While paint is drying on my assignments, I've been squeezing in quickie journal pages. I'm a big believer in working on several projects at once. I hate, hate, hate waiting for paint to dry…so when a project needs to rest, I set it aside and grab my journals. Sometimes all I do in my journals is smudge in leftover paint or blot a stencil…but at least I'm continuing the creative process without a forced stop.
I've had a few questions lately about my stamps. I'm happy to answer questions any time, so always feel free to contact me. One question was about inks…and I thought I'd share with you my thoughts on inks that work well with my stamps.
[in the picture above I used a heavily-inked pigment ink & stamped right over the acrylic paint. I actually reinked the pad after every inking of the stamp…that's how much ink it took to get a good impression on the super-rough surface.]
Let's start with a little story. I used to stamp a lot many moons ago (I was a demonstrator for a stamp company). I love, love stamping. When my stamps first arrived on my doorstep, I was beyond thrilled! I ripped 'em open and started stamping…and then got really frustrated. I just wasn't getting good impressions.
Then it hit me…..I wasn't using the right inks & surfaces! Many of my stamp designs are very solid. It can be tricky to get a good impression from any large, solid stamp. Your ink and your stamping surface need to be right.
So, off to Paper Plus I went. I came home with several reams of smoooth cardstock. I remembered from my old stamping days that smooth cardstock takes ink really well. Like mind-boggingly well. The brands I bought are:
I do know that other companies make smooth cardstocks…like Neenah Solar White, etc. Stampin' Up also sells ultra-smooth cardstocks.
Next I took a look at my inks. Lots of my pads were old & dry. I bought some new ink pads from Ranger. I purchased dye-based and pigment-based inks in the Adirondack range, and some inks in the new Archival range. I refuse to buy an ink pad for which I cannot also purchase a reinker. That's why I love Ranger…you can get reinkers for every single pad they make! I always buy a pad and the reinker at the same time. Why? Because I live in Arizona. It's dry here, and pads do seem to dry out sorta fast. And, I like my pads reeeallly inky. Not super-saturated, but well-inked.
Let me quickly review the difference between dye-based and pigment-based inks. This isn't official info…it's just off the top of my head. Of course, qualities of inks will vary by manufacturer.
So…I got my smooth cardstocks & my inks and started stamping. Whew! My stamps were giving me amazing impressions!
[In the picture above, I stamped with dye-based ink on white smooth cardstock. Then I cut out the image and glued them onto my painted canvas panel.]
If you're struggling with the solid stamps in my line, first take a look at your surface. What are you stamping on? Choose an ink that will work well with your surface, and you will have better success.
I will say that I have a hard time stamping on watercolor paper, no matter what ink I use. I started inking my stamp, spritzing the stamp with water, and then stamping…it gave me a cool look! Watercolor paper simply isn't meant for stamping.
[In the picture above, I used dye-based inks on the tags. I used the Ranger Archival Black pad on the white pages, which are smooth cardstock.]
Hope this helps…happy stamping!!
Alrighty…by random draw, the participation winner of my online class is:
Congrats and email me…I'll let you know the details. A huge thanks to all who participated and shared their canvases. Very inspiring! We'll do this again, for sure.
Here are my layouts for the Sept Jenni Bowlin Studios kit. Check out the DT galleries here. Aren't those silver German-foil birdies awesome? I could use about 100 of those.
You know how much I love the brilliant & talented Dyan and her awesome store, Art from the Heart. Next weekend is their 10th anniversary, and in celebration they're doing FIVE blog hops! See Dy's blog for all the info & details.
You should have reached my blog from Angela's blog. After me, please hop on to Wendy.
The letter you're to collect from my blog is: M.
I'm on the Ranger hop…it's no secret that I have a serious love of all things Ranger. Their products simply cannot be beat. I'm a slave to their spray inks and ink pads…so awesome. Honestly, almost everything I do has something Ranger on it–very often spray ink and the Ranger Archival Black ink pad.
This is one of my fave projects I have done with Color Wash Adirondack Spray Ink and Claudine's Sticky Back Canvas:
Be sure to leave a comment & hop along!
Here are the last pages of my "It's a Smashing August" project…I did one page spread per day in August in my smash book. I couldn't keep this up indefinitely, but I will do this again someday. Maybe in December? That would be a fun project!
(PS I'm doing to draw the winner of my class tomorrow…trying to meet a deadline today!!)
I was actually straightening up the studio today (I know, shocker), and as I cleaned I came across three little notes from my fellas. They've obviously been playing with my old-school Dymo labeler….heh. I'm leaving these where they are, they make me laugh.
"Hi Mom" is on my computer desk:
"What is Love" is on the end of one of my Ikea Expedit shelves:
and "Epic LOL" is on the side of the shelf, near the fellas' computer:
And look….proof that once or twice a year my desk is semi-sorta-ish clean. Well, clean for me. Because usually it's worse. Oh, so much worse.
I painted over this one a bunch of times, and finally had to just cover it w/ text paper. Nothing was clicking today! But that's how it goes, right?
Here are all my canvases from this month (and a few from the summer) all laid out on my back patio. So fun to see them in a group! I didn't notice until I was editing these photos that some of these are upside down….oy! Where is my brain?
Will you do me a favor? If I haven't already posted your Week 4 link, will you please link it up again to this post? I am desperately working on projects due tomorrow & it would be nice not to have to go dig through various posts for links. Thank ye! I will add links to the bottom of this post later today. And I draw the winner of my class tomorrow.
I have to say, looking at all of your canvases this month has been an absolute pleasure. Truly. Thanks so much for participating…I definitely feel inspired work on canvas more often.
Canvases for you to enjoy:
If you live in Holland (or are just willing to go to Holland)… you might want to save this date: March 10th & 11th, 2012. Just sayin'.
Finishing up my last canvas today! Will do a final post about that in a bit.
My Sept deadlines are looming, so I haven't had much free art time. I've been making lots of fun grungy messes, though…using up rejected bits from projects, using up extra paint on my palette, just making a mess and not really caring about the outcome. It's fun, try it!
Some more fun canvas links for you:
I couldn't resist! The more I looked at it, the more I started to laugh. Let me just say it seemed vaguely obscene…lol! Plus it sort of looked like those crazy plants in "Day of the Triffids." Which, if you haven't seen, well, how do I put this? You didn't miss anything except giant tropical flowers eating people.
Whew, this is better. 😉 Maybe I should give up for today and go shopping instead? heh heh.