Everyday Explorers Co. just released some new stamps last week and I thought I’d share a look at one of the layouts I did using the Off We Go stamp set.

This buildable 6″ x 8″ stamp set contains so many possibilities that it was fun to try to combine a few of them into one layout.

I started first by creating the postage stamps. I wanted them to be colorful and knew that I could stamp them with multiple ink colors but when I tried this, I thought they were still a little plain and needed more color. So I got out a set of watercolors and decided to use them to add subtle color to the background. I carefully added light hues to some cardstock in the areas where I knew I would be stamping in. For the mountain image, I painted the sky pink and the lake blue. For the road image, I painted the sky pink, the tree area light green and the road gray. For the sun image, I just painted in some pink color.

After the paint dried, I went back to stamp the images in different ink colors. I masked out the areas I didn’t want to stamp and then stamped the detail I wanted from the image in the color I was using. A stamp press helped to keep the image in the same place the entire time.

It took some time but I really liked the result!

After the postage stamps were completed, I moved on to create some different tags. I used the two tag stamps and combined them with the various solid/striped blocks, lines, icons, and word phrases to make different tags that matched the layout. These were then fussy cut.

I wanted my photos to be cut in the same shape as the ticket stamp in the set. To do this, I sized them to 1.25″ x 2″ in Photoshop and then printed them out. I then carefully stamped the ticket image using Versamark ink to use as a guide for my cutting.

I cut the photos out along the Versamark stamped lines.

Now I had all the pieces and came the fun part: arranging! I moved the postage stamps, tags and ticket photos around my page until it looked good to me. I adhered all the pieces on and then trimmed the elements which hung over the edge. Since the layout is so busy, I left the left side of the page plain with just a simple title, and my page was done!

Thanks for looking and let me know if you have any questions!