Crimping

Crimping your background adds texture to your card. I used "All Wrapped Up" to create this card with a swirl background. The flowers were colored with pastels then mounted on to a black background to create a 3D effect. I did the same thing with the jar. I enhanced the jar with crystal effects to create a glassy appearance to the jar (can't tell by the picture). I wanted the flowers and jar to be the highlight of the card so I kept the background simple. At the same time, crimping the background added texture to make it interesting.

Stampin Up sells a wonderful crimper that is wide enough to crimp a card front. Many crimpers sold on the market tend to be too small to crimp the whole card front. Another benefit of Stampin' Up's crimper is it's sturdiness. It's not made out of plastic. It has a metal base allowing multiple use without compromising the quality of the crimped cardstock.