’t want smeared ink on the background areas of the finished card.

Then I used a sharp craft knife to cut around the letters. I find that pulling the craft knife towards me and turning the card as I go around curves so that I continue to be able to pull the knife towards me, gives me cleaner cuts. You need a sharp craft knife and a steady slow hand to get neat cuts (or a digital cutter.)

Once I had my text cut out, I needed to decide on a background paper to put behind it. So I pulled out some homemade background papers from my stash.  I wanted something colorful but not so busy that the text would become hard to read. After trying several gelli plate . . .

. . . and random paint backgrounds . . .

I settled on a piece of thick paper where I had apparently been playing around with different paint colors. (I hang onto most paper scraps of this kind because, although at first glance they just look like a mess, they can wind up being the perfect addition to a future project.)

I used dry adhesive around the letters and thick double-faced (“red liner“) tape around the colorful piece’s edges to attach it to the inside of the card behind the cut out text. I then glued the inside of the “K” in place and I was done.

It is an easy card, but fun and colorful. Because I had a stash of background pieces, I didn’t have to stop and create that piece, so it was a fairly fast card to make as well. Try this with text stamps with thick letters or to cut out stamped shapes.

Nancie, VSN