Stampadoodle Blog

Ideas with Packing Tape

5/18/2019

This week for Demo, we explored the wonderful world of PACKING TAPE and Gel Plates!!!

The Demonstrator this week was Diana Ramsey... and if you don't know her, I will tell you she LOVES to create and experiment with art supplies!!!

We saw what she had been creating with her Gelli Plates and decided that Demo would be a great way to demonstrate this idea!!

First, Diana started with a Gel Plate (or Gelli Plate): A Gel Plate feels a little bit like hardened-jello! It is soft enough to roll-out Acrylic Paint with a Brayer onto the surface. Traditionally, Gel Plates are used for Mono-printing (But you can be as creative as you'd like with this incredible tool!!)

Diana used Pebeo Acrylic Paints (which come in vibrant colors AND metallics)

To start, Diana placed some pieces and strips of Deli Paper onto her Gel Plate
Next, Diana rolled on a thin layer of Acrylic Paint using a Brayer
Then, Diana used a variety of different ideas for creating patterns in the paint... like straws to make small circles, pieces of mesh to create texture, acrylic paint pens, or just a paint brush to make markings.
THEN Diana removed the pieces of Deli Paper from the Gel Plate.

** LET DRY COMPLETELY **

Now the fun part... PACKING TAPE!!! (Yes, this stuff):

Diana laid down 3" wide (or 4" wide) strips of Packing Tape DIRECTLY ON THE SURFACE of the Gel plate, and pressed down thoroughly making sure the Packing Tape is FULLY BONDED to the top of the Gel Plate. You can use a Bone Folder to firmly press the packing tape to the surface of the Gel Plate
Pull the Packing Tape away from the Gel Plate. When you do this, the layer of paint will come with the tape.

What you are left with is AMAZING Bright, colorful strips with areas of translucency

What you end up with is this slick-looking strip on ONE SIDE and layers of decorative paint on the other side and the texture feels just WONDERFUL!!

I LOVE that there are areas of Translucency here!!

Look how cool these designs are!!! And doing your painting and designs on a Gel Plate makes it so much EASIER for creating a collage!!

Diana also brushed on Pearl-Ex powder the Acrylic Paint side of the tape and made it METALLIC!!!

Look at how vibrant one side is and more metallic on the other side.

I love the contrast of the black paint mixed in with the vibrant Acrylic Paints!!!

Once she created her collage pieces, she cut some of the sections up to make JEWELRY!!!!

She placed some of the pieces into resin and added in gems and star shaped glitter!!!

HOW FUN ARE THESE!!??

We LOVE to be creative around here... and we love thinking outside the box!!

See you soon!!
360-647-9663

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Woodgrain Ideas with Paper

5/10/2019

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For Demo this week we explored the wonderful world of using Woodgrain ideas in your paper crafting!!

Check out some of these fun ideas!!

First off, there are SO MANY OPTIONS for woodgrain papers here at the store!!

You can use papers that are already printed with a woodgrain appearance and these are the ones we currently have in stock!

These papers are EMBOSSED with a woodgrain texture on ONE SIDE:

When making cards, you can incorporate the Woodgrain texture in a variety of different ways!!

If you have a home die-cut machine, you can use this wonderful Woodgrain Embossing Folder from Taylored Expressions.

I liked the idea of just embossing a thin, plain paper bag.

Emboss a small, flat paper bag using the Woodgrain Embossing Folder, making sure that the ragged lip of the paper bag is also embossed. (So you can tuck a note into it!!)
Run a Distress Ink, Walnut Stain ink pad across the textured side of the paper bag and cut your paper bag so it is only one-layer thick.
Cut a piece of card stock to fit on the front of a card base. Wrap the embossed paper bag around the front of the piece of card stock and glue in place with Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive. Mount this piece onto the front of your card base.

Stamp a sentiment onto a piece of brown card stock and tuck the little note into the lip of the paper bag!!
Use Distress Oxide ink pad, Worn Lipstick and a Waterbrush to watercolor the flowers. Finish off the card by adding a small ribbon along the bottom of the card

When it comes to the paper that is already EMBOSSED with woodgrain, you can colorize the woodgrain yourself using Distress Inks and the Nuvo Blending Sponges!

I LOVED this look of creating a little garden shed using the embossed woodgrain paper and little charms!!!

Honestly.. you can color your embossed woodgrain card stock ANY COLOR YOU WANT!!!! That way it is sure to match the project you are working on...

Check out this idea... if you are looking to make the "1970's wood plank" it is easy to do with Kraft Sticker Paper and a score board!!

