Patterns in the Round

If you're anything like me, you LOVE background stamps. I love all of the different patterns and textures that can be stamped onto my cards, giving them instant "pop", dimension, and interest. However, what happens when I want to use one of those cool background stamps in a circle? Hmmm...well, after giving it some thought, I came up with four different ways to do so. The first of which is the simplest and most obvious way - stamp the background image on a piece of cardstock or paper and cut or punch it out with a circle punch:

That's easy enough. Along those same lines, you could use your circle punch to punch a stencil from a thin piece of paper or sticky note, then position the stencil where you would like your circle (be sure to cover any surrounding parts of your card that might get stamped on), and stamp the background image over it:

The last two ideas I had both involve stamp "kissing". No, it doesn't involve you puckering up, it simply involves pressing two stamps together to "transfer" the pattern to a second stamp - in this case, a circle. Here are the two ways which this can be done. First, beginning with a solid circle stamp and a background patterned stamp, ink up the background stamp:

Without inking the circle stamp, press the background stamp onto the circle stamp lightly - "kissing" the two together:

Then stamp the circle onto your project:

You can see how the pattern was transferred to the circle, therefore taking the shape of the circle. The last example uses the same technique, only in reverse. This time, ink up the circle stamp, then "kiss" it to the un-inked background stamp:

This time you are actually removing the pattern from the circle, therefore giving you the reverse of the image you got before:

Pretty cool, huh? Just think of the possibilities! Here is the card I made using all of the above techniques:

How fun! I got the idea for this card from the September 2012 issue of "Cards" magazine - a design by Vanessa Menhorn. Thanks, Vanessa, for the inspiration! Now go out and do some kissing of your own! ;-)