sponging/ brushing technique with silhouette scenes stamp set

This morning I created a card that seemed to be quite popular on the Demonstrator website. 

 I was asked to do a tutorial on how I created it. But I am still having issues with uploading videos so I have decided to do a photo tutorial instead. The stamps I am using in this tutorial are different to the card I made this morning  but the process is  the same.

Before starting  I'd like to share some tips to help you get better results first time.

Brush and card tips.

 I would normally use sponge brayers or daubers to do sponging, But my daubers are starting to disintegrate  and  leave streaks, the brayers hold so much ink it seem wasteful  to use them.  So I chose to use  microfibre make up brushes  that I bought from Amazon that retail at around £10 per set.

  I have been trying these brushes out on various  types of card stock with varying results and... not all good. But the same  could be said for the brayers and daubers.  I think it's just a case of getting the combination right.

 For an air brushed look,  Stampin Up's  Whisper white card stock is a good choice  when working with these and so is the A3 300gsm card stock from the Range. It has a bit more tooth than the  usual stamping card, but it's great with these brushes. Some other cards give you a grainy look which is not a look I like.

  

 Another tip is not to over load the brushes  just a gentle tap or two on the ink pad is more than enough, then dab off most of the ink in the lid of the ink pad before applying it to your card.

You need next to no ink on your brush to start with, If you need more, use the ink you deposited in the lid.  You don't waste  ink by doing this.

 I watched a video review of craft and make up brushes,  including the sets I had bought. The lady said "you don't have to  start working off the card."  But I have to disagree with her.  You get a far better almost air brushed look if you  remove most of the ink and start working off the card and work towards the centre, as you would with sponges.

 The brushes seem to  release the ink quickly and basically clean themselves as you're working. This means you don't have to have one for every  shade of every colour.   ( I have one for all yellows, one for  all reds , one  for all light  blues, and so on.)

All you have to do to clean them,  is just brush it on scrap paper until no ink comes out.  

My verdict on these brushes is they are great for creating a lighter, air brushed look.  I think we all know just how strong the Melon Mambo colour is,  but with these brushes and almost no ink on the brush you can achieve a very pretty pastel look.

 Of course if you want strong vivid colour ignore everything I have said. 

Another thing that is worth mentioning is  the fact you don't get that awful round dauber mark that you just can't get rid of when you have just loaded it with ink and applied it without thinking directly to your card... Yes,  we've all done it.

 Here we go......

I am giving instructions for using the brushes but the technique stays the same if you use sponges or daubers just don't load the sponge with loads of ink if you want a lighter airbrushed look or you'll  waste a lot of ink dabbing it off.

On whisper white card from S.U. I loaded the brush with daffodil delight ink and then dabbed the brush in the lid of the ink pad several times to remove a lot of the ink, by dabbing it in the lid of the ink pad I can come back and reload the brush from the lid. Starting on scrap paper  work in a circular motion and work your way into the centre of the card.  Keep applying the ink in this way until you have the density of ink you like.   I rather like the soft pastel look.
 You can achieve  this look by having the minimum amount of ink on the brush/sponge.

 Work in the same way as you apply the other colours around the edges. I used  Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo , Balmy Blue, Highland Heather and Lucky Limeade.

To add a hill in the background tear a piece of paper into a hill shape and  and using the negative hill shaped paper, place it where you want your hill to be  and using a light lilac  or pale grey,  brush over the the edge of the scrap paper onto you card stock. You just want a light impression of a hill or mountain in the distance so don't apply too much ink.

Once I had completely covered the card with ink I filled a cheap and nasty aqua painter style brush with bleach and gently splattered the bleach over the card to form the white spots.

Unfortunately... I forgot that step  when making this tutorial sample so I splattered the bleach after I had stamped the girl. 

Luckily for me the bleach didn't have much effect on the black Versamark.  You could just about see where the bleach had landed,  so I took a small stiff paint brush and brushed over the areas with the same Versamark ink.

 For this sample, I chose the girl on a swing, from the Silhouette scenes stamp set from S.U.

 I haven't used this stamp before, so I am curious to know how this will turn out.

Stampin' up don't have a branch stamp big enough to hang this swing from, so I resorted to using a branch stamp from Lavinia stamps. The other alternative was to draw it in myself .

This looks like a summer scene to me, so using a tiny leaf stamp, again from Lavinia stamps,  I put a few leaves on the tree. I sponged some black ink at the bottom  to create the foreground.

Then I began to stamp in some plants using the  pocket silhouettes stamp set (a long since retired set that I wouldn't be with out)  and a grass stamp. There are a couple of S.U sets that have grass stamps in, but I can't remember the names. If you don't have a grass stamp it's easy to draw in grass. With a fine black pen you just start at the bottom of the blade of grass and flick the pen  upwards in multiple directions many times. Clumps of grass tend to look best. (You can see grass clumps I have drawn in on the cats card in a post below this one.)

I blended the ink from the tall plants that over laps the foreground into the foreground.

Just for cuteness I added  Pippin the rabbit from Lavinia stamps. That's where it all went wrong.  My card moved  when I lifted the  stamping platform plate,  so when I stamped over him again, he had four ears.  I decided  to stamp a second rabbit very close to the first to cover the excess ears. 

I applied glitter to this sample. I don't like lots of glitter on small images. I think it overwhelms and distracts from the image. So I like to use the fine glue pen, but I always have problems with these pens. I use them once or twice then they cease to work. No matter what I do I just cannot get them working again. so I have a glut of non working fine tip glue pens.

I hate wasting products, so as not to waste the glue, I take the pen apart tap the end of the  tube on a rubber mat to get a little the glue out, then I apply the glue to my image with a cocktail stick. 

Sometimes I need  to start the flow off by inserting a pin in the tube and give it a wiggle to loosen it up. When I 've got enough glue out I replace the nib until the next time I need it.

And here is the finished card. I am afraid you can't see the glitter. Glitter is hard to photograph at the best of times and when it's subtle it's even harder.