Painting Your Stamps

Hello Stamping and Scrapping Friends!

Today, I am happy to be a guest here, thanks Bev and show you how to:

Paint Your Stamps With Brushos or Other Mediums

Brusho Stamping (Color Bursts, Bister)

As most of you know, I love painting my stamps with diluted Brushos.  I find they are so fun to play with and I get good results using them.  You can use either a solid or an open stamp for this technique.  The only difference is when using an open stamp, you can go back in with a wet paint brush and pull some of the color into the image and you can vary the color intensity by the amount of water used.

Here's what you need to do:
First, I have to say that I usually use my MISTI for this technique as I can stamp, paint on more color and stamp again.  If you don't have a MISTI you could also use a stamp positioner or just apply all the colour at once so you don't have to repeat the stamping process. 

1.  Sprinkle some of your Brusho onto your acrylic block or work surface. ( I use a folding plastic painter's palette that way I can fold it up and if I don't get a chance to use it all, I can come back and add water with no waste)

2.  Using only a little water, add some to your Brushos to activate the color.

3.  Taking a paint brush (medium to wide bristles), pick up some of the color from your palette and paint it directly onto your stamp making sure it is not too wet with a consistency similar to acrylic paint.

4.  Press the image onto your paper.  I usually use a heavy white cardstock or sometimes     watercolor paper.

5.  If you are planning on adding another color over the first stamped image then wash your brush, dab onto a cloth and repeat the process. 

6.  Wash stamps right after with warm water when you are done stamping so the Brushos don't dry and stick in the cracks of your stamps. 

HINT:  If your Brushos are too wet then you will have a blob when you stamp.  If you paint them on and they are not wet enough, simply spray the stamp with just water and stamp  right over again.  By adding the water, you will help to activate the color.

Another method is to paint your stamp with water then sprinkle the Brushos directly onto your stamp.  I don't tend to do this as I find it wastes too much of my powder but some of you may have better luck with that technique if the above doesn't work well for you.

If you don't own any Brushos there are other alternatives to Paint Your Stamps.

For those of you that do not own any Brushos here are a few more techniques you can use to paint your stamps.

Markers

I use a solid stamping image for this technique and you need to use water based markers or your image will not stamp properly.  I usually use Memento or Crayola but any water based marker should work.

1.  Using water based markers, color directly onto the stamp applying a variety of colours at the same time.  I try and overlap them a bit.

2.  Lightly spray the image with water.  Too much water and you will end up with a blob, not enough water and you will get a faint impression.

3.  Let rest for about 10 seconds to let the colors blend.

4.  Stamp directly onto your cardstock.

Watercolor Crayons

l.  Wet the stamp slightly with water using a wide bristle paintbrush.

2.  Scribble directly onto your stamp with the crayons.

3.  Stamp directly onto your cardstock or watercolor paper.  If the image is too blurred, try using less water.

4.  To add another layer of color, scribble onto the stamp without adding more water this time and stamp over the first impression.

Some other options you may want to try to paint on your stamps with are:

- re-inkers

- watercolor paints

- acrylic paint

My Samples:  (I did 3 samples using the same stamp so you could see the differences) 

All stamps from Penny Black.

Sample #1- Painting with Brushos

Sample #2- Painting with Waterbased Markers

Sample #3- Painting with Watercolor Crayons

I hope you find this tutorial helpful.  For more examples of this type of inking, be sure to visit my blog: Snippets