AECP Irresistable Inking Techniques

I just completed my 8th Altenew Certified Educator Program (AECP) course, Irresistable Inking Techniques, which features fun ways to maximize your ink supplies beyond just basic stamping. For my class project I have decided to build on the techniques covered in Lesson 2, Painting with Inkpads, which include:

• Using your dye inks as watercolors,
• Applying heat embossing to your stamped image to facilitate simple watercoloring,
• Applying spatter to a finished project using a brushing and tapping the brush’s barrel

I am definitely in the Fall cardmaking mood, so for my assignment I selected one of my favorite stamp sets, Altenew’s Dancing Sunflowers before then grabbing a panel of 4.25″ x 5.5″ Arches watercolor paper. In the course, the instructor indicates heavy cardstock will work for this technique, but as I knew I would be adding several layers of watercolor with ink, the better the paper, the better the results. Watercolor paper can absorb more water, has less warping, and allows for better blends of color.

Next up… heating embossing.

Instead of heat embossing with my usual white or gold, I decided I wanted my sunflower to have a clear dark outline. To achieve this, I first stamped my image in a nice espresso colored ink, leaving my paper and my stamp in my Misti stamping platform. I then restamped my image using Versamark ink., before applying clear embossing powder and my heat tool. By using the clear embossing powder over my espresso ink I was able to get the dark ink outline I was after along the watercolor painting “grace” the embossed lines provide to an inexperience painter.

Once embossing was completed, I grabbed my favorite set of Altenew Crisp Dye Inks, Summer Afternoon, a #4 round paintbrush, a ceramic plate, and some water. To start, I stamped Buttercream ink onto my ceramic plate to use as a mixing surface, before then using a wet on wet technique. Wet on wet involves first applying clean water to to the area to be painted before then applying the watercolor, or, in this case, dye ink. This wet on wet technique creates a soft wash of color over the petals and the embossed lines help prevent the water from leaving the area you want painted.

After all of my petals had a base layer of ink, I repeated the process using the next darker color, Warm Sunshine, focusing on those areas of each petal where there would be a shadow. Lastly I finished the petals in Caramel Toffee ink, adding color only to the base of each petal where the shadows would be darkest before moving onto the flower center and the leaves.

When painting my image. I didn’t worry too much about getting everything perfect. The goal was just to create an imperfect, softly painted sunflower.

Once I was done with the main image, I decided to add a very light green wash around the flower to help it pop from the page. Again there was nothing detailed about this technique, though I did move up to a #6 round brush to create a looser, softer color wash. Next up, gold spatter.

I grabbed my Altenew Metallic Watercolor Pan set, my #6 round brush and clean water. After adding water to activate my gold paint pan, I loaded my brush, and then got to tapping the barrel creating random gold spatter across my sunflower. After everything was dry I cut down my panel and matted it in brushed gold cardstock before adding the matted image onto an olive green A2-sized card base. For my sentiment, I used Birch Press Design’s Hello in Sugar Script which I cut from both brushed gold and espresso brown cardstock. I placed the brown hello on top of the gold hello, slightly apart, to create a bit of a shadow. I also decided to add some gold shimmer pen to the sentiment for a little extra sparkle along with some gold embellishments to the final card.

This project turned out far better than I was expected. I am not a watercolor painter and this technique was “safe” enough that I could achieve lovely results. I hope you like it too!