Stamps - Backgrounds

Christina Crawford: I am Christina Crawford and Im going to show you different ways of using stamps to use background stamping.

When youre stamping cards, remember that besides making happy birthday and thank you cards, you can do baby announcements, wedding invitations, you can stamp on your walls and scrapbook pages, theres something else that can you do, just anything. In fact, there used to be a stamp that says that it doesnt move stamp it, and you can really stamp on so much, make beautiful gifts and bag. Right now, Ill show how to use these large background stamps to create beautiful backgrounds on your cards. Most of the time because of the size of the stamp, brand new stampers and some people are so intimidated that the stamp is so big for their hands, but let me assure you, there is a big shortcut to this and Ill show you how to do that. This large background stamp never has to be picked when youre stamping with it, just lay that right down onto your craft surface and ink it up. Now, there is a couple of different ways you can ink it up and Im going to show you those. One is by taking your inkpad and inking up the stamp, while the stamp is down on the table or your craft surface, which could be a counter, a coffee table, a nice little breakfast tray. The way Im using this right now is perfect for the stamp that Im using because it creates different textures and it doesnt really have to be perfect, although there is a little fuzz there that you didnt want.

The next is to put your card right on top of the stamp this way and you can make sure that is straight. Always use one hand to make sure that it doesnt move. The second is to use scrap piece of paper right on top and use the other hand to press allover. Youve got your edges and the center of your stamp and the reason why you wanted to use that scrap paper, so that you dont get any extra ink on your figures. You lift that up, youve got a textured background. This one is like an Aida cloth thats like a stitched cloth background. Another way is to take your background stamp and use a brayer. A brayer is a rubber roller, your can find these in a craft store, through your local demonstrator or sales rep or whoever that you know, that is your connection for stamping supplies and you want to ink that up entirely onto the brayer, just rolling that and roll that right onto your stamp. Its almost like having a printing press right there is your craft station. Next, you take your paper once again and put that right there on top of your stamp. Again, remember to hold that down, take your scrap paper once again, use one hand to hold, one hand to press and when youre finished, you lift this one up and youve got your background stamp.

Therere a lot of great little stamps too, if you dont want to use a large one and this one is almost like a little speckly stamp, its one of my favorites and so much so that the label has worn off, but its a little splatter background and often times I take this out just to create a repetitious fast and easy filler to the backgrounds of my card. You can see that you can stamp once and just keep on stamping all over the place until its all full and that is another fast way of doing a background. Some samples that I can show you again right here where that just fills up a sweet little background for you, so instead of having empty space. Just like that first Aida cloth you can use to tear it up and to make smaller pieces and use that to embellish on the back behind card. I just got this one in the mail from one of my friends. This is another very elegant congratulations card, using a whole background stamp in the back. You can imagine this card without the background stamp, it looks like it need something and it might just be that background stamp. Next, Id like to show you how to use watercolors.