Water Embossing with Couture Cardstock's One Sheet Wonder!

O.k...I was going to tell you all about Couture Cardstock's cardstock called One Sheet Wonder which is part of their specialty line of "Pure Silk Collection".




One Sheet Wonder is a cardstock which was specifically designed to work with alcohol inks and has been endorsed by Sally Lynn MacDonald, Copic Design Team Member and Regional Certification Instructor, as the preferred 120 lb white cardstock for alcohol ink shading and coloring.

Now, I haven't jumped into the whole Copic marker craze but I did try out my Adirondack Alcohol Ink Fillable Pen and the paper is amazing. It allows you to blend and layer and blend some more without the ink bleeding through the back side. WAY cool since most of the time it does bleed through.

I got to messing around trying lots of other types of mediums on the paper just to see what it would do. I used dry chalks, wet chalks, Adirondack Pigment Markers, Watercolor Pencils, Watercolor Pastels, Inks, Distress Ink, Pigment Inks, Adirondack Dye Inks, Archival Inks, Metallic Markers (Krylon brand), etc. EVERYTHING worked great AND nothing soaked through the back.

Well, since I started out just messing around adding all this stuff on just one sheet of paper it ended up to be a bit of a mess. I thought that today I would make a nice neat clean version showing all of the various mediums and how they preformed. BUT then I discovered a fun new technique and all that flew out the window! LOL!!!

I actually stumbled upon it while I was going to try out one of my fav. techniques...Spritz & Flick. As soon as I saw the papers reaction I decided to pursue it further and here is what I came up with...(This is just the coolest thing!)

Wet Embossing

Supplies:

Couture Cardstock One Sheet Wonder Cardstock

Water

Mask (I used the Tim Holtz variety but any will do)

Distress Ink (optional)

Ink Blending Tool (optional)

Instructions:

1. Place the mask on the cardstock where desired.

2. Spritz water onto the entire piece of paper. You don't want water to be running off of it but you'll need several squirts so there is standing water everywhere.

3. Let the water stand on the paper for about 15-20 seconds before you remove the masks. You will almost immediately see the paper start to soak up the water. It will start to puff up a bit where the water has soaked in!!!

4. Now you can either let the water soak in naturally or give it a quick shot of heat with a heat tool. You don't want to dry it, just get the paper so there is no water standing on the surface. I like to let the water soak in a bit then dab at any pools of standing water.

Now you can use the paper as is....

OR.....

You can continue .....

5. (optional) After the surface is free of pooled or standing water you can dab on a bit of Distress Ink using the Ink Blending Tool. I just rub it gently across the surface of the paper. The Distress Inks soak into the damp areas and sit on the surface of the cardstock where it was dry. This REALLY makes the design pop!

See for yourself....

Note: I like the all over ink look so I usually add more ink for a darker design (first design). Lighter applications work just as well (second design).

Totally awesome isn't it?!?!?

I was so excited when I first discovered it then was able to reproduce it after some trial and error to determine the easiest technique to achieve the best results.

I just love it when that happens!

Well, hope you've enjoyed my mad scientist experiment for the day ;)