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Card Tutorial 16 – Background Stamps
As I do these cards each week, I realize that there are my go-to stamps, which I tend to love using over and over again (such as my elephant stamps). For this week’s card, I decided to use a stamp I’d never used before. I found this striped background stamp from Impress Rubber Stamps that I had purchased over three years ago and thought I’d give it a try. I love the idea of a background stamp – it gives the card some depth and texture without having to go as bold as using patterned paper. Hope you like it!
Here are the supplies I used:
1) One folded cardstock in kraft measuring 5.5in x 5.5in.
2) One piece of cardstock in eco-white measuring 5in x 5in
4) Striped Background rubber stamp
5) Color Box Chalk Ink in Chestnut Roan from Paper-Source
6) Color Box Chalk Ink in Robin’s Egg from Paper-Source.
7) “Thank you” rubber stamp from Impress Rubber Stamps (Although the actual stamp doesn’t appear to be on their website at the moment).
8) Blue ribbon with brown edging from Martha Stewart.
9) 2 patterned papers from Stampin Up!
10) Circle Cutter from Martha Stewart.
Here we go!
Step1: Here’s what we started with.
Step2: There are several ways to use a background stamp. The standard way would be to stamp the image onto cardstock, as you would any rubber stamp. I find that sometimes it’s easier to press the cardstock onto the background stamp, so you can see exactly where the image is going, and therefore, you can place the cardstock exactly where you want the image to be pressed onto. You could press down with your hands, like I did. Or you could use a brayer, for a more even impression. The ink used for the background stamp is Color Box ink’s Robin’s Egg.
Step3: Here’s what the striped image looks like on the cardstock. The fact that the rubber stamp impression didn’t cover the entire cardstock doesn’t really affect my card, since it adds a sort of distressed look to it.
Step4: I stamped the sentiment I wanted to use onto some patterned cardstock. I decided to go with a light pattern, and a dark ink, such as Chestnut Roan because the rest of the card is somewhat plain and subtle. A busier patterned paper would not have worked as you’d probably not be able to see the sentiment as well.
Step5: Using Martha Stewart’s circle cutter, I cut a circle around the sentiment, as seen in Step6. In addition, on some brown patterned paper, I also cut out a circle followed by a larger circle. This produced a circle (which I didn’t use) as well as a ring, which was used in the card. The ring can also be seen in Step6.
Step6: After cutting out the sentiment and the ring, I also cut out a piece of ribbon to wrap the eco-white cardstock across the middle.
Step7: I assembled the pieces to the eco-white cardstock and attached that to the larger kraft folded card.
Here’s what the final card looked liked. Hope you enjoyed it!
