Have a Sparkly, Splashy Christmas!

So after I embossed in white and painted using the Twinkling H2Os, I wondered what else I could do with them.

Turns out that sponging ink onto stamps can be a bit tricky, but I finally got pretty good results which became this sparkly, splashy, and extremely non-traditional Christmas card:

Here's how I did it.

1. Wet the paint pot pretty well with a large brush and lots of water. Swirl the brush around to loosen the pigment as much as possible. The green and red I used are very dark colors, but this technique will lighten the colors considerably.

2. Using a small sponge, pick up the wet paint from the pot and dab it onto the stamp. (If you use a paint brush, you'll make an ugly mess. Ask me how I know....) Keep dipping the sponge in the paint pot until it's dry, and then rub the sponge firmly into the pigment to pull more color onto the sponge. The repeat dabbings onto the stamp give a darker color and much better results than if you just try sponging dry pigment on a dry stamp or stop with the watery paint. It's weird, but it works. At least for me.

3. Once you've gotten as much pigment as possible on the stamp, pray it lightly with a mister full of water. Then stamp.

The panel is edged with a gold metallic marker and popped up with dimensionals.

I love this. I might even keep it for myself because I have no idea who on my Christmas card list would like it. Any takers?



Supplies
stamps: Papertrey (Grunge Me, Watercolor Wonders), Clearly Besotted (Happy Days)
ink: VersaMagic jumbo java
paper: Papertrey
accessories: dimensionals, gold metallic marker, sponge, Twinkling H2Os