WOW! I can’t believe I am finally ready to write this tutorial. I have had 6 appointments between 9:00 last night and 1:00 this afternoon with at least 3 more before the day is out! I am so excited about this technique, though that I can’t wait to share it with you. It is soooo easy! If you can smear ink you can do this!
Here are the step by step techniques that you can use to make a smeared ink card of your own! I used a lot of colors. Starting with the dark green for the hill, use your small ink pads to rub in the shape of a hill.
Next add the light green below the dark green. The lighter you rub the ink pad on the paper the lighter the color you will get.
Fill in the bottom left hand corner with a rust or dark orange ink. This is the brush or plants that you see in the picture. (You may substitute any other color that you wish to use at any time in the process.)
Next I added a little depth to the brush (rust orange color) by smearing a little pink on top.
Next it is time to fill in the sky. I actually used two colors of blue but it is not necessary for the final outcome.
For the colors of the sunset add some pink in the center of the picture above the horizon.
I actually added a little purple around the pink and down in the brush which you can see in the next photo.
Now it is time to define the horizon a little more. You can do this quite easily with the edge of your regular stamp pads as they are rigid – not foam. Begin making short random horizontal lines at the base of the hill. Turn the paper the other way if you desire and make short vertical lines to imitate fence posts in the distance.
Your background is now complete! It is time to stamp the foreground images into your picture.
Using the Nature Clear Rubber Stamps begin stamping leaves across the sky so that it appears you are standing under a tree and the branches are stretching toward the sunset within your view.
Use a combination of stamps if you like as you build your tree.
Add twigs and branches between the leaves for a more complete tree. Once you are happy with your tree, use a black pen or marker and outline the bottom half of each leaf or branch. This adds depth and interest to the project.
On my picture I decided I wanted the look of a path coming down toward the trunk of the tree. To do this I used the edge of the dark ink pad.
Next I began creating the brush in the bottom corner. Using your nature clear stamps and the same ink that the tree was stamped in, I created the brush. Remember that these stamps are so versatile that you can bend them into the shape that you need to create your card.
With this done you may choose to ink the edges in the dark ink or use it as it is. Create it into a card design and enjoy the finished results! It is as simple as that!
Hopefully you will have fun just smearing ink for your rubber stamping projects. For the above card I designed a card insert that was perfect to finish the card.
Happy Stamping!!!
Terry said,
April 24, 2009 at 11:47 pm
I love the beautiful colors. It is very soft and comforting!