Once you score your sticker paper, apply the paper to a piece of card stock, the "planks" will smash together. Then, when you run a Distress Ink pad, Walnut Stain, across the "planks" they give a Distressed-look as well as giving them more definition.

One of my FAVORITE ideas was SO EASY... just scrape 2 colors of ink pads across a piece of white cardstock, Then CUT IT INTO STRIPS and paste them back down with 1/8" between each "plank"

IT LOOKS LIKE AN OLD FENCE!!!!!

I LOVE THIS WOODGRAIN!!! I had a lot of fun with this idea... You can use the Faber Castell Small Brush Tip pen to create the thin lines AND the chunky lines!!

I used the Picket Fence Blending Brushes to apply a soft layer of ink to the page to add interest...

You can also use your Score Board to create Planks!!

Once you create your planks, you can ink the edges of each plank by rubbing the folds against a brown ink pad!! I added in the little "nails" by just using a fine-line black pen.

You can also create a fun Wood-Plank Fence!!!

When I do this, I cut my paper into strips, then I cut ONE strip with a point and used that as a template to cut my other wood planks.

I used the Faber Castell Fine-line black pen to add in the lines of woodgrain.

I used my Tim Holtz Blending Tool to "ink" the edges of my planks before I adhered them down.

I love this ivory woodgrain paper!! The lines on the paper make it really easy to cut out the planks and make a fun fence!!

I loved the idea of crows on a fence...

I stamped the Crow Trio stamp (from Impression Obsession) on the paper FIRST and then I lined up the planks to create a 3-Dimensional Fence

Check out this sweet idea making a flower box!!!

This woodgrain Flower Box stamp is from Impression Obsession. I stamped it with Versafine Clair ink, Nocturne

Then I tucked in all these fun flowers from this sweet Cottage Cutz Floral die-cut set and the botanicals from this Tim Holtz/Sizzix Greenery set

I LOVE this new Tree Ring Stencil from Altenew!!!

I decided to play with this idea.. I first used the Picket Fence Blending Brushes and brushed a light color of Distress Ink, Walnut Ink

THEN I went in with a few sizes of fine-line Faber Castell black pens to add in the "grain" and it is SO AMAZING!!!!

I LOVE THIS LOOK!!

The Blending Brushes are SO WONDERFUL for applying inks because the color blends out color until it disappears!

One of the EASIEST ideas for creating the woodgrain look is to use Tombow Brush Markers!

The brush markers are great because you can do fine-lines AND thick lines. I love having the tones of dark and light lines.

Once you have drawn your lines, you can make it less-intense by just spritzing on a light mist of water

Woodgrain texture is so much fun to play with!! You can make signs, you can cut it up to make "planks", you can do card making and SO MUCH MORE!!

Stop by the store to get inspired!!

See you soon!!

360-647-9663

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Tuesday with Wendy, May 7th

5/10/2019

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I love the BRIGHT, SPRING cards from class this week!!! Just look how beautiful they are!! Wendy really is in the Spring-Mode this time!!

The first card that Wendy created was inspired from this new fairy stamp from Lavinia, Sky and this sentiment, also from Lavinia, Secrets are Hidden

To make the card:

Start out with a blank card base, Wendy used the Sundance Felt card stock, white (this paper has a felt texture that is really nice!)
Wendy used a piece of the Alexandra Renke paper, Ginko Leaves, on the left side of the card front. DO NOT TAPE IN PLACE, only use a very small piece of tape to "tack" it in place
Next, Wendy used her Tim Holtz Stamp Platform to stamp the sentiment and fairy AT THE SAME TIME. To do this:
- ink up the 2 images with Versafine Clair ink, Fallen Leaves.
- Stamp down onto the front of the card base. PART of the fairy image WILL NOT STAMP.
- Now, pop-off the Ginko-Leaf paper, DO NOT RE-INK THE IMAGES!!
- Stamp down again in the EXACT SAME SPOT on the card. The ink that did not transfer the first time will now transfer all the way.
Now, apply Detail Clear Embossing Powder to the entire card front (and that piece of Ginko Leaf paper with a part of the fairy image stamped on it!) and heat-set all the images.
Use double-sided tape to fully adhere the Ginko-Leaf paper the the card front, on the left side.
Use 3 colors of Tombow Markers (Wendy chose soft blue, green, and purple ones with similar colors to the Ginko Leaves) and colored onto an old CD (you can color onto a piece of plastic... it just needs to be a non-porous surface). Wendy used Waterbrushes to watercolor with the ink from the Tombow Markers .
Finally, Wendy chose the Midas Touch Shimmer Pen, from Nuvo, to apply a coat of shimmer to the wings of the fairy and the "ground" we created with the Waterbrush and Tombow markers

This is SUCH A FUN CARD!!! I love how magical and whimsical it is!!

