Stencils are taking the stamping world by storm but I am drawn back to the idea that we have another option for beautiful patterns and colors. Background stamps! My project today is about dressing up white cardstock to add color and texture to simple shapes and designs. Background stamps seem kind of old school right now but they are a wonderful option that are easier to pull off and are usually less mess too.
I started this project by cutting out the teacup elements for this card with my Silhouette Cameo 4 machine. The pattern can be found at the Silhouette Store. Here is the link for it: Stacked Teacup Card. These are very simple shapes. I cut the teacups and handles out of Pop Tone Sweet Tooth cardstock. The scalloped background is cut with Curious Metallic Cryogen White Cardstock. The leaves were cut out of green cardstocks in my scrap pile. I chose to use Curious Metallic for the scalloped piece because it has a bit of sheen and ink blending is very easy to do on the Micah coated surface. You can see it is not as white as the Sweet Tooth cardstock but because it will be covered with ink, it isn’t important in this project.
I worked with the teacups first. I inked up three patterned background stamps and placed the teacup shapes on top. Then I used a brayer to get a good imprint on the surface. I used three different Ranger Distress Inks. They were Broken China, Wilted Violet and Picked Raspberry.
Once stamped, I used a Crystal Katana tool to shape the cups by rolling the cardstock around the middle of the tool. You can use anything that has a thick cylinder shape for this step. The cut pattern includes slim tabs on the sides of the cups and on top of the saucer and I used my teflon folder to crease them in preparation for gluing. The handles each have a tab as well and I attached them to the edge of each cup shape.
I set the cups aside and began to blend the three inks used on the cups on the scalloped background piece using a mini ink blending tool and a domed sponge blender tip. After blending the inks, I sprayed the panel with water and removed the excess with a paper towel. It was time to arrange the stacked cups!
I glued the first teacup to the saucer and then applied that onto the background. I was careful to use contrasting colors of teacup patterns to the background. Each cup fit inside the other slightly askew. They are attached with a line of glue on the side tabs and then pushed in place until set. I love the 3D effect of the cups and was pleasantly surprised at how easy the construction is.
Once in place, I peeled three gold butterfly stickers and put one on each cup. Then I glued in four green leaf stems into the cups. If you don’t have stickers, you could use gems or strip bling to decorate the cups instead.
The cups turned out so cute! I can’t stress enough how easy it was to get a dimensional look for the cups.
I made a 5″ x 7″ card base using the Bright Gold Foil Cardstock at the store. The scalloped background with the cups were attached to the card base with glue. I used a white Uniball gel pen to add white dots in three areas of the background. Finally I stamped, cut out and attached a stamped tea bag to the card with pink and white baker’s twine.
I hope you enjoyed seeing how this simple but dimensional card was created using cardstocks from CutCardStock.com. Remember that white and ivory cardstock of all types are on sale this month. Stock up in white and ivory cardstock while it’s discounted.
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