STAMPlorations digital stamp bloomdala coffee-to-go

I'm over on the STAMPlorations blog today with four digital stamp projects. You could win a $15 GC to the store for comments left here and there. Just sayin...

So. I'm pretty much a newbie to digital stamps. I love getting inky with actual stamps. And I'm a pro at ink smudges. But there are some benefits to digi stamps - no smudges, perfect coverage without a MISTI, image resizing, even layering images (though I've yet to give that a try).

I grabbed me a couple digital stamps from the STAMPlorations digi store (where all digi stamps are 30% off til end of January) and used good old Microsoft Word and my Canon ink jet printer to give them a try. I recommend this post for a great intro to digi stamps. It's where I figured out how to print them using Word.

Today I have printed from Bloomdala Coffee Cup to Go four cups in their original size, colored them using different techniques, fussy cut them and turned them into tags. Ready to learn more?

1.  My first thought was I had to "rainbow" a cup. Cuz... why not?

Since I knew I would use alcohol markers, I printed the cup on Neenah Solar White cardstock. My markers are from Action Deutschland, they're similar to Touch markers. Though I did try to keep within the lines, I noticed no problems with the printed image bleeding.

I added a purple gem to the center to add a spot of bling to the tag.

2.  For my second cup I chose kraft cardstock and colored with Prismacolor pencils.

Here I also used Neenah kraft, it's nice and smooth and the Prismacolor pencils work great on it.

3.  My third cup nearly ended up in the garbage can. I thought I'd be clever and print on colored cardstock and then just apply some quick color with distress inks...

...not so pretty. Here's where my lack of experience with digis comes in. I think somehow there was some "smearing" with the water-based inks

Could be a cardstock issue. I used Hero Arts Arctic. The surface is more grainy.

Could just be the result of using distress inks on colored cardstock. (The photo you see above is after I decided to try to make it work and applied even more ink and some darker colors. I had originally hoped to just put down some pink tones on that bloom that comes in on the left. That really didn't work.)

Could be the ink wasn't completely dry. I've read you should use your heat gun to dry the printed images, or let them dry 24 hours before coloring. Don't know. (All I know is after this I did dry my other printed images with a heat gun!) It was, as I've heard many cardmakers say, a hot mess. Maybe I'll try distress inks again, on a heat-dried image printed on Neenah white to see what happens. (And to think I was just trying to save myself some time using an "easy coloring method"!)

But my perserverance paid off. After adding more ink and darker tones, I masked the lid, applied Versamark and holographic embossing powder and voila!

The image is still there. Tough to capture on camera however!

4.  My last cup is watercolored. I love the result - makes me feel all Debby Hughes-ish for some reason ;)

It's funny, I had no plan for the coloring. Only knew I wanted browns and blues. Pulled out my Altenew watercolors. I started at the left edge and worked my way right, deciding on the colors and color placement as I went along.

BTW, I printed the cup in light gray onto Derwent watercolor paper. In Word, in the Picture Tools "Format" tab, under the "Color" tab there is a "Faded" option. I used this and it printed in a light gray. Thought this would be good for this technique, similar to stamping in a pale color ink before no-line watercoloring. No problem with the image smearing or fading, even with the addition of water.

Don't forget to leave a comment here.  And here too, for another chance to win.

May your coffee be strong and your work week short!

I'm playing over at:

Always Fun - One Layer

ATSAM - Make your Mark

The Flower Challenge - Shaped Cards (this coffee cup could easily be turned into a shaped card)