Distress Stain Background Technique #1

This is the first in a 3 part post about ways to create cool backgrounds using Distress Stain dabbers.  I love the Lost Coast bubble background and bubble border stamps for backgrounds.  This is the the easiest of the backgrounds.  I first stamped the background image in waterproof black ink.  I used a Memento Ink Pad but you could use Ancient Page, Archival, Memories or Palette Hybrids.

Since I used a black ink I can apply the stains direct to the plain white cardstock without the image being overwhelmed by the ink.  I randomly swiped broken china and tumbled glass distress stains in various areas.

Next I added some crushed olive.

By spritzing some water the colors blended a little and I added a little more of the blues.

On a separate piece of cardstock I stamped the Lost Coast butterfly mermaid and colored it using Prismacolor pencils.

I added some little white dots to the larger bubbles on the background using the Inkssential Opaque Pen.  I cut the colored mermaid out but felt it didn't stand out on the dark background. 

My simple solution is to add a little cloud white versamagic direct to paper.

This mermaid was really screaming for stickles so I drew some scales on the mermaid tail and added some purple dots on the bodice and highlighted some bubbles with Stickles glitter glue.