Focus on Stamping Techniques Blog Hop

Welcome to the Focus on Stamping Techniques Blog Hop!

If you came from visiting Michelle Jones, then you are in the right place.  If you just happened upon my little corner of the blog world, simply start here and continue hopping until you return here -- our fun hop is one big loop for your viewing pleasure. 

On today's hop, we will be featuring a variety of stamping techniques.  While it is quick and easy to simply grab a stamp pad and use your stamp to apply ink to paper, there are so many fun, different techniques you can use to really step up your stamp -- including embossing, emboss resist, masking, two-step stamping, coloring on your stamps with markers, rock and roll, random stamping, generational stamping, watercoloring, and so, so many more! 

I decided to work with the watercoloring technique.  There are many ways to color your stamped images -- markers, watercolor paints, reinkers, or my go-to method, using your stamp pads.  To use this technique, you will need whatever color stamp pads you want and a water brush or blending pen.  First, you will want to squeeze your stamp pad gently in the middle (allowing the actual pad to touch the inside of the lid).  This will transfer some of the ink to the inside of the lid; thus creating a palette for you to draw color from.  Use your blending pen to pick up a small amount of the ink -- the more ink you grab, the more intense the color will be.  Then simply color your image as if using a paint brush.  The intensity of ink will fade as you color so you can either pick up more ink or use the faded color to create a shading effect.

You will notice shading variations in my flowers below.  I am not a coloring expert so my shading doesn't look very true to life, but I like the texture it gives to the image.  To create the swirl-y effect in the water in the bottom of the jar, I chose not to blend my coloring together too much.  I let the brushstrokes stand out more to give it some dimension.

Supplies used:

*Candlelight Garden stamp set (December SOTM)
*Georgie paper packet
*12" x 12" Canary cardstock
*12" x 12" Slate cardstock
*12" x 12" White Daisy cardstock
*White Daisy card bases
*Slate Exclusive Inks stamp pad
*Juniper Exclusive Inks stamp pad
*Champagne Exclusive Inks stamp pad
*Canary Exclusive Inks stamp pad
*StazOn Jet Black stamp pad
*Blending Pen
*Grey Enamel Gems
*Make It From the Heart, Volume 2, How To Program

To order these or any of our other fabulous Close to My Heart products, please visit http://jddesigns.ctmh.com.

Thank you for visiting me at JD Designs and for hopping with us on the Close to My Heart Focus on Stamping Techniques Blog Hop!  Next up on the hop is Kathy Burrows. I hope you'll hop on over to her blog for more inspiration.

Until next time, remember to design it with {heart}!