How I use Large Ink Pads

Are you new to Stampin’ Up! ink pads, or would you like to find out other ways to use your large ink pads. Over the years that I have been creating cards and items, I've fallen in love with the Stampin’ Up! inks and colours. If you're looking for high quality ink pads with gorgeous colour options (bonus being that they co-ordinate with the paper, pens and embellishments), these ink pads are for you. All the cards on this page were made using different techniques and the large Stampin’ Up! ink pads. There are a number of ways that they can be used.

There are different ways you can use large ink pads. These are a few:

Stamping- using the ink pad to ink up stamps, large ink pads make it super easy to ink up large backgroun stamps.

Stamping with blocks - either with or without water (look out for a future video on ways to use blocks for stamping.

Stamping with other items - geli plates or other items such as Stampin’ Marker lids or the end of pencils.

Creating you own embossing colours - using Versa mark and the ink pad with embossing powder to create you own coloured embossing (stamp in the Versa Mark first then add the ink, this prevents adding colour to the Versa mark pad.)

Adding colour- their are a number of ways to add colour to your cards, using Wink of Stella, Water Pens or blender pens.

The video below shows the different ways I use the ink pads and the cards I have made.

Look out over the next few weeks for more in-depth videos on how to use your ink pads. I am super excited about sharing different ways to stamp with blocks, it is one of my favourite techniques, what is yours?

How to Make Snow Backgrounds

And now for something completely different….

Over the last few weeks I have been making Christmas cards for my Christmas Card challenge. I have been going through my piles of designer series paper to find paper that I could use for a snowy background. As there is no current June to December catalogue and no Christmassy DSP in the the catalogue, I have been using some random sheets and colours.

I found some in the Artistry Blooms DSP and also the Flowers for Every Season DSP. They are gorgeous patterns but I thought that I would make my own. I have identified a number of ways to create snowy backgrounds.

Some are very simple, some are very messy, some take a while to create, others are super super quick.

All the techniques have been add to card which is 10.5cm by 29cm

Technique 1

This uses a Stampin’ Chalk marker to create dots, you could also use a white gel pen or the Craft White ink and a blender pen

Technique 2

This uses ‘tone on tone stamping’ this can be seen better on lighter colours, for this technique you use the same coloured ink to add snowflakes to the card.

Technique 3

This uses Versamark ink and embossing powder to create the background. Simply stamp in Versamark, add the embossing powder and heat using your heat gun. Do not forget to use an embossing buddy first, I would suggest that you emboss bit by bit to ensure that the embossing powder stays in place. The added advantage to heat embossing is that you can use the emboss resist technique and use blending brushes to create gorgeous blending on your card.

Technique 4

This uses White Craft ink and the snowflake stamp to create a snowy background, this needs time to dry or the ink can smudge and the snowflakes will not be as defined.

Technique 5

This uses the craft ink refill, add one drop to a block and spritz with water and use a paintbrush to flick the white water. This technique can get very messy.

Technique 6

This uses the white frost shimmer paint, add one drop to a block and spritz with water and use a paintbrush to flick the shimmery . This technique can also get very messy. you can use the Shimmer paint on its own, it does not create as many spots and I think creates a more abstract background than Snowy background.

I love the ink splatter background the best, even if it the messiest. Which is your favourite?