The Diamond Jewel - My Favorite Outlines Stamp

Today's post consists of two tutorials using my favorite Outlines stamp - one is a candle, the other a card.

There is a running joke with the folks at Outlines - the fact that I seem to gravitate to one specific stamp of theirs for my projects.  Well, it's true.  I admit it publicly - I love the Diamond Jewel Stamp. 

I don't really know why.  I think it's the straight lines and the fact that it is so easy to trim or use with a Stamp Positioner.  I never even realized how many times I had made projects with this image until Kathy pointed it out to me.   This stamp was originally made for the Jewel line, to use when making jewelry.  But I have always tried to use these Jewel images in other ways.

Today's two projects use the Diamond Jewel stamp.  The first is, what I call, the "Never Ending Candle" and the second is a card (perfect card to give to someone with the candle - just saying).    I love candles.  Many candles come in beautiful, heavy, glass jars.  Well, after it burns down, what do you do with the jar?  Just throw it away to be recycled?  Nope.  I came up with an idea to recycle it myself by making a "sleeve" for the jar and reusing it over and over.  The "sleeve" slides down over the glass jar.  All you need to do is place a tea light or votive candle into the jar and light.  At night, the light shines nicely through the holes in the design and the paper.  When the candle burns down again, you can remove the sleeve, clean the glass, and use again.  Or make different sleeves for different seasons or holidays.

Hope you enjoy and make this for yourself or for a gift.

The Never Ending Candle - Diamond Jewel

Supplies Used:

Diamond Jewel Stamp (D-875) - HERE. 

Glass Jar - either from an old candle or check the $1 or $.99 stores near you. 

Vellum - (HERE)

Stamp Positioner

Ink - Archival Jet Black 

Markers Used:  Tombow 725 (HERE), 245 (HERE), 443 (HERE), 946 (HERE), and a Neon Yellow from Stabilo. 
Big Bite or a long reach hole punch

Note:  if you do not know how your markers will look or adhere to the vellum, stamp your image on a piece of scrap vellum and test the markers to see if it gives you the results you want.

Directions:

1.  Measure your glass jar/candle and cut a piece of vellum to fit around the jar.  Add 1/4" to the length for the double sided tape in the back, and trim from the top so that the vellum sits just below the lip of the top of the jar.  (Hint: run a piece of ribbon around the jar and cut the paper to that size).

2.   Stamp your image on your Stamp Positioner.  While it dries, find the center of your vellum and place a very tiny dot using a pencil.  This is where you will stamp your first image - working your way out.

3.  Align your Stamp Positioner with the stamped image in the center of your vellum and stamp your first image.  Allow to dry and then stamp again, and again, and again - until you have filled the whole vellum up with the image.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.  After it has dried, color in your project.

5.  Using your Big Bite or a long reach hole punch, punch out some of the holes on the piece of vellum.  For this project I punched out 4 holes around the center circle, the 3 circles at the top and bottom, and the two large circles on the right and left of the diamond.

6.  Apply a piece of double sided tape to one end of the vellum, wrap around the glass jar and adhere both sides.

7.  Put a tea light or small candle into the jar, light, and enjoy.

Diamond Jewel Card 

Supplies Used:

Diamond Jewel Stamp (D-875) - HERE. 

White Card Stock - 5 1/2" X 4 1/4" - for card front

White Card Stock - 5" x 4" - for the inside

Colored Card Stock - 5 3/4" x 9" - folded and scored in half (here)

Stamp Positioner

Ink - Archival Jet Black

Markers Used:  Tombow Marker Nos. 055 (here), 885 (here), 452 (here)
Crystals Used: 14 of Size 12, 12 of Size 16, 5 of Size 20, and 4 of the Teardrop (here) - (for EACH diamond) - the sizes and colors for all crystals can be found HERE.
Crystal Lacquer (here)

Directions:

1.  Using your Stamp Positioner, stamp the Diamond Jewel image in the center, then on each side - on the 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" piece of white card stock.

3.  Color in the card front.  I used Tombow Marker Nos. 055 (yellow), 885 (red) and 452 (blue).  Notice that, for the blue section, I colored the whole area not worrying about going out of the lines as I will be using crystals to cover the whole section. 

3.  Adhere card front to the piece of color card stock which has been folded and scored.  Adhere the crystals using Crystal Lacquer, if you wish, use Viva Pearl Pens (here), which will give a nice look too. 

4.  On your computer, type the phrase "You're a GEM of a friend." and print it on a scrap piece of white cardstock.  Trim the phrase, layer it on a scrap piece of the coordinating cardstock, and trim again.

5.  Put some pop dots or double sided tape on the back and adhere to the card front under the 3 stamped and bejeweled diamonds.

6.  Adhere the other piece of white cardstock to the inside of your card, sign the back of the card, and send to someone that deserves it. 

Check back this whole week - I will be making different "sleeves" for the Never Ending Candle and on Friday I will have another great project using the Diamond Jewel stamp again (hopefully, if I can finish it).  If you have any questions about this tutorial or questions in general, feel free to email me at michaeltrent@gmail.com.

~Michael