Spray Inks Part 3

Today's post is the final in a 3 part series of spray ink backgrounds that I created. As I shared in the first post, these inks are quite old and many of them I've had for at least 10 years. When I was trying out certain colors I noticed some wouldn't spray. I do have a couple of replacement sprayers and I know I've seen tutorials on how to fix the nozzle. But since I hadn't used them in so long my first thought was just to go ahead and trash them. I figured why hassle with them at this point. But then I thought that I hated to waste the ink and wondered how I might save them.

So I came up with these backgrounds. All I did was take the nozzle out and used to end that goes into the ink to shake and/or dot ink onto some watercolor paper. I just kept layering several colors onto the background until I was happy with it. For the first card background I added in some spritzes of water. I think it turned out nice but the background without water is my favorite of the two. I created a third background using lots of water but it is my least favorite and is still sitting on my desk for now. I will probably end up using it for diecut leaves maybe or something else.

- Jessica

Spray Inks Part 2

Hello! As promised I am sharing more cards I created after playing around with spray inks. These are actually my favorites from all that I created. Once I started using this technique I just couldn't stop. In fact, I need to make some more 😉.

I didn't do any masking on these designs like I did with the previous ones I shared. I simply placed the stencil over a piece of cardstock and began spritzing away. You'll notice that they all have various colors on them. The least amount of colors I used was two and I think the most was four. A lot of these are inks that have shimmer as well and they look soooo pretty when the light catches that shine. Once I had spritzed enough to cover the stencil, instead of taking it and cleaning it right away, I reused it, only slightly differently. I had another piece of cardstock ready, so I carefully slid out the cardstock from under the stencil and placed the new cardstock over the stencil. That way I could capture all that wonderful ink sitting on top.

I have one more technique I'll share later this week with the spray inks so be on the lookout for that post.

- Jessica

Spray Inks

As I was looking around my craft room the other day I spotted this container on a bottom shelf full of spray inks. There are all different kinds, some with shimmer and lots without. I haven't touched them in such a long time that I thought I might just get rid of them. But then I decided to pull them out and try them again...and turns out I love them still. In fact I made over a dozen different designs/color combinations to be used on cards. Today I'm sharing the first technique I tried and later this week I'll share some others.

For this first design I had an idea of a circular design. I have this stencil from college of all different sizes of circles so I placed that over a piece of white cardstock (neenah solar white is my favorite). Then I protected the rest of the area with some white printer paper to create kind of a mask. Next I picked out some stencils with designs to lay over the circle opening. Then it was just about choosing inks and spritzing away. You can see that it didn't create a perfect stencil design, but that is okay. I loved the different combinations I was able to create.

After each one I would set the cardstock aside to dry and then wash off the stencil and begin again. To help speed things up I kept a shallow dish of soapy water to quickly dip the stencils in and then I removed the water with papertowels. I let them dry for a day and then gathered them all up and put them in a stack on my crafting table. Having stacks of cardstock with stamping, spritzing or any design technique on my crafting table helps when I just have a few moments to quickly make some cards....or on days I'm not feeling super creative (yes, I have those days!).

I hope you've been inspired to break out your stencils and spray inks and come up with some lovely backgrounds.

- Jessica

Planters

I had this idea to take a smaller stamp and repeat it as a pattern for a background. As I was digging through my stamps I found one that had small florals. That reminded me that I had a whole stamp set of cacti, succulents and planters. So my idea took a turn and I created these 3 cards. I've made a similar card in the past but I don't think I've shared it here on the blog. These are fun to create and I'm sure I'll make more in the future.

Several months ago I had already stamped some sentiments onto white cardstock. This is a great thing to do each time you have sentiment stamps out and are already using them. I then set them aside and I can grab them and use them in all different ways in the future.

- Jessica

Camellia Blooms

I love the look of the buildable stamps. You know, the ones that are multi step where you use different shades of a color to create dimension. But sometimes I just don't want to be bothered with all that stamping. So I wondered how it would look if I used only one of those stamps and then added a similar copic marker for a bit of shading. Turns out it works really well... sometimes, lol.

As you can see on the first card, I stamped on white cardstock then added some quick copic marker colors. I love how it turned out.

On the next card, the red background, you can see how the edges of the flower almost look blurred. That is what happened when I tried to add the copic maker. I didn't like it but it was subtle enough that I could still use it. I'm not sure exactly why it failed on this card. My two guesses: (1) It is a different brand of cardstock and it is more toothsome than the white, thus the ink seeps into the cardstock more. (2) The dye in the cardstock reacts with the copic markers. Honestly I've no idea but you try and learn along the way.

For this last card, I only used the stamp and skipped on the copic marker.

- Jessica