New to the Blog: Technique Tuesday

Hello friends and followers!

Today -- hard to believe it's Tuesday, how did we skip over Monday? -- I would like to introduce to this blog a new feature that I'm calling "Technique Tuesday".  Yes, I'm aiming to make it weekly, and what "it" is will be some new cardmaking techniques that you may find interesting.  I'll be doing some stamping techniques, some coloring techniques, unique folds and more.  Make it a habit to drop by on Tuesday if you'd like to jump start your creative mojo with something different, or as my signature says, "defiantly different."

For this installment, I'd like to show you a different sort of stamping technique to add color and zing to your card background: Painter's Tape Stamping.  

Here is the finished product, a card I made in preparation for this post:

I modified a technique I first saw on a SplitCoast Stampers video. In that video, the crafter used masking tape and glossy cardstock.  Here, I use regular cardstock and blue painter's tape, available in any home improvement store in the paint section.  It looks like this:

Cut off a piece of this tape about the width of your stamp pad. I use Close To My Heart Exclusive Ink Pads, a water-based dye ink that is acid free. (Shop for them by clicking HERE.)

This blue tape is available in many widths; rip it down some if yours is too wide for your paper, or use it as is.  (I ripped mine down.)  You're only going to use ONE piece of this tape -- waste not, want not -- in three different shades of ink. Don't worry, you'll be transferring your ink completely from the sticky side of the tape to the paper; your ink pad won't discolor. 

STEP 1:  Start with your lightest color of ink first.  Here, I used CTMH's "Champagne" colored ink.  Lay the piece of tape directly on to the stamp pad, like this, sticky side onto the ink:

STEP 2:  Ink the tape up well by rubbing your finger over the tape. Gently pick it up and place the piece of tape directly onto the card. Rub the tape well -- it will stick, but it's easy to remove, and the beauty of using painters' tape versus masking tape is that it won't pull up your paper fibers when you remove it. Pull up just a section first, like this: 

If the coverage of ink isn't what you hoped for, gently lay it back down and rub the tape again to move the ink around a bit.  

STEP 3:  Remove the tape, and reuse it by inking up your next lightest color, repeating as many times as you'd like to get the desired effect you want:

STEP 4:  Allow all of the ink to dry thoroughly before stamping a sentiment or other art on top of your painters' tape stripes. Embellish the card as you wish. 

Tah-dah!  You've now learned how to stamp using Painters' Tape. Fun, ehhh?  And a cool part: no stamp clean-up ... just throw away your used piece of tape when you're done.  

A little hint: If you're making more than one of these cards, you can use individual pieces of tape for each color ink pad. Simply write the color on the back (non-sticky) side of the tape and use it as much as you need to, without fear of cross-contaminating ink colors.  

Did you like this tutorial?  Would you like to see more? Recommend a topic, in the comment section below, or drop me a line at my e-mail: cardmonkey@comcast.net.  

Thanks for stopping by!


DeFiaNtLy DiFfeReNt & CreAtiVeLy Yours,