In my effort to use what I have, I have been revisiting older stamp sets and look at it again with fresh eyes. Sometimes my style has changed, sometimes I see new possibilities in the images, and sometimes it simply reminds me why I kept the set in the first place.
This week I revisited Papertrey Ink’s Peaceful Garden, an older botanical set that includes bamboo, grasses, and a few sentiments. Instead of trying to recreate ways I have used it in the past, I experimented a bit and ended up making three very different cards.
For the first card I stamped the bamboo along the right side of the panel and added a simple grassy foreground. To give the scene some energy, I splattered blue and gold ink across the panel. I am currently obsessed with Tim Holtz Distress Spritz!
The splatter softens the bamboo and adds a light shimmer. I finished the card with a sentiment from a Honeybee Stamps set that happened to be on my desk.
For the second card I returned to the grass stamp and was dreaming of spring. I added a simple bunny silhouette and a row of tiny layered flowers to suggest spring in miniature.
This one is more playful than the first card. The yellow card base adds warmth and the little flowers give the scene some dimension without overwhelming the simplicity of the design.
For the final card I wanted to try something quieter. I heat embossed the bamboo in white on soft gray cardstock and paired it with a masked “peace” sentiment from the set.
The white embossing gives the bamboo a soft, almost carved look against the gray background. Leaving plenty of open space keeps the card calm and minimal, which felt like the right direction for this image.
Revisiting older supplies like this is always a good reminder that sometimes a stamp set doesn’t need anything new—just a slightly different approach. It was fun to see how three very different cards could come from the same set. Already looking around for what set to pick next!
Supplies
- Papertrey Ink: Peaceful Garden
- Honey Bee Stamps: Inside Kindness sentiments
- Impression Obsession: Rabbit Set
- Poppystamps: Wildflower Patch
- Impression Obsession: Tiny Flowers
- Impression Obsession: Tiny 6 Petal Flowers
- Tim Holtz Distress Spritz
MakingMyWay 