Rescuing A Tossed Background With So Suzy Stamps

I'm here today, for So Suzy Stamps, sharing why you should never toss those experimental backgrounds that don't work out.  I'm sure you're like me; you try out some colors, some smooshing, a little this, a little that and you're just not happy with the way your coloring is going.  What do you do?  I can tell you what you shouldn't do, and that's toss it.  You would not believe how many times I've been "not too crazy" about my background and tossed it.  Big mistake!  You never know when inspiration will hit and the old light bulb will go off.  One day, I stopped tossing my backgrounds and started saving them.  Since that day, I have found numerous ways to re-purpose them, from creating fun die cut images, punching circles, or, as I'm doing today, bringing an old background back to life.

Would you believe that I actually intended for this background to be a sky?  I love to watercolor skies but on the day that I was creating this, I just wasn't feeling it, so I put it aside.  I had in mind to flip the Olesya Side Bloom to be more like a water lily and I thought it would also be fun to pull out this background and flip it to use as water for my bloom.  I think it worked out beautifully!

I don't have any photos of how my background was colored, since I've had it awhile, but I can explain briefly.  Grab some watercolor markers, such as Tombow dual brush, Marvy Le Plume or Zig Clean Color brushes, a waterbrush or small paintbrush and water, and watercolor paper.  I use Strathmore 300 series.  Swipe your marker on an acrylic block or craft mat.  Grab the color with a wet paintbrush or waterbrush and just start coloring (painting) random colors here and there.  I usually try to stick with 3-5 colors for a sky; blue, purple, red and/or orange and yellow.  It depends on if my sky will be day or night.  You can vary the intensity of color by using less water.  Let your colors run by tipping your paper.  Blot with a paper towel as needed.  Use your heat emboss tool to dry or dry overnight.

Now, for my blooms, it helps to have a Misti stamping tool, particularly for watercolor paper.  It has a thicker, bumpy texture, so you'll need several good stamps to get a good image.  The Misti allows you to position your stamp on a lid that makes a perfect stamped image every time.  By leaving it in the same position, you can stamp again until you achieve a darker, fuller inked image.  

For my blooms I'm using:

Memento black archival ink

Misti stamping tool

Zig Clean color brushes in gray and two blues

To stamp your blooms, I was careful to use the black Memento ink only on the petals, and swiping my gray Zig Clean color brush on the lower portion that will be "below the water".  Can you see the difference?  I wanted it to appear more translucent below the water.  Both images were stamped twice with my Misti.

Next, I colored my blooms with a blue Zig clean color brush, diluting some of the color with a waterbrush and blotting with  a paper towel.

I also lightly colored those little bubble stamens below water with the same color of blue, again using the waterbrush and blotting with a paper towel.  I used the cornflower blue Zig brush to color at the base of the bloom for added depth.

Next, I stamped my sentiment 3 times with my Misti for full coverage.

1. 

Just for some added sparkle, I used my Fireworks spray to add some shine.  It gives a metallic sheen that is so pretty.  I just unscrewed the cap and swiped the tubing from the mister along the petals.

I also swiped some of my Fireworks tubing along the top of my card.  Layer and trim your design on designer paper and an A2 sized white card and you are done!  I used some pretty blue paper from an Echo Park Paper winter collection.  It doubles nicely for summer!

This would make a nice friendship card or even a sympathy card.  Remember, don't toss those backgrounds!  Be sure to visit the So Suzy Stamps blog for more inspiration from the design team.

Purchase Olesya Side Bloom, here.

Purchase Thinking of You sentiment, here.

Also linking to these challenges:

Addicted to Stamps & More Clean & Simple Challenge #244

CAS Watercolour June Challenge

CAS on Sunday Challenge #109

AAA Cards CAS Game #91

Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Wednesday Challenge

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