Another Background

How about using tissue paper to form an interesting textured background for your cards, collages, or scrapbooking pages.  I adhered the tissue with Deco Art's Dura Clear Gloss Varnish by brushing the varnish over the paper, ripped pieces of white and yellow tissue paper and placed it on the cardstock brushing over the top with additional varnish and continued until I had covered the paper.  While the paper was still wet sprayed the same transparent Deco Art paint colors over the tissue paper that I used in the previous post.   It was quick and easy to do and is fairly interesting.  I'm planning to try something slightly different within the next few days.  I'm not sure exactly what I will do with this but think that it will make a great background for a card.  I need to play with it a bit more to find my favorite combination of materials and paint application.  It is pretty bold and the gloss in the varnish didn't scan as well as I had hoped but we'll see what happens when I try something slightly different. 

Any ideas for how to use it????

Background Papers

Do you like to do a variety of paper crafts? Many of us like to use premade background papers. What if you could use the materials that you currently have and make your own? I decided to try my hand at making my own background papers. I wanted these to have a soft subtle appearance similar to what an airbrush would achieve however I didn’t own an airbrush. After some trial and error I found that small travel sized spray bottles worked really well and were certainly more economical. I found that the Deco Art transparent colors worked very well; Americana Bright Yellow, Viridian Green, and Primary Blue gave me a nice mix. I then added Glamour Dust Paint to the papers to give them that soft shimmer.


• To mix the paints I added a small puddle of paint to the bottom of each spray bottle and began adding water, testing on a separate piece of paper until I was happy with the resulting paint color.

• Next I wet a 12”X12” piece of white cardstock with clean water that I had beside me in a spray bottle.

• Next I sprayed Bright Yellow onto the wet piece of cardstock. It may be necessary to spray clean water over your yellow paint to get it to move around on the paper.

• I layered Viridian Green over the Bright Yellow, again spraying the mix with clean water to encourage the paint to mix and blend naturally. You will find that some puddles appear depending on the amount of water that you have used, move your cardstock around to encourage the paint to mix and blend always allowing each previous color to show.

• Layer Primary Blue over the green and yellow layers. Apply as much or as little as you prefer. If you find that too many puddles are still on the paper you can gently absorb some of the paint with a paper towel. Dry with a hairdryer.

• Paint Glamour Dust Lemon Drop randomly over the yellow areas, Glamour Dust Limelight over the green, and Glamour Dust Sapphire Blue over the blue areas.

• Allow these to dry completely and iron out the wrinkles making sure to protect your iron with a soft cloth.



Are you interested in using other paint colors, look for the transparent Deco Art Paint colors and experiment with making your own color combinations. These make beautiful background papers for cards, stamping, and altered art. If you are interested in seeing other paint combinations and other techniques visit my website and blog.