Beyond Basic Backgrounds for Level 2 AECP

Hello hello hello!

Today I am going to share with you some background techniques that will help you make some fabulous cards!  Lydia Evans is so talented, and gives such great ideas in her videos.

For the first card I am sharing I used a die cut inlay technique.  This just means that I was using the same piece of card stock to cut out my die cuts, then added them back in to the original card stock as an inlaid design.  Here I ink blended them before inlaying... but will get to that later. 

First I die cut the 'Hello" from the white card stock in a pattern on a diagonal across the panel. I kept every little piece that came out... not just the word, but the tiny pieces of the "e" and the "o" for the background.

I then hot foiled the strips using a hot foil plate and my glimmer machine.

While that was heating, I quickly ink blended the words with Altenew Fresh Dye Ink Blush Rose (what a gorgeous color!!!).  I made sure to get all the tiny pieces that may have been cut from the edges of the card!

Look at how well that foiled!

I added the cut out card stock to another piece of card stock, and began inlaying the colored "hello" pieces back into the original cut outs.

I also added in the tiny pieces that came from the background... the holes in the "e" and "o".  Now the card stock is once again smooth.

The finished look.

I absolutely LOVE Altenew's layering dies, and use them as often as I can!  The keyhole system makes it so easy to line up the images exactly!

First I ink blended the centers of each layer with the same Blush Rose ink using a smaller blending brush.

Then I glued the pieces together by lining up the keyholes in each layer.

Gorgeous! Right??

I grabbed some leaves from the Altenew Zero Waste Leaf die to add behind the flower, and attached the panel to a top folding A2 card base.

I added the dots from the Zero Waste Leaf Die among the 'Hello's", and covered them (and the flower center) with stickles for some extra shine.

Fun project!  It is a bit time consuming, but it's lovely in the end!  Try this with any dies you have in your stash! Let me know if you like this technique!!

CARD 2

Card number 2 today uses the water resist technique. I began using Distress Oxide inks in bold colors. I grabbed a leaf stamp from one of my sets, sprayed it with water, and applied it to the inked panel.  

The water basically erases the ink where the stamp was applied.  This leaves a beautiful subtle background all over the card stock.  Be sure to go off the edges for a more finished look.

For added interest I ran a wet paintbrush around the edges of my card stock and tore it gently for the rough edges.

I used an ink blending brush with a much lighter hand to ink a second piece of card stock.  I then die cut out the images from Altenew's Garden Picks 3D set.  I layered them together to make the roses and one layer of leaves. I popped up the rose and sentiment with foam tape.

I had some iridescent card stock in my scraps bin, so I cut the first layer of the leaf from that and attached the detail layer for some added shine.  I attached the panel onto a piece of craft card stock and attached to an A2 card base. 

I then decided it needed some splatter, so I took the finished card to my splatter box and added white and iridescent inks with a paintbrush.  A few tiny iridescent dots were added as embellishment.

This is another fun technique which does not take quite as long as the first one.  Let me know if you give it a try! You can use all different stamps for this... I like the look of a solid stamp, but you may prefer outline images.  Have a play and see what you like best!