Backgrounds

Happy Tuesday,

I hope everyone had a good weekend and found time for something crafty.

I have my DT project for the new challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz today - this challenge is all about the men in our life and has definitely helped me get going when designing my male themed cards. My team mate Joan has chosen the theme for the next seven days ...

'MAKE YOUR 

OWN BACKGROUND'

Here's what I came up with using my distress inks ...

I started with one piece of white card and then added Peacock Feathers, Mermaid Lagoon and Evergreen Bough distress inks using my blending tool. Next I used my favourite Stampin' Up grunge stamp to add some splatters using the same ink colours. I added a couple of pieces of torn book paper and coloured those to match, before passing the whole piece through a hexagon embossing folder. Then I cut the piece into three equal strips and rounded one end by drawing around a suitable sized pot and just trimming with my scissors.

The three strips are mounted on a piece of black card and I added a black strip, a piece of dark green ribbon and a stamped topper (stamped using an Inkylicious stamp with black archival ink).

I love making these backgrounds, but I also am addicted to my paper pads and must admit I usually reach for them when designing the background of a card (I have so many to choose from!!)

Why not pop over to the blog and check out some great projects from the rest of the team.

Hugz, Jan xx

It's all about the Background

Good morning crafty friends and followers,

I hope you all had a great weekend and are ready to begin another week. I had a manic cleaning day yesterday (oops, sorry to swear!) I blame it on this warmer weather - spring cleaning and all that. Anyway, that's enough about that! Lol.

It's time for a new challenge over at Make My Monday and this week our Fliss has chosen the theme 'Make your own Background'. Well, the possibilities are endless and it took me a while to decide which method to use for my card. As I use my distress inks and Promarkers all the time, I wanted to do something a little different - so here's what I used to make my background ...

A roll of metal tape, a Cuttlebug embossing folder 

and some alcohol inks.

And here's what I made ...

Here's how I made the background in three easy steps:

Step One 

Start with a piece of plain white card measuring 13.5cm x 10.5cm 

and cover it with lengths of metal tape, 

wrapping it around the edges onto the back to secure.

Step Two

Pop the piece of faux metal into the embossing folder 

and pass through your chosen machine.

Step Three

Apply your chosen alcohol inks all over the embossed piece 

until blended together.

I have matted my background onto a piece of black card before adding it to my 6x6" card. The flowers are stamped onto a book page, cut out and then coloured with 'Twinkling H2Os', which leave a lovely shimmer. The sentiment is from 'Creative Expressions' and is stamped with Versamark ink and embossed in black. Some die-cut leaves and a couple of little punched flowers finish off the card.

I am really looking forward to visiting your blogs this week to look at all your handmade backgrounds.

Hugz, Jan xx