Hogs and Kisses

The animals from The Whole Herd are perfect for the mirror image stamping technique.  They're small (which means there are fewer lines to smudge) and they look so adorable next to each other.  For this card I used the mirror image technique to create a pair of sweet little pigs.  I thought they'd make a nice focal point for my card--which, incidentally, is one of the lessons from My Favorite Things Summer School. 

I've seen people use acetate and the back of a large cling mounted stamps to stamp the reverse image, but I used a  piece of rubber.  I went to Lowe's, picked up a rubber gasket (it's like 1.98 and it's in the plumbing section), and I'm going to make a few different sizes of reversing stamps by gluing the rubber and a little cushion to wooden blocks that were left over from unmounting a few stamp sets. 

As you can see, the impression isn't quite as crisp or as clear as the original.  (The pig on the left is the original.  The pig on the right is the mirror image).  This bothered me at first, so I tried going over it with a marker (I didn't like that) and then I tried going over it with a pen (didn't like that either) and then I tried a black pencil (the third time was not the charm--I didn't think it helped at all).  So finally, I just colored it as is.  I think it's much less obvious after it's been colored. 

I still want to try this technique using versamark and colored embossing powder--that might work better--but I only have clear embossing powder.  I actually have 2 jars of embossing powder--both of them are clear.  How does that happen?

ANYWAY--thanks for stopping by!  I hoped you enjoyed taking a closer look at the focal point on my card!