Beautiful Backgrounds

Hello friends!  Hope you all had a marvelous Super Bowl weekend!

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps has done it again...the February release was fabulous!  The collage images and silhouettes are perfect stamp sets to be used with many wonderful background techniques.  So I grabbed my distress inks and some alcohol inks and started playing around.

For my first sample, I used two new Sweet 'n Sassy clear stamp sets, "Rose Collage" and "You."  To make the background for the beautiful Rose Collage stamp, I started with a piece of white card stock and crumpled it up...just bunch it up into a little ball...the more creases, the better!  Flatten it out and rub a distress ink pad over the creases.  I used Spun Sugar on my sample.  Then spritz it with water so the ink begins to spread and run. Use an old iron or a craft iron to help dry the card stock and flatten the paper even more.  You can leave it as is, or sponge on more color.  I decided to add some Scattered Straw and Antique Linen. When you are happy with the results, stamp your image.  A few torn edges, distressed ribbon, paper piercing, and pearls finish the card.  What do you think?

For my second sample I used the lovely "Morning Glory" clear stamp set.  The background for this card was made with glossy card stock and several alcohol inks.  Begin by choosing several colors of alcohol ink.  I used Stream, Wild Plum, Lettuce, and Gold.  Put two to three drops of each color unto a felt applicator, adding just a drop of the metallic gold last, and dab the ink onto the glossy card stock until it is covered.  Add some alcohol blending solution to the felt applicator and continue dabbing onto the card stock.  The more blending solution you use, the lighter the colors become. Continue until you are happy with the results.  You can stamp an image directly on the background with a permanent ink, or use it as a background panel as I did here.  I hope this makes sense to you, but if not, visit Tim Holtz's blog to see a video tutorial on both of these beautiful background techniques.

I hope you'll grab your Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps and give these techniques a try.  We'd love to see what you create!   Happy stamping and God bless!