Oddball Art Stamps TAW: Salted Backgrounds

Good morning blogland! I'm so happy to finally be posting again. I had some issues with my eye health, which also affected my vision. Very scary stuff, but I am doing much better now. Several medicated drops every day...better living through chemistry! To celebrate I'm getting back on board with my various Design Teams; all of the owners and coordinators were so amazing and supportive during this unpleasant ordeal. Thank you all!!

I am coming back with a BIG post that I'm so excited to share with you! It's a step-by-step photo tutorial that I've created for Oddball Art Stamps' "Technique a Week" feature. They started up a few months ago, but this is my first one - I hope you enjoy it!

Salted Backgrounds

Salted backgrounds are a wonderfully funky way to add uniqueness and character to any project. They're also incredibly easy to create!

You will need:

• Glossy cardstock
• Spray bottle with water
• Ink pads and/or reinkers
• AquaBrush or Paint brushes & water
• Salt (I like coarse salt because the uneven sizes give a more mottled look to the finished product, but ANY salt will do!)

The Deets:

1. Cut your paper to size and spray it with water from the spray bottle. You want a good amount of beaded water on the top of the glossy surface.
   
    
2. Using your AquaBrush or wet paint brush, pick up some ink and begin adding it to the wet cardstock in the general arrangement you'd like the finished product's colors to be. You can get the ink in one of two ways, depending on your style of ink pads. If you have the type that you can press against themselves when they are closed and transfer a small amount of ink to the inside cover of the ink pad, you can do that. Alternatively, you can add a couple drops of reinker to the inside of the ink pad or any other plastic surface you have readily available.
   
   
   
   
3. Continue adding ink to the cardstock surface until you are satisfied with the look. If your paper begins to dry out, spritz it again from your spray bottle to keep the ink flowing easily over the top of the paper. You may need to experiment to find the right amount of water; too much will muddle the colors.
   
4. Now the fun part! Grab your salt...
   
5. Add salt to your project while the surface is still fairly wet and the ink is bleeding slightly. You can shake, sprinkle, flick, fling....any transfer method you'd like will get the job done ;)
   
6. After you get it salted, you won't want to pick it up until it is dry. (Plan accordingly!) If you're in a rush, you can help it along with your handy dandy heat gun. Otherwise, let it sit off to the side to dry normally.
   
   
   
   
7. Once dry, gently brush off the excess chunks of salt that are still sitting on top of the paper. You will be left with a lovely salty haze on the top of the project, as well as some more obvious areas where the grains were sitting as the water evaporated and the ink ran.
   
8. Use these finished pieces any way you like! I put mine into this card featuring Creepy Claire, Oddball Art Image #64. I kept the card fairly simple to showcase the background piece. This technique is SO PERFECT for Oddball's fantastic style of digi stamps!

...that's it! It's such a fun, easy technique that LOOKS like it took you way more time than it did! I colored up Ms. Claire with Copic markers, and added some Art Institute Glitter to her wings. The die is from Fun Stamper's Journey, and the Magic Mesh has been in my "misc." drawer for 10 years.

I hope you're inspired to try a new technique! If you make a project using this tutorial, feel free to link it up so I can come "ooh" and "aah" over your creation!