ERASER STAMPED BACKGROUND

TWO EXAMPLES OF ERASER BACKGROUNDS

Sometimes I just want to add a little bit of a feature in the background without compounding the busyness of the rest of the project.

A really easy way to do this is to ink up the side of an eraser and use it as a stamp to add colour. 

The example on the right uses three shades of overlapping brown - I've overdone it a bit here, to make the point, and would chose more subtle colours for a "real" card.  The silver behind the stamped rope on the first  card front is more the go.

Of course, its just a matter of what you like.  I often just use the eraser technique to add a single panel of a subtle colour (use Versamark) behind a stamped image.

DOUBLE WATERCOLOUR IMAGES WITH DISTRESS INKSDist

Under-colouring with distress inks.

This is a super-easy way to add colour to a stamped image, although its one of those techniques that people either love......or don't.  I'm in the former category,, and use this a bit, especially with some of my more solid stamps, such as these ones from Darkroom Door.

You just wet a piece of thickish (ideally water colour) paper, ink up your stamp with distress inks and stamp them down onto the wet page,  Leave them there for a little while so that the colours soak and spread.

Dry the page (either with a craft heat gun) or leave it to dry naturally, then re-ink your stamp with black ink (I used Versafine), and stamp on top of the blurry coloured image to add back the detail.

That's pretty much it!

TEA THEMED CARD.

I used a cut-out card from Regal Craft Cards to make this card, which I won't be giving to other because it didn't quite work out the way I wanted, for a variety of reasons.  Still, one always learns at least as much from mistakes as success, so lets have a look at what went right and what didn't.

The success was the mottled background paper.  I had some large leafed loose vanilla tea, which I enjoyed as a cuppa, and then spread the leaves over a piece of plain white card, leaving it overnight to dry.  The leaves died the card this great mottled brown but also gave it a lovely vanilla scent that lasted for a couple of months!

The issues arose with the teacup.  I stamped it on thick cardboard with a dye ink, and then heat embossed it with three layers of ultra thick clear embossing powder.  This is where it all went astray.  Firstly, the Versamark and molten embossing powder caused the stamped writing to run just a little.  This wasn't too bad in this context but could cause problems if a crisp image was important.  Next time I will try heat set pigment ink and if this doesn't work, Staz-On.

The next problem was the embossing, even although the cardboard was quite thick, it wasn't thick enough for the layers of embossing powder and the heating involved and it curled quite badly.  Again, as I wanted to crack the powder it didn't matter too much, and I could straighten it out however it wasn't ideal, and next time I'll die cut two or three thick cups and glue them together to make an ultra-thick base.

Lastly, I wanted to crack the embossing powder and ink over it with sepia ink .  I tried to do this by bending the teacup shape backwards and forwards with the results that some pieces came parially off the page, whilst others absolutely refused to break!  When I inked it, instead of sitting in subtle cracks the ink leaked under the broken edges and ended up making the whole thing look a bit more smudgy than cracked.  So......next time I might try the freezer method, and a thicker ink (I used distress ink).

Next time might be a while though......I'll have to work up to it!  On the bright side, I do love the little teacup and tea bag dies from Paper Roses, and I'll definitely put them to good use on other projects.

RESIST STAMPING

STAMPING RESIST

We used to do something very similar to this with crayons in grade three, but this is the "grown up" version.

Colour the base paper with permanent markers - I've used really bright colours and a swirly pattern just to make the sample obvious, but you can be more subtle.

Stamp on an image (one with lots of solid area is most effective, this one is from G45) using embossing or watermark ink (I used Versamark) and heat emboss using clear powder.

Go over the whole thing with a dark dye ink , and then gently wipe off the embossed areas to reveal the colour beneath.

BANDANA STAMPING

BANDANNA STAMPING

This is not my idea but there are so many examples on-line that I don't know who to thank for the technique.   Have a look and you will find many better examples that this so thank you to everyone who has posted their work for us to enjoy and be inspired by.

Begin with a watercolour background.  (I've used my favourite smooshed distress inks applied with an acrylic block - see the last post).

Stamp on some images with blank ink.  I arranged them on a single block and stamped them all at one time so I could do a test run first.  Next just colour in a section or two of the stamps with white gel pen and add a few lines and  a little dotted border here and there. No skill needed for quite an effective result.  This is one example which looks better in reality, and is fine as a sample.  I'll definitely be giving it a go a little more carefully (to get the dots more evenly sized and placed, and the straight lines straight etc) in the future.

