got coffee grounds?

Hey there blog friends!  How goes your week so far? Hope it's shaping up to be a good one.  Well, today, I've got an interesting post using coffee grounds to create a background.  Yes, coffee grounds!  First, let me show you what the finished card looks like:

This is one of my swap card for this month's vintage themed card. I created the coffee colored DSP at the bottom of the card using this fun little technique.  I didn't come up with this all on my own, though - I have to say I saw a background created this way last month at the WooHoo Stamping event by the talented Corie Urey.  It really is a great technique for creating a vintage look!  Another cool thing is, the paper that I used has these white tone-on- tone patterns already on it, so all you have to do to bring out the pattern is to add some color.  These are the Presto Patterned Papers from the Stampin'Up! Summer Mini catalog.  Prettty nifty, huh?  Well I've got a little mini tutorial to show you the basic steps of creating this coffee grounds background using this new DSP!  All you need are some coffee grounds, your Presto Paper DSP,  a paper towel, and some newspaper (to protect your work surface - this can get a little messy!)

Here are the steps:

1.  Cover your work surface with newspaper {or some covering}, then lay your Presto Paper DSP on top.  Next, take your coffee grounds and pour it directly on your paper.  At this point, it looks like an abstract splatter on the paper!

2.  Using a paper towel, spread the coffee grounds over the paper, making sure you cover your entire Presto Paper DSP "canvas."  You'll want to slightly "rub in" the grounds to add some density of color onto the paper.

3.  Wipe off the coffee grounds from the DSP and discard that layer of newspaper.  Place the DSP on a clean layer of newspaper and allow to dry.

Viola!  You've created your coffee grounds background paper!  As you can see, the Presto pattern reveals itself once you add color to the DSP.  Other techniques you can use to bring the pattern out are brayering over the paper, or sponging overtop of the paper.  You can let your imagination go and create unique ways to use this fun DSP!

Have fun trying this technique out.  It's pretty fun.  Once the paper dries, the edges of the paper will have a slight curl to it, but it will lay flat on your project once you use adhesive.  I prefer using the Tombo glue adhesive to make sure that it firmly adheres to your base cardstock.

Hope you liked this technique.  Thanks for visiting today!