Hello, crafty friends! I'm Rubeena from A Rare Ruby here to talk about creating easy and fabulous backgrounds with small stamps and/or sentiment stamp sets. I was lucky enough to play with the new Essentials by Ellen Leading Lady sets that were designed by Brandi Kincaid and are being released this Sunday, April 8!
If you're like me and you struggle with using small stamps in a set to put together "scenes," this is a simple way to be able to use them all. When I craft, I start by stamping a bunch of images on regular cardstock and watercolor cardstock. I used Hero Arts Intense Black Ink since it is a great black ink that can be used with both Copic markers and watercolors.
I also stamped several backgrounds using the images from Leading Ladies - Hot Mess Lady by Brandi and the same black ink pad. I stamped a few backgrounds using the words "strong," "beautiful," and "brave" from Strong by Brandi and Altenew's Morning Frost ink pad. Stamping in a very light color creates subtle, lovely backdrops for cards.
Then I die-cut the images using the coordinating dies and colored them with Copic markers. Some people find it easier to color before cutting the images, especially if they're small. Find what works for you - neither way is wrong.
Of course, I could not forget about sentiments. I love heat embossed sentiments on black cardstock. I stamped several of them at the same time with VersaMark Ink on black cardstock and heat-embossed with Hero Arts Embossing Powder in white. If you follow me and my work, you'll know that I'm all about being organized and efficient. I like to create in batches so this process works really well for me. If you like to focus on one card, one sentiment at a time, then continue to do what works for you!
Now that I have all the pieces ready, let's put together some cards. I am going to focus on two of the finished cards and then share the entire set at the end.
These are the two cards I finished first.
I trimmed down one of the backgrounds that I stamped using images from Leading Ladies - Hot Mess Lady by Brandi and colored with Copic markers. I added dots using a gray Copic marker and then trimmed the sheet down to 4" by 5.25". Adding dots helps to "complete" the background so there isn't so much white space. However, you can also leave it without the dots (as you'll see at the end). I mounted the sheet onto a folded A2-size white card base with foam tape. I then mounted the colored Hot Mess Lady in the center and one of the sentiments with foam tape. See how quick it was to put this card together?
For the next card with the stamped sentiments, I added some black paint splatters (a common signature card move of mine, ha!). I mounted the Everyday Hero Lady and a sentiment with foam tape. Seriously, so easy! Of course, I had to trim off her feet so that I could have more of my background showing. The decisions one makes when crafting! Now, let me share what I ended up doing with the remaining backgrounds and colored images.
I shared my process for the top left card. For the top right, I did the same thing but did not add gray dots. For the bottom left, I added black paint splatters instead of the dots. For the bottom right card, I added a layer of vellum over the background to make it more subtle.
I did things a bit differently for two of the cards here as I decided to use the stamped sentiment background with the Hot Mess Lady. My black paint splatters do not seem to stop. I just love adding that element to my cards. For the top right card, I mounted the small images around the girl and added two sentiments. This set is just amazing because it's all me! And if you're wondering, I actually watercolored her. It is so fun to try a different medium. For the bottom left card, I also watercolored her and only added the sentiment. And for the last card on the bottom right, I added the Everyday Hero Lady and decided to keep her whole this time. I mounted the sentiment over her.
I hope you were inspired by my work and will be creating some great backgrounds yourself! Feel free to tag me on social media if you do so. Thank you so much for stopping by!
Supplies:
***The new Essentials by Ellen Leading Ladies & Be Strong will be available on April 8th!***
