Happy Birthday - Bright Brusho Background

I made this card for my husband's birthday tomorrow, but as he rarely looks at my blog, I think it's safe to post the step by step today.

The base card is a pre made 7" x 7" white card blank.  I cut a piece of Sheena's Stamping card 16.3cm x 16.3cm and stamped a section of the XXL stamp Background with Circles by Carabelle Studio using Black Onyx Versafine ink.  As it is such a large stamp I inked it up, laid the card face down on the section I wanted and used a brayer to smooth over the back.  I made sure that I kept one hand on the card at all times so that it wouldn't move; the result was a crisp image.

I wanted a colourful background, but decided against using distress inks and blending tools.  Instead I chose a number of Brusho colours and tapped them into sections of the background.  I then spritzed the card with water, added more powders, spritzed again, tipped the card to get the colours to run and then dried off the result.  I then added a couple of puffs of Pixie Powders and spritzed again, then used a water brush to move the colours into the areas I wanted to emphasize.  Once dry, I trimmed a little from two of the sides and matted the whole topper onto a piece of black card, leaving a narrow border, before sticking it to the front of the card blank.
To finish, I stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment from the Line Sentiments 1 set by Claritystamp onto white card, used a black micron pen to extend the line each end, trimmed top and bottom, added a narrow mat of black card top and bottom and stuck the sentiment band across the full width of the card.