
For me, crafting is my way to unwind and to relax. Sometimes I feel that I need to start crafting, but I don’t necessarily have a specific project in mind. The solution is to create background pages for later use. For making background pages, I take out a few white blank papers, my favorite inks or paints, stencils, and stamps, and I’m good to go. There are no strict rules to follow so I often start with the light colors, move towards the darker shades, and whenever I encounter issues I drop my original idea and jump over to plan B or C. If the result is a total catastrophe I throw away the page and start all over. For me, the end result is not as important as the pleasure the creative process gives me.
Skill: Beginner
Time: 1 hour
Directions

Step 1
On this background page, I started with inking the white paper with a light green color of Memento in New Sprout. I applied the ink directly from the ink pad on the paper, using the Dew Drop ink pad and a soft circular motion. If I had used a larger ink pad I would have used a brayer or a Jumbo Dauber for coloring the page.

Step 2
Then I used a darker green ink color of Memento in Bamboo Leaves and a Sponge Dauber to stencil a pattern on the page. Once finished, I splashed water on the page, letting the water-soluble ink react with the water before drying the page with my heat gun. Love those splash marks!

Step 3
Then I used another stencil and a bit darker green ink and added smaller patterns on the page. Just a hint here and there will do the trick!

Step 4
Adding a hint of both white and black is always a good idea. Those will refresh the page and make the other colors pop. I stamped some black text patterns on the page and added white color with a gel pen. I think it did the trick I was looking for!

Step 4
In the end, I had two almost identical decorated papers. I cut a few ATC card backgrounds and used a piece of the patterned paper for a background for a die-cut card.

I think that the stenciled backgrounds look good on my ATC’s!
Supplies
Imagine
Other
- Mixed Media Paper – White
- Cardstock – Green, Yellow, Orange
- Card base – White
- Pronty – Leaf Stencils
- Carabelle Studio – Dots
- 13Arts – Triangles
- Heat gun
- Katzelkraft – Dog stamps
- Wycinanka – Text pattern stamp
- Sizzix – Bird stencil, Oval stencil
- Alcohol markers
- Glue
- Double-sided tape
- Gel pen – White