Tropical Dreams – Layering Bright Colors and Textures for Cards

Hello, it’s Gracie Chavez from Graciellie Design and it is an honor to be posting my first tutorial for TCW today. I’ve been playing a lot with color lately and I thought I’d show you how to make a colorful and textured background using TCW643 Infinite Lace by Rebekah Meier.

TCW sent me this beautiful stencil -which I also use as a mask- and I love using it to create unique backgrounds. You’ll find this post is sponsored by TCW but know that all the opinions found here are completely my own.

Layering Bright Colors and Textures Tutorial

Step 1.  Pour 3 colors of craft paint on your gel printing plate.

Step 2. Use a brayer to spread the paint and cover the entire surface of the gel printing plate.

Step 3. Place a 4 1/4″ by 5 1/2″ piece of white cardstock on the printing plate and use the brayer to press down the paper.

Step 4. Peel the paper carefully from the printing plate to reveal your custom painted print.

TIP: To get a peeled paint effect on your backgrounds let the paint sit for 30 seconds on the printing plate after completing step 2.

Step 5. Repeat steps 1 to 4 using a different color, but this time make sure you place the Infinite Lace stencil on the printing plate before you monoprint your paper.

Step 6. Repeat step 5 a second time and again use a different color to create several tone on tone patterns. Each monoprinted background will be unique so don’t worry if you are unable to get the same effect over and over again.

Step 7. Once the paint has dried, you can start adding texture to your background. Apply mixed media adhesive on a few spots of the background.

Step 8. Pour glitter, mica elements and embossing powder on top of the adhesive and shake off the excess.

TIP: Remember to add one texture element at a time, applying adhesive little by little. This will help you distribute the elements on the background as you go, to achieve a nice distribution of textures. Also, it will prevent the adhesive from drying before you are able to cover it.

And that’s it! Your tropical inspired backgrounds are ready! Try out different color combinations to match them to every season and ocassion! You can make this for home decor, gift packaging, cards tags and so much more!

I decided to finish these backgrounds as cards. They are so pretty already all I did was add a couple of leaf die cuts, a digital stamp I colored in fuscia with markers and pan pastel and a small word bead! Try not to cover the background too much and let all the beautiful colors and textures shine!

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