Hey everyone! Lisa on this #TexturalTuesday L♥VE-style. ;) Thought I'd make the card today all about looooove. Ha! Well, that and a fun background since that's what we're featuring this week on the CLASSroom blog. I'm curious to know what is your go-to style for a background card?
I used two of my faves here. I used one of my very FAVORITE all time styles of creating a background and that is to watercolor all over and then layered a super pretty (and awesome) background stamp on top of it. So it's kind of a two-fer.
First, tape down your watercolor paper using a low tack tape. Frog tape or a painter's tape works very well. I tape it all down to what's called hardboard. I do this so that everything stays nice and flat.
Once it's all taped down, give it a light wash of water. Which is kind of a "prime" for the watercolors. It will help the colors you choose to work with move and flow.
I usually put water into the pans of color before I start working so they're ready for me. Then, I just dip my paintbrush into my first color choice and let it flow onto the dampened paper. I love letting the colors blend into each other-- so be sure that the colors next to each other are "friendly" so they won't form mud. Mud is bad.
(I also like to tilt and tip the board to let the colors move.)
Once a blend that you like has been achieved you can stop there or add some gold (or silver or pearl) veins. This is always so pretty!
THEN, it can be dried. The best part about it being taped down at this point is it really won't warp at all.
Stamp the Versamark Ink all over the background stamp. Making certain that the watercolor panel is completely dry and static free (use an anti-static bag or tool). Flip and press the watercolor panel face down ONTO the background stamp. Cover with a piece of typing paper, press, and ensure the front of the watercolor panel has received a solid stamped image. I find this the best way to stamp onto surfaces like watercolor paper with large background stamps.
(If you look very closely you can see the stamped image.)
Then you're all set to heat emboss. For this I used Wow Embossing Powder Super Fine Metallic Gold Rich. It's a beautiful gold and heat sets like a dream.
Die-cut a piece of gold card stock from the Wonky Rectangles set from My Favorite Things and adhere it to your base card (Cherry Pop from Taylored Expressions). And trim down the watercolored and embossed piece to fit.
I cut out a piece of the red Tim Holtz Deco Sheets and adhered it to another piece of card stock prior to die-cutting. The reason for this is that I found in prior uses with this product if you try to die-cut it on it's own it's very hard to work with. Pretty and glittery, but kind of tough. By adhering it first to something else, it gives it stability that it needs. So...I stuck it to some cardstock and used the My Favorite Things Abstract Heart to die-cut a fun and glittery heart! I'll adhere it in place using the Ranger Multi Medium Matte right after I figure out my sequin placement.
I adhered a multitude of sequins and gold hearts that I have (again!) using the Ranger Multi Medium Matte. Unfortunately, I went a little overboard in one area. It happens. So, to fix that, I slipped some seam binding ribbon around the side and tied it in a pretty bow. Using a button and some twine I tied another bow and secured the button to the center of the seam binding's bow. (I hope that made sense.) You'll see it in one of the close-up photos.
Using foam squares on the back of this panel I secured the panel at a slight angle to the front of the card. And it's done!
Here's a few close-ups of this pretty card:
Now you can see the details of the bow. Isn't it sweet?
In the photo below you can really see how fun the abstract heart die is. I'm sure if you were *really* patient it'd be super cute to see it filled with completely different colors. I'm not that patient HA!!
