Reactive Ink Impressionism

Christmas Color Layering Reactive Inks Watercolor

Oct 10, 2023 Lydia Fiedler

I love using watercolor techniques to soften stamp images. From no-line coloring to the impressionist technique I'll be showing you today - watercolor does lots of tricks!

I started with a 5" x 7" piece of watercolor paper, and I made both cards out of that one piece of paper!

I smooshed some Taffy Reactive Ink onto my craft mat and spritzed it with water until I had a nice puddle of ink. I swished the watercolor paper through the ink, being careful to leave a few white spaces for light effects. Then I dried it with my heat tool.

Next I placed one panel in my MISTI and stamped the first set of trees from the Winter Trees stamp set in the Taffy Ink. I sprayed it with water to soften the look until it was slightly blurry, and then heat set the panel. Then I repeated that process with the trees on the left. I stamped each image several times with the MISTI to get lots of Reactive Ink onto the paper before spraying.

Next, I set up the little layering tree from Winter Trees in the foreground on my MISTI and inked it up with Pool Party Reactive Ink. I also added swipes of Root Beer Reactive Ink onto the stamp and then stamped the panel. When I had as much ink as I wanted, I spritzed that tree and dried the panel with my heat tool. To add a subtle texture to the tree, I stamped the detail layer using Unicorn Pigment Ink.

I splattered the whole panel with a white paint pen before adding the sentiment so that it looked like it was snowing.

On the second card, I added more water to the pink trees, and did not add the white detail layer of the tree. I wanted an over all fuzzier look so that my little bird popped into crisp focus. I used a blender pen to add Taffy Reactive Ink to the edges of the bird so it would blend into the background. I also stamped little footprints leading up to the bird in the lower right corner.

I absolutely love pink Christmas cards - I think they add a cheerful tone. Are you getting ready for your holiday cards? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by today.