Step by Step - Takin' it large...

Hi everyone and welcome to another Saturday Step by Step here at Frilly and Funkie. Jenny here with an idea for making slightly lighter work of making backgrounds for all those Christmas cards you need at this time of year. And this time you're getting the 'warts and all' version so I can explain what works, and what doesn't!!!

Let's start with a piece of heavyweight card, a stencil and some of my current obsession, Wendy Vecchi white embossing paste. It stays wet for quite some time so there's no waste, and if you add Distress Paint (in this case Antique Bronze) to it the colour stays true and vibrant. Note; the shine from the paint will disappear in this mix so if you want it to remain use the translucent paste instead. It does have a longer drying time though. In this case it was the colour I was after primarily. Use a heat gun to dry the surface (very quick) so you can move on and stencil the whole way across the page.

Now to get inky. I'm batch making cards for an upcoming Christmas Fair so there is a basic colour scheme going on which includes Iced Spruce. I made up a mist using Reinker and spritzed the centre of the card. A little water helped it run from side to side (although not as much as I wanted - still on the search for my 'holy grail' of plain uncoated card). The good thing about adding the Metallic Paint to the paste is that it really resists inks well.

More colour needed, this time Sailboat Blue which I dripped in spots onto random areas with the intention of spritzing it with water and letting it run. Trouble is by the time I took this photo it had already soaked into the card more than expected.

I've learned. Don't panic. Don't bin it and start again. Keep going. I blended inks onto the rest of the card which really dulled down the whole effect. Hmm.

Actually I quite liked those spots of deeper colour, so after applying a quick overall mist of Dylusions White Linen I dripped some more of it and the Sailboat Blue onto the card. Now we've got a background!

I'm making A6 cards so the next step was to chop up my background into eight equal parts (first across the centre and then into four sections for each half). Now distress the edges and give the embossing paste a light rub with the ink to reinvigorate it's colour after the White Linen layer.

And here's one of the finished cards. I only needed to add a mini blueprint Christmas image onto watercolour paper (painted with Distress Inks), a sentiment and some festive die cuts to complete it. The kraft glassine holly leaves were covered in Copper Alcohol Ink to match the stencilled embossing paste.

Hope that gives you an idea or two for creating a batch of stencilled backgrounds of your own, and if you haven't played with embossing paste before I'd thoroughly recommend it. Thanks for dropping by. Hope you have a great weekend. Jenny xxx

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencils - Honeycomb	Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste - White	PRE-ORDER Tim Holtz Ranger Metallic Distress Paint - Antique Bronze	Ranger Tim Holtz Seasonal Distress Ink Reinker - Iced Spruce	Adirondack Color Wash Dye 2 Ounce Spray - Sailboat Blue
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Iced Spruce	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Weathered Wood	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Bundled Sage	Dyan Reaveley′s Dylusions Ink Spray - White Linen	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Mini Blueprints 5	Ranger Archival Ink - Coffee	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Fired Brick	Sizzix Alterations Decorative Strip Tim Holtz Festive Greenery Die	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Kraft Glassine Paper Stash
Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Ink - Copper Mixative	Tim Holtz Distress Glitter Festive Berries	Ranger Inkssentials Glossy Accents	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Simple Sayings	Ranger Archival Ink - Vermillion
Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink - Watering Can