Thursday 18 July 2024

2024 Topic 5: Ink Pads {by Ellie Knol} on the PaperArtsy Blog


Hi everyone

Ellie Knol from PAPER-STAMPS-COLOR here with you today.

I've been sorting through my product lately, thought I need to downsize. The question is: do I part with all my pigment ink pads?  
This topic, Inkpads had me thinking about that, and after creating with them I knew I cannot part with my pigment inks; maybe some of them, but not all!
So I decided to even go further: compare them with Distress Oxide inks, which also contain pigment ink in a certain way, and act similar when still wet. 
I'm looking forward to sharing with you what I figured out when playing with them; maybe I prefer the Distress Oxide inks from Ranger; they are more versatile for the way I create. 

Of course a black pigment ink should be in every stamper's collection; they are juicy and are also very suitable for heat embossing. I heat emboss it with a clear embossing powder to make the ink stay put, not smear, and make it even a darker black. Pigment inks take a while to completely dry. 


Cards, five of them... cards are easy to create, as after all: summer holidays are around the corner in our part of the world!



I made swatches of all the pigment inks I have, then chose to use these shown in the picture.
These stamp sets from Alison Bomber, EAB36 and EAB38 (available from a PaperArtsy Stockist) are great to use with these inks, I am sure!

I am a big fan of foliage stamps anyway!


In this section I will share the techniques and products I used for the first two cards: the ones with the pigment ink pads.


I knew I used to love this 'rainbow' of greens. Unfortunately the sponge of the pad is not that spongy anymore; I will have to replace it in the near future, but it still did it's duty this time. 



I inked up the background stamp from 
Alison Bomber Set 36 (EAB36) and stamped it onto a cardbase.

I knew this would be a gorgeous start, a base, as a backdrop for the beautiful foliage stamps in the stamp sets. 



After drying, I stamped the foliage with a black pigment ink; I mostly use Versafine Pigment Ink Onyx Black and then heat emboss it with clear embossing powder.

I painted the berries with Fresco Chalk Acrylic Snowflake (FF15). Once dry, I colored them with a gold re-inker pigment ink and added extra color to it with a red pigment ink to make them pop. 



Finally I added to the collage,  black-stamped elements as shown, and gold splatters. The label with text was stamped and fussy cut from a separate piece of cardstock. 

So, onto the next card ...


Stamping 
the background stamp (so versatile!!) from 
Alison Bomber Set 38 (EAB38) with a reddish purple pigment ink made me wonder whether I made the right choice to use this not so bright (boring?) color.  I went on to finish it off as shown, and to be honest: it turned out so beautiful, very unique!



The second generation stamping with the black ink in the background and white touches, add interest to the collage of elements. A very basic but very useful technique.


In this section I will share the techniques and products I used for the next 3 cards; I made these ones with Ranger's Distress Oxide Inks. O my, they are so vibrant!! lol

Mostly these inks get used by dabbing them onto a craft sheet, spraying with water and swiping the cardstock through the puddles
, and repeating the process, also while wet, splattering water onto it etc.

I also chose to go another route: using a gel plate to have more control, and allowing me to create lighter backgrounds (prints). 
The process for this is basically dabbing the color onto the gel plate, brayering it (two brayers) so it covers the surface of the gel plate, splattering water onto the ink, then pull a print.

 
You can splatter again with water without re-inking the plate, and then make another print on an envelope for a lighter print, or another piece of paper. Brayer the remaining color on the brayers on gel pate to keep making lighter prints from the remaining ink. 



I kept going, with two other colors, less dramatic ones, lol. 



Now finally, a color combination I love, one that I was going to explore more with, also into the theme HIDDEN.


The extra backgrounds made me think of creating an envelope which can go with the card, as a hidden item, in which one can put some money, or a letter, or maybe even some faux postage stamps. My mojo was just taking over!




AND what are my conclusions?
By creating with 
the same stamps, same process but different inks, AND by going with the flow makes for spontaneous results. I like doing that in my crafty process.


Enjoy the finished cards, all very different.
I want to make some more; especially explore more, using other pigment inks too! Other colors, other brands. 

It was fun to explore with these inks through experimenting.
New techniques are discovered, just by playing! 



