Cool Background Technique for Card Making!

Hi there! Annie here today wanting to share a very cool background technique for card making – one I am sure you will use over and over!  I created a bright springtime card made with one of the beautiful new Spring Layered clear sets and some of the gorgeous colors of Color Fuse Ink. Although perfect for stamping out layered images like this one from the Happy Mother’s Day stamp set, the four shades in each set of Color Fuse Inks are also ideal for creating ink-blended gradients to use as backgrounds.

First, let’s take a look at how I created the focal image of the rose:

• Stamp each layer of the rose bloom from the Happy Mother’s Day stamp set onto white cardstock using Color Fuse Set #2 (orange shades), starting with Mango for the most solid layer and ending with Pumpkin for the center of the flower.
• Stamp the three layers of the stem and leaves using Color Fuse Set #11 (olive green shades), starting with Fern for the most solid later and ending with Juniper for the darkest detail layer.
• Trim the image out with scissors, leaving a nice white border.

  Now on to that very cool background technique for card making and all sorts of paper crafts:

This is the background technique we call Radial Gradient because it gently fades out from the center in a radius:

• Trim a piece of white cardstock to 4.125″ x 5.375″.
• Starting in the center of the cardstock, lightly apply Beachside ink (Color Fuse Set #9) with a blending brush.
• Continue to blend darker ink colors outward until you reach the edge of the cardstock with Cedar ink (the darkest shade in the set).

  Now the GORGEOUS frames!

• Die cut white woodgrain cardstock using the Rectangle Combo #4 die. (Tip: When using textured cardstock with a large solid die like this, it can help to send the sandwich through your diecutting machine with the die facing up instead of down to get a cleaner cut.)
• Take the second largest frame from the stack (and save all the others for future projects!) and apply adhesive foam strips to the back.

  Here’s the sentiment:

• Stamp one of the beautiful sentiments from the Kittie Says Phrases #1 stamp set onto white cardstock using crisp black ink.
• Trim the sentiment out closely above and below with a paper trimmer, then add a flag or fishtail end on the right side with scissors.

  Now, let’s put it all together!

• Adhere the gradient background to an A2-sized white card base using tape runner.
• Center the shaped frame on the card front and adhere down using adhesive foam strips.
• Adhere the sentiment flag behind the rose image with liquid glue and then pop the image and sentiment up on top of the card using a double layer of foam adhesive.

SUPPLIES USED:

I hope you enjoyed learning how to do and use this background technique for card making and hope you share some of your own projects for us to see!  Be sure to check out Rubbernecker Stamps on Instagram or visit their Facebook Fan Group for tons of inspiration!