{Spotlight Project} Guest Designer Becca Creates Thank You Cards Using the Stamping with Sweetened Condensed Milk Technique!

Hello, STAMPlorations friends! Today and tomorrow, we're all in for a treat, as we've got two super-creative crafters guest designing and sharing their spotlight projects! 

First up is Becca Cruger of Damsel of Distressed Cards sharing a fun technique! We're so excited to have her on the blog today! Let us know what you think of Becca's project and then make sure to stop by her blog to leave her some love!

Although I've been crafting ever since I discovered how to attach glitter to paper, I just recently started blogging (in October). The amazing, supportive crafty community I've found on the web has been beyond inspiring! STAMPlorations was one of the first card making challenges I ever participated in, and I fell in love with the sketchy designs that lend themselves to all sorts of stamping aesthetics. My cards are very eclectic - I love all things vintage and distressed, but also find beauty in the simplicity of clean lines and smile when I come across a great pun. No matter what aesthetic I feel like working in, almost all of my designs will be saturated in color or filled with texture. 

And here's Becca's spotlight project! Enjoy and be inspired!

Ahhhh.... it's that time of year again. The Christmas cards have all been created, addressed in your finest print, and stuffed into matching envelopes. Now it's time to sit back, relax, and enjoy the holiday season. But what to do with all of that extra free crafty time now that you're not stamping furiously to make that one last card for Great Aunt Edna?

Thank you cards! I don't know about you, but my holiday season is filled with family get-togethers, present unwrapping, and cookie bakes. I have a lot to be thankful for, and I wanted to get a jump-start on the cards I know I'll be itching to give to thank all of the people involved in creating my Christmas spirit.

This weekend, I sat down to create a set of cards using the Sentiment Builders: Thank You set. I love the sentiment builders because there are so many different sayings you can create with one set! It's one of the (many) reasons I fell in love with STAMPlorations.

I decided to use an old technique my grandmother taught to me: stamping with sweetened condensed milk. It sounds messy (and it is!), but it creates this aged textural feel that will leave people wondering just what the heck is on your card - in a good way.

To start the process, pour a small amount of sweetened condensed milk onto a pad of paper towels in a dish.

Press the image into the sweetened condensed milk lightly. You don't want to fill up all the crevices. Wipe of any excess onto a paper towel. You can choose to heat dry the image without embossing powder, but I always put a coating of clear embossing powder over my stamped image to prevent any residual stickiness.

This is the Sketched: Tulips stamp, which I pressed onto a tag, coated with clear embossing powder, and heat dried. I colored a bit of the image and gave it more of an abstract design.

As a note, when using this technique, it's best to clean off your stamps immediately with soap and warm water. It will come right off.

For the second card, I used the daisy from Bloom Sketches and stamped the image in sweetened condensed milk, repeating the heat drying process.

I used this as a background paper for my second card.

For my last card, I painted the background with sweetened condensed milk and heat dried the entire thing. As the milk dries, it will become less shiny and begin to bubble and crack, creating an amazing (and delicious smelling!) texture.

  

The longer you hold your heat tool in one area, the browner that area will become, so you can really create any type of pattern you want.

When I was searching for new challenges, I stumbled on the STAMPlorations blog and fell in love! I am such a fan of vintage, sketchy stamps and the STAMPlorations designs work so well in that realm. And the girls in the design team are truly some of the nicest crafters around.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and I'll see you around the web!

Stamps Becca used in today's project:

        

Bloom Sketches is the August/September 2014 set in the STAMPlorations stamp club! Join the club and get this set shipped to you for free wherever you are in the world! Read more about our stamp club here. We've got lots of perks, including a free 4" by 6" stamp set like Trendy Butterflies sent every 3rd shipment (or immediately after signing up for the semi-annual subscription). 

Prize alert! Leave a comment for an entry to our Spotlight Projects random drawing for December. We'll pick a commenter to win $10 worth of a new product we're introducing in January. (Hint: it's flat, light, and you can do all sorts of fun things with it!) We'll announce the winner on January 1!