Growing In Unity Day 2

Welcome back to day 2 of my week as a GIU gal. Today I am going to share one of my go to background techniques. It's kind of similar to the technique I shared yesterday, only you use a stencil with the distress ink, instead of a stamp. I learned it from the Tim Holtz blog and use it often.

Gather supplies. I used Whooty and the sentiment from Harrison Hedgehog. 

I didn't want my background to be stark white, so I began by inking my entire piece of watercolor paper with a light earth tone color.

Then I began layering the various inks, lightest to darkest onto my stencil. I use the lightest color all over and purposefully places the rest of the colors, using the darkest as an accent.

Get out your handy dandy spritzer and lightly mist. Too much water will wash away ink or make it all pool tougher, giving it a muddy look and you'll lose the definition of the stencil, so go lightly.

Place on top of paper. You're basically stamping the paper with the inked up stencil.

Press down with a clean paper towel. This mops up extra ink that pushes through the holes in the stencil.

Seal in the colors by setting with a heat tool.

I stamped the owl twice as I wanted to add some fiber under him, but over the branch. I'll cut out the colored owl.

I cut out the colored owl and popped him up in place on my colored background rectangle. I added a couple of burlap end threads under his claws.

The finished card! I love the cool effect this background gives.

Be sure to comment each day for a chance to win one of two grab bags of Unity Stamps. See you tomorrow!

SaveSave