No really, even if you hate the style you should at least make one card face or element in this style. Because you need the freedom. A grunge cards celebrates imperfection. It exists to challenge you to get as many images on one surface as possible. It does not care if they are clear or perfectly stamped.
It does not really care if things are lined up perfectly. The challenge is to give yourself the permission to combine things you would not normally combine or maybe use every stamp in a stamp set on one card. (Cheeky? Right?)
So all of this started when I saw an Instagram reel from a junk journal artist. She painted a back ground for one of her journal pages with water colors to create stripes. I liked the effect but I did not have any water colors. Then I realized I have something better, Stampin’Up die ink pads! I made a little video of what I did to re-create the stripes and I intended to write a blog post about it. But it just did not seem interesting enough on its own.
So those fun backgrounds and ink pads sat on my desk for a few days along with the left overs from updating one of my classes using The Queen Bee stamp set. I know, I should have been cleaning up. But there they were: stamps, and ink and paper. Right there all ready to go! Just waiting for me! What was a girl to do? (maybe I will get around to cleaning up after I post this, maybe…) So with nothing further in mind than using a stamp set that I loved, I went a little nuts.
Honestly? I didn’t think I liked the grunge style. It is usually carried out in browns, grays and blacks or the occasional blue thrown in to trip you up. Too dull; you know? So I started stamping on the pink and purple one using the same ink I had used to make the stripes. At first I was just experimenting on how the stamp images looked stamped with the same colours as the faded background. I fully intended to just throw the result in my experiments box.
When I finished stamping I cleaned my stamps and I got up to get myself a cup of coffee. I got side tracked; I took the clothes out of the dryer and folded them, put the washed things into the dryer, got the stuff out of the freezer to do dinner, and pet the cat. I walked back to my desk almost thirty minutes later and was so surprised! Wow, I really liked that mess I had created! That was when I realized just how much I had enjoyed the simple freedom of just stamping; no perfection allowed. I wanted to share this journey with you in hopes you will try it too. Oh and fold the laundry before you start, because you may forget…
Anyway, here is the short little video I made.
Here are some details:
- That is the “e” size acrylic block I am using as a palate to squish my ink onto.
- I used heavy weight card stock but I think if I had had some of the Stampin’Up Fluid 100 water color paper it might not have curled up as much. But we are talking grunge here so the curling did not matter, you would probably be ok with regular card stock as long a you did not scrub the surface too much when it was wet.
- I also used the Water Painters, mine are really old as I have used them with water color pencils for years. They really cut down on the clean up and well worth getting a set of you plan to play with water color. (Speaking of color, you can also see in the video that I put four colors on the block, I never used the Old Olive color, it was just too dull in comparison to the other greens.)
- The Queen Bee Stamp Set (an online exclusive) was used for all of the cards
On the brown-ish card I used:
Card base of Very Vanilla card stock (10.5cm x 29.7cm)
Crumb Cake card stock mat (9.8cm x 14.2)
Crumb Cake Ink
Basic Grey Ink
Pecan Pie Ink
Linen Thread
On the green-ish card I used:
Card base of Lemon Lime Twist (10.5cm x 29.7cm)
Shaded Spruce card stock mat (9.8cm x 14.2)
Shaded Spruce Ink
Granny Apple Green Ink
Lemon Lime Twist Ink
Crumb Cake Ink
Linen Thread
On the pink-ish card I used:
Card base of Petal Pink (10.5cm x 29.7cm)
Fresh Freesia card stock mat (9.8cm x 14.2)
Sweet Sorbet Ink
Fresh Freesia Ink
Petal Pink Ink
Basic Grey Ink
Linen Thread
