Today, I am creating a gorgeous card using an ink dripping technique with All-Purpose Ink. By simply dripping color onto watercolor paper with an eye dropper, you can create a gorgeous bold marble appearance. The colors are vibrant and maintain a separateness that gives a mixed media background. When this technique is paired with a gorgeous JoyClair Stamp background the outcome is divine.
I wanted to share a very easy and quick way to add color to flower or rose images using All-Purpose Ink. The application of the ink with the Fantastix is fast and smooth like butter. I could also build layers of ink to get the desired shadows in the flower. A tiny amount of ink goes a long way and the coverage is excellent.
The world of mixed media has exploded over the last several years. I have to admit, I have caught the bug and there’s no turning back. Have you seen an altered 3-D object or canvas with many textural elements and just wondered how the artist created it? I am always trying to pick things apart and figure out how they are made. I love the challenge of reproducing a cool effect or technique and even more, I love when unexpected results lead to something better than I couldn’t have imagined.
There are many different tools and supplies to use in this area of artistic expression. It can get overwhelming especially if you are just starting out. I’m going to break it down for you and give you a list of supplies to get started and maybe a few tried and true techniques to help your imagination take off!
Let’s break down some basic elements of Mixed Media!
Surfaces
First, you need a substrate, which is the surface on which you are going to create. It can be paper, wood, fabric, metal or canvas. Here I have a paper tag and a canvas board. There are no limits on what type of substrate you can work on—the only limit is your imagination.
Gesso
If you have a cool idea for a mixed media project, it is helpful to gesso your substrate. Gesso generally comes in clear, white or black and is used to prime the surface. It is not acrylic paint. Gesso prepares your surface so that when you spray, paint, or stamp on it later, all pigments will behave the same way every time. When you are working on different surfaces like paper, fabric, glass, chipboard, metal, resin, the best way to ensure your pigments are going to behave the way you expect is to cover everything with a layer of gesso first. It presents a neutral ground and you will have much better results.
Coat your surface with a nice layer of gesso to prepare it for texture and pigment. Don’t forget to let it dry before moving on.
Texture Paste
Texture is a wonderful aspect of creating mixed media art. Texture allows the viewer’s eye to wander to all the fine details of the project. To create texture, you will need a type of texture paste and a palette knife. To make structured texture elements, you’ll also need a stencil or two. For each of these 3 items, there is a considerable amount of variation of product to chose from. Let’s start with texture paste. I’ll break them up into two broader categories. There is a gel, which comes in different finishes (glossy, semi-gloss, matte) and thicknesses. Imagine makes a great gel paste called Creative Medium. It comes in different metallic colors, iridescent colors, and clear. Gels that have a gloss finish tend to resist pigments when dried on a surface. This can be useful when the shiny resist effect is desired. Then there is modeling paste. These tend to be good as a strong adhesive for heavier objects. It is opaque and less flexible than gel. To spread these pastes, you need some palette knives. They come in different shapes and they are usually either plastic or metal. Both types of palette knives work well and it mainly comes down to a preference of the artist and the type of stencil you are working with.
Scoop some of the texture paste, in this case Creative Medium, out of it’s container with a palette knife. Spread it over the stencil on to your surface ike you are icing a cake. You don’t need to cover your entire surface or use the entire stencil, just spread it where you want it. Lift off the stencil and let dry before moving forward.
Pigments
Finally, you get to add color! You have prepped your substrate and now it is ready to receive the colors and inks to create a theme and mood. Whether it is paint or ink, the pigments and colorants come in all types of mediums such as water-based, solvent-based or oil-based. Tsukineko and Imagine offer a variety of inks that work wonderfully with mixed media art. Imagine has Fireworks and Walnut ink sprays, irRESISTible colored texture sprays, and Pico embellishers. Tsukineko’s All-Purpose Ink is a rich dense pigment ink that can be used as a wonderful colorant. Depending on what you are creating and what effect you are trying to achieve there are many colorants to get your desired effect.
Now that your surface is prepped and textured, you get to add color—my favorite part. Have fun!
Check out more of Kassy’s awesome mixed media projects on YouTube!
