By now, you’re probably aware that I am a member of StampTV. It’s a great community of stampers, and there are regular videos available.  Gina teaches new techniques on a regular basis, which is one of the reasons I joined the site.

This week there’s a challenge running where your card must include a ‘rubber band background’. As you can see from the card above, the result is a unique backgroud.  Every time you use this technique, you will end up with a totally different result.

First, take a look at the video, then continue below to see how I made this card:

Now that you’ve watched the video, I’ll tell you a quick story.

I wasn’t going to join the challenge because although I have a Brayer (which I have difficulty using because of arthritis in my hands), I don’t have an acrylic roller, only a rubber roller.  I’m pretty sure the rubber bands would cut into the rubber roller and damage it, so was reluctant to join in that challenge.

Then, strangely enough, I accidentally came across an article about that same technique. (Sorry, can’t remember where that was – maybe on SCS?) It said if you don’t have a brayer, you can also use an acrylic block – the sort you use for your clear stamps.

So I gave it a try.  It works the same as using a brayer, but naturally you can’t roll the block, but it still gives a fantastic result. So if you don’t have a brayer, or you don’t want to use it, as in my case, this is an alternative that works beautifully!

Now for the details of my card.

In this card I used the following Distress Inks:

Worn Lipstick Distress Ink,

Broken China Distress Ink

Wild Honey Distress Ink

Stamps are:

Gina K Designs Various Verses (for the flower)

Gina K Designs Birthday Greetings (for the greeting)

I coloured the flower with Stampin’ Up! Markers because they’re the only ones I have at the moment.  (My Tim Holtz Distress Markers are on order and on their way!)

Dies used are:

The largest die from the Spellbinders Parisian Motifs die set

Spellbinders Nestabilities Large Classic Ovals

The greeting was punched out from a multi-sized label punch I’ve had for nearly a year. (You can see some Labels Punches here.

The Parisian Motifs die and Ovals die were separated by Adhesive Foam Dimensionals.

The oval was sponged around the edges with Wild Honey Distress ink, as was the greeting.

 Warning!  Make sure you clean off the ink between colours, or you will ruin your ink pads.