Yesterday’s thank you card project was really quick and simple. Essentially all I did was stamp an image, colour it in and fix it to a card base. With that out of the way I decided it was time for another experimentation session. These are always a bit of a unknown event for me. I’ll pull out some products and with a colour scheme or vague technique in mind I’ll start to play. For instance this time I wanted to try an ink layered background to create a ‘rusty’ aged look. With the new the new His Love Stamp Set beside me I decided to leave the finished project to faith and a little bit of luck.

LAYERED INK BACKGROUND

I began with a 2″ x 5″ piece of Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper. The layered ink technique I had in mind required wetting and drying the paper numerous times and I knew ordinary cardstock wasn’t up to the job.

I started with a Coastal Cabana ink pad and pressed a corner of the pad onto a Silicone Craft Sheet a couple of times. Then I lightly spritzed the ink with a Stampin’ Spritzer filled with clean water. This created little tiny droplets of ink on the craft sheet. Next I pressed parts of the Watercolor Paper strip onto the droplets to transfer the ink. Finally I dried the paper using my Heat Tool on 1 (low).

Once the ink was dry I went back to the craft sheet and pressed the paper onto some of the remaining droplets. Then once again I dried off the paper with my Heat Tool.

With one colour done I wiped off the craft sheet to remove all the ink so I could add a second colour. For this I chose a Crumb Cake ink Pad. Following exactly the same process as before, I inked and dried the paper twice. So far so good.

For my third colour I went with Cinnamon Cider. Again I cleaned off the craft sheet, pressed some ink onto it and spritzed with water. Then I pressed the paper onto the ink and dried it. Because I didn’t want too much of this dark colour, I stopped there. For the next stage my paper needed to be really dry so I set it aside and made lunch.

FAITH, LOVE AND EMBOSSING

An hour later I was ready to start adding the images and “faith” sentiment from the His Love Stamp Set.

First I wanted to emboss the large cross image, so I now the watercolour paper dry I could set to work. First I stamped the image using VersaMark ink and sprinkled it with Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder. Then I tapped off the excess powder and melted the rest with my Heat Tool set on 2 (high).

Now I had the key element done, I shaped the top of the strip using the Fancy Tag Topper Punch. That allowed me to see where to place the “Faith” sentiment.

To make sure that “faith” was really dark and bold I used my Stamparatus to help me. I knew that the texture on the watercolour paper would likely mean a less than perfect result the first time round. In the end I stamped the sentiment three times using Tuxedo Black ink.

Then I stamped a portion of the book image onto the bottom of the bookmark. Once again I used the Stamparatus to help me get a good image.

I was almost done, but somehow it all looked too ‘new’. So using some Stampin’ Sponge I sponged some Cinnamon Cider ink around the edges of the bookmark. This really helped to give it that rusty, aged look that I was aiming for. However I did feel that the detail on the cross was a little lost so I used a Pumpkin Pie Stampin’ Write Marker to colour inside the embossing.

Then to finish I threaded some 1/4″ Cinnamon Cider In Color Ribbon through the slot and tied it in a simple knot.

Overall I’m fairly happy with my little experiment. I definitely achieved the ‘rusty’ effect and it’s given me some other ideas for future projects. What do you think of the background? Do you have any suggestions for other colour combinations I could try? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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