Stamping on acetate is not reserved for cards alone--it is an excellent medium for three dimensional projects like Mitra Friant's shadow boxes. Images can be placed in the foreground, middle, and background of a design by layering sheets of acetate on top of one another.
After some careful planning, Friant stamped images onto three different sheets of acetate in perminent ink. She layered the sheets by placing faom mounting tape in the corners. To disguise the tape, she glued flat-backed gems onto the front of the acetate, then inserted the completed peice into an acrylic shadow box.

The instructions

Before starting, plan out your design on newsprint paper. Select the color schemes you want to use and subsitute those colors for the inks.

Materials:

• 4" X 6" acrylic picture frame(found at most department stores, look at the mall too)
• Three 4" x 6" pieces of acetate
• 4 1/4" x 6 1/4" Mat board
• 4 1/4" x 6 1/4" white card stock
• Black perminent ink pad
• Iridesent inks of your color scheme
• Blank ink pad
• Dye-based inks
• Flat backed jems
• One yard sheer ribbon
• Paintbrishes, cosmetis sponges
• Foam mounting tape, glue

1. Using a cosmetic sponge apply iridescennt inks to white card stock, mixing colors for a shaded effect. Set aside to dry.
2. Randomly stamp your images onto the card stock with dye based inks. ( the dye-based inks will soak into the mat board and appear iridescent)
3. Attach the stamped cardstock to the mat board with double sided tape and set aside.
4. Stampyour background images(3rd layer) onto a sheet of acetate using dye-based inks. Set aside.
5. Stamp the second layer(middle) onto a sheet of acetate using dye-based inks. Set aside.
6. Stamp the first layer(top) onto a sheet of acetate using dye-based inks.
7. Apply iridescent inks to the reverse, unstamped side og the acetate sheets, coloring images as desired. The images will appear opaque when the paint is dry. Set aside to dry.
8. Layer the painted peices of acetate on top of each other with foam mounting tape.
9. Mount the layered acetae onto the mat board background.
10. Glue flat-backed gems over the areas where the foam mounting tape is visible.
11. Insert the layerd piece into the acrylic frame and glue the edges of the mat board to the edges of the fram to secure.
12. Glue sheer ribbon around the outside of the acrylic frame and tie into a bow at the top.

You're done! If you happen to take on this project, please email me with a pic of your project or smail mail me your picture and I will post it on this page here. Email me at rexenne@merr.com for snail mail addy. Please do not distibute my email for spam purposes. I really hate spam mail.