Last week I saw a garage sale sign advertising a stamp and scrapbook sale that weekend. So of course I went! It turned out to be several Stampin' Up demonstrators selling parts of their collections. And there was a TON of stamps and other craft items there! I ended up buying a large geometric background stamp, a Christmas stamp set, and a set of sentiments.

I could not wait to get home and start experimenting with my new supplies! I have plans for the Christmas set to make my Christmas cards this year, so I wasn't ready to do anything with that one quite yet, but I wanted to try out the background stamp. I've only recently started using larger stamps like this, and they are still a bit intimidating to me.

I learned from watching card making videos on You Tube that the best way to stamp with these over-sized stamps in to put the paper down on top of the stamp instead of the stamp down on the paper. So I tried it and it worked really well.

I used watercolor paper and made 2 white embossed background and 2 black embossed backgrounds.

Then I pulled out my distress inks and started playing!

The two background above were made using the same colors (Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers, and Chipped Sapphire). They were both done using the smooshing technique I wrote about last week. The one on the right had the colors in grid formation, as I showed in last week's tutorial, and the one on the left had the colors in blocks/stripes. I think they are both very pretty, but the background stamp definitely shows up better on the left one. It's less busy.

I learned from the two multi-colored backgrounds and simplified the colors for these two backgrounds. The one on the right used 3 greens (Mowed Lawn, Pine Needles, Iced Spruce) and the smooshing technique.

The one on the right I used 3 blues (Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, and Chipped Sapphire) and tried out a different technique. I wet the paper before adding ink, then used a paintbrush to 'drop' color into different areas on the background. I love that some of the blues stayed in their box, but some bled out and mixed into other areas. I tried not to control it too much, just let the colors go where they wanted to. I also sprayed more water on as I worked to get the colors moving more. I was really skeptical while I was making it - it looked really muddy and messy - but when it dried, it looked great! That is always the case with distress inks - you'd think I'd know that by now!

I have plans for one of these backgrounds (I chose the colors for a specific reason), and I'll show that in the next couple weeks, but the rest of these backgrounds will be available for any cards I need to make. I can't wait to make them into something!

Happy Crafting!

Isn't smoosh a fun word? Smoosh!

Go ahead say it, it's fun!

I've had some questions about how I create the watercolor-looking backgrounds on some of my recent cards, so I thought I'd do a little tutorial here. I've named it the smooshing technique. Because that's what you do - you smoosh the paper into the ink to create the blended watercolor look.

I will say that I did not make this up, I learned this technique from Kristina Werner. She is a master at using distress ink to create unique cards.

To begin, I cut a piece of watercolor paper to 4x5.25 inches, stamped an image with Versamark Ink, covered the ink with white embossing powder, and heat-set it. I also chose 3 colors of distress ink that are from the same color family. Here I'm using Shaded Lilac, Seedless Preserves, and Dusty Concord. You can also do this technique with very different colors, just make sure they will mix well (red and blue mix well to make purple, but red and green make brown).

On my craft mat, I pressed my distress ink pads down right next to each other, then began repeating the patterns till it was a little wider than my paper.

I did the same thing on the next line down, starting with a different color, till I had as many rows as I needed. For the size paper I'm using (4x5.25) I find that 5 ink pads across and 5 or 6 down works the best.

Then I spray the whole thing with water. You can see the ink starting to bead up, but there's not so much water that it's all running together.

When the ink is wet, I take my stamped piece and place it image-side down onto the ink. I move it around a little and make sure to press all the edges into the ink to get full coverage.

When I lift it up, this is what I get! The embossed image resists the ink, so whatever you stamped on the paper will show through the ink colors. I dry the piece with my heat tool so I'm ready for the next step.

After one smoosh into the ink, you can see the pattern of colors on the paper. That may be the look you're going for, but not me - I like it more organic looking, so I take my dried piece and smoosh into the remaining ink again and again. If it gets too wet during the smooshing, I dry it and keep going till I get a mix that I like.

I dry it one last time, then use a rag to wipe the embossed image to get rid of any ink that may have stuck there. At this point, the paper is usually pretty warped from all the water and drying, so I usually put it under some heavy books for a few days. Then I can make it into a card, an embellishment, or whatever I want!

I've been busy with new cards, so keep an eye on my Etsy store for a new line of cards in a variety of colors!

What color would you like to see?

Happy Crafting!

I picked up some cute little notebooks the other day to stick in my bag when I'm out and about (without my planner!!!) this summer. They are Moleskine notebooks with a kraft cover, they come in packs of 3, and they measure 3.5 x 5.5.

They are perfect for throwing in my pocket or bag and jotting down any ideas or notes that come to mind.

But they are boring.

So of course, I started playing...

The first one I stamped on with a cute little hedgehog stamp using a rainbow of distress inks.

I liked how it turned out (because hedgehogs!), but it wasn't quite my style, so I kept going with the distress inks and came up with this one.

I added a cute saying and some washi tape and I love it!

Now I just need to figure out what to do with the third one.

Any ideas?

Happy Crafting!