ThePowerOfACard: February 2026

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

6 Techniques to use with Gears & Textures

When I first saw this bundle, I thought it would be a good one to have in my collection for making masculine cards. I knew it would be great for making a steam punk styled card too and while that isn't my normal style, I thought it would be fun. Little did I realize just how much fun I would have with this bundle!!

I realized that cards made with the obvious gears and bits and pieces would be plentiful, but that the techniques I'm about to show you might not be as obvious. I categorized them into six areas and I have samples for all of them. I'm not going to make a card in the video, but I will talk about each technique and show you how to do some of them. For others, I'm hoping my samples will be all the inspiration you need to try some on your own. Note there are no sentiments in this bundle, so I used a variety of sets for my words. I've linked what I used below (with the exception of a not yet released set and the stamp set from Virtual Card Retreat), but I'm sure you have plenty to choose from in your collection.

Technique 1: Texturizing Designer Series Paper (DSP)

When I participated in Stampin' Up!'s Virtual Card Making Retreat last month, we stamped on DSP for several of the cards. It is a subtle change to the paper, but can be the extra touch that gives a card the WOW factor! I recommend you use a color from the paper and keep your stamping light, by either stamping off first, or just by choosing a light color. I have to admit that the first card I show in the video is a surprise favorite! As you can see, I used the line and speckles (both are larger images, which makes covering the DSP easier). With the lines, I did all one direction, then rotated it 90º to make it look like cross hatching.

Technique 2: Kissing

This is another thing we did at the Virtual Retreat, although I've done it many times in my stamping past and it wasn't new to me. There are two ways to kiss a stamp. For my hearts, I inked the stamp with the lines, then carefully placed my heart on top to lift off the ink before stamping it on my circle. It is very slippery when you set the heart on the stripes, so just be careful to avoid sliding. Be sure to ink up the stripes again and clean your heart before stamping a second one.

The second way is to ink your stamp (for me, it was a small flower), then press the stamp on top of the speckles to remove some ink before stamping on your label. Again, it's easy to slide so try to just press straight down and lift straight up. You will need to clean (and dry) both stamps before doing another kiss. The result is subtle, but really cool. You do need to have a solid stamp combined with a textured stamp for the kissing to work.

Technique 3: Adding Interest to Botanicals and Animals

This is a really fun and easy way to add "fur" or texture to stamped or die cut pieces. For my leaves, I stamped with the stripes, but you could have also stamped with the small cross hatch stamp since the leaves are pretty small. And just as a side note, I also stamped on the DSP label and kissed the flowers so there are three techniques in this card! For my sheep, I stamped with the speckles (either stamped off Gray Granite or Smoky Slate). Once you start looking at your stamps for texture, you just might be surprised at what you can use to make the images more life-like.

Technique 4: Collage

This is the technique that I gravitated to when I first started playing with my stamps. I picked a color scheme that was analogous (colors next to each other on the color wheel) so they would look good if I had overlapping images. I started by stamping on white paper and just kept adding stamped images - some full strength, some stamped off without giving too much thought about where they landed. I would recommend doing this on a piece larger than what you need so you'll have extra to cut off and use inside or on the envelope. If you don't want to make such a large piece, start off small by stamping on a label. I chose colors that complemented my DSP in the background.

Then I was inspired by a very talented demonstrator from Australia named Laura Beacham. The next two cards are a direct result of seeing one of her gorgeous samples. For these two, I used blending brushes to add my colors onto a white panel (again, I chose three colors that blended well). Then I stamped in the same colors, mostly matching the color below the stamp to fill up the paper. What I particularly loved about Laura's card was the pairing of the collage piece with an embossed panel (I used the Stone & Vine 3D embossing folder) in white to give a stark contrast. Adding die cut pieces that were also cut from white and ink blended, along with a label really makes these two cards extra gorgeous. And the thing I especially love is that these are not just for guys! My girlfriends at work adored them too!

Technique 5: Graphic Elements

Many of the stamps or dies in this bundle are perfect to use on their own to make some great graphic cards. When I saw the swirls, it reminded me of paint rings, so I made a background of rings and used a paintbrush to accent my label - easy, right? For the next one, I made a herringbone design on a strip of paper, then trimmed it down to add to the right side of the card. The circles were one of the dies and I thought they made perfect frames for my botanicals. I stamped the long metal images onto scraps of white, cut them in the middle so they could stretch across the card, and made a fun backdrop for my St. Patrick's Day card. Lastly, I used the chevrons to make graphic birthday card. It wasn't hard at all to stamp the chevron multiple times to get a longer line of them.

Technique 5: Jazz up Labels

Sometime I use ribbon or strips of paper behind labels to jazz them up. Why not use some of the dies or stamps from this set to do the same? I love how the ink blended look of the Happy Birthday looks, so I did the same on the mesh die cut piece by using sponge daubers. The color combo looks so stunning on the black card base! For my little bug card, I stamped the little three stripe stamp on a strip of white, using the edge to help me keep it lined up. Then I trimmed it at an angle and added it behind the label - so cute!

I know I have lots of cards for you today, but honestly, it was so much fun to make the samples to teach you these techniques! Please share my video with your stamping friends so our card making community can really fall in love with this bundle as much as I have!

Karen

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