I recently did a blog post about making card backgrounds ahead of time as that is something I usually do. I primarily focused on watercolor backgrounds on this post since it is my most commonly used medium. You can see the post HERE. I've recently been seeing a lot of Distress Ink backgrounds that have snow spots on them or dark night skies. I had no idea how to do these nor have I ever tried. So I got out all my Distress Inks and decided to play and learn and then share it all with you! I'm calling this Card Backgrounds 2 and I hope you enjoy it as I certainly had fun making all of these. And the best part? My cards are coming together so much quicker now that I have all these done (((so I can focus on my real love which is coloring!))). So let's get started as I have a lot to share!
I started by just trying to do some basic ink blending. I've got to be honest - my ink blending skills are NOT refined! haha I just don't do it that often. I want to be a pro at it though (like a Laura Bassen!) so I guess it's time I got busy and learned how. For the green card, I used Distress Inks - Mowed Lawn, Twisted Citron, and Lemonade moving down. On the right, I used Distress Inks - Abandoned Coral, Carved Pumpkin, and Mustard Seed. I used Ranger Blending Tools to apply the ink on Neenah 110 lb. white cardstock. My biggest tips are to overlap the colors as you move down and to press color onto a piece of scrap paper first to get rid of that round circle marks.
Next, I wanted to do some blends that I applied "snow" to. Now there are several ways to add white spots to these backgrounds and I'll be covering all of the ones I figured out as I go. The two I used here are water splotches and white ink splotches. But let's start with the colors for the backgrounds. On the left I used Distress Oxide Inks in Candied Apple, Abandoned Coral and Worn Lipstick. On the right I used Distress Inks in Salty Ocean and Tumbled Glass. On the left, I used JUST splotches of Hero Arts Unicorn Spray which I cannot find on the SSS store (I bought mine a long time ago), so you could use Ranger Picket Fence Distress Spray which is the same kind of thing. These are NOT opaque white spots - they are light semi-transparent white splotches. I did not spray it on, rather I took off the lid and flicked it on. On the blue one, I first used a paintbrush (a size 8 round, but use the size that you want for the size splotches you want) and water first. When you apply water to Distress Inks, it acts like a bleach and removes the color. I do it after it is dry and then leave it on for about a minute and then blot it off with a paper towel. I also used the Hero Arts spray on the right, but it is harder to see in this photo. So I got the basic snow look on these two, but I was no where near satisfied yet!
Now that I had done some basic ink blending and basic snow flakes, I wanted to try a night sky with a moon glow - yikes! I did look it up on Youtube first and watched a few videos - I would link but going back, I can't find the ones I watched! There are many to pick from though if you want to go on your own quest! On the left (my first attempt), I started by spraying Ranger Distress Resist Spray and letting it dry. First I spritzed it and that made a big splotch of it in the middle. Then I took off the lid and just shook splotches of it on it. Once it was dry, I used Distress Ink in Chipped Sapphire and Blueprints Sketch. I used Mustard Seed and Squeezed Lemonade for the yellow circle and tried to blend the color outward so it mixed with some of the blue and gave it less of an outline.This spray gives you very white opaque spots that are shiny and raised. Needless to say, I love this spray - just use it with the lid off don't spray it!
On the right, I used Distress Ink in Blueprints Sketch and Salty Ocean for the blue and then Squeezed Lemonade for the moon. I did not try to mix the colors, rather I left a white circle around the yellow as I just wanted to try something different. I used water splotches and white ink splotches flicked on it. It is interesting how the white ink splotches are so much more transparent than the resist spray spots.
These are both made with the same color inks, but one is Distress Oxide inks (left) and the other is Distress Inks. I get more vivid colors with Distress Inks and less of a chalky look. I started with Wilted Violet, then Shaded Lilac, and then Mermaid Lagoon. Next, I splattered water on both to give me bleached spots. Then I used the Hero Arts white ink spray splattered on each. The two different splotches give it such depth which I love. Ignore the ugly spot on the bottom right as I accidentally got another color on there. I'll cover it when I use it for a card.
Again, I wanted to see the difference between Oxide inks and regular Distress Inks. I used Oxide on the left and Distress on the right with Broken China, Peacock Feathers, and Cracked Pistachio - I love this color mix! I splattered water on both and then the ink spray on both. the great thing about the ink spray is some spots are more transparent and some are more opaque so you really get depth that looks like layers.
Now that I felt like I was getting the whole ink blending thing down and I had discovered the differences between Oxide and regular Distress Inks and how they worked AND I had built up some basic snow, I decided to try some new things. These two are a bit more technique driven or a bit harder! For the left one, I used snow bank dies from scrap paper to block the areas. I then rubbed ink on moving outward and leaving it white on the edge. Then I would use another snow bank shape for the next one. This might be easier to show in a video as it is hard to explain! I used Distress Inks in Peacock Feathers, Broken China, Salty Ocean, Mermaid Lagoon, Tumbled Glass, and Blueprint Sketch. On the right, I used Distress Oxide Inks in Chipped Sapphire, Wilted Violet, and Picked Raspberry. I left just an oval of the Chipped Raspberry to look like a light glow - not sure how I will use it! I splattered both with water and with the white spray ink again.
The one on the left uses the Ranger Distress Resist Spray which gives you the glossy pure white opaque spots - love that stuff! I used just one color of Distress Ink - Tumbled Glass. I splattered water and the spray ink on it. So that gave me 3 layers of white splotches in varying degrees of transparency. On the one in the middle, I used Distress Oxide Inks in Salty Ocean and Shaded Lilac. I splattered it with water and used the spray white ink. For the one on the right I used Blueprint Sketch Distress Ink and splattered water and white ink.
