An Experiment with Spritzing Proves the Rule

Okay, so it's time to come clear on the subject of spritzing. I love inking up a stamp, spritzing it with water, and seeing a lovely watercolor effect with absolutely no skill or artistic ability on my part.

Pump, pump the spritzer bottle, and MAGIC!

For years, however, Hero Arts inks have disappointed me with this technique.

The results have been blotchy and speckled and diseased-looking rather than pretty and blendy and watery. I'm not sure what it is about these inks. They are permanent dye inks, like Memento, but while Memento inks respond well to spritzing, Hero Arts inks simply don't. At least for me.

Which leads us to today's card, which uses Hero Arts autumn leaves ombre ink with some very old wood-mounted Hero Arts skeleton leaf stamps.

The first thing you might notice is how the maple leaf stamp appears more solid and a bit more watercolored, at least on its top half. The other leaf stamp has a stronger skeleton effect. As you can see, spritzing doesn't result in much blending of the inks on a skeleton stamp. You can see three clear lines on the top right image. I assure you I dabbed the stamp on the pad repeatedly to try to blend the colors. Those lines will blur as I get more use from the ombre ink pad...this was its first use.

Check out the close-up below, and if you can enlarge it on your screen, please do. You'll notice that the inks on both images appear blotchy, as if the pigments clumped together on the stamps. The top half of the maple leaf doesn't look too bad, but the bottom half looks sort of diseased. This has been my experience with all the Hero Arts dye inks for a very long time.

Now, given its diseased look, it's strange that I really like this card. At least most of the leaves look mottled, which makes the effect look more deliberate than accidental. The color blending will get better over time, so that doesn't concern me, either. In real life, autumn leaves are disintegrating anyway, so to me, the look doesn't come off as too unnatural.

This proves the rule, however, that we stampers simply cannot have too many different inks.

The Hero Arts ombre inks aren't ideal for spritzing, and while Memento inks do work great with spritzing, they don't come in spectrum pads. The Kaleidacolor spectrum pad inks generally work great with water.

My previous two posts prove that Hero Arts ombre inks can produce delightful results as well, and so they, too, have value, even if not so much for watercolor effects.

So we NEED Kaleidacolor and Hero Arts ombre inks both. Right?

I can justify any new purchase with enough twisted logic. It's a gift.

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts leaves, Papertrey sentiment
ink: Hero Arts ombre ink autumn leaves
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: rhinestones, water spritz bottle