more stamping with paint!

I wish, sometimes, that I could just invite you all over for stamping at my house. Come on downstairs to my stamp corner and let me just show you how this technique works! Can you imagine that party? The good news is that with the internet (and this super cool blog) I can get you one step closer to my projects.

Since I have had the paint out in my stamping corner this week, I thought I would share how easy it is to stamp with acrylic paint on your acrylic stamps. In the reality of it all, you need to get to your stamp tables, get out the paint, get the paint on your stamps and play. That is the way that you are going to get to know how it works, how it feels, and decide how you like it.

The tools you need are fairly basic: acrylic paint, a dish/palette to put it in, a brush (I like these cheap little sponge brushes that you can get at your local craft stores), a stamp (a bold/simple design), and cardstock.

Load your sponge brush with paint and dab (not brush) it all over your stamp. I am using a stamp from the Polka Dot Basics set.

Stamp the image onto the cardstock. Acrylic paint is wet, messy, and slippery. Keep that in mind when you are stamping with it. It's not going to give you a beautifully detailed stamp image of perfection. It's going to be blotchy, smeary and give a rustic, weathered look. If it slides or smears a little, that's okay -that's the look we are going for when stamping with paint.

Once you get your images all stamped, it's time to clean the paint off the stamp. The sooner you do this the easier it is going to be. I have put this off longer and while you can still get the paint off the stamp, it just takes a little more work scrubbing off the paint.

All I do is run my stamp right under the water. Most of the paint rinses right off. I use my fingers to work the paint off some more subborn areas if I have to. You can use an old toothbrush to scrub your stamp, if you want. After my stamp is clean I blot the whole thing dry with a cloth or papertowel. I actually use this same method most of the time when I am cleaning off my acrylic stamps.

I mixed up a pink color with red and white acrylic paint for a ladybug body (from the Little Lady set.) Apply the paint just the same as for the polka dot stamp. The key is using the brush to apply a nice even coat of paint. If you have ever tried pressing your stamp into the paint to stamp with it, you know how messy that is and that the images don't really stamp well. Using the brush keeps the mess to a minimum and helps ensure a more sucessful image when you stamp.

You can speed up the process of drying the paint stamped images with a heat tool. Or just leave them for a bit. The acrylic paint dries pretty quickly.

After the paint was dry I stamped right over the top of the paint with black ink to finsh off the ladybug image.

Here's my finished card and I have more ladybugs and polka dot paper ready to put some more together!

Thanks for stopping by and have fun playing and stamping with paint!

Painted Polka Dot Ladybug Card

stamps: Little Lady, Polka Dot Basics, Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink)

ink: Jet Black Archival (Ranger), Whisper White craft (Stampin' Up!)

cardstock: White, Spring Moss (Papertrey Ink), kraft (Stampin' Up!)

accessories: Sweet Blush twill (Papertrey Ink), buttons, linen thread (Stampin' Up!), white & red acrylic paint (Plaid), sponge brush, heat tool, dimensionals