Oxide Inks with Glossy Photo Paper

Hi Everybody,

I can't tell you how many packs of glossy photo paper I have, 4x6 size.  For years I got a free pack when I bought ink for my printer but I never did anything with them.... until today.  If you have some, get it out and let's have some fun!  Glossy cardstock will work too.

I used the Tim Holtz Oxide Inks just like I did in my previous post and here's a LINK to it.  It shows how I put some down on my craft mat, placed my watercolor paper (which is what I was using at the time) in it and after a couple colors, heat set, and then same thing again either using same colors again but changing up the sides or using different colors.  I loved the results.  The inks blend so well, even better than the Distress Inks, which I love too.

Oxide Inks are a hybrid ink, meaning a combination so in this case, a combination of dye and pigment inks.  Tim Holtz Distress Inks (which we all know and love and now have all the minis too) are a water based dye ink and can be activated when sprayed with water.  You have to work a little bit harder to blend distress inks.  When you spritz the oxide inks that you put on your craft mat, you will immediately see the difference after it starts to oxidize.  It starts to look kind of pastel metallic and when it dries on your cardstock, it looks like a matte, chalk finish.  Dye inks are transluent and pigment inks are opaque so when you mix the two, you get that interesting chalk result.  You can stamp with these inks, use with stencils, etc, you can use them exactly how you did with the distress inks BUT you can use the oxide inks on any color cardstock.  They show up amazingly on black and kraft for example.  That's the extent of my Oxide Ink knowledge lol.  I've seen many people asking what Oxide Ink is so I wanted to go into that a little bit.

So after I got the ink on my glossy photo paper like I wanted it I let it dry completely.  I saw that even letting it dry naturally or with a heat gun, I could smear the ink a little.  Well, that's no good!  I was going to see about trying Gesso on it, etc., you will never believe what worked, the simplest thing... I used a very soft microfiber cloth and rubbed on the ink and the top layer rubbed off leaving an incredibly vibrant, shiny result.  I was doing the happy dance.  I had no idea this was supposed to be rubbed off.  Y'all might've already known this but I didn't so I was doing the new discovery dance :)

Here are 4 backgrounds I made on glossy photo paper. Each one may have taken a minute.  I'm serious, that's how fabulous this ink is.  It flows differently on this paper too.  Look at the bottom left one... It dripped down and I left a box for the sentiment ha!  

The bottom half is what it looked like after it dried.  Top half is what it looked like

 after I wiped it off with a towel.  Pretty!

This is what it looked like after I wiped off the entire piece of glossy photo paper.  

The left side is before I wiped off the ink, right side after.  See how vibrant that is!

This is a comparison between glossy photo paper (top) and watercolor/regular paper. 

 So if you want a matte, chalky result, don't use photo paper.  

I just wanted to share my experience so that you will have another option when you use your inks.  I am showing pics of mine and will make cards with them and do another blog post.

I hope I inspired you to pull out those unused packs of glossy photo paper.  I can make cards with these for years!

Watch for more blog posts in the next day or so.....

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!


Regina

Hello Lovely Thank You Card

Hi Everybody,

I love to color flowers.  Normally my stamp will be one flower, maybe three or to have more, I'll have to mask them.  Well, today my card shows a beautiful bouquet of flowers from Concord & 9th and I didn't even have to mask them all.  The stamp set is called Hello Lovely and it is just that, such a lovely set.  What I like about it is the gorgeous bouquet but also you can stamp out layered flowers for a watercolor effect, and the sentiments will fit any card, plus the cool splatter marks stamp is a bonus.

I actually did a little bit of masking with this card using post it tape to cover right along the edges of where I was going to be overlapping.  You can stamp this bouquet across your stamp, hang it off the side of your card in one or two places, do what I did here and stamp 2 bouquets together.  If you cut them right you can get 2 cards out of it as well.  Who doesn't love that right?

 

There is a lot going on in this card for sure but isn't it cool!  I used Zig Real Brush Watercolor Markers to color the flowers.  I did use a paintbrush and water because my water brush was putting out too much water.  I know it is quite vibrant but I wanted a bright, summery, happy result.  I embossed it with one of my most favorite embossing powders, Ranger Silver Pearl.  This is softer than white, it's so beautiful in real life.  I used Canson Montval watercolor paper, which I like to use with Zigs.  After I painted the background and everything dried, what did I do??  I threw water droplets on it lol.  I sprayed some water into my hand from my mister and dropped it out onto the card.  They came out a little bit larger than I wanted on the purple flower but I think it looks good.

That's the cool thing about working with water, you never know what you're going to get.  And, yes, I have to admit, I tend to use watercolors sometimes as I would Copics, which I kind of did here.  A different mentality is needed when watercoloring. Forget everything you know, loosen up and let the water do most of the work for you. I haven't fully give up control to the water yet, but I'm getting there. :)

We went out to dinner last weekend with some family on my husband's side and his Mom paid for it which was so generous.  I wanted to make her a beautiful thank you card and this is it.  I used Versafine Onyx Black to emboss the Thanks sentiment and I needed some filler around it and low and behold, they included a stamp in this set that was perfect, splatters!  You can use this on so many cards.  If you are not comfortable splattering black paint, gold paint, etc., on your cards, use this stamp (see the pic above, it's at the top in the middle, splatter dots).  I LOVE IT!  I embossed these using Stampendous Detail Fine Gold Embossing Powder.  I took little pieces of scotch tape and covered some of the dots where I wanted just a few from the stamp.  When you do this, use the tape to cover the parts (of any stamp) that you don't want to cover with ink, ink it up, then take the tape off, and stamp.  I used a gold metallic pen to put some little gold dots in the centers of the flowers to tie it all in together.  

