I Love You

Hi there, I hope your week has gotten off to a great start!

Today I’m sharing an easy technique that I love for a quick and beautiful background that is bold in color but subtle enough in pattern that this gorgeous I Love You die from Alexandra Renke isn’t totally overpowered.  The background stamp is Simon Says Stamp’s Center Cut Kaleidoscope.

I started with an A2-sized piece of Neenah Solar White #80 Classic Crest cardstock.  I used foam blending tools to lay down heavy layers of Blueprint Sketch, Mermaid Lagoon, and Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide Inks, taking care to blend the colors where they meet.

I placed the background stamp, rubber side up, onto my work surface and spritzed it with a Distress Sprayer (any fine mist spray will work) seven times from about a foot and a half away.  You just want a misting of water over the stamp, not puddles.

Then I placed the inked panel, inky side down, onto the lightly dampened stamp and held in place while I placed a piece of typing paper over it so that I could gently rub over it with my hands to make sure that the entire panel was making contact with the stamp.  I held it there for about 10 seconds and then carefully and quickly lifted it from the stamp being careful not to drag it along the damp stamp.

I set the panel aside to dry while I die cut the sentiment from a scrap piece of #110 white Recollections cardstock.  I used this heavier cardstock because I wanted to allow the ends of the die cut to lift off the background and I felt #80 would be a bit too flimsy.  When the background was dry, I used a Zig 2-Way Glue Pen to add adhesive to the back of the center of the sentiment and then adhered it to the background.  I set an acrylic block over it to weight it down while the glue dried.  When it was secure, I gently lifted the ends of the sentiment and curved them slightly upwards.  Finally, I adhered the card front to an A2-sized card base.

Thanks so much for visiting!