Stampscapes Tutorial - Brayered Scene

Hi Everyone!

Just thought I'd post this as I finally have a few free minutes at the shop!  I was playing around with the brayer last week and actually remembered to take a few photos along the way.  Hope this gives you some insight to what I'm doing on this end.... it's easy peasy!

First off I used Memento Summer Sky as my base layer.  I didn't want it to fade so brayered many layers of this one colour.  Also... for my scenes I don't brayer like everyone else.  Whenever you take a class or watch a video the instructor says to go lightly in one direction so you don't get lines.  This is true for the most part and I do this for some cards with lighter coloured inks!   For me it's... au contraire grasshopper!  I've found that loading my Speedball brayer with lots of ink works great... start brayering at the top or side to start and move the brayer down as you go.  I use quite a bit of pressure and the ink goes down the paper with it.  If you find there's too much ink in a spot then run your brayer over scrap white paper and then go back to your project and repeat until the excess is gone.  I've also found that if you do this and also work the ink into the paper that the lines go away.  If they don't, then load your brayer again with the same colour and really work it in again.  Move quickly and go back and forth from the project to scrap paper until the desired effect is reached.  The reason for how I brayer is probably due to the amount of ink I apply.  It seems that the paper absorbs the ink or, maybe there is enough on top of the glossy paper that pressure from working the ink into the paper makes it blend... Who knows.  Everyone has their own way of doing things so if you are more comfortable using light pressure and less ink.. go for it!  

The next layer is done using a two inch strip of ink on your brayer of Stonwashed Adirondack Dye Ink.  This time only start from the top first, working the ink down the page and when that's done head down to the bottom and work the ink up!  Again, go back and forth to your scrap paper to rid your brayer of excess ink.

The third layer is Adirondack Dye Ink Denim.  I love the look of these colours together and you can feel the drama being created (at least I can!)  Only ink 1/2" of the brayer with this colour as it is deep and you don't want to cover up the other two!  Play with it until you get the right look you want.  On some pieces I have gotten a different effect that resembles the Northern Lights so dont ever think your project should turn out perfectly blended! 

Now the fun begins!!  Using Archival Ink, Jet Black, stamp your images where you'd like.  I wanted the lighter area in the middle to be on the water as if moonlight was shining down from somewhere....so stamped the Lakeside Cove stamp above it.  The next stamp, Pines and Rocks was lined up and stamped beside the cove with half of it stamped off the page.  The bottom of the paper looked empty and I wanted to try my new stamps so... used Sedge Bank Left at the bottom and stamped most of it off the page.  This jut out looked too darned empty so used the Bush stamp to add some taller weeds.  Once I added the weeds the bank was a better size to use with my Wading Fisherman.

The last step on this scene was to add a little something to jazz it up a bit.  For the white dots I used my white pen, carefully trying not to make white globs.  You have to touch the paper ever so lightly!!  The scene needed a bit more so used Distress Ink Frayed Burlap to lightly colour the rocks along the water in the cove.

There you have it!  I'm sure you'll come up with something exciting for your scene.  Don't forget to practice stamping on spare paper first so you get the depth of field right!  The 'Jolly Green Giant' doesn't fish as far as I know!  haha!

Stampscapes Stamps Used:

048E  Lakeside Cove

195G  Pines and Rocks

186B  Wading Fisherman

234F  Sedge Bank Right

191A Bush

Good luck and have fun!

Hugs,

Sheree