Now that I had quite a few sky's ready to go, I wanted to try and add some additional white spatters, dots, or whatever you want to call them! I felt confident with the Hero Arts spray ink (you can try the Ranger instead of this one) and water. Now I wanted some more opaque spots, so I turned to my stamps and stencils. The two stamps are by Hello Bluebird and the stencils are by MFT and SSS.
I created two red backgrounds. The one on the left is Distress Oxide Inks in Candied Apple (bottom), Abandoned Coral, and Worn Lipstick. The one on the right is just Abandoned Coral. I stamped both with the Hello Bluebird Sprinkles background stamp and embossed with white embossing powder. This gave the spots a raised shiny look that is definitely opaque. On the left one, I also used my other two methods - water spots and white ink splatters. The one on the right I kept simple with just one color ink and just the embossed circles.
I used Distress Inks in Mowed Lawn and Twisted Citron on the one on the left. The one on the right is one I showed in one of my first photos above - it is Distress Ink in Salty Ocean and Tumbled Glass. Both have water spots (transparent) and white ink spots (semi-transparent). Next, I embossed the Hello Bluebird Falling Snow Background stamp on both with white embossing powder (opaque). This gave me three layers of white spots in varying degrees of transparency.
These two cards were both shown above. I just wanted to add more to them. I used the MFT Snow Flurry Stencil for both. I used Tonic Glimmer Paste on the left one and Ranger Texture Paste on the right. They are both raised - the Glimmer Paste is transparent, so it just added glitter and shine. The Texture Paste is opaque so it added snow that is white and raised - love!
This is just a photo to show you a better view of both of the above.
I also took these two cards from my above experiments - so colors used are listed above. I had already spattered water and Hero arts ink on both so I had some white spots on both, but none that were opaque. I tried the two Hello Bluebird stamps with white ink on both. On the one on the left I used the Falling Snow Background Stamp with Lawn Fawn Yeti ink. For the one on the right I used the Hello Bluebird Sprinkles stamp with Hero Arts Unicorn Ink. Neither ink stamped well with the background stamps. Only some of it adhered and I used my Misti so I could stamp it multiple times. I just couldn't get the spots to be completely covered. I like them - it's just a different look with stamping ink spots.
Next, I wanted to try some white gouache, so I mixed some with water (only a little water to keep it as opaque as possible, but still splaterable - yes I made that word up). I used a smaller paintbrush this time and splattered some on both of these backgrounds that were already made above. Both already had water spots and Hero Arts ink spots. This was my third round of spots on these. I loved the gouache spots as they were more opaque and because I used a smaller paintbrush they were smaller. Now I am really getting some depth to my spots!
This was the background in my very first photo. I used all three of the spots on this one too - water (the biggest ones), white ink (the medium ones) and gouache (the smallest ones). I'm about to use this background on a fall card - isn't it so pretty??? I'm using it for a non-snow background just because it looks cool, so I guess the spots don't have to be snow!
I added white gouache spatters to these two as well that both had water and Hero Arts white ink spots already. Now they have three layers of white spots with different levels of transparency and different sizes.
Next, I wanted to try some background stamps so I used these two Christmas ones by Simon Says Stamp that I just got in the last release - aren't they pretty???
I stamped the Snowflakes Outline stamp on the left one with Wow White Puff Embossing Powder - it is puffy and has a really great texture - love this stuff. After it was embossed, I rubbed Distress Inks in Salty Ocean and Tumbled Glass over it. I splattered some water and Hero Arts Ink over it as well. On the right, I first embossed the Mod Trees stamp with Ranger White embossing powder. Then I rubbed Mowed Lawn and Twisted Citron ink over it. Then I added water and Hero Arts ink splatters. Now, I want to say one important thing I learned here - the white embossing powder picked up the ink colors when I rubbed them over it on both cards. You can see how the white embossing powder has a yellow tone to it on the right. I could have stamped and embossed them AFTER I rubbed the ink on them and the images would have stayed pure white. But I like them this way - just two different options.
This card was on my last blog post and I just wanted to show it to you as it is an example of these techniques for this background. I stamped the snowflakes from a stamp set randomly over a background. Then I rubbed Oxide Inks in Broken China, Salty Ocean, and Tumbled Glass over the embossed images. I splattered with just water. Nice and simple, but oh so cute. Great way to use small images from a stamp set - just takes some time to emboss them all and a Misti is a must to make it quicker!
This card is also from my last post and it uses one of the backgrounds I made in this post, so I thought I would show it to you. SOOOO much easier to make this card when the background was already made! I mass stamp and color images also, so when I am actually making a card for a blog post or an assignment, I just have to pull a background and pull some stamped colored images that are ready to go in baggies and boom, my card is practically made! I'm impressing myself with this post - haha.
Now you have learned along with ME how to make Distress Inks and winter skies ahead of time for cards. Let me know if you enjoyed this post or learned anything in the comments so I know if I should continue this card background series I seem to be doing! Thanks as always for visiting my little crafty blog and have a great week friends. All products used in this post are listed below with links to the SSS store. Suzy
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I love your backgrounds. Thank you for sharing these.
Posted by: Angela R | March 05, 2019 at 01:23 AM
You are very talented! Thanks for sharing!
Posted by: Diane | September 04, 2019 at 06:08 AM