ACRYLIC BLOCK DISTRESS INK BACKGROUND

ACRYLIC BLOCK "PRINT" BACKGROUND

One of my very favourite ways to make a watercolour background (because its easy and almost always looks good) is to ink up an acrylic stamping block with distress inks, spritz on a tiny bit of water and then "print" it onto dampened paper.

I have done a post about this before, but thought this might be worth a view as it shows how easily one can suggest sunset scene via colour selection and an appropriate silhouette stamp.

You obviously won't get precise colour placement with this technique but its worth spending a little time thinking about the placement of  the various inks on your block to correspond to your stamp e.g. sand, sea and sky; flowers, leaves container etc.

(The stamp is from Darkroom Door)

EASY LAYERED BUTTERFLY CARD

LAYERED BUTTERFLY CARD

This is a simple layering technique that doesn't involve complicated cutting.

Die cut the number of layers you want  from background card - three seems to work well, then chose a stamp large enough to cover them all.  (I've used a Kaiser butterfly)

Stack them up, centring each on the one below and stamp the stamp over all layers.  (You might need to put a bit of extra pressure on the outer edges as they will be a bit lower than the middle)

Colour in the image if you want to.  I've used Tombows( but haven't bothered with shading and blending - this is almost like a guilty admission nowdays but its OK you can just colour in without getting too fancy about it).  I've added some highlights with a gold glitter gel pen.

You don't have to add borders but I think it looks best if you do (and it helps hide edges if you don't get your layers super straight when assembling).  If you have appropriate dies cut the mats to fit.  If you don't, just do what I did, and stick the butterfly layers to the matting (purple) card and cut around with scissors leaving a small border.

Now stick the layers together with foam tape underneath so that each layer is raised about the one below, stick the whole thing to a background card, or scrapbook page or whatever you want to use if for, and you're done.

COLOURING WITH EMBOSSING POWDERS

COLOURING WITH EMBOSSING POWDERS

I don't think that I'll do much of this as I was a bit underwhelmed with the result, however this might just be a function of lack of practice so I probably should give it a few more tries before I give up.

I stamped and embossed the fish with black powder, then used a versamark pen to colour in the silver bits of the fish, then the copper, gold and white in turn, heating between each addition, and finally covered the brown background with clear embossing powder.

You can see on the back that the silver powder is "overcooked" and patchy, whilst he white powder has "escaped" its borders, spreading more that the copper and gold which, if anything, seemed to shrink when heated.

If I try this technique again, I think I'll try just heating the powders until they are stuck in place until the final layer to try to avoid the overheating issue, and I might also choose a design that's larger so that I can space out  the embossed areas a bit between heating,  A sensible person would also do a little trial to determine the properties of each of the different embossing powders before throwing them onto the main project!

Still....it kind of looks OK, and is quite nicely raised and textured (even if the latter is not quite in the "supposed to be" category) so I've probably talked myself into trying again during the course of writing this entry!

GOLD EMBOSSED IMAGE COLOURED WITH TOMBOW PENS

EMBOSSED AND COLOURED IMAGE

Back in the day.............and I'm talking 20+ years ago, this is how we did our stamping for greeting cards.

Emboss the outline with gold and reach for the marker pens!

It still looks nice, and is ironically less "old hat" today than it was five years ago.

I've used Tombows and a blender pen for the colouring, and cut the lovely design (from Paper Roses) in half to fit over the aperture, mounting the top on some foam tape to add dimension.

A final "retro" touch is the gold outline sticker that I've carefully stretched around the edge of the oval cut out..  This is a little reminder to myself that no matter how exciting new techniques are sometimes the "oldies but goodies"are worth dusting off too.

USING LAYER MASKS IN STAMPING

LAYER MASKED STAMPING

This shows the traditional way to "layer" stamping.  It was one of those things that people probably don't do so much today, but in past times it was one of those basic techniques.

On the off chance you haven't come across it yet........

Decide which stamp you want to appear in the front,(in this case top hat man) stamp it on a piece of paper (you could use a post it note - the removable adhesive will help hold it in place in the next step).

Cut out the image.  You might like to cut around the edge leaving a little border as I have done (this certainly make the cutting easier around highly detailed edges), or you might prefer to cut more precisely around the outline.  Experiment to see what suits you best.  Repeat with all the images except for the very back one.  In this case I've only used three pictures so I only need to stamp and cut around the compass image.

Stamp the front image where you want it to appear, then mask (cover) it with the cut out image.  Stamp the next image in place, and over the edge of the mask.  Remove the mask and repeat with the next and any other layers.  Keep the masks with your stamps so you don't have to cut another every time you need one.

