Find Out About Friday - How to make a Wood Grain Effect Background

Since we have a long weekend this weekend I thought I would share a technique with you for this week’s Find Out About Friday as hopefully you will get some crafty playtime and be able to try it out.

You will need:

• Paper to protect your work surface – Stampin’ Up!’s Grid Paper is ideal for this
• Crumb Cake Card
• A Selection of Brown and White Inks – I have used Crumb Cake, Soft Suede and Whisper White in the sample I am going to show you
• Sponge Daubers

First cut your Crumb Cake Card to the size you require. Next open the lightest brown Ink pad that you are going to use. Holding it at an angle of between 20 and 45 degrees touch the bottom of the ink pad to the paper just beside your piece of card. Lightly pull it across the card in one complete movement. This will create a gentle streaked appearance.

Repeat this until you have a light coverage across most of the card. To keep the wood grain effect realistic keep adding the ink in one direction and don’t worry if your lines are not very straight. Next repeat this with a darker brown adding a little colour at a time. Keep repeating and adding colour until you are happy with the result.

To finish off my panel I have inked the edges with white ink.

The final thing to do is to have fun experimenting with different combinations for different looks!

Here is the card I made using a wood grain panel made in this way.

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Happy Stampin'