Technique of the Week: Stampboard Watercolor

Special Thanks to Kae Pea from Rubbermoon for the inspiration for this technique!

This is actually not so much a technique as it is discovering a new (for me) medium. I recently was on Facebook, and I saw a live post from Kae Pea of Rubbermoon, where she was doing watercolor painting on clay board, or stampboard. 

By the way, I just want to take a moment to say if you have not "liked" Rubbermoon's page on Facebook, be sure to do that right now! She does live instructional videos, and posts lot of inspirational art. For that matter please "like" the Art 'n Soul page, and the Magenta page also, you won't regret it! 

Let me start out by saying that Kae Pea makes it look so very easy, but she has a lot of experience with painting. My big take-away from the experience is that it was just a lot of fun to paint on the stampboard. It's a very forgiving surface - no pilling, no warping. Kae Pea chose to paint on a 2"x2" stamp board piece, and I chose a 3.5" x 5" piece.

At first I did a layout on 3.5" x 5" piece of watercolor cardstock. This was just to make sure I would be happy with the general layout of the piece, and the colors. I did change some of the colors when I moved on to using the stamp board. I will post the card I made with this layout in another post.

For the stampboard project, first I stamped the Magenta leaf image (0454.J) using Ranger Archival Sepia ink. I dried the image with a Ranger Heat-It tool, just by waving the heated air lightly over the board. Stamp board can bubble if it gets too hot, so be careful with this step.

I decided to paint the leaf images with Nuance, and chose Bright Yellow, Yellow Orange, Orange, Nutmeg, and Red. For the sky I chose Royal Blue, Aquamarine and Turquoise. I tapped some of each color into a palette  and added water mixed with a little Perfect Pearls powder for some shimmer. 

In her video, Kae Pea had recommended to paint the image with water first to help the paint flow better. I worked in small areas at a time and layered the colors onto the leaf images. When I was happy with the leaves, I painted the three shades of blue all around the leaves as though they were falling through the sky.

My card panel on the left, and Stampboard panel on the right

At the end I added a little mica watercolor from an Artquest Palette in gold, copper and silver. I also flicked the mica watercolor over the images.

The last thing I did was to stamp a Magenta sentiment (Thinking of You 07.869.D) in the corner using Ranger Archival Jet Black ink.

One of the cool things about stampboard is that you can use a tool or craft knife and scrape paint off. You can create highlights, or just scrape away where you painted outside the lines. It's a very forgiving surface, and it took the paint very well and dried quickly. This project was a lot of fun to paint! I think this would be lovely as the front of a little book or journal. Kae Pea made her 2"x 2" pieces into little gift magnets - so cute!

I hope you will give Stampboard a try. Art 'n Soul has several sizes in stock, as well as a tool you can use for scraping.

Magenta Products Used:

(If you are local, please look for products at Art 'n Soul. If you are not local and wish to find Magenta products, you can click on the link in the stamp name below each image, or you can visit the Magenta online store here).

Magenta Nuance

0454.J Leaf

07.817.H May the Love

07.869.D Thinking of You

Other Products Used:

Versafine - Onyx Black

Versamark

JudiKins Gold Detail embossing powder

Ranger Archival Jet Black ink

Ranger Archival Sepia ink

Artquest Plaette watercolors

Stampboard 3.5" x 5"

Technique of the Week: Rainbow Beam Blending

This post is in conjunction with the Art 'n Soul newsletter Technique of the week; and this technique is from Laura Bassen. It makes a quick, easy and beautiful background. 

You will use Distress blending for this technique, but you will apply it through a stencil. This makes the blending so much easier. You don't have to be as careful because you will not get the splotches that you sometimes might get with regular blending.

First I die cut a panel from Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock, using the Lawn Fawn LF768 Stitched Rectangle Stackables die. I used the largest one that gives me a panel approximately 5" x 3.75".

I taped the panel to my craft sheet, and then taped down a Magenta stencil (TM-147 Stained Glass) centered on the panel. I then got two pieces of Post-it tape to use as masking.

Starting at the left bottom corner of the panel with the stencil over it, I put the two pieces of tape close together and then wider apart going up to the top right. This creates a long triangular shape like a beam of light. 

To do the blending, I used three colors of Distress ink (Wilted Violet, Peacock Feathers, and Twisted Citron). I started with Twisted Citron, and working from the bottom to the top, I applied the color with a mini blending tool. This goes very fast, since you don't have to worry so much about building up your color.

I then moved the pieces of tape, allowing part of the initial color to show and some white area. I applied the next color, Peacock Feathers, and quickly blended it into the partial line of Twisted Citron that was showing. I worked across the entire card this way, moving the tape and randomly choosing another of the three colors to blend with.

