Hello there! Thank you for joining us today for a tutorial on how to add color to stamped images using different coloring mediums of:
- Basic stamping and stamping off.
- Blending brushes and sponge daubers with an embossing folder.
- Colored pencils.
- Alcohol markers.
Type of project: Card
Occasion: Friendship
Style: Whimsy
Techniques used: Water-based ink, ink blending, coloring, stamping, fussy cutting
Decoration: Ink splattering, gems
Main colors: Yellow, green, blue
Media used: Paper, colored pencils, alcohol markers, ink, colored markers
Equipment used: Scissors, dies, stamps, blending brushes, sponge daubers, die-cutting machine
Color adds so much dimension and texture to any papercrafting project and the best part is that you can control how much color goes on. We use our hands to perform daily tasks and chores to different degrees. For example, with ironing and depending on the type of fabric, you are going to use a heavy, medium or light hand. When adding color to your project, it’s a lot of fun to build up color and dimension depending upon your vision for the end result.
There are countless ways to add color to your projects and I plan on featuring more coloring techniques in future articles.
All 4 cards today use the same stamp set, die-cuts, and sketch. I also added dimension by the way I adhered the lemons and limes under the solid images with liquid adhesive that went under the solid image and foam dots on the outside of the image.
Let’s get started!
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1. BASIC STAMPING and STAMPING OFF
Our first card is simple stamping and stamping off that jumpstarts the rest of the cards.
Stamping off is simply inking up your image and removing part of the ink on the image by stamping the ink off onto a piece of scratch paper and then stamping the image onto your project. You can stamp off as many times as you would like to alter the color of your image. This is super easy to do yet adds a great effect and dimension any project. Below is an example and the technique that I used for the background on the stamping card.
All of the images were simply stamped with a water-based ink, die-cut, and then arranged on the card front.
I added ink splatters to all of the cards using black ink and a small paint brush for this card and the upcoming Blending Brush card with a water-based black marker used for the last 2 cards using the cap of the marker to flick the ink.
2. BLENDING BRUSHES and SPONGE DAUBERS WITH an EMBOSSING FOLDER
For this card, the stamp set that I chose to work with has a coordinating embossing folder with die-cuts.
I used a large Blending Brush inked up in light blue and tapped off a few times onto scratch paper … this is much like stamping off, but with a brush; then worked my way across the center of the background blending color with a really light hand. The majority of the time when using Blending Brushes, you work your way in from the outside rather than starting on the card stock.
It’s your choice if you choose to use multiple colors with ink blending. For this card, I used one color and increased the intensity of the pressure that was applied to add color to create shading.
Tools count when ink blending, especially in brush size, of which there are basically two sizes in the market of large and small, both of which are fantastic. When I want to go deep, I use a Sponge Dauber. I get a more concentrated and controlled color using a Sponge Dauber. You can see the color variation on the fruit that affords you a realistic look.
3. COLORED PENCILS
This is one of my favorite ways to color. Pencils can add so much layering and dimension that you can build upon with a good quality pencil using one pencil, or many, depending upon what you want to do.
For this card, I lightly scribbled a light blue colored pencil for the background and used a color lifter to lighten up the pencil that also smoothed the color out.
The images were all stamped using water-based ink and I brought in a colored pencil that closely matched the stamped color to accentuate and highlight the images.
I have a tendency to color with more pressure around the outside of the images and lighten my hand as I work my way up.
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4. ALCOHOL MARKERS
Everybody loves alcohol markers with amazing layering and blending possibilities. There are so many brands of alcohol markers out there. I prefer a marker with a brush tip and a bullet tip. The brush tip is great for blending with the bullet tip perfect for the small images spaces + more concentration in color.
For this card, I very slightly scribbled a light blue alcohol marker for the background and used a color lifter to pull off, blend, and soften the color.
Now, this is where I blew it and I did not remake the card for this article because I wanted to share with you what tone-on-tone ink color and alcohol marker looked like together. There’s not too much of a difference, but one that can be seen. In my next article, I will be using a darker alcohol marker than the ink. The darker the ink, the color will show up more, as you see with the solid lime image.
I hope you enjoyed today’s article and I will be back on 28 February with more coloring mediums. Have a great day!
Cindy Coutts is from California, US. She has been writing for TPC since 2023. Cindy started paper crafting in 2007 and she mostly into cardmaking, scrapbooking, redesign and trying out new techniques. Her paper projects are often made in Clean and Simple style with a variety.