These stamps were foam mounted cling rubber so I could position them accurately enough for this project.  Clear stamps are a lot easier.  You might need to use a stamp positioner for block mounted stamps if you are doing a more involved project

I've just used a single colour and three basic stamps but you can get really impressive effects, especially with landscapes by adding more colours and layers.

EASY LAYERED STAMPING USING VELLUM

EASY LAYERED STAMPING

Here's an easy way to get a layered look without mucking around with masking or resist techniques.

It just involves stamping on the base layer then adding a vellum (parchment paper) sleeve over the top, with stamping on both sides.  When assembled there is a real sense of depth.

I've used black Staz-on (a lot of inks don't dry very well on vellum) so there is a real dark to light effect.

I've just stuck to one colour and one stamp but you could obviously experiment with combinations. I do intend to get around to doing this - I'm thinking maybe words in one layer, small stamps at the front and a background stamp on the base

For the base layer of this example I've used a textured white card, the vellum has been folded around it and secured with twine tied through two holes (made with a darning needle), centred on the fold.

MAKE A BORDER WITH SMALL STAMPS

A BORDER OF SMALL STAMPS

Here's another idea for your small stamps - combine them to make a border.

I guess the technique is pretty self-evident, but there are a couple of things that might be worth mentioning from my experience.

The first is that drawing a light pencil shape that can be erased later, is very helpful.  The second is that it might take a couple of goes (by couple I mean about five) to get the colour and shape combo working to your satisfaction so playing around a bit on paper or a piece of cardboard to be later mounted onto a base card is a good idea.  Better still, photograph the result and file it away or put it on your blog to save you some time in the future!

Another point worth mentioning is how much colour "colours" how we see things.  I showed someone this and they immediately thought "Christmas Card" which wasn't my intention, but it does work for those who like a neutral seasonal greeting.

You don't have to use flowers and leaves of course, a border of  the little men I used in last month's post would work well for father's day for instance, and you could carve your own easter egg stamps from erasers etc etc etc

SMALL STAMPS AS A BACKGROUND

SMALL STAMPS AS A BACKGROUND

Its been a while since I've posted - no bad reason, just busy with other things, but I will do my best to put up something new at least once a month for the rest of the year!

I seem to have accumulated a lot of little stamps.  Often they come as part of a larger set.  I often add one to the back of a card, but thought it was about time to get them out of the cupboard and see what else I could do with them.

Making backgrounds is one idea.  These little chaps were part of a Kaiser set, and using different coloured ink for each design I've just more or less randomly stamped them over the front of the card, overstamping some of the edges.

 I used an oval cut-out to mask an area towards the top of the card to leave a clear space for a couple of larger stamps.  The result is slightly dodgy as I deliberately wanted a handmade look (honestly this time, although often I "achieve" this when I don't want to).  If you want a cleaner look, draw in some guidelines lightly with pencil to make sure the mask and stamps within it are straight and centred, and be sure to press very lightly and not overink your stamps to stop unwanted edge lines (which are harder to avoid with little stamps).

I made this card as an example rather than one I intend to give to anyone, but like it enough to want to play around a bit more with the technique

SANDING SHIMMER CARD FOR A "RUSTY" LOOK

A few techniques combine on this picture.

The one I was "showing" was that shimmer card (the copper of the ute) has a colour core so when you sand it, a matte colour shows through, in this case making the Ultimate Craft's"Rusty Old Ute" die look quite rusty!

The background was a combo of gold and copper paint randomly applied to turquoise card, then stamped with a corrugated iron background stamp (from Darkroom Door), but without using a block and just applying uneven pressure with my fingers so that not all the image stamped.  Heat embossing with silver pwder and a drawn silver line complete the background.

STAMPING OVER TEXT

I wanted to stamp and colour over a manuscript but when I just used pencils the printing was so intense as to be distracting and the outline of the stamp was lost.

After a bit of playing around this solution seems to be OK (not brilliant but OK).  I stamped onto the background, then painted over it with gesso, which provided a nice "toothy" base for colouring.  The notes can still be seen underneath but much more subtly.

I then outlined the stamped image using a fine black marker pen.  As I was using an acrylic stamp (a freebie from a magazine) I could have tried re-stamping the image over the top but I quite like the hand-drawn look and wasn't totally confident about how well I could align the two pictures.

STAMP AND EMBOSS PRINTING

Stamp and Folder

Stamped Embossing

This is a quick and easy technique that could result in some really interesting backgrounds - I'm not claiming that my example is one of them, but it should give you some idea of how it works.  I've used a foam stamp (any stamp will do but I'm fairly sure that the less detail the better), ink it up with a non-permanent ink (I've used a chalk pigment), stamp onto your embossing folder, then insert a piece of paper or card and run through your Cuttlebug (or Bigshot etc).  I'm going to play a bit more with this technique - perhaps make some of my own stamps from fun foam?  If it works out I'll post the results at a later date.

