This is the second project that we made at the online stamping event over the weekend. This project generated A LOT of excitement from the participants and the other leaders. If we had been physically together you would have heard the whole room oooo-ing and ahhhh-ing over the cool results of this technique. What is the technique you may be asking… It’s using water paint brushes to color the stamped and embossed image. Actually, it’s about an extra step that you take to allow the colors to pop more against the background colored cardstock. Usually coloring images on colored cardstock doesn’t work awesome because the color medium tends to fade into the cardstock.
So here is how the technique works:
- Stamp a line art image with Versamark ink on colored cardstock (I used Crumb Cake)
- Emboss with white embossing powder
- Put a few drops of White Craft ink on a non-porous surface (I used a large acrylic block)
- Add a couple of drops of water to the Craft ink and mix to thin the ink a bit (this creates the whitewash)
- Use a Water Painter to paint the whitewash inside the embossed image
- Let the wash thoroughly dry before the next step
- Place dots of ink refill on a non-porous surface (again I used an acrylic block)
- Keep track of which ink is what because you don’t want to mix them (I put the refill bottle behind the corresponding dots to remind me)
- Use a Water Painter to paint the lightest color in the portion of the image and after that dries, create highlights with darker ink
- I paired colors: Flirty Flamingo (lighter) and Melon Mambo (darker) for the large flowers
- Crushed Curry (lighter) and Pumpkin Pie (darker) for the small flowers
- Granny Apple Green (lighter) and Mossy Meadow (darker) for the leaves
- After adding each color, you need to let it dry before adding more
I wish that I thought to grab a photo of the image with only the whitewash completed so I could show you the mid-point. It is a great look on its’ own without adding color. If I do this technique again I’ll make sure to grab a picture of that to show you how it looks. The whitewash creates a barrier that allows the color on top to pop more from the colored cardstock. I’ve seen this done with colored pencils and the exact same principle applies. I hope you’ll consider giving this a try!
Product List  |  |  | |
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  | |
 |  | ||
