Take Wing Blog Hop!

 Welcome to my blog and thank you for following the September 2013 Club Scrap Blog Hop featuring the Take Wing collection! The starting point of the hop is Club Scrap Creates. There you will find the list of participating bloggers who are all creating with this cheerful kit!

My creation is a card featuring the collage image from the Borders & Backgrounds unmounted (UM) stamps. The technique came from the creative team at Technique Junkies and is found in their August/September 2013 newsletter. Their newsletters are full of fun and creative techniques, and they have CDs with tutorials, too! You can visit the TJ blog at http://techniquejunkies.blogspot.nl/.

This technique is called the Blocked Backgrounds Tutorial.

The supplies you need to create this card are:
5.5x8.5 White cardstock (folded in half for the card base)
5.25x4 Red Translucent 
5x3.75 White cardstock panel
Printed cardstock for the bird 
Black paper/cardstock (not shown)
White paper/cardstock for the sentiment
Green bird brad

Tools needed:
UM collage stamp and mounting block
Post-It notepad
Club Scrap India Black ink
Clear ruler (I love the Club Scrap 2x8 ruler for this technique!)
Black Sharpie marker (not shown)
Take Wing stencil
Paper piercer 
Scissors
Sentiment stamp

 

Step 1: Use Post-It notes to block off the top left quadrant of the White panel. Ink the collage stamp well with India Black ink, and stamp onto the quadrant. (You want to stamp off the edges of the panel, so be sure to have scratch paper underneath.)

 

Steps 2 & 3: Repeat the same technique in the upper right quadrant, being sure to leave a space between the stamped images. You want an intersection of white, like crossing streets along city blocks. Add a third stamped image in the bottom left quadrant, again leaving a space. (I added a piece of red foam under the panel to make the panel more noticeable in the pictures.)

Step 4: Again, repeat the stamping, this time in the lower right quadrant. Notice that I used the same two Post-It notes in each step. I'm a frugal crafter!

 Here is the stamped panel. I did not measure my spaces between the stamped images. I might try using pieces of low-tack tape (like Washi tape) to separate the quadrants next time. That would ensure even spacing, though my perfectionist tendencies have dissipated as I've gotten older. :-) 

 

Step 5: Using a Sharpie pen and clear ruler, draw lines around each block, like curbs around city blocks. My corners are not perfect (see the previous paragraph). I knew I was covering the intersection with a cut-out, so I wasn't too worried about it. The "Blocked Backgrounds" panel is complete. Not shown: Edge the panel using a black stamp pad.

To add a focal image to the card, I chose the bird from the Take Wing collection stencil. I moved the stencil around on the printed paper (below). Since I was using the Red Translucent paper behind the stamped panel, I chose the section with the red "branches."

Hmmm . . . I didn't want to trace the bird onto the front of the paper, because I wanted a nice, clean image. I discovered that if I used a paper piercer to place a tiny indent at the beak and the tail (not shown), I could flip the paper over, find the raised marks, and line up the reversed stencil the way I wanted it. I traced with a pencil and cut out the bird with scissors. (I left off the bird's feet, as cute as they are.)

The printed bird blended in too much with the background. Adhering it to black paper not only added contrast but also made her just a bit bigger. And adding dimensional tape raised her off the panel. Below: A simple white panel for the greeting doesn't detract from the artwork.

I'm so glad you visited my blog today, and I hope you give this fun background technique a try! Your next stop on the hop is Marya's blog.  Continue hopping along to see more creativity with Take Wing!