A Background Study: Heat Embossing & Ombre with Yana

Hello friends! This is Yana and I hope you are having a fabulous week!

During the month of April I shared several projects using background stamps. I titled my posts Background Study as I wanted to explore and test out different background options I could create using WPlus9 stamps and inks for my cards. I used two different stamp sets - Borders and Backgrounds 1 and Borders and Backgrounds 4. I made two sets of cards using different color combinations - some very bold and colorful and some soft and feminine.

For my monthly video tutorial I wanted to continue exploring backgrounds and decided to create several additional card ideas featuring heat embossing. I only used inks for my original cards and did a lot of ombre stamping, this time I decided to do heat embossing and do ombre ink blending for a similar, yet different look.

Watch above or watch in HD at YouTube

I heat embossed several backgrounds using gold and white embossing powders. I used Antique Gold and regular white. You can use Gold or experiment with other embossing powder colors - Platinum, Brass, Silver, you can even do clear.

To create my backgrounds I used a clear block with gridlines, you can also use a stamp positioner, but using a block with etched lines makes stamping go faster. Grid lines help a great deal when aligning images and making sure each row is perfectly straight. When mounting my images onto the block I made sure the bottom of my design was exactly next to one of the grid lines.

Instead of using white, I picked colored cardstock for my projects. Whenever I do ink bending I prefer to use colored cardstock to make it easier on my wrist and also to save time and do significantly less blending. You can use white paper for this, do white on white heat embossing and use 2 or 3 colors of ink to create ombre ink blending, but when you have colored cardstock as your base you need to do a lot less work as you already have that base color right there on your paper.

I used Sweet Gelato ink color for my pink ombre ink blended paper. For my light blue one I used Lake House and for the dark blue I used Falling For Blue and Nautical Navy (these are identical ink colors I used for my original Background Study cards).

I trimmed my backgrounds down and foam mounted onto 4 bar note cards. I simply adore this card size lately, so I wanted to make more smaller cards to have on hand.

To embellish these cards I used More Fresh Cut stamp set - I stamped Happy Birthday sentiment in blank ink onto strips of white cardstock and die-cut and stamped several leaves and flowers to complete my projects.

I used same ink colors I used for my ink blending and also picked Last Leaf and Appletini colors to stamp the leaves. I foam mount sentiment strips onto my cards and foam mounted flowers and leaves on top. I used my fingers and shaped the leaves a little bit to make them look a bit more dimensional.

One last thing I did - I used a black pigment pen, white and black Nuvo Drops and added details to my cards. I used Gloss White dots to add white dimensional centers to my flowers and also used same product to add details to my backgrounds.

So this concludes my April background study! I hope you have found it useful and inspirational. Let me know in the comments below if you’d like to me to do similar studies in my upcoming posts.

Have fun stamping!

FEATURED SUPPLIES

For your convenience, here is a list of the featured supplies used on today's project(s), along with links to purchase. Please Note: This list contains affiliate links.

WPlus9 Borders & Backgrounds 4 Stamps Shop at: WP9	WPlus9 Borders & Backgrounds 1 Stamps Shop at: WP9	Wplus9 More Fresh Cuts Stamps Shop at: WP9	Wplus9 More Fresh Cuts Dies Shop at: WP9	WPlus9 Lake House Dye Ink Shop at: WP9
WPlus9 Falling For Blue Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	WPlus9 Nautical Navy Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Wplus9 Shell Pink Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	WPlus9 Little Piggy Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	WPlus9 Sweet Gelato Dye Ink Shop at: WP9
WPlus9 Last Leaf Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	WPlus9 Appletini Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Spellbinders Tool 'n One Shop at: SSS | SC | SB | AZ	Spellbinders Platinum 6 Die Cutting Machine Shop at: SSS | SC | SB | AZ	Tonic Gloss White Nuvo Crystal Drops Shop at: SSS | SC | AZ
Tonic Ebony Black Nuvo Crystal Drops Shop at: SSS	Ranger Dylusions Paint Pens 2 Pack Shop at: SSS	Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink Pad Shop at: SSS	Simon Says Stamp Embossing Ink Pad Clear Shop at: SSS	Neenah 80LB Solar White Cardstock Shop at: SSS | AZ
Neenah 110 Lb Solar White Cardstock Shop at: SSS | AZ	Hero Arts White Embossing Powder PW110 Shop at: SSS | SC | AZ	Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder Shop at: SSS	Hero Arts Heat Embossing Gun PW200 Shop at: SSS | SC | AZ	Ranger Mini Round Ink Blending Tools Shop at: SSS | SC | AZ
Ranger Mini Round Foam Refils Shop at: SSS | SC | AZ	EK Success Powder Tool Applicator Shop at: SSS | SC | AZ	Hero Arts Ultra Clean Stamp Cleaner NK202 Shop at: SSS	EZ Runner Grand - Permanent Shop at: SC | AZ	EZ Runner Grand - Permanent - Refill Shop at: SC | AZ
Scrapbook Adhesives White Foam Squares Shop at: SSS | AZ	White Fun Foam 12 Pack 9 x 12 Shop at: SSS | AZ