Plaid Builder Congrats Card

I have been eyeballing the Waffle Flower Plaid Play stamp for awhile now. I just love the idea of being able to stamp my own plaid backgrounds in whatever colors or patterns I want. So this weekend I picked up the set and I worked on making a couple of backgrounds for practice. However I love how this one turned out, so I decided to use it on a card for my brother, who just purchased a new home.

I combined the Plaid Play set with the In Stitches border set from Technique Tuesday. I actually had never thought of using border stamp sets to create plaid patterns until my friend Shannon suggested it. What a great idea.

I used 5 different VersaMagic inks for this pattern - the four included in this Southwest themed pack (Gingerbread, Turquoise Gem, Red Brick and Night Sky) and then Niagara Mist from this 4 Corners themed pack. Because these are chalky pigment inks, I heat set them when I was done stamping with my heat tool to keep them from smudging. Building the plaid was time consuming but fairly easy - I started with the widest stripe and worked in both directions with the thinner stripes and colors. Then just repeat. When I turned to do the strips that go in the other direction, I offset it a bit so there wasn't just a giant X in the center of the panel.

Next I took some of the Night Sky ink and smushed it onto plain white card stock. I added some Ranger clear embossing powder on top, and die cut the "congrats" using the Hero Arts Congrats Stamp & Cut set and my Big Shot. Then I added more clear embossing powder two more times and heat set it, creating a thicker glossy sentiment I could add directly to my card front.

I trimmed the card panel to just under 4" square and then attached it to a 4" square card base using Stampin' Up!'s Night of Navy card stock.

I definitely love the Plaid Play stamp set and will be using it often in the future! So versatile!