Hello Crafty Tribe! Happy Halloweeny! 🎃🕷🦄 Paper Bunny here. Thrilled to have you peeking around in our neck of the spooky woods 👻 😊
We’re gonna get messy with some distress inks if you’d like to stay and play. Let’s make together a galaxy/night sky. Opah!
Alrighty. First, choose your paper. Thick so it doesn’t rip under the duress of your applicator. Smooth so the the surface gets a more even distribution of ink. And bright white so the ink color is not compromised. We chose Neenah Crest Solar White Cardstock 110 lb 297 g/m².
What kind of applicator? Today we used the classic Tim Holtz foam blender because we wanted to layer on our ink quickly as well as thick. An alternative applicator is the Picket Fence Studio Blender Brush. These brushes have, like, a million super fine bristles. Some call these brushes “life changing.” Let us just say- the rumors are True! They let you build up your color with such even application that your transitions between colors come out seamless. But they are all about layering ink on top of ink with patience, a lightness of touch, and practice. We will not require so delicate a touch today, haha. We’re gonna Hulk Smash 😁
Disclaimer: Professionals are so keen on using these “life changing” brushes because they allow them to build up their color. Building up your color is very much the difference between amateur hour blending and oooohhh… ahhhhhh 😮 Pressing harder does not equate darker. It equates smudges and harsh lines between colors. Light layers upon light layers of multiple applications wins the day. With that said this galaxy we are about to make is kinda an ink blending bunny slope geared toward beginners.
You’ll see.
Let’s go!
Let’s grab our colors. Any water reactive inks will work. You will need: a bright pink, a bright turquoise, a bright yellow, a light blue, a bright blue, a bright purple, a murky purple, a dark gray and a black. We’ve chosen distress inks: Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers, Squeezed Lemonade, Tumbled Glass, Blueprint Sketch, Wilted Violet, Dusty Concord, Hickory Smoke and Black Soot. They don’t have to be those hues specifically. For example, you could do Salty Ocean instead of Tumbled Glass.
Begin making splotches. Our goal will be to cover 7/8ths of the blank page with heavy, saturated, uneven splotches. First, the yellow…
Next the pink, turquoise and light blue…
Next, use the bright purple to fill in all remaining space…
Next use the bright blue and go between every border of every color. No need for blending. Just trying to throw down color…
Now, go over your entire page lightly with your murky purple. Lightly is key. Then repeat with your dark gray. This is the time to begin trying to blend out and blend over splotches and smudges…
Now, with the black be very, very sparing. A little goes a long way. Get your foam pad all inked up with the black and do NOT ink again. We want the border of the entire page to be darkest so in one fell swoop start first around the border of the entire page and then work your way to lightly cover the entire page.
Do one more round of the black…
Final stretch! Let’s spatter some water. Wait two seconds and dab the droplets off with a towel. If paper starts to warp from wetness immediately hit with a heat gun alternating between the back and front of the paper…
Then, splatter white pigment. You can use gesso, acrylic paint, Picket Fence Distress Ink, etc. Then splatter some shimmer. We used Lawn Fawn’s “Stardust”…
Yay! Done!
Now you can pull from this larger piece for all your projects…
Waddayathink? Do you like what you see? Do you have any questions? What trouble, if any, did you encounter? Let us know, comment below!
Today’s tutorial was inspired by the ever so talented Jessica Frost-Ballas…
We also entered our project in Lawn Fawn Challenge #87: Card Sketch.
Thankyou so much for visiting! Have a very safe and brilliant Halloween!
Big Muah!
☠ The Paper Bunnies
Gorgeous
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