BABY CARD using SPONGED BACKGROUND Technique

Hello again everyone! Sorry this post is late, was out of town longer than I planned, and yesterday was HSN Craft day, so I was glued to the television all day! But I did create this Baby card yesterday! It's using a technique called SPONGED BACKGROUND & it's a great technique when you can't find or don't have just the right cardstock on hand. There's nothing more satisfying than turning a plain white piece of cardstock into a colorful masterpiece!

SPONGED BACKGROUND TECHNIQUE:

You'll need white cardstock (I sponged the front of a 5x7 white card here) & a craft sponge (I cut mine into 6 or 8 triangular shaped pieces, like a pie) &  2 or more dye ink pads (I used a light blue and a light mint green). Gently blot up ink from the blue ink pad with a sponge, then dab & tap  the inked sponge randomly onto the white CS, leaving some white space for the 2nd color of ink. Then, with a clean sponge, do the same with the mint green ink, covering the white areas & dabbing into the blue in random areas. If you need to, go back over this again with the blue sponge, until you achieve the desired look. Finally, sponge the edges with the blue ink.

NOTE: You'll get different inked effects, depending on whether you gently tap or if you apply more pressure or if you rub the ink on a circular motion - have fun playing and experimenting with this!

THIS FRONT OF THIS CARD:

Next I used my Cricut to draw "Hello Baby" with Anna Griffin's Gracious Giftables Digi cartridge bonus content on white CS. I cut it down to 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" with the drawn sentiment centered, then sponged this & a 1 1/2" x 2 1/4" scrap of white CS the same way as the main background. I used Unity Stamp Company's "Just Stinkin Cute Add-on" to stamp the "Congrats on the cute new poop machine" sentiment with blue ink. Finally I hand drew the double stitching on both of these pieces and the card front.

I then randomly stamped the baby bottles on the card front with blue ink. Then I used an edging punch on both sides of a 1 1/2" x 7" strip of navy CS, before stamping stars on it with white pigment ink and attached to left side of card.

I attached buttons on the "Hello Baby" sentiment as shown, then attached to the card front. I used pop dots to attach the "Congrats" sentiment, along with a onsie die cut.

THE INSIDE:

I used Unity's "Just Stinkin Cute" stamp set for the inside phrase & image! The sentiment says "Sh*t just got real! Congratulations!"

As always, I hope I've helped to inspire your creativity today! Smiles, Laura