Homemade Color Wash II - Dye Reinkers and Water

There has been a buzz about Color Washes lately. There are oodles of FABULOUS commercial washes available:

Color Mists -- Outside the Margins

Color Wash Jewels -- Stamp Zia

Tim Holtz™ Adirondack® Color Wash -- Ranger Ink

Starburst Stains -- Lindy's Stamp Gang

Radiant Rain -- LuminArte (available at Marco's Paper)

and others!!!

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(I have made some Color Wash sprays using StazOn Reinkers and Rubbing Alcohol. I like the vibrant colors I got by using the StazOn inks. (See January 07 archives for recipe)

Since I have TONS of dye reinkers, I wanted to try and make some washes using dye inks and water. (also, I don't think the StazOn Washes are conducive to the Faux Batik technique which I have seen and loved!!)

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I started with some cheapo spray bottles from Wal*Mart. I decided to start with 5 colors from the same ink manufacturer. (Tsukineko) You can see the colors that I used here: Tangerine, Nile Green, Wisteria, Lemon Yellow, and Cherry Pink. I filled the bottle approximately 1/2 inch up from the bottom. ( I didn't count the number of drops, but it was well over 100) I added regular tap water until the bottles were about 1/3 full.

(Picture taken after I had used the Washes)

These are samples of the sprays on White Glossy Cardstock. You can see that these particular spray bottles are not very "mist like". If you are looking for a true misty quality to your spray, I advise you to invest in some of those cute little micro bottles I have seen for sale online! :)

Here is a close-up of the "spotty" effect of these spray bottles. I kinda like it! You can compensate for the spottiness by spraying a lot of the wash on 1 spot on the paper.

Here are a few Faux Batik samples. Basic instructions: Stamp image onto White Cardstock with clear embossing ink. Heat emboss with clear powder. After cooled, spray over paper and image with Color Wash and allow to dry. Place plain white text paper over embossed image and iron with HOT-DRY iron. (the embossing powder will remelt into the text paper and pull off of the Color Wash paper)

I have not done this technique before and I think that floral, nature, and fine-lined images would be very nice. If you use bold-lined images, you will have too much white space after you pull off the embossing powder (for my taste).

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These images are from Cherry Pie. I'm thinkin' Mother's Day Card for the top image!! :) The bottom image is a little difficult to distinguish. I think I will use my Stamp Positioner and over stamp. We'll see how it turns out!

Some of my most favorite floral images are from Toybox Art Stamps (big "WAH" since she decided to go out of business!!) This was done on Matte Cardstock. You can see that the colors are much more muted. The stamped image, however still has enough embossing powder "residue" to highlight the image very nicely! :) (click on the image to look at the close up.....you'll see what I mean!!)

The marvelous Mr. Freezer Paper! :) I did not emboss this paper, but WOWZERS on the vivid colors you get! We'll see if I get fading with these inks, but for now these samples are

Va-Va-Voom! :)

My incredibly scientific mind (stop laughing!) tells me that because the colors cannot diffuse through the paper (because of the plastic backing) the colors stay on "top" of the paper and therefore remain bright. Any takers on my theory?!?? :)

AS ALWAYS I LOVE TO READ YOUR COMMENTS!!!! PLEASE LEAVE ME YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS SO I CAN RESPOND BACK TO YOU!!! :)