A Frugal Journey Through January Day 8

Hello again, I hope you have been following my frugal journey through January, if not you can just work back and all will be revealed.

I love creating my own backgrounds and can amuse myself for hours with just a white piece of card and a black ink pad - plus an armful of stamps on a theme from my rather overburdened shelves! Here is an idea for a simple make from just one 12x12 sheet of cardstock.

 

Take any stamp and stamp it in the middle of the sheet of card stock, at angle. I use the second impression for this layer to give me a charcoal colour rather than black, and continue stamping out from the centre on both sides of the card using a selection of stamps, or repeat the same stamp if you prefer a more uniform look.

Using the first impression of your stamps, full strength black, add another layer of stamping over the top of the first, again on both sides of the card stock. Start with larger, bolder images and gradually fill in with smaller stamps until you are happy with the look. Knowing when to stop is often my biggest challenge!

 

 

Cut a strip of card 31/2" deep from one side of your 12x12 sheet, then cut four 21/2" wide pieces from this strip making four ATC sized pieces of your background as your inserts, holding on to the scrap piece to use for decoration. Score the remaining piece of your background lengthways at roughly 41/2" and at 3", 6" and 9" in the opposite direction. Tear the edges of this piece along the long sides, one piece deeper than the other. Fold all the scores with a bone folder for a nice crisp finish and ink all the torn edges. Use the strips torn from the long edges as decoration and to give the illusion of layers.

 

I used some scraps of shrink plastic, red and black card, background leftovers, ribbon and yet more stamps to decorate the ATCs and popped them in my little book. Simples, as they say.

 

You can completely change the look with a different colour way and theme, great fun for sending baby photos. Really simple using lots of bits and bobs you already have in your leftovers with just one sheet of card stock - got a piece with a smudge or a fingerprint on? No one will know once it is stamped and inked lol!

That's all for now, hope you found something to inspire you. I will be back tomorrow, same time, same place with another frugal project or two.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by x

 

 

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