*Background Check Blog Hop*

The Scrap 'n Stamp Canada Design Team is back with another blog hop!  There are 8 Backgroud prize pacs available at each stop on the Hop as well as a grand prize of a $50 gift card to the shop... all you need to do is leave a comment on each stop of the Blog Hop!  Oh, and did I mention, you can take 20% off the Life Changing Blender Brushes this weekend if you use the coupon code BRUSH20!

This month we are focussing on backgrounds, using the Picket Fence Studios Life Changing Blending Brushes.  I LOVE these brushes... love that they are quick and easy to clean up and that it's super easy to control how much colour you lay down on your paper.

I have played with the Bokeh background before, but every other time I used watercolour paper and inks... this time I played with Tim Holtz Distress Inks on regular cardstock.

I used Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet and Salty Ocean on white cardstock, layering up my colour slowly and blending the colours in to each other.  I set it aside for a day as I wanted to be sure that the colours were completely dry before the next step.

You can see in the photo above how I like to hold my brush.  I find the handles feel a little flimsy and I prefer to hold on to them at the head instead.  I find I have more control over the pressure I use this way.  I ink up the brush and then start in a swirling motion off the cardstock and move on to the paper in a circular motion using a light hand.

After the piece was good and dry, I brought it out again.  I know I could have used my heat tool to help speed up the drying time, but honestly, I find I always end up warping my cardstock so I thought it was better to just set it aside.

I took some circle dies and cut four sizes out of a piece of white cardstock.  I made sure to leave a lot of space between them as I was planning on using them as individual circles for the next step of my background.

I used white pigment ink from Lawn Fawn and the Blending Brushes to create different sized overlapping white circles on top of the Distress Ink background.

I used different amounts of ink on each of the circles to create depth.  Once I had a good coverage of white ink circles, I set the piece aside to dry over night.

I decided to stamp directly on to the Bokeh background but I knew I wanted the images to be sharp and clear so I grabbed my stamping platform to help me out.  I used the new Happy Birthday Blends stamps from My Favorite Things and some purple and blue inks from my stash.  I ended up double stamping each of the images so that I got good coverage. 

I used my blending bushes one more time to create a mat for my top layer.  I didn't have cardstock in a colour that matched my project so I use the Blending Brushes and the same ink I used for the stamped image to create my layer.  I cut it to do a 1/8" reveal on each side of my front panel and layered it all on to a white card.  I added some adhesives pearls and called it done.

I hope you'll visit all of my fellow designers on each of the stops along the Blog Hop... and we encourage you to play along and share your creations on the Scrap 'n Stamp Challenge page on Facebook.

Please hop along with us!!!

Tara

Nancy E

Laurie

Nancy F

Deborah

Chala

Dawn

Kia

Susan