Technique Thursday

Yeah! It's a technique posted on Thursday, as promised. Thank you for all the birthday wishes I received after yesterday's post (and before). We went out for a nice steak dinner and key lime pie for dessert, which I nibbled. I managed to watch House last night before going to bed to read more in my book. Don't you just love a good book?
But I wanted to share a technique I've been playing with for a couple of weeks now. I began this as a background for ATC's, but I'll let you in on a secret. I've used my ATC-sized pieces on a journal page for a Row House Skinny page online swap, and I couldn't be more pleased with the results. More on that another day.
For today's play you'll need glossy white cardstock, dye-based inks, stylus tools & tips or sponges, Penscore, pattern making supplies (listed below), rubber stamps and black ink. Optional items include a resist ink, bold image rubber stamps, and black cardstock.

The above photo shows my Colorbox Stylus tools and tips which I used for the direct-to-paper. If you're not fortunate enough to own these, cosmetic wedge sponges will work but it'll require some extra effort around curvy lines. You'll see my Penscore which has already been heated and pressed onto rubber stamps. I used a lot of different pieces and patterns for these little works of art. Just love this stuff! And you'll see a collection of bold image rubber stamps from Printworks and Stampers Anonymous. When I buy images like this people always wonder what I'm thinking, and I can't begin to tell you how versatile these are, or how useful they've been over the years in a variety of projects.
Above are 4 ATC-sized pieces of glossy white cardstock, stamped with Ancient Page Coal Black ink. Any permanent black ink will work. My goal here was to divide my work surface. I'll tell you a funny story about this. We did a little play with these very cards as my make & take at the Gary Burlin trade show. What I noticed was that how I had the stacks of pre-stamped cardstock laid out on the table was how the ladies chose to decorate them. Meaning if I had them turned vertically, with the pattern stamped along the left side, that's the way they inked them. And if I had them turned so that the stamped border went across the top, they left it in that position. I suggest you experiment a little. Stamp images running vertically and horizontally, making several base cards at once. When you're ready to proceed, do each one turned in a different direction and see which you like the best.

Use your stamped "line" as a divider and ink each side with different colors. Then using Penscore, re-ink with the same colors and overstamp to add the pattern. If your stamped line is straight, it's very easy to butt the Penscore up against it. For a wavy line like the card in the center, make yourself a mask so you can follow the line exactly.
This photo shows one of the cards where both pieces of Penscore had been pressed into clay texture plates. These are very thin plastic sheets meant to be run through a pasta machine with your clay to impress the pattern. But I'll use anything with texture on my Penscore, with great results everytime.
The lower half of this card was stamped with Penscore that had been pressed onto a rubber stamp. It gives me a reverse image of the stamp and it's a favorite.
When I'm shopping for stamps, I'm drawn first to bold images because 99% of my stamping is to create backgrounds. The green portion of this card is a perfect example of why I love those bold images. I didn't buy this stamp to use for stamping. Instead I knew immediately that it would give me a reverse image on my Penscore for lots of drama. And I think I was right.

In my list of supplies I mentioned pattern making items. By this I mean punchinella or sequin waste, magic mesh, dry-wall tape, stencils, even paper doilies will work. I also listed optional items like a resist ink and bold image stamps. The 4 cards above are examples made using these items so we'll take them one at a time.

The top left card was stamped with the wavy line first. On the right I used the new Memory tips & tools from Clearsnap to stamp the circles using a resist ink. After letting it dry a few minutes I used a blue ink for the direct-to-paper, and sure enough, the circles resisted the ink. Next I laid a piece of punchinella over it so I could apply a second layer of blue ink creating the big dot pattern. For this technique you don't need a mask to cover the left portion of the card. You can see through the holes in the pattern and are able to follow the stamped line. Using the round & oval stylus tips allowed me to follow the wavy pattern much better than a wedge sponge would have, but it can still be done if you're patient. The tiny dot pattern on the left was made with dry-wall tape.

The top right card used the punchinella on the right and a paper doily on the left.

The bottom left card used the same supplies but again, I'd stamped the bold circles with a resist ink to create more depth on the card.

And finally the bottom right card was more of the same, with a twist on the color application.

This card showcases resist dots and circles showing you that a pattern doesn't prevent you from overstamping in black.
For this card I stuck with the blue and green inks, even stamping the word Imagine in blue rather than black.
For this card I wanted to showcase the resist pattern so I inked my bold images with the resist ink, used blue for the direct-to-paper, and then overstamped in blue on the lower half of the card using the same images of circle & dots, choosing to stamp the expression on the smaller border at the top.
I highly recommend keeping a supply of glossy white cardstock on hand at all times. Most people think it's for resist techniques only, but it's actually my preference for any direct-to-paper play.

Expect to see how the techniques shown here today are applied to a variety of art projects in future posts. And as always, just have fun. Our swap next month for stamp club is 12 bookmarks and you can bet you'll see some of these very techniques showcased on those.
Experiment with color combinations. You might discover your very own "pink".