Hello friends! I have finally gotten around to editing videos again and today I am back with a technique that I had blogged about previously. You can see the Blog post with the video here. I had used a Tim Holtz stamp, sprayed it with water and then used it to lift ink off a background.
Around the same time, I was playing around with laser printable paper that I bought on Amazon. It’s not as thick as the Distress/Ranger Kraft Heavy Stock but it is similar in color and you could print on it in a laser printer.
Side Note: On many of these specialty papers, in order to get a decent print on my Xerox Phaser 6280 (admittedly very old 😉 ), I need to use a setting for transparencies. I think the paper goes though more slowly or at a higher temp maybe? In any event that works better than cardstock settings etc.
And so I was playing around trying to print it in the laser printer to do foiling. Then I decided to see if it would cut on my digital cutter (Black Cat Cougar) because it was less stiff and thinner than the Kraft Heavyweight cardstock. (Answer- yes!!). And so I kind of had Kraft paper on the brain.
So since I had just finished editing the video about stamping with water, I wondered if that lift off with water would work on Distress Heavyweight Kraft paper. So I played around with it and here I’m going to demonstrate a couple of different techniques using the Kraft paper with stamping off with water.
I started out with three pieces of Kraft heavyweight cardstock, and I decided to color them using regular Distress ink, Distress Oxide ink and then a combination of spray stains.
The first project used Distress Oxide ink in Uncharted Mariner. (LOL, I kept calling it Ancient Mariner in the video 😀 ).
I did the direct paper technique where I used the ink pad directly on top of the cardstock and rubbed it around to color the background. You could also use a brush, a foam applicator, a combination- whatever you are comfortable doing. And you don’t have to fill in the whole thing. I kind of like leaving a little bit of the Kraft to show through. You could also use different colors if you want. It was just easier to do a single color while making the video. I put that aside and then I did the same thing on a different piece with regular Distress ink. Then I used regular Distress Spray Stains on the next piece of cardstock. I did spray a little bit of Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide spray to give some interest- just some little spritzes. Again, do what you like here. I used Distress Sprays Stains in Crushed Olive, Mermaid Lagoon (Uncharted Mariner and Mermaid Lagoon are two of my favorite colors) and then I decided to throw in some Kitch Flamingo.
I just sprayed directly on to the cardstock. You could also spray on your work surface and then blot up the ink with the cardstock. That takes a lot of time for me, so I usually just spray. But as usual, you do you. I did end up mopping up the excess on a fourth sheet of Kraft cardstock so as not to waste the ink.
I dried the sprayed cardstock with a heat gun because you want most of the wetness to be gone before the next step.
I set up my Tonic stamp positioner, and if at all possible you do want something like this. It just makes it easier because we are going to bring the stamp to the paper multiple times as you will see in the demo.
If you notice the acetate, I have a post and video on how I use it here.
I line the paper up with a piece of media grip so I don’t have to keep re-aligning my stamp with each new sheet of cardstock. I still use magnets when I can, just to keep it from being lifted up because of the wet stamp. The first test was the Kraft cardstock that I coated with Distress Oxide in Uncharted Mariner. I line my stamp up the way that I want it. If you notice, in this example this stamp has some tape on the back because these are polymer stamps that I made myself, and I didn’t back them with foam. Then I bring the clear top of the stamp positioner onto the stamp and lift back up so the stamp will now be in the right position to create the image onto the cardstock. I use a mister spray bottle- you can use whatever mister you have. I like the Ranger mister- it gives a little bit better coating on the stamp. And then I mist the stamp with water. If there is any excess water around the stamp, just wipe it up with a paper towel, etc. and then bring the stamp down and press. Just leave it there for a couple of seconds. You definitely want the water to kind of make contact with the paper underneath. When you lift up, you’ll see some of the ink pooled there. Don’t mop it up from the cardstock if you can avoid it. Generally, what I do, especially if I’m using the positioner or clear stamps that I can see through, is I wipe the stamp off with the paper towel and stamp again to lift off some of that leftover pooled ink, lift the stamp up, wipe it again, lift off more and you’ll see that some of that Kraft color will show through. This is a different look from the white paper that I made in my original post.
In my video, I set this project aside because I wanted to go on to the next one. However, if you want to dry it with the heat gun, you can.
The second attempt was with the Kraft cardstock coated with regular Distress ink in the same color. I repeated the same process as earlier. In this second instance I did use a heat gun to heat the cardstock for a couple of seconds to see if it would develop. Bringing the heat to it hurried the process along so I could tell that it actually had lifted. Just looking at it wet, I was having trouble deciding do I want to go with more water? You can if you want to however the more water you bring to the project, the less distinct the stamp image will be. This technique is going to give you a less distinct image than it would if you were just stamping with ink, because the water bleeds out and kind of diffuses the image, if you will. Which is the intention behind this experiment.
I repeat the process again on the third piece that was sprayed with Distress Spray Stains. In this test case, there were lots of colors pooling and I had to left off excess ink a few more times. There’s just more ink when you’re using the sprays. I felt like I might need to go in and stamp with more water. But again, I decided to make sure by drying it a little bit with the heat gun.
At this point, I personally would have left it the way it was- very subtle. However, I stamped one more time with water to show you the difference.
The stamp positioner makes this all possible. Back when we used to have to do it by hand it was so much more work! We definitely owe a huge Thank You to the person that designed it! thank you, thank you, thank you!
Most times I do like to let things air dry. I do think the inks, especially when I do the Distress Oxide resist, but even this technique, develop better when you air dry. But if you’re in a hurry, it still works. After heating this second stamping the image was bit lighter and that was where I left it.
Then I decided to repeat the same process with different white cardstock- Tim Holtz/Ranger Distress white heavyweight, Distress watercolor paper, and finally just plain cardstock that I usually use for practice/testing purposes.
I used the same inks, and used the same Distress Spray Stains on the watercolor paper. The effects were pretty similar, although a bit brighter. Once again with the Spray Stains I had to stamp a couple of times. My favorite was the Distress White Heavyweight cardstock. I think that will now be my new go-to for this technique!
If the ink pads for this technique, I think it is a bit easier because there’s less ink to have to remove. But all three- regular Distress ink pad, Distress Oxide ink pad, and Distress Spray Stains- work on all the different papers I tested and I love this idea for a soft, more subtle background! Hope you give it a try!
NOTE: I had thrown my samples in a pile and when I later grabbed them to scan them in, some of them had continued to develop. I have some future posts/videos that I still need to edit and I will probably do a wrap up video with lessons learned (plus a new idea 🙂 ) so look for that in the future. But for now, I am thinking of revising my thoughts on letting the images dry naturally if you want a little bit more contrast between the image and the background. You might want to use a heat gun to dry it all the way to make sure it is to your liking. I’m ok with the subtle look, but you may not be.
Here are the test cases from this experiment:
This last one is my favorite. In my wrap up video, I’ll provide a sample of the vanilla colored Heavyweight cardstock.
If you are like me and love to play around in photoshop, then these are also great pieces to work with. Here’s a quick and easy change using another splattered image and just a few blend modes…
If you are interested in the laser printable and cuttable craft paper I mention at the beginning of the video, here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B5R3MW8P
Thanks for reading and watching! Enjoy!
