About Me

I'm a freelance artist, designer and demonstrator and have been involved in arts and craft my whole life in one way or another. I design stamps for top British company Personal Impressions, under the "Lindsay Mason Designs" brand, as well as papers, templates and other crafting products. I'm a certified Ranger Educator and my first book,"Stamping", was published in 2009. I also design regular projects for Crafts Beautiful magazine and have made guest appearances from time to time on QVC. I've recently joined You Tube under the name of LindsayMason1000 where I'm posting short technique videos and you can buy my paintings and hand crafted pieces from my Etsy shop. My work takes me all around the country demonstrating stamping, papercrafts and general inkiness! When I'm not working, I love gardening, church & community activities, nature watching, journalling, music and theatre and just relaxing at home. Email me at: ljm.design1@virginmedia.com

Friday 1 May 2009

Look what came today! (& a Tartan step by step)

The postman brought me a small package from Personal Impressions this afternoon. It didn't look like much. Just a small corrugated card box that rattled a bit when I shook it. Looks can be deceptive though, as when I opened it, look what was inside...........yes, the new colours of Ranger Alcohol Inks in Lights and Brights. Twenty four luscious shades that all alcohol ink fans have been waiting for. They are pretty, rather than grungy, girly, pastel, pinks, lilacs, peaches....just gorgeous!
I've made a colour swatch on gloss white card so that you can see them properly - I added it as a small picture so that you can click to enlarge it to read the colour names.
I promised to do a step by step on how to create a Tartan effect with the inks, so thought that this was a good time to do it. Sorry if some of the pictures look a little blurry (it wasn't the excitement of the new inks making my hands shake, honestly!). You'll need: Glossy white card (preferably Cast Coated....don't use photographic paper for this), two or three shades of Alcohol inks (I used Watermelon, Clover and Willow), Blending Solution, Applicator tool and felt piece, non-stick craft sheet.
1. Press the felt piece onto the applicator tool so that it grips well. Squeeze drops of the Watermelon ink across the length of the felt, spacing them as shown below.

2. Now squeeze drops of Clover ink between the Watermelon blobs - that's a technical term by the way! Squeeze a little of the Willow in in any spaces between the first two colours.3. Add a little Blending Solution across the length of the felt, bearing in mind that the more that you add, the paler the ink colours will become.
4. Sweep the tool across the glossy card in a horizontal direction. Sweep it across again below the first band of colour. The idea is to try to get the bands of colour side by side as opposed to leaving white gaps or overlapping them too much. However, don't worry about this too much - if you do get a white gap it will still be fine!

5. Turn the card round by 45 degrees so that the bands of colours are now vertical. Sweep the tool across the card exactly as before to create the Tartan effect. If needed, you can add more ink and/or Blending Solution if you feel that the felt is dragging, or want more colour.

6. Once dry...this takes about two seconds!....cut away the edges where the colours look a bit raggedy - or leave them on, it depends what effect you are after. Use the design as a background on a card, for an ATC r even to punch shapes out of. If you want to stamp onto the card do be sure to use something like an Archival pad as opposed to a Stazon which, being a solvent based pad, will remove the alcohol ink.


As you can see, it's a really simple technique, so do give it a try! Apologies to any of my Scottish friends reading this.....unless I've been very lucky, I doubt that this is a legitimate Tartan design! Do note that I put a decent amount of Blending Solution on the felt for this one, so the colours are fairly muted. Just add less for a stronger effect. Have fun and let me know if you do give it a try.
Lindsay

5 comments:

Hazel (Didos) said...

This is a great idea, wow look at your inks they look brill, Love it when the Postie brings nice stuff! Don't know what Tartan you have made. Maybe its a new Mason one! My tartan is Thomson, its a lovley blue one.
Hazelxox

Artyjen said...

Thanks for the fab technique. Lucky you with all those new colours. I don't use my alcohol inks nearly enough but they are useful.
xoxo

Clare with paint in her hair said...

lovely technique!! I was lucky enough to be at a special class with Dyan at art from the heart today using the new inks, and they arrived in the afternoon so i scooped myself up a set!! im too tired to play now tho but i will put up pics of what the ''special'' thing was we made :)

Joanne said...

Just love that technique and quite different from using a brayer and distress ink pads. So want all the inks though. I wonder how many years it will take me to collect them??!!! I have a lovely postie too. He brought me 12 pots of distress embossing powders from QVC and the new Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen DVD from Rosemary Merry. Whoopee! xx

Sharon Noble said...

Hi Lindsay, I love the look of these inks and the tartan effect you have made is stunning. As i am Scottish maybe i need to invest in these and play heehee, I best not tell my hubby that as this month's craft spent is growing more and more what with the new crafters companion sets and the docraft collection super cute , Not even to mention your wonderful range of stamps, Im closing my eyes tomorrow when i watch the craft day NOT! GIGGLES..
Have a great day
Sharon xx