Hi!

I just spent some time looking at the fabulous entries into last week’s pink challenge. Wow! Great work. I love the ones that Sally shared in the post below. Keep sharing, everyone!

I also thought I would keep the week of backgrounds going with a few more ideas. One is from me - along with a video - and the other is from Shari Carroll.

Let’s start with the video. This one shows how to do a colored kraft background. Hero Arts makes wonderful kraft notecards with matching envelopes. I love to stamp on these kraft notecards with White Memories Ink and then add coloring and shading to the stamped image with colored pencils. This video shows how to do this, along with a ribbon pop-up greeting.

The inside has a greeting that pops up on the ribbon when you open it.

Supplies:

• DesignBlock Stencil
• Clear Design Thank You Messages
• Floral Accents Set
• Kraft Notecards
• Colorbox Chalk Ink Rose Queue
• Colorbox Chalk Ink Paumpkin Patch Queue
• White Memories Ink
• Black Memories Ink
• Pearl Accents
• Other: Colored pencils, silk ribbon (Creative Impressions), patterned paper (Bo Bunny), tape and cardstock

This next card is from my favorite stamper, Shari Carroll. Shari mentioned that she was originally going to use patterned paper as a starting point for her background. However, she couldn’t find the perfect paper, so she created her own with layers of stamping. Marvelous! I love her results. (CLICK for a larger view.)

Supplies:

• Old Letter Writing
• DesignBlock Flourish
• Amazing
• Memories Black Ink
• VersaMark Ink
• Light Blue Gemstones
• Assorted Crystal Gemstones
  
• Art Flowers Neutral
  
• Art Flowers Spring
• Hero Arts Notecards
• Water Mist Bottle
• Clear Embossing Powder
• Other: Offray ribbon, Tim Holtz Faded Jeans and Frayed Burlap Distress Ink, Teflon surface and heat gun.

Instructions:

1. Stamp Old Letter Writing onto white cardstock with Memories black ink.
2. Clear emboss DesignBlock Flourish over writing.
3. Smear inks onto a Teflon surface, spritz with water.
4. Place stamped image face down into ink mixture, press with fingers. Gently lift up, turn paper and press into ink until desired background is achieved. Allow to dry, iron between sheets of paper to flatten.
5. Back the stamped background with Mocha card stock, adhere to a blue note card.
6. Stamp greeting onto white card stock with black ink. Add a piece of Mocha cardstock below greeting, trim, round corners and tie with ribbon.
7. Adhere flowers and greeting to the card. Add gemstones to finish.

Thanks for the great card, Shari!

Keep in mind that many of the background ideas shared here this week can be done by repeatedly stamping smaller stamps. So, you can probably do them with stamps you have on hand. Gotta love that.

And don’t forget to enter the background challenge that ends on Sunday. There will be lots of prizes. And you can do any background technique you want - simple or complex, new or old. Anything! Just have fun.

I will be back tomorrow for some more fun… and a special guest. Can’t wait! I’m off to try Shari’s fabulous technique…

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 2:59 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.