You really get your $$$ worth out of this stamp set.  I've got some ideas that I'm going to be trying with the bouquet in the near future as well.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Regina

I Brake For Pumpkin Head Witch

Hi Everybody!

Have you started making Fall and Halloween cards yet?  I just made my first Halloween card!  I have so much fun making Halloween cards because I can just let loose and have fun and there's definitely no right or wrong way to do things.  I like pumpkins and I like witches so I figured this stamp would be the best of both.  The stamp I used on this card is from I Brake For Stamps by Rick St. Dennis and it's called Pumpkin Head Witch.  If you are a serious Halloween card person, then you HAVE to check out the stamps by Rick St. Dennis.  Some of them are really scary!  If you use my coupon code SAVE10REGINA, you will receive 10% off your order.  I used the stamp on the inside called Jelly Beans and Bit'O Honey.

 

I know, I know, the inside is cutesy and doesn't really go with what I did on the front but that's okay, no right or wrong and I knew I was making this for my boyfriend's Mother, who loves Halloween, so I thought she would like this. :)

Last week I showed a tutorial on how to use Bister watercolor powder.  This week I tried something in conjunction with Bister.  Have you used a Frisket Liquid Mask yet?  I bought mine at Amazon, here is a link to Frisket..

It's very easy to use.  What this does is mask anything you want to keep white if you're painting or creating a background.  I wanted to make a spooky background using just black Bister but I wanted my stamp to be in the midst of this background.  I didn't want to cut the stamp out with a die and put it on the background like I did with the Bister Barn card last week.  I wanted to color the image with Copics as well.  Wow, this is really asking for a lot isn't it?  Here's what I did:

I used 140# Strathmore cold press watercolor paper and stamped my image using Versafine Onyx Black ink and I embossed that with clear embossing powder.  This will keep the ink from smearing and allow me to use the Bister with water and also color with copics.


Next, I took an old paintbrush and painted the frisket over the stamped image.  This will mask the stamp when you make the Bister background.  Let it dry for a couple hours or so.  I allowed mine to dry overnight just because I couldn't come back to it that same day.  It will feel tacky to the touch but will still be dry.  There is a link above for this Frisket mask.

It's okay if you go out of the lines but remember it will be white if you do.  I did in a few spots but it's okay.

Next I made the Black Bister Background.  Here is a link to my Bister Tutorial from last week.  I think it's so cool how other colors can be seen from just using the one color, black.  I see gray, a golden color, purple.  Just sprinkle powder where you want it and spritz with water.  (see tutorial link above)

It's very important to let your paper dry completely.  Why am I telling you this?  Well, because I didn't the first time around.  As I was pulling the Frisket off the stamp, the top layer of the paper tore so let it dry completely.  I'm not perfect and this was my first time using it so I'll show you what not to do so you can learn from my mistakes.

See in the first pic where the paper tore where the boot is?  I didn't let it dry enough after I spritzed with water. 

 See how the ink is bleeding onto the image?  The first time I used Memento ink, forgetting that I am using water.  I had Copics on my brain so I grabbed Memento. 

 
Then just take your finger and gently pull it off.  It will be gummy.  I was so amazed at how this protected my image.

Now you're ready to color with Copics.  The colors I used are listed below.  I did use one watercolor pencil, the purple, because I don't have very many purple Copics for some reason and I wanted the exact shade of purple I used here.  This was the first time I had ever used watercolor pencils and I have no idea if I did it the correct way but it worked.  I colored with the purple pencil pretty heavily and then dipped a paintbrush in water and just smeared it around until I liked how it looked.  I'm not too concerned with my coloring being super perfect, shaded, blended, etc, because I want to show the technique and the Bister background.

If you have never tried watercolor powder, you can purchase it at I Brake For Stamps for $1.65 each.  The Bister powders were put in small containers so they are now affordable for everyone.  You can even use my coupon code and get 10% off your purchase.  Try it!  It's so much fun!

I popped up the image layer with some black fun foam to give it some height and dimension.  I've been doing this a lot lately rather than using 25 pop dots, fun foam is quicker.  I used Scor-Tape to adhere it.  I scribbled a black gelato on a piece of card stock and dipped my paintbrush in water, swirled it around in the gelato and added a little bit of darkness to make a ground for the Pumpkin Head Witch to be standing on.  I finished the card off by trying to break up a little bit of the background with some color.  With the background being a matte finish, I thought using glossy vinyl would be a good contrast so I cut out a moon, bats and the word, Boo! from the Silhouette store with my machine.  Then added a few sequins in dark gray to add just a hint of shine and sparkle.  


Supplies Used:
Recollections 110# white card stock for card base
Gina K Designs Black Onyx Card Stock
Strathmore 140# watercolor paper
My Minds Eye - Haunted, patterned paper
Craft Medley Cup Sequins - Dazzling Metallics, Citrus on inside
651 Vinyl in yellow, black and orange
Artist's Loft Watercolor Pencils (bought from big box store) - Violet and Light Violet
Black Gelato
Ticket Tag Punch (corners)
Fun Foam in Black
Scor-Tape 1/2"
Tombo Dot Runner Tape Runner Adhesive
Copics Used:
Pumpkin:  YR12, YR15, YR16, YR18
Dress:  G05, G07, G09
Y02, Y15
Y26 for the buckle

Thank you for taking a look at my card this week for my I Brake For Stamps post.  I hope you'll try the Bister watercolor powder and the Frisket Liquid Mask.  Did I inspire you to run to your craft room to make a card?  :)

If you would like to join my blog to follow my work please click on the 2 squares to the right of Join This Site.  It will take you to another window and there you will click on Join This Site on the right.  I don't know why Join This Site is not working.  I have written to some different people so hopefully someone can help me with this.  

Have a great day!


Regina - I Brake For Stamps Design Team Member