Make Your Own Background!

This week’s challenge over at Sentimental Sundays is “Make Your Own Background” and we are sponsored by Oak Pond Creations.

I chose to use this gorgeous Hibiscus digi image, and in my mind, I knew exactly how I wanted the card to look when it was finished!  However, as is often the case, things didn’t pan out the way I planned!  The first spanner in my wheels was half term…I had overlooked the fact that both my children were off school for the week and we had allsorts of plans for catching up with friends!  This meant that I was only free to craft in the evenings after their bedtime, and I really struggled with colours because of the lack of daylight 😦 Then, although I could see the card and the background I wanted to create for it, I didn’t have the faintest idea how to start, which led to a great deal of frustration and at least two half started cards/backgrounds screwed up and in the bin!!  (I have to confess, I am a bit of a perfectionist and have been known to have hissy-fits if I can’t get things just right!).

Which brings me neatly to my completed card….  Not at all the card I had in mind, but all things considered, a card I am pleased with!  I have recently upgraded my Silhouette software to the Designer package, mainly in order to be able to use all my digital papers as patterns within the software, so I was pleased to be able to play around with the additional  functionality of the package.  After reading an excellent tutorial on  faux paper piecing over at Paper Doll’s Creations I was itching to have a go….  So that’s exactly what I did!  I popped the Pro-Markers back in their pots, opened Harper Finch’s It’s Easter Solids digi paper collection and put my newly learned skills to the test.  I dragged the papers from my folder on my pc, across into the Silhouette software, choosing a slightly lighter shade for the flowers in the background.  Once I was happy with the colours, I used the Silhouette to print and cut the beautiful Hibiscus, cutting a second copy of the front flower to mount with 3D pads and create a little more depth.

The background I created was very low tech….  I printed a panel of another one of the papers from the stack, then clear embossed a Thank You sentiment across it, and set the powder with a heat tool.  Not the background I thought my card would have, but all in all, a quick and easy card to put together.

Hope you’ll make time to pop over to Sentimental Sundays and have a look at the amazing projects from my talented team-mates!

Thanks for reading x

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