krafting with gesso...

Hello my wonderful creative friends!

I recently received a package in the mail... it contained some stamp sets from Unity that I won from a FB contest! It couldn't have come on a better day... I was really having a bad day, and it made my day a lot brighter!

Of course, I had to get some ink on them! What else do you do with new stamps????

Isn't this girl sweet? 

Yeah, I think so too. :)

While making this card, I decided to take pictures of how I make my embossed & gessoed kraft background with you... It is one of those fun techniques that I love doing... 

I start off by painting on a layer or two of gesso over kraft paper. 

Once dry, it goes into an embossing folder and through my Big Kick. The Tim Holtz embossing folders give really deep embossed images, so they sometimes tear the paper a little, but I don't mind for this technique... it just adds to the distressed look. :)

I then use a sanding block to remove the gesso from the embossed areas and the edges of the paper. I don't worry about it being perfect, just getting the basic shapes and a nice distressed look.

I stamp my image with Archival ink because it is permanent on the gesso, and allows me to watercolor over it without bleeding.

I prefer working with watercolors. Distress Markers are water based, so all you need to do is color, then use little water to blend. Super simple!

After coloring, I give it a zap with a heat gun to set the Distress ink... For some reason, Distress inks sometimes smear on gesso unless they are heat set. No idea why. 

Once the image is all colored, the edges can be finished off... for this card, I stamped a texture stamp randomly on the outer edges. I hand held the stamp so I could stamp random areas of the stamp with varying pressure. This gives it a softer look than you can get when the stamp is mounted on a block.

I then used an ink blender to add some darker inks around the edges.

I cut a mask from another piece of card stock, and laid it over the center of the embossed area, then I flicked water over the card front. The water interacts with the Distress ink leaving great watermarks behind, and the mask protects he stamped image.

To finish off the edges, I lightly ran a distressing tool over the edges to rough them up. 

Have fun with it... I love using kraft paper and gesso together to create! There is so much you can do with them!

Enjoy!

~Kassi

Supplies Used:

Paper: Kraft

Ink: Archival Ink, Distress Ink

Stamps: Unity "Let Beauty Surround You", "Vintage Handwritten", & "Give Thanks"

Other: Tim Holtz "Fancy Frame" embossing folder, jute, pearl