Backgrounds for Pre-Mades

My Mom and I realized we were getting low on materials for making quick and easy cards, and decided to make so more pre-made focals.  The first step, was making a bunch of backgrounds for them.  That's what I'll show you today.  They turned out so pretty that I'll be using some for card backgrounds as well as making focals from them.

Set One - Alcohol Ink: The set you see above are made using alcohol inks and mixatives from Ranger applied to glossy white card stock.  I apply these with the rectangular applicator & felt pieces.  For the above (left to right), these are the supplies I used:  1) Gunmetal mixative, 2) Cloudy Blue alcohol Ink & Rose Gold mixative, 3) Silver and Pearl mixatives, 4) Poppy Field alcohol ink and Gunmetal mixative, topped with Silver mixative, 5-7) I forgot to write down the specific alcohol inks for these, but I used several different colors.  The light pink also has Pearl mixative, the medium pink has silver mixative added, while the green has gold mixative added.

Set Two - Polish (below):

This next set was made using regular white or black card stock and "Polish" from Cosmic Shimmer. They all have such a pretty shine to them! Left to right, supplies used are:1) white card stock and Raspberry Sorbet Luster Polish, 2) white card stock and Golden Glow Opal Polish, 3) black card stock and Golden Glow Opal Polish, 4) black card stock and Pink Thistle Opal Polish, 5) white card stock and Pink Thistle Opal Polish, 6) white card stock and Lavender Blue Opal Polish, and 7) black card stock and Lavender Blue Opal Polish.

Set Three - Gelatos (below):

I only made two of these as I wasn't as happy with them.  (However, you'll see that I later made a gorgeous card using the one on the left! It's the second one in this post.)  For that darker piece, I took metallic gelatos, scribbled on the paper, and blended with a baby wipe.  As you can see, they don't show up real well on the black, but DO add a fun variation to the card stock - and a pretty shine when held just right in the light!  The second one was done on white card stock.  Here you can see the colors, but I wished I hadn't done such a pronounced stripe.  I think it would have been better if I had just put color randomly before blending with the baby wipe.  However, I'm sure I'll find something good to use it for!

Set Four - Distress Oxides:

We only made two of these, and I didn't mark the colors we used, but I especially liked how the green-blue one turned out, and already made a card from it (last card in this post).  We applied the color using the round applicators from Ranger - along with foam pads - ink applied in a circular motion.

Set Five - Other Inks with Mixatives: 

Looking back over the backgrounds we had, I realized we didn't have any that were blue, nor a Christmas green color.  So, I went through my ink pads and applied ink from them to glossy white card stock, then added a bit of mixative on top (as done in the first set).  The blue one was made using a Blue Archival ink I had with Silver mixative.  The green was Green StazOn with Silver mixative.  As you can see, the StazOn went on a bit more blotchy than I would have liked, but I'm sure I can make something nice with it.

So there are my backgrounds.  Now to make the focals!