Just Add Ink #468 | Just Add 'C'

Hello there stamping friends! Welcome, Welcome. It's time again for the new challenge over at Just Add Ink | Just Add Ink #468. We have a fun letter theme for you - Just Add 'C'.

Create anything that relates to the letter 'C' - Christmas, Cake, Cats, Colours, your favourite stamp set starting with C, a technique starting with 'C', Colours starting with 'C' ... the possibilities are endless.

I chose one of my most favourite things to do when creating, colouring, and I've attempted a technique that is still fairly new to my skill set - No Line Water colouring. I've had a couple small attempts at this technique before, like this one here a few years ago but haven't really found the right image to attempt it again. Until today.

For the flower image I've used the rose from the To a Wild Rose stamp set and then inked that up with Sahara Sand ink, I then stamped the Sahara Sand Ink off once and then used the second generation of ink left on the stamp as my outline to colour. I then coloured in the rose with Merry Merlot Ink. I used the lid of my ink pad as my palette for my ink and then using an aqua painter picked up the ink off the lid to colour. Mixing a teeny tiny amount of ink with water on the aqua painter washes out the colour and you end up with a lighter variation of the ink.

What makes this technique work is that the image that you are colouring needs to have the faintest outline as possible for you to colour. So the Sahara Sand colour stamped off is just perfect for this technique. I tried to colour this at night and with the shadows from my lights covering where I was colouring and it made it near impossible to see what I was doing.

Over that faint outline you then colour the image. There still will be 'lines' as such from where you have coloured the image but you don't get the harsh thick lines that you get if you had just stamped the image first in full strength ink.

I love the contrast of the bright rose and the Basic Black sentiments against the Shimmery White cardstock layers. I embossed the Shimmery White layer with the Scripty 3D Embossing folder and then made a skinny rectangle frame using the Stitched Rectangle Dies. The White on White is a beautiful touch  and the embossing a rectangle frame really lift the card and take it from plain to having that something extra and special.

While this technique looks fabulous you will need to take your time to practice. I ruined about 10 sheets of water colour paper just trying to get the colouring and shadows right. What's the saying 'Rome wasn't built in a day'? I'm going to try this colouring with other colours and see what results I end up with. There is nothing like de-stressing and unwinding than with a bit of colouring.

Make sure you check out all the amazing inspiration from the rest of the JAI design team for this challenge over at the Just Add Ink Blog. Want to play along? All the details are on the JAI blog. Can't wait to see what you choose to do for your 'C' project. 

 Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!

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