This beautiful Roses All Over background put me in the mood for some water coloring, so I thought I would try something I hadn't yet with my Copic Various Ink Refills -- brush (or "water") coloring on Ranger's Specialty Stamping Paper (previously I had only tried coloring with Copic Various Ink Refills and a water brush on watercolor paper here). I had already found this specialty paper is fantastic for my other Copic Various Ink Refill "watercolor" backgrounds (here are links to a few of those projects: one, two), so I thought I would test the paper when using a brush to apply the color.
Here are the steps to create this background (bold products are linked below in the supply section):
1. Stamp Roses All Over background with Versamark ink onto Ranger Specialty Stamping Paper. Heat emboss with Ranger Clear Super Fine Embossing Powder. The reason I used clear embossing powder as opposed to white is that the white embossing powder tends to absorb the Various Ink color more than the clear and the Copic alcohol ink tends to break down/disintegrate colored embossing powder more than the clear.
(Click on photos for a larger view):
Next, these are the Copic Various Ink Refills I used to "watercolor" the background: RV52, RV55, YG03, and Colorless Blender Solution:
2. (Below) To begin, I placed a few drops of the lightest RV52 Various Ink into the well of a plastic palette, filled Tim Holtz's Broad Water Brush with Colorless Blender Solution and used this brush to pick up the color from the palette. Be sure to squeeze the barrel of the brush, so the Blender Solution flows into the brush nib and dampens it. You can wipe off excess Blender Solution on a paper towel if you find it is diluting the color too much or alternately, use the excess Colorless Blender Solution to dilute the Various Ink color if needed.
You will find that the Specialty Stamping Paper allows the Various Ink Color to "pool" on the surface of the paper a little longer and dry along the edges of the color, similar to how watercolors react on watercolor paper!
3. Following the outline of each rose I loosely painted the RV52 color in circles to define each rose, leaving a little space between some of the roses:
4. (Above) Next, I used the darker RV55 Various Ink and Colorless Blender Solution-filled Tim Holtz Detailer Water Brush to paint darker color into the centers of the roses. Don't worry too much about how your color is looking or if the embossed lines have been disappeared at this point because we will blend it in step 6 below!
5. YG03 Various Ink and the Detailer Water Brush was used to fill in the spaces between the roses, to mimic leaves/greenery and to give the background a little variation (wipe off your water brush before switching colors -- you may need to flood the brush nib with Blender Solution by squeezing the barrel of the brush). Again, don't worry if the color looks a little blotchy or bleeds into the pink color a little -- we'll fix that below.
6. (Below) Now that the Varoius Ink covered up or colored/stained the original embossed rose images a little, and to do a some blending of the two colors of inks, I dipped a cotton swab into a little Colorless Blender Solution, dampening it just a little (you may need to wipe some off on a paper towel), then I gently/lightly rubbed the cotton swab over each rose in a circular motion. Take care not to remove too much color. You will gradually see the embossed lines will clean up and "reappear", defining the roses nicely. You can also use the swab to your advantage and remove some color along the outer edges of the rose petal, where they would naturally be a little lighter. I also used another swab to clean up and blend the edges of the YG03 "greenery". Be sure to use a different swab for the green color, or you may muddy the green color by transferring the pink color onto it.
The greeting was created with one of the beautiful sentiments from Julie's Mondo Magnolia stamp set, gold heat embossed onto Neenah 110 lb. Solar White cardstock and die cut with MFT's Zig Zag Stitched Rectangle:
To match the gold embossed sentiment, I gold heat embossed more Neenah 110 lb. Solar White cardstock (just tap your Versamark ink pad onto the paper, then heat emboss as usual) and then die cut it with MFT's Sequins Die-namics and Fishtail Flags STAX. The embossed sentiment was layered with Copic Foam Tape onto the gold embossed fish tail and the gold embossed sequins scattered on the background.
To finish the card, I cut another piece of Neenah 110 lb. Solar White cardstock to 6-inches square and gold heat embossed the edges. The finished piece can either be mounted to a 6-inch card base or even used as a decor piece, either in a 6-inch frame or scrapbook page holder.
I hope you'll give this background technique a try! ~ Sharon
