She's here...

I have been away from home for the past few days and upon my return I found the most EXCITING thing sitting on my kitchen table. Oh I better tell you it was DH’s Valentine’s Card (he BOUGHT a nice one) but really…DH had picked up the mail and left a nice padded envelope on the table containing my first BELLA! Did you hear that?…cause I was screaming with excitement. I love my emmybella and I couldn’t let her sit all alone in a stamp box so I ordered a few more (*heh*). She’ll be greeted by cakeabella, cosmobella, flowahbella and prezzibella very soon. If you have never heard of these fantastic CANADIAN stamps be sure to visit StampingBella.

I had a lot of fun creating my first card with emmybella. She is just too sweet. I am such a jeans kind of girl (hence the canvas background) that I decided she needed to be in casual wear but I think I will have fun dressing her up too. Oh...flashback to my childhood dressing dolls...ok...back to stamping! As you read my blog you may see that I really like my background stamps. I definitely have my favourites (Linen, Canvas and French Script) too. I was pleased to see someone ask me to talk a little more about backgrounds. Since I had fun playing with emmybella's background I thought what better time to give you some hints!!!

How to create a perfect background using a SU! background stamp…

Start by defining perfect. Have you ever noticed how many people don’t have a full image on their card? It’s not a coincidence. The trendy thing is to “make mistakes”. However, if you are looking for a complete image, keep these tips in mind:

A) Flip your background stamp rubber side up

B) Apply the ink the stamp one of 3 ways 1) rubbing the ink pad over the stamp—note: this can cause threads to come loose 2) applying the ink little by little using the ink pad face down 3) using the brayer to pick up the ink and then rolling on the background

C) Apply your paper card front side to the rubber and either 1) carefully rub the cardstock over the entire surface of the stamp using your hand 2) roll the brayer over the paper Note: I find that my best images are always the ones I smooth over with my hand. The brayer often leaves inconsistencies. It is also nice to place a piece of computer paper over the cardstock as the background stamps are often larger than the card front. This will prevent the ink from ending up on your hand. I often have people ask me “Why can’t you just apply the background stamp to the paper?” The answer is simple. You cannot exert enough force to cause the centre of a wood block (that size) to ink the paper. You don’t believe me? Try standing on it!!!! You’ll see what I mean.



Emmybella Card Recipe:

Paper: Sage Shadow, More Mustard, Bordering Blue, Very Vanilla, Not Quite Navy (although the pic makes it look like Brillant Blue)
Ink: Sage Shadow, More Mustard, Bordering Blue, Basic Black
Stamp Set(s): Emmybella (Stampingbella), Canvas Background
Accessories: Cuttlebug, D’vine Swirls Embossing Folder, Watercolour Wonder Crayons, Aquapainter, Sponge, Grosgrain Ribbon: Mustard

As I have said before, I am always open to stamping/scrapping questions so please feel free to ask me something related to those areas and I will be sure to include the answer in one of my card displays (provided I actually know the answer LOL!).

Because I love to stamp and you do too!
Alli