Whats up crafty? - Distress ink tutorial

Hi everyone!

I don't want to interrupt you in your crafting for our ongoing challenge, but I think it's good to sometime take a short brake. ;) 

Today I would like to share my favorite thing when it comes to scrapbooking and card making, a tutorial of how I'm coloring. I love to color stamped images for the cards I make. I mostly use digital stamps because it's easier to change the size of the image and I don't have to wait for the postman. :) I'm so impatient.... But I do have some rubber stamps too. 

When I'm coloring I use Distress Ink Reinkers from Ranger that is a water-based dye ink. You can also use the Distress Ink pads if you prefer and now they also have the same colors as Distress Markers. When you're coloring you only need a tiny drop of the color you want to use. You can use an acrylic block or another plastic thing as your palette because the color will not dry as long as you have it on any plastic.

 This is how the Distress Ink Reinkers looks like.

When coloring with Distress Ink I use Canson 200 g aquarelle paper and a synthetic brush. I recommend a brush with a fine tip for the details. Right now I'm using a size 2 from da vinci, but I would recommend a finer one, size 0 or 00. I'm looking for a new brush that I like but haven't found anyone yet. If you have anyone you can recommend, please let me know. When I'm coloring I also have water near me so I can clean my brush and some kitchen paper to dry my brush with.

I start with stamping the image I want to use with Memorize dye inkpad. Of course you can use another one but it's important that it's waterproof. For my tutorial I've used a stamp from Magnolia which I think is called Flower girl with petals.

It's important that the brush is damp and not wet so don't take to much water on it. I start to color where I want the color to be darkest. In this case I begin with tattered rose as a first layer for her skin.

After that I clean my brush with water and make sure it's still damp. Then I start to draw the color out from the edge with circular movements. All the time I take the excess ink of my brush. Then I go on and draw the color out until it's smooth and I can't see any edges. I continue to color her neck.

I start where I want the shadow and draw the ink out with circular movements. If you get to much ink on your paper you can just pick it up on your brush and wipe it off. (Sorry for the lamp that causes the yellow tint on her feet)

I use the same color for her arms and legs and then I go on and color her dress. It's important to let the ink dry before you color the nearby parts, so that the ink doesn't bleed.

The color I use for her dress is named Milled lavender. Maybe you think now that the color is to pale. But it's better to paint another layer if you want it to be darker because it's not that easy to get a dark layer undone. On this image I've also colored Tilda's shoes with Pumice stone.

I  don't want you to fall asleep so I've tried to hold the amount of pictures down. It's just a few more....

For the first layer of her hair I use Antique linen. I leave some parts of her hair uncolored so it's still white where I want the light to fall. When I take some water on the ink it will bleed out so it's not that white but still brighter.

And for the second layer I use Walnut stain. In the video you can see how I'm coloring the third layer in the same way using Vintage photo. Here I've also made a second layer on her skin using the color named Tea dye, I make it exactly the same way as I did with tattered rose. 

 And this is the result.

As a bonus I've made a video where you can see how I'm coloring. :)

I hope you like my tutorial and remember that this is just my way of doing this. There's so many ways of coloring and you have to find your own.

Happy coloring and don't forget the "Movie Inspired CAS"-challenge.

Ebba