Sunday 30 March 2014

Creating Backgrounds - Sponging and Spritzing

Hi everyone, this is the second technique that I promised to post.  I call it the Sponging and Spritzing technique (I am sure there is a more technical term for it).


I have used a colour scheme of Basic Gray, Smoky Slate, Tempting Turquoise and Whisper White.  This is a card that I posted several months ago, but I have been asked numerous times on how I created the background, so here goes.


I randomly sponged Tempting Turquoise over a piece of Whisper White cardstock measuring 9cm x 13.3cm.
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I then randomly sponged on Basic Gray.
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I then sponged on Smoky Slate.
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I then lightly spritz this piece with water to blend the colours together.  You can leave this step, however the colours will not be blended together as well, It also mutes the colour of the ink slightly.  Dry this off with the heat gun to speed up the process.

Once the piece is dry you can stamp your images.  I used Smoky Slate to do my stamping using the solid leaf stamp from the Summer Silhouettes stamp set and the Music Note Wheel.  I off stamped the Music Note Wheel to get a lighter colour of ink. 
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The next step is to spritz the piece with Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz to give it a lovely shimmery finish.  It does not show up very well in the photo, but the finished effect is beautiful, it also lightens the Smoky Slate stamped images.  I then stamped each corner with the small splodge stamp (not sure how to describe this stamp) from the Clockworks stamp set in each corner with  Tempting Turquoise ink. This piece will now be slightly wonky, but do not panic as when you stick it down to the base card it flattens out.
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You are now ready to make your card.  I used a Smoky Slate mat 9.5cm x 13.8cm, a Whisper White mat 10cm x 14.3cm and a Basic Gray card base (a piece of A4 cut in half lengthwise).  The inside of the card is a Whisper White piece 10cm x 14.3cm with a White embossed butterfly on Smoky Slate adhered to the bottom right corner.

On my card I have used a doily (cut down to 3/4), a piece of Smoky Slate DSP 2.5cm x 9cm with the sentiment from the Teeny Tiny Sentiments stamp set stamped in Basic Gray, a piece of Tempting Turquoise cardstock punched with the Scallop Trim Border punch, Basic Gray Stitched Grosgrain, frame from the Chalk Talk stamp set (stamped with Smoky Slate on Whisper White) and cut out with the matching Framelit, a 1 1/4" circle of the same background I made with the sponging and spritzing technique, White embossed butterfly from the Backyard Basic stamp set and the matching Framelit (this is on Smoky Slate).  The frame piece is lifted slightly with dimensionals.
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Creating Backgrounds - Retiform Technique

At a recent get together of the Stampin' Up group that I belong to, I was asked to demonstrate some backgrounds created by using various techniques.  As promised to the Stampin' Up ladies at our get together I will be posting over the next week instructions and photos of the backgrounds that I demonstrated.


The first background is the Retiform Technique which I found on Splitcoast Stampers with a great tutorial .  This is a great technique using post-it notes and cardstock scraps to create the masks for the sponging and stamping.


I started with a piece of Naturals White cardstock and using a scrap of Naturals White to create the mask, I sponged on Baked Brown Sugar ink for my first line.  There is no correct pattern to this, just create your gridlines where you want then to go.  Below are a pictures of the first steps, sponging on Baked Brown Sugar to create the divisions where you will be stamping.  I sponged so that the ink is on the inside of the lines, however you can sponge so that ink is on the outside of the lines.  It just depends upon what effect you want to create, experiment to see which method you like best, just be consistent otherwise the technique will not work.







The next step is to sponge a light base colour over the entire piece.  I have used Crumb Cake, this is done randomly, leaving some light patches (just make sure that you have inked over the entire piece so that no Naturals White is showing through).

You are now ready to start stamping.  Mask off the centre piece with Post-it Notes to stamp the first image.  It does not matter if you off stamp over the edge of the mask, it does look better if some of the images are stamped off centre or partially off the masked piece.  Build up each section using a variety of stamps and inks to create the effect that you want.
You continue to mask off the various sections and continue stamping until you have built up the piece and all the sections have been stamped.  I used Jet Black Staz-on, Baked Brown Sugar and Crumb Cake for the stamping along with stamps from the En Francais, Backyard Basics, Flowering Flourishes, Papillon Potpourri and Everything Eleanor stamp sets, along with the Music Note Stampin' Wheel.  (Tip:  I take the stamp off the Stampin' Wheel and fix it to a piece of Perspex to create a stamp which I find much easier to use than the Stampin' Wheel).  The sentiment is from the Peaceful Petals stamp set.




Once the background piece is finished you can now make your card.  I have used a Basic Black card base, along with some Victoria Crochet Trim and the Scallop Oval and Large Oval punches for the sentiment.
Inside of the card - I try and finish the inside of my cards to match the front.  It just gives a nice finishing touch instead of a blank card inside.
This is a very basic technique but you can get some terrific effects with it by using different grid patterns and ink colours.


The card below is one that I cased from Gina K designs, I just loved the colours (I used Always Artichoke, Crumb Cake and Early Espresso on Naturals White and Early Espresso cardstock.)  I used the same gridlines and design for my card above.


Sunday 9 March 2014

Mojo Monday #335

For the Mojo Monday Challenge this week I played with some of my stamps and created my own background paper using stamps from the following sets "Backyard Basics", "Flowering Flourishes", "En Francais" and "Secret Garden".  I have used a colour scheme of Basic Black, Baked Brown Sugar, Cherry Cobbler and Naturals White.



The sentiment is from the "Itty Bitty Banners" stamp set, embossing folder used is Perfect Polka Dots and the DSP is from the 2013-15 In Colour Paper Stack and Regals Paper Stack.  The leaves were made using the die from the Secret Garden Framelits.

MOJO335 001

MOJO335 002

Inside of card.

Sunday 2 March 2014

Hardwood Background

ck100 (451x640)


Don't you just love the new "Hardwood" stamp.  I have stamped it with Early Espresso on Crumb Cake for the background, stamped the stars in Chocolate Chip and Crumb Cake on Naturals White cardstock and then cut them out.  The card base is Chocolate Chip and the DSP is Crumb Cake from the Neutrals Paper Stack.   The tag was made using the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch from the new Occasions Catalogue.