STAMPtember Large Kaleidoscope Background

*This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp

Today I'm sharing a couple cards created using the Large Kaleidoscope Background.  I thought it would be fun to use just part of the background and show off two very different looks.

For my first card, I wanted to color the background.

To add some more texture to the image, I stamped it on a piece of patterned paper, and cut out this squarish portion.  Then it was colored with a variety of peachy red shades:  E00, E01, E02, R00, R02, R05, R08, R22.  Nothing too dramatic, just some basic shading to add dimension to the image.

The finished piece was popped up over a couple of mats and I added a small sentiment from the Silhouette Sentiments set to finish it off.

Next up, piecing.

I went through my patterned paper stash, selected an older 6x6 pad, and picked out five different patterned papers from the pad.  When I am piecing something that requires a lot of different prints I'll often try and pull them from the same pad since some designer with better credentials than I have has already done the hard work of putting together coordinating prints.

The background was then stamped on each of those prints and I fussy cut the individual pieces to create this quilted look.  This can be quite time consuming, but also doesn't require a ton of thought once you know which pattern you're using for which particular pieces.  

A couple tips/tricks:  1) I try and cut on the 'inside' of the lines so that the pieces will fit together more easily, 2) I do go around the edge of each of the pieces with a black felt tip marker so that you don't see white peeking out in the lines of the design, and 3) after creating a large pieced panel like this, I will run it through my die cutting machine to make sure everything is adhered and nice and flat.

For this card I didn't want to cover up that quilted piece at all, so I popped it up over a couple of panels of patterned paper and then added a sentiment to the inside of my card.

OK, I have some giveaway winners to announce!

The winner of the Printmaking bundle from IG is: @mistioblander 

The winner of the Background bundle from IG is: @madebymeghank 

The winner of the Waves and Raindrops bundle from IG is:  @claires_card_on 

The winner of the Coffee bundle from the blog is: Karen Day

And my international winner from IG is: @not_magda

If you see your name here, congratulations!  Please shoot me an email at mprantner dot gmail dot com with your mailing address and I'll get this sent out.

And if you didn't win, don't worry, I have more designs in the queue at Simon so there will be more giveaways coming!  I'll be back with more STAMPtember inspiration tomorrow!