Three Looks, One Die

I love background dies and the Tattered Lace Grandma's Garden panel die is really pretty.  There are loads of techniques that are great with background dies, but here are three simple ways to use it.

1.  Cut it out of Kraft (or other coloured) card and affix to a white card blank.  Stick a die cut sentiment also cut from Kraft (or other coloured) card on to a white oval and then affix both on to the background with foam pads.  It's really simple but it looks great.

2.  Die cut a panel out of plain white cardstock and place it over a coloured background.  In this case I created a vibrant background using alcohol markers, but you can use inks, watercolours, pan pastels or whatever medium you like.  I placed a white die cut sentiment onto a piece of coordinating card stock.  The white against the vibrant background helps to tone it down.  This is a great technique to use with busy background papers too.

3.  Die cut a panel from plain white cardstock and colour in the different elements, then affix to a card blank.  In this case I used pastel shades and a Kraft card base.  The pastels and Kraft work really well together.

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Glamour Puss

I've been coveting the Tattered Lace Glamour Puss die that came with one of their magazines ever since I first saw it.  I finally caved in and picked up a back issue from eBay a couple of months ago.  Inspired by one of the sample cards on the Tattered Lace website I made this:

Isn't she fabulous?! The stairway die is also by Tattered Lace, from the Essentials collection.  I used plain white card and coloured the vertical faces of the steps using a Spectrum Noir light grey marker.

The Glamour Puss die itself cuts out all the detail in the dress, but I wanted to keep it in so I taped across the back of the die cut before removing it from the die.  I used a black Spectrum Noir marker to colour the dress then went over it with Dovecraft Crystal glitter glue.  The black highlighted all the green elements in the glitter glue, giving the dress a beautiful emerald shimmer.

I used a gold pen to highlight her jewellery and gave her some hot red lipstick, black hair and a matching clutch bag.

The wallpaper is damask patterned paper.  Next time I would use a paper with a smaller pattern, but overall I like the effect.

Bloom and Grow - Free Backing Papers

I love the idea of designing my own backing papers, so, with a little help from Daisytrail and CraftArtist 2 Professional, I did just that.  I used the Bright Blooms free digikit to create a set of 6 x A4 backing papers in soft shades, perfect for Spring.

  

  

  

As the true test of a backing paper is its usability, I had fun being my own design team and made a set of cards to show the papers off.  They work really nicely together.  Download the papers and use them in your own projects, then leave a link to your creations in the comments 😊.