Mixed Media Background: Art Deco Arches Stencil

Hi everybody! It's Maria here and today I've got a fun card with a mixed media background to share with you. I wanted to use the new Art Deco Arches Stencil to create my background. I grabbed a piece of white cardstock and a bottle of Eggplant (purple) gloss spray. I sprayed my stencil (not the paper through the stencil, just the stencil itself) with the gloss spray. Then I pressed the stencil onto the white piece of cardstock to transfer the purple spray onto my paper. As you can see by looking at my background this left me with an interesting ghosted image of the stencil. The purple spray is acrylic paint so I waited for it to completely dry before adding more ink to the background.

Next, I sprayed some Salvaged Patina Distress Oxide over the top of the purple acrylic paint and the purple paint resisted the ink. Once the oxide spray was dry I added to my background by ink blending with Lemon Drop and Fruit Punch Reactive Inks and splattering it with white acrylic paint. The final step was to place my clean stencil back on top of my background and line it up with the purple paint. Then I spread a clear, glossy medium through the stencil to make it look like shiny scales. This is not showing up at all in the pictures and I really wish you could see how much subtle and super cool texture this added.

Next, I cut a piece of burlap into a small square and shredded it a little bit. I glued it to the top left corner of my background and then layered die cuts from the Hero Lifestyle Mermaid and Seashells Fancy Dies on top. The fish and shells were colored to match the rest of the card.

I stamped my sentiment in Sapphire Pigment Ink and then heat embossed it in clear embossing powder . This is such a great way to heat emboss in color because the pigment ink is really juicy and holds the embossing powder well. I ink blended my sentiment strip with Lemon Drop Reactive Ink. The last step was to add blue splatters to my mermaid tail and gold metallic ink splatters to my whole card.

It is really difficult to see the details of this background in the photos so here's a quick video clip for you...

If you are having trouble viewing this video please try watching it HERE on YouTube.

Ok, you guys, that's it for today! I hope you're all having an awesome week and that you have time to get crafty! See you back here soon!

Click on products to shop:

SA165 Art Deco Arches Stencil - Hero... HA ] DI899 Seashells Fancy Dies (D) - Hero... HA ] DI897 Hero Lifestyle Mermaid (D) -... HA ] AF423 Lemon Drop Reactive Ink - Hero... HA ] AF421 Fruit Punch Reactive Ink - Hero... HA ] AF452 Hero Hues Sapphire Pigment Pad... HA ] PW111 Ultra Fine Embossing Powder -... HA ] GM100 Gold & Pewter Glimmer Metallic... HA ]