Distress Stain Background Technique #2

The background I used for this card was the easiest of the 3 different distress stain backgrounds I created.  Once again, I've used the Lost Coast Designs Bubble Background Stamp.

Items Needed:

Memento Ink Pad - London Fog

Black Ink any brand

Teal cardstock

Any interesting blue specialty paper or leftover paper from other projects

Distress Stains: broken china, tumbled glass and crushed olive

Uncoated White Cardstock

Lost Coast Stamps: Bubble Background, Wing Mermaid

Colored Pencils

Inkssentials white opaque pen

Spray bottle with water

Non-stick Craft Sheet, Wax Paper or Aluminum Foil

The first step is to stamp the bubble background in Memento London Fog ink or another waterproof gray ink. 

If you don't have a non-stick craft sheet handy, you can use a piece of aluminum foil or wax paper.  You simply want to keep from staining your work surface.  Use three colors of dabbers and apply some ink directly to your craft sheet.  Spritz with water until you see small droplets form like shown.

Put your stamped cardstock face down into the distress pools.  You can pick it up and re-apply color in areas you want to add more color.

I actually used up my first batch of color and aded a little more to the craft sheet and continued.  I sped up the drying process with a heat tool and allowed the background to straighten out under a heavy book for a couple hours.  I then used colored pencils to color in some of the bubbles in various sizes.  Markers would also work for this.  I drew small dots in the upper right area of the bubbles I colored using the Inkssentials opaque pen.  This makes them look more like bubbles instead of just dots.  I also stamped the bubble background in black on some interesting cardstock I had from another project and punched 1" circles out of it as well as some teal cardstock so I could make 3 larger floating bubbles.

I used Copic Markers to color the mermaid, but colored pencils or other markers would work well.  I also embellished with some pearl color embellishments on the circle bubble cut-outs and white opal liquid pearls on the wings and crown.  Finally I added some waterfall color Stickles around the edge of the cardstock after I assembled the card for just a little more of a magical glitter look.