Blue Knight Rubber Stamps New Release Week and Giveaway Day 1

Hello hello!

I'm so happy and excited to be hosting another Blue Knight Rubber Stamps New Release Week and Giveaway. I'm also happy to share, with you, that although I have hosted Blue Knight Rubber Stamps New Release Weeks here at my blog in the past....This is the first time that I am hosting a new Release Week as Blue Knight's Design Team Coordinator.

It is my joy and pleasure to have the opportunity to to work closely with this wonderful stamp company and an amazing gathering of creative and inspiring DT members.
While I am involved with lots of DT Coordinator things behind the scenes...I will NEVER abandon my love of card making and creating.

And so it thrills me to devote this week, here at my blog, to this fabulous Blue Knight Rubber Stamps May New Release.
Yes, I still get to create!

Today I'm sharing two cards with you...both created with the COWBOY HERO stamp set.

For the first card, I did some inking with Distress Ink(s) and a Tim Holtz stencil.
The silhouette image was stamped with Gina K's AMALGAM INK (my current favorite ink for silhouette stamping)
NOTE: When doing silhouette stamping it's helpful to use a stamp positioning tool so that you can do repetitive stamping in order to stamp...re-ink...stamp...re-ink...multiple times to get a solid image.
Even with the Gina K ink, I stamped and re-inked  6 x's to get a good solid image.
After all, that's what a silhouette image is all about...a solid dark non-spotty image.
So ink away, my friends, when you do your silhouette stamping.
No spotty washed out images allowed when you create your Blue Knight Cowboy silhouettes!

I stamped, inked and matted the sentiment banner, which I hand cut
(It's a cinch to cut your own banners for sentiments...No dies needed....trust me)
I chose chocolate brown, orange and gold metallic card stock for matting
The matted image piece and the sentiment banner were positioned with fun foam for added dimension.

My second COWBOY HERO  card  (below) has a totally different look...and a totally different color palette.
(And I am loving it)

I paired the COWBOY HERO stamps set with THE DIRT ROAD stamp to create this card, using The Dirt Road as the background print.
And...I've got a little secret to share (aka Helpful hint) about this card.
The paper that the images are stamped on is from a large paper pad that I picked up last year.
The entire pad consists of 12 x 12 paper that looks like it's been water colored.

I love to water color, so at any given time I always have 50...60 water colored card front sized pieces of card stock water colored and ready to go. But this paper pad caught my eye and I thought that I might use it as a water coloring short cut...for those times when I might not have a water colored piece ready to go, in a particular color.
Creating this card seemed like a great time to give this paper pad a try.

So..that's the secret.
If you aren't a card maker who enjoys water coloring, but like the look of water color....a pad like this is ideal for you.

I was very happy with the color palette that I went with for this card. It all came together easily and nicely, thanks to that water color paper.
I did add some light inking to The Dirt Road image (the grassy areas)
and I added some stamped grass to the smaller image with the grass stamp that is part of the GALLOPING HORSES stamp set.
I hand cut the sentiment banner and chose mat colors that complemented the images and water color-look paper.
The cowboy image and sentient banner were positioned with fun foam for added dimension.

I really enjoyed creating both of today's cards, and surprised myself (in a good way!) with the color palette that I chose for the second card.

If you're looking for a great Father's Day stamp set..this is IT!
You can find each of the stamp sets used to create today's card at the Blue Knight Rubber Stamps web site: HERE

BUT...before you head over to the web site...please take a sec to share a comment below to get your daily entry for this week's Giveaways.
Yes..I've got 2 Giveaways  this week.
Please note: The Giveaway is opened to blog visitors, here at my blog, with US mailing  addresses.

You can earn one entry per day by commenting beneath each blog post that I share May 20-24th, during Blue Knight Rubber Stamps New Release Week here at my blog.

Here's a peek at the 2 Giveaways
(Notice my photo edit typo over the Giveaway photo?...I typed COUD Stencil, instead of CLOUD STENCIL...of course I didn't see that until NOW!)

Thanks for visiting today!

I'll see you tomorrow, for Day 2 of Blue Knight New Release Week, here at my blog!
Wishing you a marvelous Monday!
Michelle