The hidden envelope within the card... when the card is closed, it is hidden. Adding something inside the small envelope makes it double hidden. lol

Monday 15 July 2024

2024 Topic 5: Ink Pads {by Etsuko Noguchi} on the PaperArtsy Blog


Hi everyone

Etsuko My favorite things here with you today.
Ink is an essential material for working with paper crafts and sometimes greatly influences the quality of the work. And nowadays there are many different types of ink available. Today I'm going to show you a piece using the Distress Oxide ink that you're all familiar with, with explanations, and I using Gwen Lafleur's lovely new stamps. I hope you enjoy it.


Here I worked with Oxide inks on Gwen's wonderful new stamps. I describe what worked and what didn't work so well as a result.


To start I picked Beautiful Gwen's new stamp sets - EGL40 the Florentine patters and EGL41 the medallions and birds - as these sets are useful for the majority of jobs as described in PaperArsty People Facebook Gwen's demo in April and on this site here in more detail. And I picked Ranger Distress Oxide worn lipstick, wilted violet, salty ocean, cracked pistachio, shabby shutters and salvaged patina. Also I used ranger Archival Ink Cobalt and VersaFine Clair Nocturne and some 3D gloss paste, Modeling paste.



The first, these four colours (Ranger Distress Oxide worn lipstick, wilted violet, salty ocean, and salvaged patina) rubbed onto a craft sheet, sprayed with water and then dyed over it the book pages. Here, instead of filling the whole area with OXIDE, blank spaces were left like puddles.


I wanted to test the oxide effect and the translucency of the paper by applying resin on top of the dyed paper, so I did it.


Before deciding on the paper for the previous photo, I tried using old book papers and dictionary papers, but the journal background was going to be a bright colour and I liked these, but when I fitted them into the background they looked a bit dirty, so I decided to forfeit them.


The motifs I decided on for the EGL41 bird and medallion on the front and back covers were printed on the earlier resin-covered paper, I tried Ranger Embossing Powder Black and Gold, but the motifs were hard to make out as shown in the picture below, so I tried Ranger Embossing Powder Clear on Versafine Nocturne and liked it, so I decided to go for it.


The central bird and medallion I have chosen for the covers.


Images of EGL40 and EGL41 stamp sets were embossed in Ranger Embossing Powder Black on the same paper as the front cover to create the journal windows.
 




Background paper made on Smoothy (Heavyweight) A4 white stamping card with Ranger Distress Oxide - salty ocean, peacock feathers, salvaged patina and shabby shutters, then I used the PaperArtsy brayer on that background with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Snowflake to reduce colour slightly Finish.


EGL41 was randomly stamped on top of that background using shabby shutters and broken china.


The background paper was cut into six 4.5" square pieces, each textured with Gwen's stencil using 3D transparent paste.


Then on each sheet of paper a window was made using PaperArtsy Dies - Tulip, Grunge Flower #1, Full Heart, Scallop Flower. (These dies also include out of stock).


And I distressed around the cards using some paper distresser.


Base paper made from salvaged patina, salty ocean and peacock feathers for the embellishment around the window.


I used EGL41 stamp and circle cut.


The downloaded image was cut with a circle punch and coloured with broken china and vintage photo.


Next, the hinges for the cards were made using two different types of embossing powder on acetate with EGL41 stamp.


It was really shining but I couldn't get a good photo of it, even though it often shines when the subject doesn't want it to shine.


Now I will show you the completed journal in one step. Let's start with the cover!


The paper left over from the embellishment was trimmed around the window and the embellishment placed.


And continues.




The back cover.


Finally, I will show you a picture of a picture held up to the light, and this will become our quarter's theme 'Hidden' and the Die-cut motifs will emerge.







These are with our current topic of 'Inks' and quarter Theme of 'Hidden' with Gwen's beautiful EGL40 and EGL41 stamp sets.  In the Theme 'Hidden' I was very happy to be able to use the dies I got first before. And it was a little difficult to clearly show the effect of Distress Oxide Inks in the photos, but I hope this helps to convey the message and enjoy it. Thank you so much for visiting here.

Etsuko xxx


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