While I was (im)patiently waiting for the new Hero Arts Reactive Inks to arrive I pulled out some of the reactive inks that have come with previous kits and I played around.
Supplies:
Crafting tools Bold Print Background Stamp
Hero Hues Card Stock in Periwinkle and Amethyst
Watercolor paper
Versafine Ink
I began with two pieces of watercolor paper that were larger than 4 1/4 x 5 1/2″. I placed the background stamp in the Misti and the paper snug into the corner of the Misti. I inked up the stamp with a variety of colors. One piece only used blues and teals while the for the other I added a red ink. I stamped the watercolor paper. Once I felt I had the ink coverage I wanted I sprayed the papers with water. I should have taped the papers down before spraying them because they curled up when wet and made ink ink spread more than I intended. I then let them dry overnight.
Once the paper was dry I placed it back in the Misti and stamped the background in Versafine black ink then added clear embossing powder. The embossing powder wasn’t necessary but I think it added a shine that stood out more from the background. The first background above worked out like I was hoping. The second one below looks like I didn’t place it back in the Misti properly but I still like how it turned out.
I then cut the paper down to 4 1/4 x 5 1/2″ and then cut it in half. I adhered this to an A2 piece of colored cardstock with a black strip between them. I stamped and heat embossed a sentiment at the top.
Overall, I love how these backgrounds turned out. I love that the water didn’t wash away the stamped image but simply spread the ink so I could have gone without the Versafine in if I wanted a more subtle background. I want to try this again to achieve a more subtle bleeding of the ink so it spreads only slightly away from the image. I did get this effect in some spots on the blue background.