Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight

week at Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight, we want you to make your own backing papers. And to make it easier to keep track of, these Spotlight challenges will now be in their very own blog. As before, they'll run fortnightly, and in alternate weeks to the general challenges on the main blog.

So, make your own papers. Nothing bought or downloaded - we want you to start with white paper and show us what you can do. Of course, you can use mica sprays, stamping, inking, splashing, marbling or any of those messy things. Or, you can design your paper digitally. Just to be awkward, I've done a bit of both!

First, I got messy! I made a paper using a range of mica sprays and daubers from Glimmer Mist and Starburst Stains. I sprayed and daubed them onto a non-stick sheet and then rubbed a piece of light card over the result. When it was almost dry, I added some glitter glue and spread it over the paper with a finger.

The image was generously supplied by our sponsor - Stamping Boutique. She's called 'Audrey with Cupcake'. Isn't she lovely? Great to colour too. She's coloured with Promarkers, and I've touched up the background sparkles with Sakura Stardust pen, then added some Distress Ink in Spun Sugar.

The border was done with my Tonic Border system and a couple of punches, and I've added Glamour Dust to the cut out flowers by covering them with double sided tape on the inside before sticking the border down. And that's it - a simple design this time.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges: 

Passion for Promarkers where they want images including food or drink,

One Stop Craft where they want to 'keep it simple'

Paper Sundaes where they want 'clean and simple'.

Now, onto my second card. I've done a step by step guide to how I came up with the papers I've used. It's specific to Photoshop Elements, but I suspect that most graphics packages will have similar (if not enhanced) capability. Just bear in mind that I haven't got any particular background in this sort of thing - my first laptop had PSE installed on it when I got it, and I've been playing ever since!

First, I coloured my image (a Ching Chou Kuik image from Sweet Pea Stamps) with Promarkers, using Antique Pink, Salmon Pink, Cocktail Pink, Baby Pink, Pastel Green and Mint Green. Using a chart I made a while ago, I chose a range of hexadecimal colours that should match fairly well. You do need to be careful when choosing colours because the shade you see on your screen may only bear a passing resemblance to the colour that actually prints.

I started a new project, measured 155 by 155mm to fit a 6 in square card. (I find that the paper always prints a bit small, so I prefer to go a little bigger at the design stage.)

The first thing I did was to create a layer with my background colour - in this case, something close to Pastel Green. Then, I created a second layer and filled it with something contrasting. (Doesn't really matter what at this stage.)

 Then, I used the Cookie Cutter tool to get a basic flower shape.

(The cookie cutter tool is the heart shape on the left hand side.) For this purpose, you can use any clip art you've got - you can even take an element of your main image - just make sure that the background is transparent. It doesn't matter what size it is. The next step is to make it into a brush, and you can change its size then.

Use the rectangular marquee to choose an area around the image. Then define that area as a brush.

Note that the brush background is transparent. (The project background colour is still there, but I've made it invisible for the moment.)

I rotated the image by a few degrees then made another brush, repeating until I had a range of 'digital stamps' I can use. Then, I repeated the process with a different cookie cutter shape. With the resulting brushes, and the various shades of pink I chose, I started to stamp the the shapes onto a new layer. The brush doesn't give the full colour intensity in a single stamp, but you can repeat click until you've got the colour density you want. Then, it's just like stamping a background. Keep going until you're happy.

Next, I want to add some texture - first to the background layer, so I made the 'stamped' layer invisible.

Then, changed to the 'stamped' layer, and added craquelure to that.

And that was the first paper. Save the result as something you can print easily - I tend to use a jpg at this point.




Next, I decided to make a basic striped paper using the same green background. I identified a narrow rectangle and filled it with pink, then another and filled it with white. I selected a rectangle with a bit of both colours and some background, and used it to define a pattern.

And finally, I filled a new layer with that pattern.

Make the background layer visible again, and you've got your striped paper. Save the file.

And that's it! Two papers, made to match the colours in my image. I've put both onto a sheet of A4 paper for ease of printing.

So, what are you waiting for? Get messy or get digital!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Alphabet Challenge where this week 'S is for Stripes'
Off the Wall Challenges where they have a colour selection.