Tutorials: Water Stamping

STAMPtember is in full swing at Simon Says Stamp!  This week's challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog is "Rock the Techniques"!  The technique I'll be sharing is a version of Water Stamping, which I saw online by the talented M. Carmen Sanchez (aka Cuchy).  Here's my finished project, along with a step-by-step of how the background was created:

Start by covering a piece of watercolor paper (or other sturdy paper) with Gesso.  Rub different colors of Distress Ink across your surface, straight from the ink pad.

Spray some water onto the Distress Ink to help it blend together, then let it dry.

Using ink blending tools or makeup sponges, add more Distress Ink to random areas where you want the color intensified.

Here's what it looks like after I rubbed on various colors of Distress Ink:

Pick a stamp (clear, rubber or mounted on cling film) and paint it with water, then stamp it onto your colored surface.  Here I'm using a Prima doily clear stamp.

The wet stamp will remove color wherever you stamped it down (see the faded white doily image)?

This was my first experimentation with water stamping and it worked okay, but I found that it works much  better with simpler shapes.  So I tried it again on the same background with some scribble circle stamps and they stood out much better!

I cut my collage down to size and finished off the background with another stamp from Paper Artsy that had some text:

Once my background was complete, I stamped on some more text (black ink) and added a girl and a cupcake image.



I added a stamped sentiment and some great tickets from Fancy Pants.  I love the banner at the top, too, which is a Simon Says Stamp exclusive die.

Water Stamping is a lot of fun and is a nice alternative to heat embossing with white powder to create that white effect.  Give it a whirl and see what you think!

Here are some of the products I used from Simon Says Stamp:

Dina Wakley Ranger WHITE GESSO	Peacock Feathers - Distress Ink	Picked Raspberry - Distress Ink	Squeezed Lemonade - Distress Ink	Festive Berries - Distress Ink	Spiced Marmalade - Distress Ink	Ranger Non Stick Craft Sheet
Ink blending tool	Prima Clear Stamps DOILY 1	Simon Says Clear Stamps SCRIBBLE FLOWERS	Paper Artsy Words 5	Simon Says Stamp Ribbon Banner Die	Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE	Lifestyle Crafts Genius Ultimate Platform System
Fancy Pants Me-Ology Ticket Roll	Indigo Blu Script Stamp	Bazzill Vintage Lace 6x6 Paper Pack	Kaiser Kaleidoscope Paper 6.5 x 6.5	Ranger Archival Jet Black Ink Pad	American Crafts Document Alphabet Stamps	Stamper′s Anonymous Tim Holtz Worn Text Stamp Set
Hero Arts Basic Alphabet Stamps

 
I can't wait to see what techniques you'd like to share with us!  Upload your projects to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog for your chance to win $50 to the Simon Says Stamp store!