OCC Background Check Day One/Two

Hello Everyone,
Back again with a couple more cards for OCC Background Check. We have had some very creative techniques demo'd over the last two days. My cards are a combo of my own twist on some that Laura B and Jennifer McG demo'd. I have to admit that my first attempts all ended up in the recycle bin and just when I was about to get frustrated that nothing seemed to be turning out, I heard Laura B;s voice in my head saying something about how fun it is when you are creating a plaid background and you layer two different colours on top of each and create a new one. This idea stuck with me.

Instead of plaid, I inked the entire panel in Spiced Marmalade DI. Then I took the fabulous stencil From Simon Says Stamp and placed it over the panel. I sponged on some Picked Raspberry and it created this beautiful coral colour - Peel off the stencil and the fabulous orange shows through. Since it is such a bold graphic BG, I decided the simple Paper Smooches "Hello" and the Simon Says Stamp daisy were perfect.

I did the same technique for the second card, only reversed the order... I sponged Picked Raspberry first and then stenciled the Spiced Marmalade on top. I am not sure which one I like best. Super-easy and really striking results!

Thanks for stopping by - feel free to leave a comment!

Happy Stamping,

Meg

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OCC Background Check Day One/Two: Ink Blending Backgrounds

Hello Everyone,
My oh My! It has been way too long since I last checked in. I have to admit, life got busy and stressful and my stamping mojo left the building. I thought for sure once the school year was over and summer hols were here I would be stamping up a storm. Alas, Life does not always follow our plans. However, a stamp room overhaul, and some new stamps for inspiration and I think I am getting back into the swing of things.

I am participating in the Online Card Class Background Check. The first day was reviewing some ink blending - I love to blend... Especially  with my Distress Inks - God bless Tim Holtz for creating these inks. For my first card, I was inspired by Laura Bassen's demo of simple ink blending. I pulled out my favourite combo: Picked Raspberry, Ripe Persimmon, and Spiced Marmalade. I also decided to add in a touch of Emboss Resist. I just got the Altenew "Persian Motifs" and "Label Love" stamp sets. I coveted these for a while and finally got to order them. I knew that I wanted to create a background with the beautiful stylized flowers, so I took all the sentiment from this set off the backing and simply inked all the flowers up with versamark - they are already placed in the perfect balance. I stamped and clear embossed them. Then I went to work blending the inks. This card came together so quickly, all I had left to do was adhere it all together and attach the sentiment!

I love the juxtaposition of the bold black sentiment against the colourful and delicate back ground. I will definitely be recreating this in different colour combos.

Thanks for stopping by and welcoming me back into the blogosphere.

Happy Stamping,

Meg