Tile backgrounds for the win!

Hello friends! Kathy here today sharing a fun tiled background made with the current Stamp Club stamp set, Love Grows Here, Aqua Pigments and a simple square die.

Here are the supplies you will need to get started:

• Love Grows Here stamp set
• Square Foundation dies
• White mini-slim card base, 6 x 7, scored at 3 ½ on long side
• White mini-slim layering panel, 3 ¼ x 5 ¾
• Green mini-slim accent layering pane, 3 3/8 x 5 7/8
• Perfect Blend Alcohol Marker Cardstock
• Aqua Pigment Watercolor paper, 2 pieces 4 ¼ x 5 ½
• Raven Detail Ink
• Aqua Pigments: Green, Yellow and Pearl
• Paint palette
• Paintbrush
• Water Mister
• Coloring medium of your choice, markers or pencils
• White gel pen (optional)
• Repositionable tape or press and seal wax paper
• Liquid adhesive
• Foam tape
• Embellishments

To start, add several drops of green and yellow Aqua Pigments to wells in a paint palette. Then add a few drops of the Pearl pigment.

Spritz a piece of Aqua Pigment watercolor paper with a light mist of water and add both yellow and green to the paper with the paintbrush.

Mist the paper again lightly with water allowing the colors to move and blend.

Use a heat tool to dry or set aside to air dry. Repeat with second piece of watercolor paper.

Select two or three of the small dies from the Foundation dies and arrange one of the painted backgrounds and run through a die cutting machine. Select areas of your background with interesting edges and color mixes for a variety of appearances. Cut several of all square sizes from both background pieces.

Place several drops of green Aqua Pigment in a well and using a paint brush splatter the die cut squares. Allow to dry. (NOTE: It is probably easier to splatter the backgrounds before die cutting, but when I was making my card, I forgot to do it first, so I am showing my process.)

Select one of the larger squares for your anchor point and glue it on the white layering panel, approximately in the middle.

Start placing the other squares around the anchor, moving and arranging them for an interesting pattern, keeping similar margins around each square. You can use removeable adhesive tape on the back of each square to hold in place. Be sure to arrange your colors and patterns for a variegated look. (NOTE: Reserve one square the same size as the anchor for stamping the sentiment.)

Once you are happy with the overall appearance, either lift each square one at a time and apply liquid adhesive to the back to set in place. Or… lay a piece of press and seal wax paper over the entire panel, pressing to pick up all pieces.

Turn the panel over and apply adhesive to all squares. Flip the panel again and lay in place on the layering panel. Quickly remove the wax paper and before the glue has set, make adjustments to correct any misaligned squares.

Trim off the squares that extend beyond the edges of the panel using scissors or a paper trimmer. Do not discard the scraps yet.

Using the trimmed pieces, fill in any gaps around the outside edge of the panel, completing the tile pattern.

Adhere the tile background to the green layering panel and the adhere both to the card base.

Set the plant stamps up in your stamping platform and stamp two images of each. Color with your favorite medium, markers or pencils. I used a white gel pen to add some fun accents to each image also. Use the matching dies or fussy cut each of the plants.

Tape the reserved square for the sentiment in the stamping platform and align the sentiment for stamping. Use foam tape on the sentiment square and adhere directly on top of the anchor square on your tile background.

Arrange the plants around the sentiment and adhere with foam tape or liquid adhesive.

It doesn’t take a lot of fancy dies to make a really unique background! I hope you will give it a try.