Stamping a background with Meghann Andrew

Hello! It’s Meghann here with you today to share a beautiful background technique that can easily be used on a card or layout this month using the amazing “You’re the Sweetest” stamp set. I typically use this technique with watercolor ink, but this time I decided to try a different medium, Gelatos.

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To begin, I gathered a few stamping and embossing supplies: embossing ink, white embossing powder, “You’re the Sweetest” stamp set, a piece of watercolor paper cut to 4” x 5-1/4”, and an Embossing Buddy, a powder primer in a small cloth sack that helps make your embossing impression more clear. I went ahead and primed the entire surface of my watercolor paper before stamping.

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Using embossing ink, I started stamping the hearts & “XO” image onto my paper, but since the ink was clear, I couldn’t see where to stamp the next image so that they would make a complete background, like Elle did on this great video.

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To be able to see my image, I went ahead and covered it with the white embossing powder.

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As you can see here, the textural difference in the image covered with powder before heat embossing was perfect for seeing where to stamp the next image.

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Following Elle’s video, I stamped the image three times and covered with powder before heat embossing.

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I continued these embossed, diagonal lines of the stamped image until the entire card was covered, being sure to run off the edge of the paper.

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Next, I gathered Gelatos, and scrap paper. I knew I wanted to create an ombre effect on my background, so I chose three colors that worked best together.

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I began by using the lightest pink at the top of the card. Gelatos have a similar texture to crayons, so to get in between the raised, embossed images I colored with the Gelato at an angle.

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I continued with the two other colors, being sure that I didn’t color in a straight line across the page, so it would be easier to blend the colors together to create seamless color transitions.

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Next, I grabbed a water brush pen, but you could also use a paintbrush and a cup of water. Moving the brush in a horizontal direction across the page, I blended the color into the paper, cleaning the pen on a piece of paper towel whenever the Gelato got too built-up on the brush tip. I did a full pass across the paper, allowed it to dry a bit, then went back and blended the color transitions a bit more before allowing the paper to dry fully.

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After the paper was dry, I took a dry piece of paper towel and began to wipe off the paper, which rubbed the Gelato colors off of the embossed image.

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After the entire background was rubbed, I tied some baker’s twine three times around the width of the card and tied into a bow.

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The perfect touch to the card front was the acrylic sentiment “Adore You” that I adhered with small glue dot adhesive. I then embellished with heart chipboard and brads in the same three colors as I used on the background to continue the ombre effect.

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To finish, I adhered the paper to a 4-1/4”  x 5-1/2” folded card using dimensional adhesive. I hope you will give this technique a try, using the lovely background stamp from the “You’re the Sweetest” stamp set!

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