What's in a Background?

Hi there! Thanks for taking a little time out of your day to check out what I've been up to :)

A lot of times when crafters are in a crafty rut, we feel the need to stack and tape and stack some more, adding a lot of weight and dimension to our cards.  Adding all the pizzazz can be very fun (and sometimes frustrating), and I have seen plenty of gorgeous cards that have so much going on visually, but sometimes it can also be disappointing because behind all that glitter and glue and Copic coloring, we are still left with wanting more because something just didn't look or feel right. Then we want to add even more to make it right and the whole cycle repeats itself LOL 

Anyway, I want to be clear that I am not referring to the card makers who create the gorgeous, fancy cards with lace and roses and layers upon layers.  They make those cards because that is their style, and it's so beautiful.  That however is not my style.  At least not yet.

I prefer to make CAS cards (cute and simple cards).   That's my style and although it may evolve, it suits me just fine :) They're cute, adorable, beautiful, happy, and completely ME!

When you don't have a lot of layers, ribbons, embellishments, pictures, etc, you need a nice, simple background.  While shopping at Hobby Lobby one day, I grabbed this flower stamp in hopes that I could find something to do with it. Little did I know how versatile it would be!  I used it to create the background by inking it with Versamark and stamping in random places on pink paper. I stamped it again on Neenah Solar White paper before coloring it with a variety of Copic markers, fussy cutting it and setting it aside.  I stamped the butterflies on vellum and used a handy punch to cut them out :)  I tried a number of times to figure out exactly where I wanted to place everything and had a really tough time deciding.  You'd think it would be easier because there isn't much going on, but it was probably more difficult because of that fact.  Ultimately, I am happy with the final placement of everything and think this one turned out quite cute :)

Here's my product list for this one:

Neenah Solar White cardstock

Stampin' Up Papillon Potpourri stamp set and Elegant Butterfly Punch

Recollections Black Embossing Powder

Versarmark Ink

Pink cardstock

Stampendous flower stamp

Stampin Up Sincere Salutations 

Copic Markers (RV 10, 13, 14; YG 03, 05)

Thanks so much for stopping by!