I have to admit it. I’m a color addict. I collect every shade, tint, and tone of paper and embellishment known to the scrapper kind. I simply cannot get enough. Knowing this now, you can imagine my excitement when I found yet another medium with which to apply color to my layouts-PAINT!
While it’s true that adding paints to pages isn’t a brand-spanking new idea (see our March 2004 issue), the products in this article have been specifically formulated by industry leaders to be used in scrapbooks. So what does this mean? That , along with being acid-free and scrapbook safe, these paints have been created to dry fast and resist warping-two crucial factors for busy scrappers who want maximum results with minimal effort!
Making Memories, always on the cutting edge of the scrapbook industry, has released their Scrapbook Paint Kits. Each kit comes with six delicious, tonally compatible colors, foam brushes, and tray. Not to miss out on the current stamping trend, they also offer foam stamps in cool fonts and beautiful decorative accents.
Stamping scrapbook pages is easy even if you’re new to foam stamps. First, pour out a small amount of paint onto your tray. Dip the edge of your brush into the puddle and "pounce" it across a clean section to remove excess paint, preventing globy, imprecise images. Turn your stamp over and pounce the paint on the raised image, taking care not to get paint on the foam mount. Keeping a baby wipe or damp paper towel nearby will help greatly.
Take note of where the raised parts of your image are as you bring the stamp to paper. With a steady hand, press the stamp firmly to the page, using your fingers to "walk" across the mount, ensuring a whole image. Practice on a piece of scratch paper before committing paint to project. Remember, with today’s hot trend being the aged/distressed look, even "mistakes" will look fabulous! In the layout "Love of My Life," both foam stamps and rubber stamps are used to create a title. Also, white paint was dry-brushed onto the edges of the layout to support the weathered look.
In "Let Me Swing," paints were used to enhance the texture of the corrugated paper.
Of course, the paints can be used with any foam stamp. The layouts "Retreat" and "Sand Beach" show only two of what is an enormous variety currently available on the market.
Papier Paints from Plaid Enterprises, a leader in paint products, take acrylics to a whole new level-literally. These paints are dimensional! Whether applied with a brush, palette knife, or straight from the bottle, these glossy colors-with yummy names like Berry Wine and Licorice-dry raised and non-sticky, so you don’t have to worry about messy pages.
In the layout "If You Feed Them," Papier Paint was brushed onto bubble wrap and "stamped" onto cardstock. The result was a gorgeous, textured, custom background paper.
For "Muddy Little Boy," Papier Paint was squirted onto a tray and smeared onto the layout with a finger. The title word was then "carved" out with a covered pen tip. After drying, which was fast, the effect was still completely realistic.
With the paint products used in this article comes a plethora of artistic possibilities. Pick some up, play, and discover the whole new world of color and texture at your fingertips!
