Creating Grungy Background Papers

Hello! It's been ages since I've done some creating just for me so over the last week or so I've snatched a bit of time and managed to make some rather grungy mixed media backing papers so that I had some to put some cards together for those occasions when time is short - most of the time in my case!

I took some photos of the process as it was kind of one layer a day so thought I would share here how I created them as if you do several at once it's much quicker.

 The first step was to cut an A3 sheet of smooth cartridge paper into 6 pieces as these happily fit card blanks 15cm square, my size of choice.

I took some pastel shades of That's Crafty! multi surface paints - Apricot, Lavender, Light Blue and Teal and put a small amount of each on my glass craft mat. I misted them with a little water to dilute them a bit, then used an old store card to scrape the colours on to the paper squares. You can see the results above, sort of rough stripes.

Once they were dry, I got out the Distress Oxide inks and Melina's new Just Doodlin' background stamps which I know will get inked up an awful lot as they're so versatile. 

You can see below the shades I used and I've put a link to the stamps at the end of each photo.

That's Crafty! Just Doodlin' Clear Stamp Set 2 by Melina Dahl

That's Crafty! Just Doodlin' Clear Stamp Set 2 by Melina Dahl

That's Crafty! Just Doodlin' Clear Stamp Set 3 by Melina Dahl

As you can see from the photos, quite a bit of overstamping and second generation stamping came into play here as I was aiming for a grungy textured look rather than an obvious pattern.

I then made a few cards so that you can see what you can do with the papers once you've made them. The colours were kept fairly quiet so that the images on top could be much stronger shades and stand out well.

That's Crafty! Grunge Flowers Set 1 Clear Stamp Set by Melina Dahl

That's Crafty! Grunge Flowers Set 2 Clear Stamp Set by Melina Dahl

That's Crafty! Flowers Collection Set 6 Clear Stamp Set by Melina Dahl
That's Crafty! Grunge Flowers Set 4 Clear Stamp Set by Melina Dahl (for the text)
That's Crafty! 6 x 6ins Mask - Leaf Circle by Melina Dahl


Hopefully I'll have some cards to share soon using the remaining papers and hope you like what I've done so far.
Enjoy the rest of the week!

Fliss xx