Copic Ink Backgrounds

Boo! I've made a set of bright cards using Copic Ink refills:

Pop over to the Copic Oz blog to see close ups and a short little video made by moi.

Thanks for looking!

Mixed Media Background Prima Doll Tag

Well that was a long title!

Here's something we did in one of my classes late last year - we made our own mixed media backgrounds:

and then we used them to paper-piece parts of a Prima doll and made a tag:

Messy fun! The very best kind I say :)

Bombshell Stamps Ms May Challenge

Here's the card I made for Ms May's Challenge on the Bombshell Stamps blog:

It was a colour and a texture challenge, and it pushed me creatively which is what a good challenge should do :)

The butterfly is from the Butterfly Dreams set. The background was made with acrylic paints and black colour spray. The silver glitter was added while the white paint was still wet.  The black scroll is a Spellbinders Die D'Lites die - Fantastic Flourish One.

Thanks for looking!

Sent from above card

Here I'm having fun with Spellbinders Die D'Lites, Distress Ink backgrounds and 100 Proof Press stamps. Here's a card I made:

 

I created the background sky by sponging some colours on white card, and then flicking water droplets onto it. I then stamped Child Looking Up in black ink, and made the whole thing fit behind Spellbinders Die D'Lites Window Two.  The window itself was cut from brown cardstock and had some Inka Gold rubbed onto it here and there.

 

I love that the window opens to reveal a small child looking up at the twilight sky.

More than a little bit pleased with myself ;)

Party People

Here's another alcohol ink background my daughter Rachel made:

I thought this Stamp It image was perfect for the background- it's from their latest release, and it's called Dancing. I picked it up (amongst a couple of other little things LOL) at Little Bits. This stamp would suit the teenage demographic, and it would be fabulous for invitations too. I'm thinking I'll get a fair bit of use out of it.

Thinking of you on an alcoholic background

This card is made with one of the backgrounds my daughter Rachel made using alcohol inks. 

She was thrilled that I made something with her paper :)

If you've never made one of these backgrounds before, all you need is some gloss cardstock, some alcohol inks, and some isopropyl alcohol to thin them out a little. I'm sure there's a tonne of YouTube videos to help.  They're great fun, and it's something the children can do too.

The tree stamp is Stampers Anonymous, and the words are Hero Arts.

Thanks for looking!

A Background Story

Welcome to my first ever blog tutorial. It takes a lot of planning, so cherish it - it might be the one and only!

I want to show you step by step how I created the background I used on my son's birthday invitations early last month. He was delighted with them, and many of the parents at school complimented me too. So here it is:

Step 1

I started with some cardstock in this aqua/spearmint green colour. It needs to be cardstock that is not too flimsy (nothing thinner than Bazzill).

Step 2

I stuck some torn pieces of old book to the cardstock using PVA glue. I don't normally like to use PVA because it has so much water in it, and buckling paper is a look I don't always want. For this background it was perfect.

Step 3

I embossed a grungey-looking number 8 with embossing powder that is similar in colour to the cardstock. You could also use clear embossing powder, but I wanted more of a "milky" look and not the gloss of clear EP.

Step 4

Now it starts getting messy (my favourite bit). Slap some white acrylic paint on with a credit card. Don't cover the whole sheet with it - it needs to look streaky.

Step 5

Fill in some of the gaps with aqua acrylic paint. You still want to see some of the plain cardstock underneath.

Step 6

Give the whole thing a wash with 'uszhh'. This is a Michael DeMeng thing - it's a watered down mixture of Golden Acrylics: Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold and Mars black. It gives everything an old, worn, settled-in, been-here-a-long-time look. Here's a close up:

Step 7

With the edge of the credit card, add some lines with white acrylic paint.

Step 8

Using some watery white acrylic paint and an old toothbrush, spatter some white acrylic onto the page. Step 9

This is the step that hurts - time to cut it up to use. I used some white cardstock as the base of the invitation. I had printed the invitation details onto a transparency, so I cut the background to size and attached the transparency with a couple of grungey-looking staples. Just for fun, and because these are a boy's 8th birthday invitiations, I added a spider brad I bought from Queen and Co years ago.

Voila - my first tutorial. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. Also promise me that if you make one of these backgrounds you'll show me a photo! I'd love to see that.