I Might Be In A Rut

Yes, I might be in a rut, or two. Between the yellow+teal+red color combination and the stamp-with-an-acrylic-block technique, I'm not sure which rut is deeper. So I've been doing challenges to try to pull myself out of it, but I fell right back in.  Just look:

Yeah, the block, again. I started with the colors from the current Color Throwdown:

I used Distress Salty Ocean, Mustard Seed and Seedless Preserves. My printer apparently printed the Bermuda Bay a little bluer than it should have. Hmmm, maybe I'll play again using Peacock Feathers.

The key to stamping with an acrylic block and keeping control of your ink is to first cover your block with Versamark ink. This is a trick we learned in the last Online Card Classses: Watercolor For Card Makers class. You then put your colors of ink over the Versamark. I used the mini versions of these inks because it's easier to apply them, but I've used full-sized Distress ink pads before.

Because of the Versamark, once you spritz the inks, they blend fine, but they don't want to drip off the block, which allows you to turn the block over and get good placement. No runs, no drips, no errors. (Name that commercial, and the celebrity who starred in it.) Also, when you lift your block, the colors don't run outside the perimeter of your stamped block. Nice ...

This time I decided to use my I-might-have-invented-something idea to leave the acrylic block on the water color paper and not lift it. I just let it dry in place. This is also easy when you have your water color paper taped to a separate board or something else sturdy so you can move it somewhere and let it dry, thus freeing up your work space to continue crafting.

So, once that was dry, I needed to figure out what to do with it. I glanced through my stack of Do These challenges and selected the current Freshly Made Sketches sketch:

I trimmed down the panel, then put a strip of black washi tape on it. Hey, it was out on my desk. Also, I own no purple washi tape, or I might have tried using that instead. Let's look at the bottom half of that card:

I did try to paint a purple line above the strip of washi tape, but it sorta got lost under the box of tissues. Ah, that box of tissues ... it was retrieved from my UFO pile (so proud), and amazingly it was made using the same set that I used for the sentiment. I just put it on with some foam tape.

I hope to one day move on from this technique, I really do. But first, I might try it with pastels. Yes, I bought some Hero Arts pastel mini ink pads. Shocking., I know. We'll see.

Thanks for stopping by!

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