Hero Arts – Stamp Your Story
When I saw the new Map of America stamp from Hero Arts, I immediately ordered it…it just reminded me of a treasure/”pirate” map and I could think of several ways to incorporate treasure maps into different cards. Technically, I think it’s considered a vintage geomagnetic map and it may have been used along with a compass to navigate ships…but let’s just call it a treasure map.
After stamping the background image in Memento Tuxedo Black ink, I used my Ranger Ink Blending tool to give the map a vintage stained look with Tea Dye Distress Ink. Then I burned the edges with a candle to give it a little more character. Once the edges were finished, I took some of the melted wax from my candle onto the eraser of a pencil and flicked it onto the map, followed by flicks of watered-down red acrylic paint from a paintbrush. I added the red paint for a little bit of color and to match the heart I was going to add to the map located over a place that’s very special to my heart…I mean, you’re supposed to “stamp your story”, and that’s where my treasure is buried.
The chipboard heart from Maya Road was colored red with alcohol markers and coated with 3D Crystal Lacquer so it would resemble a large blood droplet and match the paint droplets…but not in a morbid way. I’m a scientist…to me, blood is life. The sentiment is also from Hero Arts and is part of one of their Operation Write Home fundraising sets – You’re Always in My Heart. Here is a close-up in case you are interested in this set (OWH is a wonderful organization of which I’m proud to be a supporter!):
I stamp and distressed the sentiment in the same manner as the background and layered it over a Hero Arts cut file (Design # 17471 Compass Star in the Silhouette Online Store) with dimensional adhesive to form a compass rose for my map. The whole map was attached to the card base with a layer of maroon patterned paper in between (many apologies…I had stored this sheet loose from a large paper pad, so I am not sure of the brand…but I liked how the patterned resembled the star shape of the compass rose). The final touch was a bit of gold metallic baker’s twine from Two Berry Creative to hang my anchor from.
This design was another Hero Arts cut file (Design #17467 Anchor in the SOS) that I used to cut from gold foil paper. I love how it almost looks like a metal embellishment. Please feel free to leave any comments you may have and thanks for stopping by!