Splashin' Some Inks

 

Today I want to share a post from 2013, back when I went by The Creator's Leaf. Many of you will remember those days. And for those of you who are newer friends - 2013 was around the time I began playing with art. Quite literally. I went through CZT training in 2012, then gradually moved on to color. Thank you, Mr. Pinterest!  In early 2013, I heard about Dylusions Ink Sprays and my life was changed. Snap! Just like that! Not even kidding. 

I watched videos and read articles and February 8, 2013, I began to splash some colors with these inks! The two spreads you see above are my first and second results. My techniques have improved and advanced but these are still two of my favorite sets of Dylusion-ed pages. Super easy and only took about ten minutes per spread. Let me show you what I did. 

Back then I was working in a Dylusions' Creative Journal by Dyan Reaveley. Huge pages at 9" x 12", a two page spread gave me lots of area to fill up. The pages were heavy duty card stock. These days I work on either watercolor paper or mixed media paper of at least 140 lb. weight. I spritzed water onto the paper, then sprayed a bit of vibrant turquoise Dylusions Ink Spray right into the wet areas. 

For this spread of pages I used just three colors. As the inks spread and mix, they make other colors. In addiction to the turquoise, I sprayed on some bubblegum pink . . . 

. . . and lemon zest. Then I sprayed on more water . . . 

. . . and closed the book. I pressed on the pages with the book closed, then opened it back up again. At this point I had wet, gloppy color on both pages. What a mess! Hahahaha!

I used some kitchen towels to blot up the excess water, then added bits of color in the blank areas.

And I ended up with some bright, beautiful color! The dark splotches you see are where I originally sprayed the blasts of turquoise. The color still moved with the water but due to the paper I was working on those splotches still remain. Card stock is not really the way to go with these inks. 

I got all this beautiful with just these three colors. Vibrant turquoise, lemon zest and bubblegum pink. 

Then the playing part started. Hahahaha! I let my pages dry naturally but you could even do this next step on damp pages. Just not really wet, wet! This stencil also came from Dylusions. I held the stencil in place on top of my page and sprayed water right through the stencil and onto the paper. 

I let this sit for just a few seconds - count slowly to five - then lifted the stencil away. My stencil was still wet on the top side from the water spray, so I flipped it over and placed it face-down on the adjacent page.

I pressed it down, then lifted it away. I let both pages sit with the water on them for about 30 - 45 seconds. The water was re-activating the ink and the color started lifting everywhere the water was. After that 30 - 45 seconds, I dabbed the wetness away with the paper towel and dried my page with a heat gun. This technique is called 'ghosting.'

I used one other stencil the same way. I loved the pages just like this, but still had other ideas. 

I inked a stamp with StazOn ink and . . .

. . . stamped it on my pages in two different spots. 

Here is my final result with those two pages. At the time I thought I would tangle them, but I never did. In fact, if you have a copy of my first book Tangle Starts - you will find the left hand page in there. 

My second set of pages started like this. 

I applied the ghosting technique with some steampunk elements. 

If you know how much I love steampunk then you know how much I love this spread. Sadly, I don't have the vaguest idea where these pages are now. I need to find them. This book was taken apart and cut into 3.5" tiles for tangling. The card stock pages work great for that. And I haven't played with these inks in quite awhile. That might be a project for this afternoon.