Vibrant Ombré Background

I have been wanting to play with my Peaceful Moments bundle for a while now, and today I finally got the opportunity to do so. I had it all pictured in my mind...a vibrant ombre background with my poppy die-cuts in black. So I set out to make my background piece...I started inking up my Whisper White cardstock piece using a brayer and my ink pads. I came up with a nice background piece, but not what I had in mind. The colors were too muted...not as striking as I wanted even with multiple layers of ink. Time for Plan B.

I thought to myself, why not just stamp my background? I'll get the color pay-off that I'm looking for and it's quick and easy. Win-win! So I searched through my vast collection of stamp sets until my Artisan Textures caught my eye. Perfect! Color and texture, I love it!

I just stamped repetitively in different shades to get the effect I wanted. I used Mango Melody, Terracotta Tile, Merry Merlot & Blackberry Bliss for my inks. I was so  happy with the end result that I had to make multiples! 

Here's a really short video on how I created my background:

Now wasn't that easy?!? Here are the cards that I made using these vibrant background pieces...I think they are just striking! I used my Poppy Moments Dies for some cards, using Basic Black cardstock and Copper Foil sheets for the accents. Some of my sentiments were from the Peaceful Moments and Sending You Thoughts stamp sets, heat-embossed with copper embossing powder to tie in with the other accents on my cards. And lastly for embellishment I added some of my Champagne Rhinestone Jewels.

This background piece is more muted and less textured compared to the rest because I sprayed it with lots and lots of water. It just depends on the effect that you are looking for, add as much or as little water as you like :)

This card was made using my Butterfly Beauty Die, and the sentiment came from Dandelion Wishes stamp set. 

And lastly, I used my Springtime Impressions Die on this card, sentiment from Dandelion Wishes stamp set again on a punched out piece of Copper Foil using my Everyday Label Punch. I just lined the edges with a black permanent marker to add dimension. I also added a linen thread bow for embellishment.

And those are my cards for today, I hope you like them as much as I loved making them! I love this simple technique, I think I'll be using it lots with other color combinations. Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you next time! Happy crafting!

Dandelion Wishes meet Brusho

 I can't believe I waited this long to finally play with the Brusho crystals!!! I was unsure of it at first, skeptical whether I'd even like it. And so I waited. But then I kept seeing all these wonderful watercolor projects using Brusho, and now I'm regretting waiting this long! Now I can't stop playing with these watercolor crystals.

I started by experimenting with them. It is very different from other watercolor mediums that I have ever used being that they are in powder form and are activated by water. These are extremely vibrant! Just a little of it goes a long way...which is great considering I've been playing with them alot!

For my card today I decided to create a simple background using Brusho. Nothing fancy, I wanted it to be easy and simple. I started my card by sponging randomly all over my Whisper White cardstock (4 1/4 x 5 1/2") in Coastal Cabana and Mango Melody. I'm just creating a base color for my card. Then I taped my cardstock onto my mat, sprinkled Brusho all over (I used a little bit of Moss Green, Prussian Blue and Yellow), and then sprayed it with water (hence the taping to prevent my paper from curling). A quick zap of my heat gun and my background piece is done. I then trimmed this piece down to 3 3/4 x 5".

Once my cardstock is completely dry, I stamped my beautiful dandelions from Dandelion Wishes using Versamark and covered it with white embossing powder. Another zap of my heat gun and my card is just about done! 

I punched out a piece of Whisper White cardstock using the Tailored Tag punch and stamped my sentiment on it from the same stamp set. I sponged the edges with Mango Melody for additional effect, wrapped a piece of Silver metallic-edged ribbon around my art piece, before adhering my sentiment onto my card using dimensionals. This whole piece was then layered on top of a piece of Mango Melody cardstock (4 x 5 1/4"), before adhering it to a Whisper White A2 sized card base. 

And that is my finished card. It turned out better than I expected it to be, especially since this was my first play with Brusho! I am loving this product...so vibrant and versatile, I've got a whole lot of experimenting to do for sure! Well thank you for visiting and hope to see you next time! Happy crafting!!! :)