Lighthearted Leaves custom background paper

Today at SSINK we are sharing our custom or DIY background papers.

The background paper used on this card I made! It was so fun to do. AND, it is what we are going to be doing at my stamp club this Saturday!

And I am going to share with you lucky people just how to do it too!

Gather these things to get prepared:

Stamp set of choice - in this case, Lighthearted Leaves
Archival Basic Black ink pad
Classic Ink Pads of choice - here I used; Old Olive, Tangelo Twist, Delightful Dijon and Tip Top Taupe
Whisper White Cardstock
4 sponge daubers
Markers to match your ink pads
A splatter stamp - I used one from the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set

Follow these steps to create your own custom background paper:

1. Randomly stamp the images of your choice in Basic Black ink to cover the entire 8-1/2" x 11" piece of Whisper White card stock. I like to start with the largest image and then the medium image and end with the smallest image.

2. Pick an ink color for each image. I started with the largest image again and chose Old Olive ink. Apply ink to the image using a sponge dauber. Lightly rub or burnish the ink into the paper over the top of the image using a circular motion. Start out with a light hand and as your ink runs low on the dauber press harder. Ink all the Old Olive images in this way.

3. Repeat step 2, inking a different image with a new color of ink and a new sponge dauber. I used Tangelo Twist this time on the smallest leaf. Take note that you want the ink to spread out beyond the stamped images. In the end you want the inks to mostly run into each other with very little white space.

4. For the last leaf I used Delightful Dijon ink and again, a new sponge dauber.

5. You can see that there is still some white space. This is where we fill that up, using the Tip Top Taupe pad and the last new sponge dauber. Just fill in those white spaces as you did inking the leaves. Don't worry about going over the other ink colors a little bit.

6. Add some splatter! First I just splattered with the Tangelo Twist and then in the end I added some more splatter with Tip Top Taupe as well. So, do one or two colors of splatter.

7. The last step really takes this paper over the top! Use the coordinating markers to outline and color the stamped images as you see fit. This really gives them dimension and makes them pop!

And there you have it! Your custom background paper is done, the really challenge is going to be getting up the nerve to cut it!

But when you do you will love how it looks.

Check out all the fun things I made with this one piece of background paper!

These are the exact projects we are going to be making at my Stamp Club on Saturday! If you are in the Boise, Meridian, Eagle, Star, Emmett area of Idaho I'd love to have you come stamp with me!

It's Saturday, November 7th at 10am. Email me for more details: [email protected]

Be sure to check out more custom background papers at SSINK.