When I removed the tape and the stencil at the end, the results were striking. You can do this technique with lots of different stencils and colors of ink to create a unique one layer card.

This shows the panel with the blending finished, and the stencil still on

To finish the card, I stamped Happy Birthday, using Magenta's beautiful birthday stamp 07.305.G and Versamark Ink. I thought this looked like a birthday card, and this stamp fit in the opening of the Stained Glass stencil perfectly. I embossed the image with Judikins White Diamond embossing powder. 

This shows the panel with the stencil off!

I matted the panel on So Silk Shocking Green cardstock, which goes very well with Twisted Citron Distress ink. I scattered a few sequins, and it was finished! This technique was easy and fast to do, and I hope you will give it a try.

Magenta products used:

(If you are local, please look for products at Art 'n Soul. If you are not local and wish to find Magenta products, you can click on the link in the stamp name below each image, or you can visit the Magenta online store here).

TM-147 Stained Glass

07.305.G Happy Birthday

Other Products Used:

Post-it Removable Labeling Tape 695

Distress Ink: Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers, Wilted Violet

Distress mini blending tool

Judikins White Diamond embossing powder

Versamark Ink

Various sequins

So Silk Shocking Green paper

Technique of the Week: Die Impression Backgrounds

In conjunction with the Art 'n Soul newsletter, this is the newest Technique of the Week.

I got the idea for this from Jennifer McGuire. I have posted techniques before showing how to use your dies to emboss. This takes that a step further and becomes the whole background. Jennifer's idea was to use nesting dies to create an interesting background.

For this card, I used the Memory Box 30069 Stitched Oval Layers, which we have in stock at Art 'n Soul right now!

First, I laid down 3 rows of scotch tape, sticky side up, and started placing the oval layers onto the tape. The tape keeps the ovals in place. You want them to be as evenly spaced as possible. (I know the photo shows 2 rows of tape, but I ended up adding a row in the middle to hold the smallest dies).

I trimmed the edges of the tape, and to keep the tape from being sticky against my paper, I used a powder tool to "de-sticky" the parts of the tape showing through the dies.

The proper sandwich for this is the trickiest part of this technique. You want there to be enough pressure to make a good impression but not too much pressure so that the paper tears. Everyone's die cutting machine is a little different, so you will have to experiment. I had first experimented with regular 80# cardstock, and the metal shim provided too much pressure. Just one piece of additional cardstock for a shim was the perfect amount. However, with the much heavier weight of the watercolor cardstock that I ended up using, the metal shim was needed to give a good impression. The rubber mat is what prevents the dies from cutting.

With my base plate configured for embossing (one tab open) I placed my metal shim down, then the dies against the metal shim, with the paper up (cutting side of the dies against the paper). I use this method to keep my dies from getting bent. Next I put a brown rubber embossing mat on top; one piece of cardstock for an additional shim; then both cutting plates on top of that. 

This is how the white 80# cardstock panel turned out. I like it a lot, and will definitely use it for a future card. A nice die cut right in the middle of this would look great.

For my card today, I ended up using a panel of watercolor paper onto which I had splashed some Nuance color. I stamped the Zen Dragonfly in Versafine Onyx black ink. I centered the dies over the panel with the cutting side against the paper, and taped them down with washi tape. 

I absolutely loved the look the embossed ovals gave to my panel! 

I elected to go one step further and die cut the very center of my panel with the smallest oval. 

This part of the panel was where most of the dragonfly image was stamped. 

I then popped up the image in the center of the panel with fun foam that was cut just smaller than the die cut.

When I stamped the dragonfly onto the Nuance colored paper, I used a MISTI tool. I did NOT want to ruin my colored paper. But when you have wood stamps, a stamp positioner is still a good option

I stamped the sentiment onto another Nuance colored piece, and die cut it with a strip from MFT Die-Namics Blueprints 13. I popped it up at the bottom with foam tape, and scattered sequins around. The panel was matted with So Silk black cardstock. I will definitely be using this technique a lot. It was pretty easy and I love the effect. I hope you give it a try.

Magenta Products used:

(If you are local, please look for products at Art 'n Soul. If you are not local and wish to find Magenta products, you can click on the link in the stamp name below each image, or you can visit the Magenta online store here).

44.018.K Zen Dragonfly

07.514.G May life always allow you to fly high

Nuance colors: Rosebud, Spring Green, Bright Yellow, Purple

Other Products used:

Memory Box 30069 Stitched Oval Layers

MFT-463 Die-Namics Blueprints 13

Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock

Fun foam; foam tape

Versafine Onyx Black ink

EK Success powder tool

So Silk black cardstock

various sequins