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 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!
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!
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