Background Ideas with Stamps and Stencils

Last week for Demo, Bekah was the demonstrator and she showed us some AMAZING and clever ideas for using stamps and stencils to create background designs. 

Background designs are great for doing card making, collage art, or just for fun!! 

Check out some of these great ideas!! 

Creating background designs for card making is nice because you can use stencils AND stamps to create a themed-background. 

​Check out here where Bekah used this Knitting Stamp set from Hero Arts and this swirl stencil together... I love the collage-style background!! It works PERFECTLY with her focal point image on the front of the card!! 

You can EASILY create this look!! 

• Start by laying down a stencil on your card stock. Then use your Large Picket Fence Blending Brushes to apply a soft layer of Distress Inks. Bekah brushed on Distress Inks Wilted Violet, Chipped Sapphire, and Blueprint Sketch. 
• Next, arrange some clear stamps on an acrylic block so they look good together. Then, using the SAME COLORS OF INK from the background design, stamp your image across your stenciled background (stamp with purple ink on the purple section of the background and stamp with blue ink on the blue part of the background). When Bekah did this, she liked to turn her stamp 90 degrees so she got a fun repeating design across the page. 
• When you are done stamping you will see the amazing design you have created!! 

Look what a fun design this is!!! 

You can also create a background using a word/sentiment set!

• Bekah used this Whittle Sentiment word set from Poppy. She arranged several of the words on an acrylic block and stamped it on her piece of paper with Distress Ink, Pumice Stone 
• THEN she went back in with a leaf-patterned stencil and a Large Picket Fence Blending and brushed on a very soft layer of Peeled Paint Distress Ink 
• Bekah then TURNED the same stencil by 90 degrees and brushed on a soft layer of Pumice Stone Distress Ink. 

Ok, Check out the AMAZING idea creating your VERY OWN TURNABOUT STAMP!!!!! 

• Cut out a piece of 6" x 6" paper 
• Use your Tim Holtz Platform. Lift up the platform and lay your 6" x 6" paper down ,
• Arrange your clear stamps ON THE PIECE OF PAPER to fill a space that fills 1/4 of the 6" x 6" piece of paper (so just a 3 x 3 section of the paper), Just like the picture below: 

• Now press your Stamp Platform closed so it picks up the stamps. Ink the stamps and STAMP THE IMAGE. You should see it stamped down like the picture below: 

• Now, lift up the Stamp Platform and turn your paper by 90 degrees
• Now, peel off a few of the stamps and lay them down MATCHING THEM UP with the stamped image you just stamped. Once you have laid down a few stamps, press the Stamp Platform down and PICK UP the stamps you just laid down.

• Now, lift up the Stamp platform and turn your paper 90 degrees AGAIN. Again, peel off (from that original block of stamps) a few of the stamps and stick them down onto the stamped image. Press the Stamp Platform down and pick up the stamps you just laid down. 

• Lift up the Stamp Platform AGAIN and once again turn your paper 90 degrees. Peel off a few more of the images (from that original block of stamps!) and lay them down onto the stamped image. For the last time, lay down the Stamp Platform and pick up those stamps

• You should now have stamps going across your Stamp Platform in a way that appears hap-hazard. And when you ink-up the image, and stamp it, you will get something like this the first time: 

When you turn your PAPER 90 degrees, and ink-up the stamps with a DIFFERENT COLOR INK, you'll see that the images ALMOST overlap, but instead the images are snug-up against each other! 

Just LOOK HOW STUNNING this is when the images are stamped 4 times with 4 different colors of ink!!! 

With that concept, there are SO MANY WAYS to create a Turnabout Stamp!! **Keep in mind if you use several different brands of polymer stamps that they may have different thicknesses, so be aware of that!!* 

If you want some more instruction on how to make your OWN TURNABOUT STAMP, stop by the store!! We would love to help!! 

See you soon!
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