Nifty Background Idea...One Stamp - Lots of Ink!

Today I wanted to share a card I recently made... 

I was inspired by an old 70's commercial I saw while dh was flipping through the channels one night.  It was sort of a wave shape that was comprised of various shades of yellow, orange and brown ~ typical 70's.  I thought that I could do basically the same thing and take one stamp, a few colors of ink and really make something that would pop. 

I am really pleased with the results and I think it will make you take a second look at all of the stamps in your stash.

Here is what I came up with....

Stamp Credits: Just For Fun Running Boy, Celebrate Definition

So here is what I did...

I started off by gathering 3-4 shades of ink per color. I'm sure for most of us this won't be a problem but if you find that you don't have as many shades as you would like, several companies offer tiny ink cubes that you can usually find for $ 0.99 - $1.25.  A great bargain! 

 Since I was using this little boy I went with shades of green, blue and purple.

I cut an over-sized piece of cardstock ~ it made following the pattern a bit easier since I could work with the design on a larger scale.

Next I started with the blue wave by stamping lightest to darkest...stamp color A, wipe, reposition and stamp color B, wipe, reposition and stamp color C.  Each time I stamped just a tiny bit to the right and either up or down depending on where I was in the wave pattern.

NOTE: I stamped my wave pattern free hand but of course you could always draw a pencil line wave as a stamping guideline that you could later erase once you were finished.

After I had stamped my shades of blue I used the boys head and feet as stamping guidelines for the green and purple images.

I think it turned out pretty cool and by adding a simple sentiment box it really makes the background stand-out which is exactly what I was going for!

Now it's your turn!

Pull out a favorite stamp, your ink and paper to see what kind of wave you can create!