This Camper theme stamp set from Joy Clair is so fun and the pairing with the versatile Imagine and Tsukineko products made this project great! I love the clouds stencil and when I saw the stencil I ended up using for the grass, I couldn’t resist using this old pre-framed canvas for this fun project. Joy Clair also included an SVG file for the stamp set so I didn’t have to fussy cut the stamped images. Of course, I used VersaFine Clair ink to get the most vibrant, crisp images possible.
I love to create Clean & Simple cards, but at the same time, I love to use embossing techniques and different colors on my designs. Combining both styles in a single card is not complicated when you have materials like VersaFine Clair and Fireworks Sprays. This is a single layer card created with the stamp sets God’s Masterpiece and Broken Brick Background from Joy Clair Stamps. To make it, I selected Whisper White cardstock and different colors of VersaFine Clair Inks.
Directions
Step 1
Create the base of the card using Whisper White cardstock. The size of my card is a regular size 4.25″ x 11″ with a score in 5.5″.
Step 2
Stamp the Broken Brick Background on the upper part of the card using VersaFine Clair Morning Mist and cover it with clear embossing powder. Melt the powder with the heat tool.
Step 3
Arrange the rest of the images on your stamping tool. I am using the Stamparatus from Stampin’ Up but any stamping tool is good for that.
Step 4
Continue inking only the stamps that will be the focus of the card. For that, I used VersaFine Clair Nocturne and Embossing Powder in Clear. Continue the stamping process inking one by one the additional stamps with different tones of VersaFine Clair Ink and emboss them with clear embossing powder.
Step 5
Remember that one of the virtues that VersaFine Clair has is that you have more time to emboss your images. As you noticed, one of my main images overlaps the brick background. This is the moment when you said..”Uhh?! How do I fix that?!” But don’t worry I will show you the solution. You only need to continue with the process.
Step 6
To “resolve or cover” my mistake, I stamped in a separate piece of Whisper White card stock the overlap part of the image, with the same ink and embossing. Then I fussy cut it with my scissors to use only the part that I need to replace. To give color to some of the stamped images, I applied and mixed the Fireworks colors with a paintbrush.
Step 7
Why shouldn’t a single layer card have texture? I definitely loved making this project. It kept the concept of a lot of white and no paper layers to be in the category of CAS.
You are a Special Blend! This two-toned coffee theme card with its fun sentiment could make for a nice Father’s day card for the special dad that loves his coffee. I know in our house that sure is true. This card boasts shades of blue ocean with a hint of dramatic black all using one of my favorite inks—VersaFine Clair. Continue reading to see how I made this card!
Skill: Advanced Time: 1 hour
Directions
Step 1
Use the direct to the paper method to ink a piece of cardstock from top to bottom in sections using your VersaMagic DewDrops. Start with your lightest color first moving to the darkest color. And let dry completely.
Step 2
Position your stamp and cardstock piece in the MISTI Stamping Tool and stamp the background image in VersaMark ink and then sprinkle with clear embossing powder. Remove excess and heat set image.
Step 3
Use Nocturne VersaFine Clair ink to ink over a portion of entire embossed piece. Use a soft damp cloth to gently wipe the embossed areas clean from the black ink and reveal the colored image underneath. Ink the card only one-third of the way. I am using a band to mask the area area where it is ink over and where it is not. But you could mask off a line with washi tape if you wanted a strong edge.
Step 4
Trim a piece of specialty paper to 2 inches tall and 5 – 6 inches—long enough to wrap around your card. Stamp “You’re A Special Blend” sentiment from your Coffee Lovers set repeatedly in VersaFine Clair Warm Breeze across the paper band.
Step 5
Stamp the coffee cup twice in VersaFine Clair Fallen Leaves onto white cardstock. Then stamp the heart inside it using VersaFine Clair Warm Breeze.
Step 6
Cut out the coffee cup and ink the edges using VersaMagic. On your second cup, cut out a band and layer it on top of the colored cup using foam tape.
Step 7
Trim the embossed panel to fit onto a plain inked matt and add sewing detail. Adhere the panel to the front of a card using foam tape. Wrap the stamped band around the card and adhere the colored cup in place. Finish off the card with pearl and diamanté in the same shades as the inks used.
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