Inked Gradient Technique

I saw a nifty set of cards on Pinterest this weekend, and I loved the simplicity of the technique which requires only three ink pads . . . two colors and one black.

I thought I'd give it a try with a few of my favorite CS® inks and stamps.

I started with Leaf ink and sponged it onto the bottom half of a 4x5.25" White panel with a CS® Ink Applicator.

Next up, Lagoon ink, sponged onto the other edge. I have a few sponge edge marks on there, but we'll take care of those in the next step.

Stamp images onto the card with black ink. The images from the Orient Express collection make a great masculine card. And I added that crackle noise to the background with matching ink colors for a nice finishing touch.

Next, I tried it with Ruby and Topaz inks along with stamps from the Comfort Zone kit. Yummy! I love how the two ink colors combine to make a secondary color in the middle. Here are the two completed cards.

I hope you give 'er a try!
Tricia

Remember September

Happy Friday greetings from Kay today!

School is underway, fall is in the air already, and I don't want to let September slip away too quickly! So, I'm slowin' it down by revisiting Club Scrap Septembers.
First and most fresh in our thoughts is this month's Serenity. Have you gotten the chance to bust into your Serenity Kit yet? Don't let the month slip away without doing so.

My nephew was blessed with a baby boy recently, and the Serenity papers are perfect for the baby boy pics! Oh, and that's my dad. He'll be 94 in October, and he's finally a great Grandpa. Isn't he a handsome guy?

Then, backing up to just last September, the Orient Express Kit. This is Marilee's annual lemonade stand that we set up every year for Appleton's Art in the Park. She happens to be with Karen's daughter, Emma.

2010 September brought us Adobe. This 12x12 Adobe layout Tricia did made me smile when looking through the CS Community Art Galleria. That dog Flanagan just makes 'ya smile.

Hmmm, and what did 2009 September bring us?...can you remember?
Birds Of A Feather!!! Grandma Williamson always gets Marilee's birthday cakes. (I make the scrapbook pages.) I just loved that striped grosgrain ribbon in the embellishment pack. And I used the Unmounted Font from Birds of a Feather to make the page title.



I hope you have some September favorites, too. After all . . . there are 13 years of them here at Club Scrap!

Wishing you a great September, enjoy the serenity of the month.
Kay Williamson of Club Scrap

Bring on the Art Medium Challenge!

The challenge for Summer Camp this week is to use an art medium. It's so much fun to look around at your stash and see what can be explored! I thought it would be a good idea to review a few simple things that you can do with watercolors that will help you gain points for your cabin and make some beautiful things at the same time!

Remember this fabulous sheet of UM stamps from the Orient Express collection? I love that sheet, especially for masculine cards. That's what I'll use for our techniques.

Grab your watercolor crayons and pencils--my favorite art mediums!

Mist the unmounted stamp with water, and color directly onto the moist stamp with the heel of a watercolor crayon. You can use just one color, or mix and blend for variety.

Stamp onto a beautiful felt finish Ivory from Orient Express. Without adding color to the stamp, re-mist, and stamp again for a second image.

Use the image on a card panel or scrapbook page. Here, I just cut the art piece into randomly sized quadrants.

This is another image from the same UM sheet stamped with the same technique. The second softer impression of the image is on the base of the card panel. The first bolder frame was cut from the stamped sheet and layered onto the card with foam adhesive.

Here, I started by stamping the word onto a piece of smooth white paper first, and then covered it with a mask made of a Post-It note. Next, stamp the image over the mask, and remove the mask. Cool effect, eh? (It's helpful if the masked image has a defined area, like the frame around the word.)

Color the image with watercolor pencils. (I may be 40, and I STILL love to color, don't you?)

Blend the colored areas with a water brush.

My favorite part--use a really moist water brush tip and the watercolor pencil to create splatter on the stamped image. Speed the drying process with a heat tool.

Here's the finished card. So pretty! Notice how I stamped the Blue panel with that nifty splatter image from the same sheet of stamps.

What's your favorite medium? Post your answer in the comments below, and next week Tuesday I will randomly select someone to receive a super-fun treat from the clubhouse!