Experimenting with Backgrounds

This morning, I finally was able to complete a project. I thought that it would be fun to put a twist on backgrounds made with alcohol inks. I know that it is customary to apply the inks with felt. I have felt, but wanted to try something different. I grabbed a sponge, my inks and glossy card stock and got started. Let me show you how I did it...

Collect up your supplies. To do this background, I used Adirondack Alcohol Inks in Butterscotch, Lettuce and Cranberry. I also used the Blending Solution and the Silver Mixative. You also need the glossy card stock and an old clean sponge.

I placed several drops of the Butterscotch ink on the sponge. Using a swiping motion and covered the card stock. I did not worry about even coverage.

Next I took the same sponge and added drops of Lettuce and Cranberry ink. I also added a generous amount of the blending solution. When I used the same swiping motion on the card stock, the blending solution "mixed" the colors.

The next step included adding the silver mixative and more blending solution to the sponge and swiping again. By this time with all of the blending solution, the background is really "swirled."

Once the inks dried, I began to stamp images. Using the largest stamp first, I randomly stamped the leaf using StazOn.

To finish the background, I randomly stamped smaller leaf stamps. This time I used dye ink but misted them with alcohol. I mixed a few drops of matching re-inker with the alcohol as not to dilute the color.

The background is now ready to be used. The possibilities for a background like this are endless. Here is what I did with mine.

The card is done on a Colonial White A2 card base. I lightly sponged the edges with New England Ivy. The two mats are cut from New England Ivy and Autumn Terracotta. The chipboard ribbon glide was sponged with New England Ivy and the sentiment was stamped with Autumn Terracotta. The ribbon is also Autumn Terracotta. The two leaves at the top were stamped with New England Ivy, cut out and sponged with Autumn Terracotta and Barn Red to add depth. The stamps are from Nature Walk and Give Thanks. Everything used is from Close To My Heart.

This is a fun, different and very easy background. You should give it a try. For Now, Happy Crafting!