COLOURING RUBBER-STAMPED METAL

Metal coloured with fusion pens.

I've been trying out some different ways to add colour to metal.  (Yes I know its not paper, but you can use them on cards!)

This weeks example is a stamped image coloured with Kaiser fusion pens.  The metal was the reverse of a Diet Coke Can, cut with deckle scissors.

I chose alcohol based markers because the water based variety would bead, and probably not dry, although I was aware that I would have to avoid colouring over or if possible into the stamped lines, as two different alcohol based products might dissolve into each other.

 I wasn't overly impressed with the results. There was a lot of streaking.  This might work OK (although I'm not convinced it does) for the water, but not so well for areas requiring a smooth result.  I tried colouring in long streaks, randomly, and in small circles. The latter worked best, and is the example shown.  All in all the Fusion pens which are great for all sorts of other things are not ideal for this application.  I did find something better though.........I'll post the result next week.

FIVE IDEAS WITH PAPER CLAY

PAPER CLAY IDEAS

I've been playing with paper clay - here are a few ideas to try.

Beginning at the red rose circle and working in a clockwise direction:

RED ROSE CIRCLE - I rolled out some paperclay fairly thinly, then inked up a Darkroom Door background stamp with red Versacolor ink and pressed it into the clay.  I then cut a circle using a cookie cutter.  It would be OK as a feature or background on a card but would probably look better on top of a box as though its light its fairly chunky.

LEAF IMPRINT - The clay was rolled thinly again but this time a (real) fern leaf was pressed into it.  The only trouble was, that it left all its brown spored behind in the clay!!  I cut it out very badly, but the general principle is OK, and it should work with any leaf with prominent veins or stiff fronds.

PINK ROSE - I used the stamped clay left over from the rose circle, kneading it well to mix the red ink through the white clay (hence the pink colour), I then formed it into a rough sausage shape, then pinched it flat, so that it stayed flattish on one side and "petalish" on the other, then I rolled it into a coil and pinched it well together at the end, cutting off the "lump" at the bottom so that it sat nice and flat.

FACE - I used a silicone mould to make the face, leaving it to dry overnight, then added details with Sharpie pens, and a ribbon scarf (OK, I admit to doubting my skill at drawing hair).

GREEN TILE - I tried adding colour to the clay with strokes of alcohol marker  (as suggested on several sites).  It worked, but was a bit like hard work compared to using the stamp pad ink.  I inked a large background stamp from Stamp-it with black ink, stamped onto the rolled-out clay, then cut one of the tiles out.

I don't think I'll be using paper clay a lot - its not really my thing, but it was interesting to play with and I can see that for some applications it will be exactly what I need.  I like its lightness, that means it can be used on cards without overbalancing them, or for Carmen Miranda-esque earrings that don't pull your earlobes down to your waistline!  I also like its flexibility and will, at some stage see how it goes as a mould for polymer clays and suchlike.

DOUBLE LAYER STAMPING ON A BOOK PAGE

TWO LAYER STAMPING ON TEXT

A couple of weeks ago I posted an example of stamping onto a book page.  This is fine with a solid stamp, but works less well with a stamp that has fine detail such as this typewriter from Rubbadubbadoo, which tends to get lost amongst the text.

One solution is to make a background stamp - I used fun foam cut with deckle scissors - stamp over the text with this, then stamp your feature stamp on top using a darker ink.

I whipped this example up fairly quickly and would probably use a lighter brown for the background and a very dark cocoa brown for the typewriter if I was making for a "real" project.

MAKE A BACKGROUND STAMP

STAMPING ONTO BUTTONS

STAMPING ONTO BUTTONS

You might have noticed that I've been doing lots of experimenting lately with inks and various surfaces. This is another example.

I was fairly confident that Versafine would work on wooden buttons but as most of them are plastic, wondered how Staz-On would go.  (I know that this does not involve paper but my intention is to use the buttons for papercraft projects so......)

The red button was fairly flat and the stamp was OK, although it was really hard to stop it slipping on the shiny surface.  The second button, even on the reverse (shown) had a bit of a curve (as do most buttons).  I tried using an acrylic stamp without a block so that it could bend with the surface, but wasn't able to hold it well enough and as you can see, I ended up with a blodgy mess (its supposed to be lace).

I think my conclusion is that unless there's a compelling reason I won't be stamping onto plastic buttons and if I need to add some pattern I'll just reach for my Sharpie pens and draw on the design.
After all, how hard can it be...................