Project of the Week ~ Dryer Sheet Background Technique

Cheri here, starting off 2017 with a brand new Project of the Week. I’m calling it “dryer sheet background technique”.

Supplies you’ll need:
Several dye inks that react with water
Watercolor paper or heavier weight (100#) card stock
Water in a sprayer bottle
Used dryer sheets (one for each collection of colors you are using)
Craft sheet or some other waterproof base (freezer paper/waxed paper) for your work surface.
Stamps and ink to finish your project with.

Step 1 - Press your inks in a row onto your craft sheet.
Step 2 - Spray with water from your sprayer until you have nice saturation and beeding that looks like this. (If you’d like a softer background, use more water)

Step 3 - Place one of your dryer sheets over the watered inks on your craft sheet.

I like to let it sit on top of the ink for a little while in order for the dryer sheet to soak up some of the ink. Grab each end of the sheet and give it a slight twist back and forth then bring it to your card stock to the area you’d like the ink to be.

You can twist it again while on your card stock, however, unless you want the colors to mix together, be careful to keep the wet inks in their own area. When you’re satisfied with the coverage, you can get another generation using the same dryer sheet and another piece of card stock if you’d like. NOTE: You can repeat this process with other colors of inks and fresh used dryer sheets.

Step 4 - Use your new backgrounds as you’d like for new card or project creations.

I really liked how these big word stamps looked against these dryer sheet backgrounds. I used three of the 4 sets: You Series #10100, Thanks Series #10000 and Hello Series #9900. BTW, these sets all come in red rubber on cling too.

I hope you liked this tutorial and will give it a try. It’s really fun to do and to see the cool results you get with used dryer sheets.

Have a fabulous year ahead!
Cheri