The next card that Wendy designed was inspired from this very sweet, mini stamp set from Altenew, Vintage Rose Add-on stamp.

This stamp comes with a nice sentiment too that pairs nicely with the leaf image

To make the card:

Start out with an ivory card base. On the front of the card, at the bottom, adhere a piece of green dotted paper (Wendy chose a double-dot paper from BoBunny)
Next, use your home die-cut machine and the Hero Arts Infinity Circle dies to cut out a large circle out of a piece of Dark Green card stock.
Then, cut a slightly smaller circle out of lighter green piece of card stock.
Finally, cut out a slightly smaller circle out of ivory card stock (this one will layer with the other 2 green circles you just cut out). In the middle of the large ivory circle, cut out a small circle.
On your ivory circle, you will stamp the leaf image all around it. Wendy chose this leaf stamp because it is a "multi-step stamping" stamp. This means that when you stamp the 2 images with 2 shades of green ink, the image looks watercolored! Wendy stamped the BOLDER leaf image with Distress Ink, Peeled paint and the FINE LINE leaf image with Distress Oxide, Peeled Paint. **Yes, this is the same color but one is DYE-BASED INK and one is OXIDE INK. The colors look monochromatic when you stamp them on top of each other **
Now, layer and paste the 3 larger circles together. The largest circle (dark green) will be at the very back, then the light green, then the ivory circle (this one has the middle cut out and leaves stamped all over it).
Place a piece of green-striped ribbon down on the front of your card base, on the top edge of the dotted green paper.
Now adhere your green/ivory circle stack onto the front of your card.
Now on the tiny white circle you cut out from earlier, stamp the sentiment, Thank You. Wendy stamped the sentiment with Distress Ink, Peeled Paint. She also used the ink pad to rub along the edges of the tiny ivory circle.. this technique is called "inking"
Use a pop-dot to adhere the tiny circle on the very front of the card in the middle of the ivory circle from earlier.

The last card that Wendy created was inspired from this Texture Stamp set from Creative Expressions, Background Slices as well as this stamp from Lavinia, Zen Leaf 2 and this sentiment from Impression Obsession, Smile

To make the card:

Start off by using piece of 110# Solar White card stock to create a collage.
On your Silicone Craft Mat, smoosh 4 colors of Distress Ink down. Wendy chose the Distress Ink colors: Festive Berries, Spiced Marmalade, Vintage Photo, and Rusty Hinge. Spritz the "smooshed" ink with water and do a mono-print onto your heavy weight card stock. Heat-set the card stock with a heat-gun.
Next, spritz the same piece of card stock with Dylusions Spray Ink, Pomegranate Seed, and coat the paper so there are no white chunks of color on the page. Heat-set the card stock AGAIN using a heat-gun.
Now, stamp the Background Slices stamps across the page using Versafine Clair ink, Chianti. Also stamp the Zen Leaf 2 on the card stock page using the same color of ink, Versafine Clair Chianti.
Now that you have created a cool-looking collage, cut your card stock page down to size to mount on the front of a card base. Wendy backed the collage with a piece of black card stock THEN mounted it onto the front of her card.
Now, stamp the sentiment, "You Make me Smile" on a small piece of white card stock using Versafine Clair Ink, Nocturne. Wendy also mounted this on a small piece of black card stock to add contrast.
Cut small pieces of your collage art to add interest to the card! You can be as creative as you'd like!!

My FAVORITE part about these cards is seeing how each person's creation is DIFFERENT!!

Just look how fun these cards are!!

Join us for the NEXT card making class!!

It will be offered on Tuesday, May 21st

Give us a call here to sign up! **You MUST sign up by the Saturday before class to reserve a spot**

360-647-9663

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Watercolor Techniques

5/3/2019

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When watercoloring, there are SO MANY THINGS YOU CAN DO. And as Bekah said, it's a RABBIT HOLE you can go down!!

At Demo, Bekah focused on just a few techniques to help you get started!!

First off, many people feel overwhelmed by all the choices of paper you can use!!

You can use COLD PRESS (which is usually heavy-weight and has TEXTURE)

Or you can use HOT PRESS (also heavy weight with a SMOOTH finish)

To start, Bekah used this Penny Black Daisy Stamp, Radiant. This stamp already looks like it should be watercolored, which makes it easier to make the "watercolor effect" when stamping this image.

