Background Lifting

As soon as I saw the little pots of paint that came with the Tide Pool Embellishment kit I knew it was the chance I had been waiting for to try out a background like the one I had seen by Sanna Lippert in the June edition of Scrap 365. She gave two layouts similar treatment and you can get an idea of what she does by seeing a video on her blog of the other layout here. Sanna's blog is truly inspirational - I think she is the queen of background treatments.

Here is my version

I used the kraft cardstock from the kit and sponged the paint across from left to right, trying to make sure it tailed off at the end in a pleasing way. Sanna's background is far more clever as she actually then painted with white from right to left which gave a lovely fade. But I wanted the cardstock to show through in order to match the paper, tag and the colour of the pony!
I paused for a few minutes between colours but not for long so there would be a nice overlap. Fortunately acrylic paint is very quick drying.

Once the paint was all done I added some other layers - in the way that Sanna did by using stamps and ink. I also dragged Versamark through various stencils and sprinkled white embossing powder over the top before using a heat tool. There may well be a point where you think "agh it looks terrible" but just keep adding more and hopefully you will find it pleasing. I like the effect. I did also add some wonky circles with black pen.

I knew I wanted to use the "the little things" tag in the top left hand corner so added letter stickers and a paper clip.

I had gathered the photos, papers and tags on my desk and noted that they were randomly placed in a kind of a line. I rather liked that so decided to keep it for the layout. I had added the lovely white doily to go underneath and so needed to assemble my montage before sticking it down as it needed to then go up on foam pads.

Firstly though I doctored the photos.  I cut a slit in the one of the single horse so that I could insert the metal clip. I used "the cutest thing ever" rubon on the other photo. I accidentally dropped it on to the photo when trying to place it straight and it began to stick so I had to leave it at a bit of an angle (sulk)

I really enjoyed making the background and I probably wouldn't have been so adventurous if I hadn't had the little paint pots in my Quirky kit :)