Background Stamp: Multiple Impressions without Reinking

Yes, I had another background stamp to use in my ongoing effort to use all of my stamp sets. This one is one of my favorites!

Brushstrokes stamp by Stampin' Up!

Stampin' Up! has been doing a series of stamps these past few years that feature a watercolor-like design. I absolutely love them! This one, Brushstrokes, is no longer available from them. If you can find it on eBay, I recommend snapping it up!

I forgot to take a photo of the way that I inked the stamp. I used my trusty stamping ink spots, and I slid one color at a time--in rainbow order--across the rubber stamp. Now, most people will tell you to never slide the ink across the stamp (I believe because it might wreck the ink pad). Rules are made to be broken, though! Just be careful and don't press too hard. 

2 colors of ink visible on one ink pad

So when I did this, I did have a few times when one ink pad was slid partly onto where a previous color had been applied. That meant that my ink pad got a second color on it (see photo--at left is the unwanted color).

No worries! Just take a scrap piece of paper and stamp the ink pad onto it multiple times until the unwanted color is gone--and only the regular ink pad color is stamping. This technique is called "stamping off," though it's usually done for a different reason.

Stamp off the unwanted 2nd ink color

Often you would stamp off an inked stamp design that is too "juicy" (has too much ink) in order to get a softed, faded impression when you stamp. In this case, I repeated stamped--but with the ink pad instead of a stamp itself--and it removed the excess unwanted ink from the pad. Easy peasy!

So once I had my well-inked rainbow on the stamp, I didn't want to have to keep reinking it. It would be almost impossible to get the colored areas to line up in exactly the same places. If they didn't line up well, the mix of colors could get muddy--mixed, but also with a color like brown that often shows up with too many different colors mixed together.

Instead, I took a piece of Tim Holtz/Ranger Distress Watercolor Cardstock and sprayed it well with a water mister--it was curving and dripping wet after a few good sprays! In the photo at the top, the top left image is the paper after I stamped it while it was so wet. You can see that the colors are vibrant, and they are also smearing. That's because dye ink reacts with water. I could have increased the smearing by spraying the front of the card again to make the ink move even more. (I used Stampin' Up! inks, but if I'd used Tim Holtz/Ranger Distress Inks, which are reactive--they would have moved even more!)

I still had lots of ink on the stamp--and it was wet from having been pressed against the wet cardstock. I then stamped it onto the other piece of white cardstock. You can see there's lots of color there, too.

It was fading some, but I decided to pull out a piece of Tim Holtz/Ranger Kraft Heavystock paper and stamp on it. Kraft paper is cardboard brown, and so the colors are more muted on it. They are also more muted because it was the 3rd time I'd stamped using the same ink without reinking the stamp.

I'm not sure that I love the Kraft paper, but it is a good alternate sometimes.

I haven't yet used any of those 3 backgrounds. This was not my first foray with that stamp nor with making it a rainbow stamp. Here's a birthday card I did recently--same Brushstrokes background in a rainbow design--I think I made that background over a year ago! 

All the Feels stamp set by Kindred Stamps

Have you seen the newest Disney movie?  I loved the first movie, so I was excited to see the sequel--and enjoyed it, too. I already had this stamp set--I believe it's called All the Feels and is by Kindred Stamps. Looks like it's not currently available, but have no fear--they often bring back stamps from their vault, so there's always a chance.

Better yet, they have a new stamp set featuring their take on characters (both the old and the new) from the sequel movie. It's called Emotional Rollercoaster, and I can't wait to get it!

If you like pop culture stamps, Kindred Stamps is a company whose collection you should explore. They also have a lot of other stamps--including edgy ones.

My wish for you today is that you'll ind something joyful in your day!