Magical Distress Ink Background

 Hello Crafters!

Well it's taken me a minute to get this blog post typed but in my defense last week was CRAZY. 

Too many pots going in the kitchen. 

I'm sure most of you can relate. Life is so busy. 

I shared this fun magical background over on the Neat & Tangled blog last week and wanted to make sure to share it here. 

I wanted a really pretty enchanted forest, magical light background. BUT I didn't want to stamp one million leaves and trees in the background. I decided to use my distress ink to give the illusion of a magical forest. 

I opted to apply the distress ink at a diagonal to create the illusion of a ray of light streaming through the trees. I started with the lightest color blue and got progressively darker towards the corners. I always do my distress inking twice. This gives me amazing saturation of color and a great blend from color to color. 

I masked the dark edges with two pieces of scrap paper and then spattered on some clean water to create the water spots we see when sun is coming through the trees. It really adds to the magical look. To further enhance that enchanted look I also spattered on some perfect pearls. I moved the masks and used a teeny tiny amount of water to add some spatters to the edges of the design. This helps create a natural edge as it fades off into the dark corners. 

To complete the look I used the Fairy Dust stamp with white pigment ink. I stamped it twice in the center for a really opaque color. Then I used second and third generation stamping to the left and right to reinforce the gradient. 

You can see the background and copic coloring from start to finish in the video below

Usually I don't love a white outline around my die cuts but for this design I'm actually a pretty big fan. I think it's how it allows the large sentiment to blend right in to the design. 

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

I'll be back real soon with another video for you!

Supplies:

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