This card explains in a nutshell why I am such a fan of designing and using background stamps.

Starting with a pale celery green background, I wanted to create a gritty, urban feel with lots of depth. I stamped several background stamps, as follows:

• P027 Paid in Full, in Stazon Ganache and Stazon Blue Hawaii, randomly pounced on the surface
• P010 Travel Documents, in Stazon Cloudy Sky
• P020 Wasted, in Memento Luxe Espresso Truffle
• S633 Watercolor NY, in Stazon Ganache
• S569 Let it Go, in Stazon Claret

These were mounted on a dark brown cardstock and then a matching celery cardstock, edged with the Stazon Blue Hawaii.

I quickly zapped it with a heat embossing tool to make sure everything was dry. Then I painted a few of the buildings with Art Anthology Velvet paints in Kona, Aloha, and Cotton Candy. I gave all of these areas a wash of Kona over the top to neutralize the colors and make them more cohesive.

So that is the background behind this card. You can easily create your own vintage-inspired background papers!