Friday, February 25, 2011

For the Love of Backgrounds

I'm not a background stamper. Patterned paper is my thing, and I love to use it instead of background stamps. Plus, I had an "incident" a couple of years ago with a large background stamp that traumatized me (okay, not really, but I haven't used large background stamps since that time).

But there it was, Practicing Creativity Design's "For the Love of Grids" stamp set. Mega cool! Had to purchase it and get over my phobia.

I decided to take baby steps and do a very simple card:

But I had trouble since I would flip the stamp when I was re-inking it. The card looks alright from afar, but if you look closely, I'm missing a row of dots and my grid doesn't line up right (see below). Ugh!!


I was going to post this card, but then I decided I had to redo it. PERFECTIONIST alert! Here's the revised card:

Ahhh....much better. I changed the inks a little to make more of a gradient. Now the gridlines lined up--yee haw!

Isn't the ribbon pretty? Courtney uses this ribbon to wrap the stamps when she sends an order from Practicing Creativity Designs. Sweet!

The sentiments come from Nature's Wonder, which is definitely one of the most versatile stamp sets I own. Love it!

After doing the second card, I realized I could actually work with the background stamps. Yeah! No therapy required (or at least for the stamping incident anyway).

Thanks for looking! Have a wonderful weekend.

Here's what I used:
"thanks" Card 1:
Stamps: For the Love of Grids; Nature's Wonder (PCD)
Cardstock: white (PTI)
Ink: Canary (Versa Color); Tuxedo Black, Brilliance Mediterranean Blue, Brilliance Victorian Violet(Tsukineko); Cranberry (ColorBox); Fresh Green (Crafter's)
Ribbon: May Arts--received from PCD
Other: Happy Holidays rhinestone (Doodlebug Design); corner rounder (We R Memory Keepers)

"thanks" Card 2:
Stamps: For the Love of Grids; Nature's Wonder (PCD)
Cardstock: white (PTI)
Ink: Canary (Versa Color); Tuxedo Black, Brilliance Mediterranean Blue (Tsukineko); Ocean (Cat's Eye); Alpine, Violet (Crafter's)
Ribbon: May Arts--received from PCD
Other: Rhinestone (Kaisercraft)

2 comments:

  1. That's an awesome card!! Love the bright colours! Yum!! I'm a horrible stamper, background stamp or not! haha!!!

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  2. I think you've conquered your fear! This is an absolutely fantastic card. I saw and commented over in the Flickr Gallery but glad I found it here. Just subscribed to your blog through reader too, so now I know where I can find you! (To answer your question on my card, I stamped the grass in distress inks. They dry slowly so I was able to coat them with clear embossing powder and heat emboss. I then rubbed ink over the top of them lightly so the grass resisted the blue ink. Hope that helps, but please let me know if you have more questions!!!)

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