Bringing Backgrounds to the Front

Here’s my card for the current Lawnscaping challenge to make your own stamped background. I combined the challenge with one of the homework assignments from the online watercoloring class I’m taking to come up with this pretty stamped star background with a watercolor wash.

I combined three different sized solid stamp images from two Lawn Fawn stamp sets (Lucky Stars and Hello Sunshine) on my stamped panel. I inked the trio repeatedly using pale pink pigment ink, then heat embossed the stamped stars with white embossing powder. Stamping with the pink ink helped me to see exactly where I’d already stamped stars on my paper so that I could space the images nicely.

After I finished embossing, I wet my paper with a paint brush, then used a wide brush to paint over the stars with watercolors, mixing several shades of blues and purples to get what you see here. It doesn’t show in the photo, but I also sprayed the panel with a light coating of a shimmer spray for a sparkly look.  It got a few ooh's and aah's when I showed it to a few people IRL!
 
I trimmed the finished panel on an angle and matted it with turquoise cardstock. It’s adhered to a contrasting dark purple cardstock panel. I stamped the “make a wish” sentiment from the Starry Backdrops stamp set on the panel in navy pigment ink and surrounded it with a trio of white enamel dots.

Once I had that card finished, I tried another watercolor background technique, but this one doesn’t involve stamps. For this one, I used one of my clear blocks with some distress inks and water to make a rainbow striped background on watercolor paper. After letting the stripes of color dry, I dribbled a bit of water randomly over the paper for a mottled look.

The finished panel was adhered to a black mat, then layered on a white card base. I really liked how the panel looked, so I decided to keep the sentiment small and simple so that the background could really shine. I stamped the “you color my world” sentiment from the Starry Backdrops set in white pigment ink on a black cardstock strip and heat embossed the words in white. The sentiment was adhered to the striped panel. I added a few sparkly silver sequins around the panel to finish the card.

Materials Used—Make a Wish card:
from i {heart} papers: Lawn Fawn Starry Backdrops, Hello Sunshine, and Lucky Stars stamp sets, Tsukineko Memento Luxe Angel Pink and Nautical Blue inks, Doodlebug Design Sprinkles enamel dots
Other: Royal Velvet cardstock (Papertrey Ink); Tempting Turquoise cardstock (Stampin’ Up!); Frost Shimmer Spritz (Tsukineko); white embossing powder (Michaels) 

Materials Used—You Color My World card:
from i {heart} papers: Lawn Fawn Starry Backdrops stamp set, Tsukineko Memento Luxe Wedding Dress ink, silver sequins
Other: Festive Berries, Mustard Seed, Dried Marigold, Mowed Lawn, Broken China, and Dusty Concord distress inks (Ranger); Basic Black cardstock (Stampin’ Up!)