Masterboard Tutorial

Hi all, Kerry here with my final instalment of ideas for backgrounds, the reason I have been doing this through September as today over on the Challenge Blog I am hosting this fortnights challenge which is 'Make your own Background', this could be a background make from the beginning or simply altering some patterned paper by embossing or stamping etc.  Hopefully I have gave you enough inspiration to have a go and be in with a chance of winning as our sponsor is Crafters Companion.

This last background I want to show you is something called a masterboard, it's when you grab a large piece of card (I used 12by12) and start making a huge background that can be cut up and used on loads of different cards, a great way for quick and easy cards or for a canvas, altering piece etc.  This is my first time I have done them myself so really it's not so much as a tutorial as watching me have a go lol.

I took these as my inspiration for the colour I was going to use,

I hate choosing colours so this really helped me

I started with a blank piece of 12by12 card, and stamped

randomly with versamark dazzle, make sure some are

stamped off the page, and keep rotating the card around

so the images are not all the same way.

As I was stamping in the versamark I kept lightly adding the colours

I was going to use over the areas where I stamped, this helped me

see where I had stamped with the versamark so I didn't over stamp

all the images.

Think I missed taking a picture lol, I coloured all over

with my chosen colours then sprinkled water on areas to give

a texture feel.

I then went mad stamping all over with black archival ink pad

feeling every available space, also remembering to turn the card

so the images where all stamped in different directions.

 Then I stamped some images with versamark again and embossed

them with white embossing powder

Close up picture

A card I made with some of the background

I then had another go doing some of it slightly different :-)

I started again stamping different leaves around with versamark

Then I chose some colours, I wanted them to represent autumn,

I checked my colours to see if they would go together on a scrap piece

of card, I was a bit scared lol as I was using 7 colours and

normally I only ever use 3 on anything I'm doing.

This is the next step that I missed in the earlier masterboard, I lay

each colour down in random areas, then when all the colours where

on I then went back and blended them together in the gaps.

I did the sprinkled water again, the white splodges are where

the distress ink was lifted by the water, I love the effect and to

be honest you could use the background just like this as I think

it looks great but I decided to carry on.  I wanted to use lots

of different things, so I used stamp n bond embossing powder

to add the mica pigment and the gold/autumn leaf, I also used

a gorgeous frantage aged red and aged gold embossing

powder and a normal copper and gold embossing powder.

I actually found this to be really relaxing, I took my time doing small areas

at a time, I even had breaks in between (as life/kids get in the way lol)

I also found the start on one stamp first in a corner, as if you don't

like the medium used i.e. gold leaf then you don't have to use that

small corner in the end, this was very true for the first background earlier,

I did take a picture of me doing the white embossing in the corner but the picture

was blurry oops.

This is after I had done all the above

Close picture, doesn't it look lovely, I fell in love lol

I decided to do one more step and stamped some images

in black archival.

Close Up

And the card!!! well you will have to pop on over to the Challenge Blog as I used it for my DT card :-) So why not pop on over there, look at what the DT have done with their backgrounds and have a go, trust me I was a newbie, I have wanted to have a go for ages but didn't as I was a bit scared but in the end I have really enjoyed doing all the background tutorials and really really loved doing the master board.  I shall be back in the week to show some more cards that I have made with the above masterboards to show you how simple they are to use to make quick and easy cards.  Thank you so much for taking the time to visit all my tutorials on backgrounds, I really do appreciate it.  Happy Crafting :-) Kerry xxx