Technique Tuesday ~ Watercolor and acrylic blocks

Good Morning Happy Stampers!

We are so glad you stopped by today!  We have a super fun technique to share with you today and we are so excited to share!

Watercolor and Acrylic Blocks

Okay:  so there are multiple ways to do this so follow along and check out the two ways we're showing you today!

With Re-inkers:

 Grab the biggest block you have to cover the size of paper you are looking to watercolor.  You want your block to be BIGGER than your paper;

Randomly add your favorite colors in little drops all over the block (don't forget to not wear white while doing this technique!)  After you have your ink spots where you want them, spritz water from a spray bottle onto the ink (I may have gotten a little heavy handed with the reinkers, but its okay...keep reading!)

 THIS WILL BE MESSY!!  you will have a LOT of ink/water on your block.  Don't worry.  You can make use of this!   You can take any flat/smooth stamp you have and use your block as an ink pad.  Here I just stamped off onto my grid paper (see the 4 square type stamped images?)  but you wont waste them like I did....USE THEM!! :)

 after you stamp a few times your block will look like this  Then you'll want to lay down the paper you are using for the background.  Lay the paper face down.  Gently run your fingers along the paper to soak up all that watercolor goodness.  Your paper WILL CURL a little bit if you are using anything other than Watercolor paper.  Don't worry.  It's going to flatten out when it dries.
  You should be able to get a few different pieces of paper out of this if your paper is smaller like mine.  To maximize your ink, after each piece of paper, spritz again with water to get the ink to spread again and to lighten the ink concentration.

  Here is the last one.  How fun and light is that?!!  (notice my block is now pretty devoid of ink)  I was able to get 4 stamped images and 3 watercolored pieces of cardstock out of that ONE mix of ink/water!!  

Now....I know you want to RUN out and try this, but check out a less messy, more subtle way to do this with markers!

color your block with markers.  I made these striped on purpose.  You can use all one color, or make any sort of pattern you'd like!

spritz with water (I may have accidentally spritzed this with Stampin' Mist, hence the bubbles...its all good though, cuz it totally works and I like the bubbles!!)

  Lay your paper down on the block and rub very gently.  This is so much fun!!

Make sure you let your paper dry before stamping over top of it.  I used Staz-on or you can use the new Archival Black ink by Stampin' Up! to be 100% sure it won't bleed into your image if you're in a hurry.

Once you get this amazing technique down, the possibilities are endless!!

Here are the cards I made using these pieces!

Check out what our amazing Design Team created using this fun and funky watercolor technique!

Pamela Wu - Stinky Tofu

Kathy Alt ~ Kathy's Stamping World

Sara Grafton ~ Craft Break

 

Melissa Stout ~ The Stamp Doc

Jennifer Gregorsky - Jenny G Paper Crafts

Technique Tuesday! Markers and Clear Blocks!

Happy Tuesday!

Donna here from Organized Chaos to share with you another Technique Tuesday post!

Are you excited to see a fun way to use your markers today?

We're going to stamp with our markers and our clear blocks.  Wait..What?!

First Step.  Pick out any of your markers that you'd like to use.

Then grab a block that is at least as big (if not bigger!!) than the paper you will be "stamping on"

Next:  Color your block!

  

I colored in stripes here.  In this example, I placed the paper on the desk, and stamped with my block.  I pressed pretty hard, but I wanted the textural white space to show.  If you want your ink to be more uniform and not so much white space, I recommend you put your block on the desk, put your paper on top of it, and use your brayer to roll with even pressure across the block.  (this is why its better to have a bigger block than your paper)

If you want to really make a statement:

Try coloring your block in a random color pattern,

Then spritz the block with alcohol

 the more alcohol you add, the swirlier the colors will get....I love watching this part!

See the difference between the two?  (notice I missed a few spots with the alchol spritzer...the colors didn't swirl as nicely as I wanted.  just flip the cardstock and try again!)

Add some embellishments....

and viola!

Your Card Is Done!

Check out what our designers came up with and be sure to check their blogs for details on how they made their card!

Donna Smit ~ Organized Chaos

Pam Steckman ~ Stampin' in the Sun

Kim Ryden ~ Stamping with Kim

Thanks for stopping by!  Check back tomorrow and see how our designers use the Seasonally Scattered stamp set!