January 21, 2010

Thursday's Insider Tip

More Home Front for you today!

And a cool way to stamp with Maya Mists.

I made this layout a couple of weeks ago. I wanted the word HEARTS to stand out, but I didn't have a stamp pad the color of green to coordinate with the green Dollhouse paper. I wondered if I could get a similar color mixing my mists. I figured it was worth a try.


I got out my craft mat, stamps, and mists. For my layout above, I used the Nadiya alphabet set, but you could use any stamp you'd like. For this demo, I thought I use the new doily stamp that will be available in the February Baker's Dozen kit, on sale the 28th at midnight.

Then I sprayed 5 shots of green mist, trying to get it in the same relative area.

I added a couple of squirts of turquoise. There is no exact science to this, you're going to have to test out your colors by stamping on a sheet of scratch paper. When I did the word "hearts," I tried just the green, but it wasn't blue enough, so a couple of squirts of turquoise and it was almost an exact match. I believe the ratio was 3 green to 2 turquoise squirts. What I did for the demo got me a darker green color. You can guess the possibilities are endless with this technique.
I then mixed the two colors together with a paint brush, I recommend the Claudine Hellmuth ones available in the shop, they are really sturdy brushes.

The next step was getting the ink onto the stamp, I just rubbed the stamp around in the ink until it was covered. It will be very juicy, there is no pad to absorb any of the ink.

So you'll want to stamp off a few times on the craft mat:

Then you can stamp on your paper, I highly recommend you do a few samples on scratch first. HIGHLY!


I left for an hour, came back and my mists were drier, but I tried another stamp and got this cool image, much more mottled:


When I was all done, I just washed the craft mat off in the sink and it's good to go. That's why I love that mat so much, it's so easy to clean!

So there's my insider tip for you, make your own stamping ink colors with Maya Mists and the craft mat.

8 comments:

Conchita said...

Genial!!!! Thanks and hugs

Ally said...

Hey Emily! I love this technique - I actually tried it without mixing them and got a cool multi-colored effect. You can also smear a couple of distress pads on the mat and spray with water, then use the stamp with that ink too - that's another cool look, a little more faded I think, but still really good pigment.

Debbie said...

great technique and love the LO !~

kathleen said...

Very cool, mle! Thanks for the tip!

Mandie said...

emily, that is awesome! i will soooo have to try that! love it!

Hot Wheels and Glue Guns said...

Thanks for the great idea. I saw something mentioned about this on the message board, and I was curious.

lindam said...

I'm so glad you gave us this tip. I may have to get this easy-to-clean mat!

Michele said...

Such a cool idea! I'm gonna have to try this! TFS