Gigi's Crafts: Inky Antics Valentines

Monday, January 18, 2016

Inky Antics Valentines

Inky Antics is one of my favorite design lines. My local scrapbooking store loves them too and often has new releases before most of us have seen them online. The bad news for me is that I lose all restraint when I fall for new releases. This is good news for the shop owner.

I came home with four sets of stamps all geared toward Valentines Day. Three sets are corny riddles. Oh my....right up my alley! The fourth makes candies as you would find in a box of chocolates (did you hear that in Forest Gump's voice?) with sweet sentiments. What makes all of this over-the-top fun is that Inky Antics also makes scratch off stickers to use with these sentiments and riddle answers!

Here are the stamp sets, Valentine Riddles #1, #2 and #3

Here is the Candy Box Message set and their circle scratch off stickers. They also make rectangular and squares ones to coordinate with the riddle answers above.

Here is a sample message stamped, then the sticker being scratched off and the end result. I have read directions on making your own scratch off solution but haven't done it. This is quick and easy but perhaps if I was going through dozens of them, I'd want to make my own solution. Then again...I probably would not. This is neat and some of the DIY ones I've seen are lumpy and irregular in shape.

I've only made one card so far, using the Candy Box Message set. Here are the steps I took to make it. The red ruler is part of my Mysti stamp positioner. I avoided buying this tool for well over a year, thinking it was too expensive and unnecessary, but then I used one in a class and was sold. I was fortunate to buy one just before the product was revamped and is now being sold at an even higher price.

Test placement of sentiments on stamped image

Sentiments inked with brown ink and being applied. The grid lines you see are the top plate/cover of the Mysti.

I stamped candy swirls onto medium and dark brown papers and cut them out with a 1" circle punch. The circles were too perfect for the way I think of dipped chocolates so I trimmed the shapes before adhering them to the blank spaces.