I recently got my hands on a set of montage stamps from the Stamps Away Collection and thought that I would have a play.

What started out as one thing, once again ended up as something totally different.

Here is the set that I started out using.

It came with masks (in 2 sizes), washable sheets, small acrylic block and stamps. I really liked the bird in this set – it’s pose is quite serene.

Anyway, before I wander off in a haze of English countryside, here are a couple of pics of my first experiments.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t quite happy with my first results – so I THEN watched the DVD that I also got – LOL! *mental note – should have watched the DVD first*.

On my second attempt I came up with this –

I liked this second attempt a little better so decided to make a card from it.

It was one of those ‘organic’ cards that I made up as I went along so there are no step by step images on this post. *another mental note – make plans for the cards that you blog about so that you can remember to take photos!*

Here is the finished piece – I’ll give you a brief guide to how it was put together just after this photo.

So you saw that the centre piece was made using the stamps from the Stamps Away Collection montage set. The inks that I used were from the Tim Holtz Distress Inkpad range.

I used the Inkadinkado Stamping Gear and the ‘Branches’ set of stamps along with the Meadow and Lettuce Adirondack Inkpads to create the larger green wreath style border.

I then used this little interchangeable punch from Pinflair (shown in the pic below) and the leaf/branch punch from the set to punch out numerous autumnal coloured leaves and some black branch/twigs.

I used dimensional glue to stick these in the pattern that you see in this close up.

To be honest, apart from a bit of matting/layering and cutting an aperture – that was about it – fairly easy really – not sure why it took me forever – perhaps it was the constant play/distractions/experimentation? Lol.

Anyway, here is another look at the finished piece (I’m kind saving you the need to scroll up the page aren’t I? LOL!)

Right, well that’s me signing off again as I don’t really have much more to say on this one.

I hope that you have enjoyed it and will visit my blog again soon.

Take care.

J :)