Making Some Noise

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Now on to today's card:

While on a stamp retreat years ago with some of my Hambo Stamps designers, I was privileged to receive a tutorial from card-maker extraordinaire Melissa Edwards. She is a master of coloring, but the technique she showed us was using markers on an acrylic block and spritzing to do easy water-colored backgrounds. I've since made dozens of cards (you can see some here and here) using her technique, because not only is it very easy to do, but the results are STUNNING. But we didn't merely lay down the watercolor -- she taught us to add "noise" to the color, which kicks it up a notch.

My card above demonstrates such "noise." Although this time I used a swatch of designer paper instead of using markers to make the water-colored strip, I still started with basic variations on a color:

Above is the paper I chose from Love Nicole's "Aquarelle" pad. I cut it down so that I just had purplish strip on the left. I could have left the strip as it was, glued my die cut on top and finished the card, but it would have looked a little more dull than it does with the added "noise." I started with a script background stamp, and stamped it in an ink that coordinated with the paper's design, but wasn't too dark. You want the noise to be there, but not stand out too much on its own. Next, I chose another coordinating color to stamp some leaves randomly over the script. The paper already had some white spots included in the design, so I was satisfied to stop there. You can see a close-up of the noise below:

With the paper now jazzed up, I was ready to glue it to my white card base, and add the "Prim Poppy" die cut. Finally, I finished the card with a scripture stamp from Verve. The noise adds just enough extra drama to help the die cut stand out a little more, and leads to a more interesting card.

Do you like to add noise? If you've never tried it, give it a shot, and feel free to link up your result in the comments below.

Happy stamping!

Supplies:

Stamps - scripture from "Scripture Medley 4" by Verve; script background by Recollections; leaves from "Fanciful Filaments" set by Hero Arts
Paper - "Aquarelle" (6 x 6 pad) by Love Nicole
Ink - Memento "Lilac Posies" for sentiment and leaves; "Sweet Plum" for script background
Dies - "Prim Poppy" by Memory Box