Thursday, February 18, 2016

watercoloring with distress stains...


it's no secret that I love rubber stamps...

I love them because they don't need to look the same each time you use them...

if you change up the technique, 
the surface or
 the inks,
 you have endless possibilities...

so, with that thought in mind, 
I thought I'd do a series of posts
 showing several ways to use one stamp...

I chose the stamp on the top left from the new set called "unlimited art"...


I have a 4 ¼ square watercolor cardstock with round corners to work on...

 I inked the stamp with
stamped it in the lower left corner, then heat embossed it with Ranger white embossing powder...



for the first way to use this stamp,
 I'll show you how I used distress stains to watercolor the image & the background...

disclaimer...
I'm NO EXPERT...
so don't expect perfection...
I just had a fun play & I thought I'd share...

I pulled out my usual colors...
then challenged myself to put one away & choose a different one...


I had 3 sizes of brushes ready & a little container for water...


you can use either the distress stains or the distress  spray stains, since the ink is the same in both...

I especially like the sprays, because I can unscrew the lid & touch the spray tube to the craft sheet to add just a tiny drop or 2 of ink...
it takes very little & I felt like I wasted almost no stain with this method...

I also like the spray feature of the bottles for quick background techniques...

you could also dispense a little bit of the stain from the dabber top...

this is peeled paint & it's way too much!


I wet the first leaf with plenty of water...
the embossing powder acts like a dam to contain it...


then I touched the moist brush into the stain & added it to the leaf...

if you have too much fluid, dip the dry brush into the stain to remove some...


2 done...& getting ready for #3 & 4...


4 leaves done...

now the flower...
that one drop of ripe persimmon 
colors the whole flower...


I wet the flower, dropped in the ripe persimmon & the flower has this gorgeous color...

that top left leaf looks sloppy...
no worries...
that goes away when I added the background...



I chose 2 colors that I knew would blend & not look yucky in the background...


working under the flower, I added plain water...
(the water controls where the stain goes...)



then dropped in the fossilized amber right under the flower & let the water move the stain...


I let it partially dry, then I blasted it with the heat tool because I have no patience to wait...
and so far...
it looks like this...



now the top section gets water added, then the broken china gets dropped in, at the top of the flower...
I tilted the card to make the color flow quicker...

I added a little diluted broken china 
to the bottom corners too...
and dried the whole card...

I wanted white space & stopped myself (this time) before I inked the whole bloody thing!

I *wish* I wouldn't have added color to the corners...
I *think* I would have liked it better with some white on the bottom...
oh well...
lesson learned!


here's an oops...
you can see that I got a drop of water on the tip of the leaf...
but it can be fixed by adding more peeled paint...



now to lighten some distress in the background...
the "lots of dots" stencil goes over the card...
I moistened the clean blending tool with water...
keep it just moist...not super wet...

for all 4 new stencils...


I rubbed it over the stencil to bleach out some of the distress...
this adds a layer to the background & more interest...
I also used the dots & stripes stencil to add
 sky blue archival dots to the right side, 
sticking with the DOTS theme...



moving on to the bottom...

this new sunflower ink is GORGEOUS...

I stenciled it thru 
avoiding the flower & leaves...



so far...


next, I inked the birdhouse stamp with jet black & pressed the coordinating mat mini birdhouse onto the inked stamp...
this makes it easy to line it up exactly...

now the birdhouse looks like this...


I added watering can to the roof & some 
red geranium to the walls, 
making the right side darker...


I used a post it to mask off the roof...
then used the new ticking background to add more detail to the house...


to accent the flower center, I added 

a little pen stitching & a line drawn for the birdhouse...
that's about it...

oh...
I accented 3 of the large sky blue dots with the top I removed from a mini multi medium...
it makes a great stamp!
I tapped it onto the Glacier White pad several times...



here's the finished card after it was added to a black card base...

the tiny details on the birdhouse are so fun & I like that they can be customized, with stamps or remnant rubs...



that's the first way to use this stamp & many other stamps can be used the same way...

this sample has nice bright, bold colors...
kind of scary for me...
no brown...

but I had fun & learned 
that I *should* stop & leave more white...


 here's a reminder 
 to use just portions of a stamp...

for this one, I cut out & used only the flower...

this one is on a kraft cardstock base...
that really makes the black stenciled leaves & sentiment stand out...

keep in mind that the archival inks are translucent, so the base color affects the final outcome...

the flower was painted over with 
it adds a beautiful shimmer...
painting it on gives you complete control of where you want the shimmer...


the next 2 posts (using this same stamp),
 will focus on using archival inks & 
archival sprays...
(archival reinkers mixed with alcohol in a mister)...
I just made 2 more colors yesterday...
I seriously LOVE these...
today, I'm making red geranium...

 I'll also be showing how to use this same stamp with weathered white embossing powder and archival inks on a black surface, for a rather dramatic effect...

I hope you'll try this...

it's fun to use your supplies another way...

time to go so I can...

make art!
wendy









18 comments:

  1. Ohh my its so beautiful Wendy! Thanks for sharing tips and techniques.. they are must try for me now!

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  2. More great tips! We do appreciate these.

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  3. Just gorgeous Wendy, I too love using stamps so much. Yours are so pretty...flowers are so up my street! xx

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  4. Very pretty! Fun to go back to some basic stamping and embossing and then just have a play with color. Thanks for sharing!

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  5. I love this! Can't wait to give this technique a try.

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  6. I love this technique with the white embossing and watercolour, I always think it looks so pretty. I like this stamp set too, lovely flowers and sayings as usual. I might borrow this technique for my card class next week. Hope you don't mind? Xx. We will be using some of your wonderful stamps so I'll put up pics afterwards.
    Hugs
    Amanda xx

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  7. Gorgeous! Thanks for showing the step-by-step!

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  8. Thanks for showing the step by step photos. I wouldn't have thought of using the blending tool with water through the stencil.

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  9. Love your card, very pretty. Would love to get this stamp set but it's very difficult to get your stamps in the UK. They seem to sell plenty of your inks and embossing powders but it's difficult to obtain yr stamps and stencils here. :(

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  10. Love how you use the stencils as well!

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  11. Wendy, gorgeous, as always!!! I really love the coloring of the first one and I think it was plenty of white space! It doesn't matter what you do, "oopses" and all, it's always lovely! Thanks for sharing those techniques!!! :)

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  12. Gorgeous watercoloring! I LOVE the vibrant look! Beautiful make!

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  13. I just love your experiments Wendy, they are so much to watch you do and the results on these is just fabulous! Anne xx

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