blankety blank blank: Backgrounds

B is for Backgrounds

Hello Circlets! Kristen here today with you to bring you the letter B. Thinking of all the B things with the Cricut, I decided to use B for Backgrounds. Did you know that with your Gypsy Handheld Device and your Cartridges you can create one of a kind laser-like backgrounds that are personalized to your theme.
I used several images ( fish) and wording ( pool, swim, water,etc.) to create my background for this layout about my daughter. It helps the viewer understand that this is a layout all about water and swimming, adding details such as fish, however, I have used a mermaid to enhance the title of Little Mermaid.

When I cut out my background piece, I used white cardstock. However, since I wanted it to be watery looking, I used some light green and turquoise spray misters to add color and depth to the white cardstock. I simply sprayed the mists for a finer spray above the cardstock, blending the blue and green at the edges and leaving a bit of white showing through at the top right and bottom left corners.

I added some glittery gem eyes to the fish in the background piece, just to have them stand out a bit more from the wording.
I then created a collage of my photos, popping my main photo up with some foam tape.
You can see that I kept with the bright colors of the layout, bringing some of the green and pink to the mermaid. I also used a large circle to bring the mermaid out from the background, sitting her on a large rock. I also spritzed the rock with my spray mists, using a deep java brown and medium blue, then wiped off excess spray.

The mermaid seemed a little lonely on the rock, so I cut a cute little crab to join her. His eyes are gems too. I added a final pink pearl to her flower and placed her on the layout. To finish, I handwrote my journaling and layered it across the middle of my photos.
I hope you like this fun technique, I had fun creating my background while we waited for Hurricane Irene to hit on Saturday. Take this technique to another level, create a birthday theme with wording and the child’s age, or create your own ideas, perhaps make a whole farmyard or zoo of animals in a background for your zoo themed layout.