Mid week blog#164 - Faux torn edge look with a blending brush?!?!

  Hello & welcome to my blog,

My name is Alison & I am an independent Stampin' Up® demonstrator in Melbourne, Australia. I love creating cards & gifts for my loved ones & this blog will show you how to create something special for those you love. I blog twice a week, once on a Sunday where I mainly showcase a stamp set or dies & sometimes special DSP. My second blog is mid week on a Wednesday where I look at techniques, colour challenges, card sketches, fun folds, tools & equipment & ways to make or improve your projects. That's what this blog is about.

Today I will show you how to create a torn edge look without having to tear any of your cardstock or DSP. This can be achieved by using blending brushes & masking a section of your card. Here is a card I created using this technique...

This beautiful card was made with just two colour tones, green & white & was very simple to create. I started off with a regular sized Old Olive card base, a Basic White matte, some strips of scrap copy paper, stamp set, inks & a repositionable glue stick. The reason I used the glue stick is that I don't have any masking paper on hand but wanted the paper to stay securely in place but be able to be removed without damaging the cardstock.

With the Basic White matte taped to my glass mat with some washi tape I then placed both pieces of scrap paper together & tore the edges of both pieces at once. I had small pieces available but it is easy to do with the one piece torn in half. I then applied some repositionable glue to the back of these pieces & taped them over the top of the matte.

With a blending brush & Old Olive I then started blending colour over the exposed area until I had the colour I was happy with.

The images are from the Wild Ferns stamp set & I chose Old Olive & Mossy Meadow & stamped directly over the blended area in first & second generation.

At this stage the mask is removed to reveal what appears to be a strip of torn DSP & then the matte is ready for a little more decoration.

The sentiment was next, from Country Birdhouse & stamped in Mossy Meadow, then I used the flicking method, where you flick the end of a Stampin' Write® marker over the cardstock using the lid of the marker to give a splatter of colour to your projects.

This matte was then adhered straight onto the card front with a few of the retired Adhesive Backed Glitter sequins added for a little bit of bling. Here's a closeup so you can see the different colour depths & the splatter...

Of course, no creation is complete without some decoration to the inside of the card & a matching envelope so I added some splatter & a couple of ferns to a Basic White matte & envelope to complete this project...

A simple but striking card that could be used for almost any occasion with a change of sentiment.

That's it for this technique. I hope you enjoyed learning how I created this unique way of colouring. Perhaps you'll try it yourself? If you do I would love to see what you come up with so please feel free to head over to craftedbyalison on Facebook & show me what you've made.

My next blog is on Sunday & I will be sharing a scrapbook layout with you. I have only recently gotten back into creating scrapbook pages so this is a new adventure for me with all of the changes that have evolved in scrapbooking since my last pages, many years ago when the children were little.

Then, next week's mid week blog looks at a way to create a sponged background for your projects using a household kitchen staple.

I hope you can join me for both of those.

Til next time, take care & keep creating! XX Alison