Brayered backgrounds

I  have been working on this trio of cards for a couple of days .  The idea had been in my head for a while but when I saw  Susan’s masked and stippled cards here I was inspired to make these cards with a masked rectangular focus.

There was a bit of trial and error involved.  I masked with post-it notes and then brayered with two colours.  Both the orange card and the grey/green card took four attempts.  Each time the brayering went through the post-it notes or the silhouette touched outside the brayered space or the post-it note tore the cardstock but finally I achieved what I had set out to do.  The grasses card worked first time?!

I stamped over the brayering with Basic Black ink, sometimes more than once to make a solid image.  I had trouble photographing these cards.  I think I need to spend some time with the camera manual.

Things I learnt while making these cards:

• Sometimes it is necessary to mask with two layers of post-it notes so the brayering won’t go through, mark the edge or the cardstock and turn what was going to be a one layer card into a two layer card.
• It is probably best to use a fresh post-it note to mask the second, third or fourth attempt, they did come from the dollar store after all.
• Rather than try and use your stamp-a-ma-jig after you have stamped an incomplete image, stamp with it the first time, them it is in place for the second and third inking.
• If you stamp on your stamp-a-ma-jig imaging sheet with waterproof black ink you might want to wash it straight away.

Hmmm…

Supplies:

Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Inspired by Nature, Garden Silhouettes, Everyday Flexible Phrases
Inks: Pumpkin Pie & Summer Sun,  Brocade Blue & Mellow Moss,  Sage Shadow & Bordering Blue
Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Very Vanilla, Brocade Blue, Bordering Blue, Whisper White
Also:  Brayer