Clarity Dove and Noel Stamps

The Dove Panel is a really intricate stamp.  When you first look at it, it looks like a beautiful swirly pattern.  It's only when you look closer that you see the doves.

The first thing I did was stamp the image onto some scrap paper and look for all the doves.  I coloured them in (very roughly) so that I could see where they all were.  I had a few one winged ones to start off with but I eventually realised that they all have two visible wings.  So that's my top tip for this stamp - check that all your doves have two wings!  :-)

For my first card I used them as they were intended and made a bright blue Christmas card.  I stamped the image onto some white card then cut out little masks of all the doves.  This took a while!  I then masked off the two panels and got out my Splodge Away mat.  I brayered over them with Kaleidacolor Blue Breeze.  For the co-ordinating mat I used a sponge and randomly applied the different blues to the card.  It was looking a bit bare, so I added a couple of decoupaged blue doves to finish it off.

For my second card I decided to use the doves to make a wedding card.  It's done with Centura Pearl  card in Snow White and matted onto gold mirri.  The colour I've added is from a Distress Ink pad in Antique Linen.  I used some Cut-n-Dry foam to apply it to the centre strip, then I used a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder to give it some texture.  Cut-n-Dry nibs were used to apply the colour to the doves and church.

I just couldn't get a decent photo of it so I've added a couple.  One shows off the detail better, the other the embossing.   I need to improve my photography skills!