Four Seasons

 

This card features a set of stamps that depict a year in the life of a tree, an image for each season.  The images were stamped onto stampboard to create 'tiles'.  The stamps are negative image stamps, meaning that the main focal image on each stamp is recessed into the rubber, so that it is actually the background that is stamped.  The inks used are chalk inks, and several colours have been blended directly onto the stamps.  This is a technique learnt from watching Carol who founded the Stamp Addicts company, a lot of my early cards were inspired by her designs and techniques.  The inks dry quickly and give a soft chalky effect to the images.  The tiles are then matted and layered onto one main panel.  Some text is stamped into a mixture of deep and multi embossing, and attached to a tag.  A couple of skeleton leaves and a greeting complete the card.