Bekah started by just inking the stamp with 2 colors of Distress Ink, Mustard Seed and Mowed Lawn. By just stamping with the 2 colors on the Penny Black stamp you are able to retain all the detail of the stamp in the 2 colors you ink your stamp with.

Next, Bekah showed us this fun idea:

She used the Tim Holtz Stamp Platform to stamp the image. She applied Distress Inks (Mustard Seed and Mowed Lawn) to her stamp and stamped the image.
THEN she "spritzed" the paper to move the inks. This activates the ink to make it spread out a little bit.
Then, Bekah inked the stamp AGAIN and stamped the image a second time (when you use the Tim Holtz Stamp Platform it lands in the same spot!). She used a heat-gun and heat-set the image.
Finally, Bekah stamped the image a third time, with this time with clear Versamark Ink and used Detail Clear embossing powder and heat-set the embossed image.

We also LOVE to use Tombow Markers to do Watercoloring!!

You can color DIRECTLY onto your rubber stamp and then SPRITZ THE STAMP with water and stamp your image!!

I love this technique because it just involves taking your time to color the image and then it looks like a PERFECT WATERCOLOR and requires very little effort for such a wonderful effect!!

Along the same idea... you can color your rubber stamp with Tombow Markers AND THEN SPRITZ THE PAPER and stamp the image... though you want to use a SMALL AMOUNT OF WATER because the more water you use the more definition you lose of the image!!

You can see here, Bekah went back in with the yellow Tombow Marker to add some lines of definition.

Did you know you can also STAMP WITH COLORBURST?!?!!? This creates a GORGEOUS effect..

Squeeze some ColorBurst particles onto your Craft Mat and spritz with water until the inks are activated
Stamp your rubber stamp into the ink that is floating on the craft mat
Stamp your image onto watercolor paper

When it comes to ColorBurst, you can just squeeze some out on your Craft Mat and activate the inks. When you do a Mono-Print you get this really cool splatter effect!!!

When you stamp INTO the activated inks, you get the color of the ink but you don't have as much control of WHERE the ink goes...

Here, Bekah stamped the Penny Black Stamp, Bunches for You and you can see how AMAZING this image turned out!! It looks just like Batik!

Bekah was explaining that often when she watercolors "skin tones" that is is extremely difficult to match colors!!!

Bekah showed us how she uses Watercolor Pencils and COLORS ON PAPER FIRST, adds a little bit of water to blend the colors on the paper, THEN PAINTS HER IMAGE using the palette that is on the paper!!!

I thought that was SUCH A CLEVER IDEA because then she could create the skin tone that she actually wants.. .and once she achieves the color she can paint the skin tone correctly.

Bekah said to acheive "white" skin tone she used HOT PINK and TAN colors blended together. I love this image she was working on... Berry Fairy by Penny Black!!

THERE ARE SO MANY watercoloring ideas!!! Whether you are stamping and trying to achieve the Watercolor Look or trying to create an unusual color to watercolor with... there is always something new to learn!!

If you have any questions, feel free to call us!!
360-647-9663

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Distressed Techniques

4/26/2019

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Have you always wanted to make your art or paper look old/distressed? Not sure how to create "the look" or not sure how to get started?

Well here are some great ideas!!

First, to create that "old" look you can use a brown ink pad. We call this technique "inking" because you are adding ink along the edge (or on top of the paper) to add the look of texture.

You can add ink in a variety of different ways using a variety of different tools.

You can use a brown ink pad DIRECTLY onto the paper.. the color is VERY dark and it can be harder to control... but it also depends on the look you are trying to create!!

You can also use the Tim Holtz Ink Blending Tool. I like to use this one because you can pick up ink OFF of your ink pad and THEN apply the ink onto the side of the paper. This tool is great to use because the ink is not as intense in color AND you have more control of where you put your ink.

Keep in mind, because the tool is SQUARE, if you get a square impression on your paper, do it in another place on your paper so it *looks intentional*

The Nuvo Blending Sponges are GREAT for applying inks because the circular tool leaves no awkward shape behind which makes it look much softer and lends to having more control of WHERE to apply your ink.

Check out here with a piece of woodgrain paper how we applied ink softly until the texture comes to life!!

BUT the BEST tool (at least in my personal opinion) for applying inks are the Picket Fence Blending Brushes.

They are SO SOFT and because there are SO MANY BRISTLES it makes it so much easier for applying a soft layer of ink onto the surface.

For example, here I crinkled up some paper then used the Picket Fence Blending Brush (from the large set) to apply a layer of brown ink. When I lightly run my brush across the crinkled paper, the wrinkles become more apparent and look really cool!! (I even crinkled up my paper and smashed it on the ink pad in some areas to create REALLY dark areas of color)

But just LOOK at how nice this gradation of color is... and it makes it look old REALLY quickly.

if you have a Home Die-cut Machine, you can run card stock through this Woodgrain Embossing Folder.

