Faux Woodgrain Background

Dear Readers,

I just LOVE the look of wood grain paper.

I think it looks exactly like weathered wood and sometimes I feel like if I reach out and touch, it might just feel like real wood. But of course, it is just the illusion - faux wood- if you will.

Here are 2 pieces of 12 x 12 paper I got from the recent Coastal Escape Collection by Kaisercraft

Look at all the details in these papers. The knots, the wood grain, the NAILS!!

I love it SOOO much.

So I wondered if it was possible to find a technique that would allow you to take normal white card stock and turn it into a faux wood background.

I looked on the YT and found a few tutorials and pooled all the techniques to come up with my own way of making faux wood backgrounds:

Stamp TV's tutorial

MayMay's tutorial

Kimi Orton's tutorial

Step 1:

I scoured the paper with my Stampin' Scorer and created grooves vertically and horizontally

Step 2:

I then flipped it over and used the raised scored grooves and added the darkest color to each ATC.

Mainly the colors I used for that where either Tuxedo Black or Espresso.

Step 3:

I chose 2 contrasting colors of my Tim Holtz mini ink pads.

I chose the lightest color and dragged it unevenly but flatly across the paper.

Step 4:

Then I added a light layer of PVA glue with a credit card. Allow to dry.

Step 5:

The I added the darker of the ink colors all over

Step 6:

Then I wiped away the ink that sat on top of the glued areas (the glue acts as a resist).

Here are some of the backgrounds I came up with:

Walter Violet & Hickory Smoke

Fossilised amber & Faded jeans

Fossilised amber & Vintage Photo

Vintage photo & salty ocean

This was a mixture of fossilised amber, mowed lawn and espresso

A mixture of smoked hickory, mowed lawn and fossilised amber.

Aren't they great??

Here they all are together:

After you make the background, I then got the feel for each of the mood it evoked within me (mumbo jumbo artists all now) and came up with a different style for each background.

Here they are one by one: