Monday, December 28, 2015

Card with an artsy scrap paper background


I created this artsy background using scraps of paper.
I have a little basket on my desk where I put paper scraps that are leftover from my paper crafting projects.  I often dip into it when I am looking for just a bit of something to add to my projects.  When the basket is full I transfer it to my Serendipity background box where technically the scraps are supposed to be sorted into bags to be used for making serendipity backgrounds.  Needless to say, the sorting into bags does not get done every time the basket gets emptied.  For this background, I simply dug through the top of the box and found some similarly coloured papers, ripped them into strips and glued them to a cardstock substrate.  Quick and easy!!  I trimmed the background in half and used it on this card so I have another half to use another time!!
I added a bit of sponging to the edges of the background, the scalloped circle and the image.  When I watercoloured the image the sponging was pretty much incorporated into the colour which was fine.  When I positioned the background on the card front and auditioned the rest of the pieces there was a round motif on the right hand side just below the seam binding which was too prominent so I used a bit of sand paper to rough up that spot and when I sponged that area over I decided it would not hurt to do the whole thing so it all got a bit of brown ink.  I stitched the background to my kraft card front using my sewing machine and brown thread.  I added a length of brown seam binding over which I added my focal element and then tied on a short piece on the left to simulate a bow.  The focal element was created by layering my watercoloured image (CLKER) with brown and then gluing it to a burned orange scalloped circle to which I had added some faux stitching.  I watercoloured the greeting with a bit of brown and glued it to the focal element below the geese.  I really like the look of this artsy background and will be making more for use in this year's cardmaking.