Delicate Doilies Random Backgrounds

If you're looking for a quick, easy, and colorful background for your cards or scrapbook pages, look no further than the fun Delicate Doilies stamp set! 

The fun, circular designs are reminiscent of the old Spirograph drawing toy…do any of you remember those, or am I too old?!  Since I am an only child, this was the perfect toy to keep me entertained when I was little.  I would spend hours drawing multicolor designs at my grandma's house and I loved it! 

Now, I'm having even more fun experimenting with these fun, new doily shapes!  For the quick background, just assign one color to each size of doily, then randomly stamp the shapes. 

This card layout was CASEd from Ann Clemmer at StamperDog.com.  I really love the use of the Tasteful Trim Die for the layers.  And the Delicate Doilies are fun to layer with Dimensionals, too!  I added a little scrunched Seam Binding and a Petite Pairs sentiment. 

My Two Cool cards are pretty similar…I added Boho Blossoms punches and another popped up doily layer to Card #2. 

Random Stamping Tips

For the most eye-pleasing random stamping, keep these "B-COOL" guidelines in mind:

• Balance—Try to balance the colors and designs.  If you get too much of one design or color in one area, it will look heavy and off-balance. Distribute somewhat evenly throughout the background. I like to stamp in a diagonal direction so the images kind of look like layered bricks. It also creates little imaginary "triangle" design lines which are pleasing to the eye.
• Center First—I try to start stamping in the center of the paper and work toward the outer edges.  This isn't always practical if you're working with multiple images (like this card).  Sometimes it works best to go from edge to edge.  Just keep in mind that if you start on the outer edges working toward the center, you will likely run out of room in the middle and have overlapping images.
• Off The Edges—Stamp off the edges of the card stock.  Having partial images on the edges makes it look like your background is cut out of a piece of decorative paper. 
• Odd Numbers—Stamp in odd numbers of the same style or color of images.  For example, 3 large, 5 medium, 7 small images, or in threes like I did for this card.
• Large To Small—Start with the larger images, leaving lots of space in-between, then fill in the spaces with smaller images.

Since my designs were so large, it was difficult to work from the center outward with muliple images, so you can see that I did have some overlapping. I stamped each color/shape in threes, in imaginary triangle shapes, and from largest to smallest. 

Not every guideline works in every situation, but put these tips to use whenever possible for beautiful random background results!

Complete Supplies List:

• Stamps—Delicate Doilies, Petite Pairs
• Ink—Tempting Turquoise, Lucky Limeade, Pacific Point Classic Ink, Pacific Point Markers
  
• Paper—Pacific Point, Lucky Limeade, Tempting Turquoise, and Whisper White card stock, 
  
• Accessories—Pearl Jewels, Pear Pizzazz Seam Binding
• Tools—1-3/8" Circle Punch, Tasteful Trim Die, Boho Blossoms Punch (card #2), Sticky Strip, Dimensionals, SNAIL

Angie