You can use your Picket Fence Blending Brushes to apply 2 colors of Distress Ink onto the paper that has the embossed image in it. I like to use the 2 colors of Distress Ink because the tone-on-tone colors give the paper more interest.

Depending which shades of brown you use will make the woodgrain image look darker and older or brighter and more fun!

Notice how in each of these ideas the centers of the woodgrains are darker. I usually coat the whole image with the lighter color FIRST and then go back in with the darker color in the centers of the woodgrain.

You can also add color to the embossed woodgrain image using Watercolors. I like using the Chisel-tip Waterbrush because then you can use brush-strokes that go up-and-down to follow the same movement of the woodgrain. I tend to spray my watercolors with WATER first, then pick up the color and brush it across the textured paper. I always start with a lighter shade of brown and then move to darker colors.

On the image below, the black was added LAST by just rubbing the black ink pad along the texture. I love how imperfect it is! It actually looks pretty neat!!

Ok, now for some FUN ideas!!!

Check out this idea using crinkled Tissue Paper and PVA!

On your piece of paper, stamp an image with Versafine Clair ink, Nocturne (or another water-proof ink) and then brush on a little bit of PVA around the image and "scrunch" the Tissue Paper into the PVA. You can add a little more PVA if needed. I applied Tissue Paper around the image on the top and bottom.

THEN use the Picket Fence Blending Brushes to apply a soft layer of Distress Ink (Walnut Stain and Black Soot is what I used here). I LOVE the look of the inks on the crinkled Tissue Paper... it adds so much texture and dimension.. and it makes it look old!!

On this one I used the Distress Oxide ink, Peacock Feathers AND the Distress Ink, Black Soot. Showing that YES you can use the 2 kinds of inks together!! (and honestly, I LOVE blending with the Oxide inks!! They are SO VIBRANT!!! )

I used one of the Fred B. Mullett Stamps for this card and I LOVE how it turned out!!! I stamped in the Versafine Clair ink, Nocturne because I didn't want my image to bleed or move when I applied a layer of PVA and Oxide inks..

Or check out this idea:

Use 3 colors of Distress Oxide inks (Wild Honey, Lucky Clover, and Wilted Violet) and Distress Ink (Black Soot). Start out by applying some of each of the Oxide Inks to a piece of Solar White card stock.
Spray some water to blend the colors together. Use a heat-gun to heat-set the inks.
Apply a soft layer of Distress Ink, Black Soot using the Picket Fence Blending Brushes
"Fleck" the paper with water using some water on your fingertips. Don't worry.. it's not meant to be perfect!! Use your heat-gun to heat-set this image again.
Lastly, use your Picket Fence Blending Brushes to apply another soft layer of Distress ink, Black Soot and watch as those "flecks" of water become darker!!

THIS IS SO FUN to create!!

I love the look of a Collage Art Piece with a Distressed Theme...

I used a combination of stamps, Distress Oxide inks, Distress inks, water, and the White Zig pen in this design to add a fun look! I LOVE the vibrancy of these Distress Oxide Inks!!!

I stamped my Halo Bird image and the circular textured image with Versafine Clair ink, Nocturne because I wanted my images to be waterproof as I added in the brighter Oxide inks and moved them with a spritz of water.

I LOVE the Halo part of this bird image!! So when I went to create an Ocean-inspired piece I used the SAME HALO but just inked the image without the bird so I could stamp a Lighthouse in the center instead!!

I LOVE HOW THIS TURNED OUT!!!!! I had so much fun creating this.. I love the pop-of-color with the Distress Oxide inks and the movement that was created from this swirl stamp from Impression Obsession... what a FUN CARD to create!!!

In this image, the white highlights were created with Bleed-Proof White and the splatter was also created from the same ink

There are SO MANY WAYS to make your art look distressed!!! These are just a few ideas of ALL THE THINGS you can do!!!

Time to get out your inks, paints, and tools and start playing!!!

Have any questions? Need items set aside for you? Give us a call!!

360-647-9663

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Ideas with Packing Tape

Woodgrain Ideas with Paper

Tuesday with Wendy, May 7th

Watercolor Techniques

Distressed Techniques

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Ideas with Packing Tape

Woodgrain Ideas with Paper

Tuesday with Wendy, May 7th

Watercolor Techniques

Distressed Techniques

Stampadoodle'sBlogAll the newest stuff

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Stampadoodle's
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All the newest stuff