think ink!

a little bit of a change-up challenge at shopping our stash this week; we want to see LOTS of ink... but no coloring in! so you can stamp... but as outlines or using solid stamps or as resist; or you can do one of the gazzillion direct-to-paper ink techniques, use stencils, fill a page with handwriting or doodles or... well, you can do anything inky EXCEPT COLOR! don't worry, it's easier than you think and as a public service the SOS ladies have made awesome examples for your inspiration!!! here's what i made:

vintage papers from my stash, torn and glued together somewhat randomly; stencils used on top: quatrefoil by folk art decor; hexagons by teresa collins; various shades of blue and green ranger archival and distress inks applied and blended on top; wood veneer pieces by american crafts... tinted with liquid colorburst in a few shades of blue and green; letter stickers: plastic stars: pink paislee; tapes: freckled fawn, recollections, hambly; outlining pen: faber-castell pitt in size XS; black glossy cardstock: ranger; adhesives: scotch gluestick, 3m foam tape, staples

there are plenty of weeks where me-being-me is a bit of a crafty hindrance, but luckily this wasn't one of them. i love stencils, generally; and i especially love to make the patterns reallllllly blendy with lots of different shades of ink, so that's what i did. one new thing i tried (having seen it on pinterest!) was "dyeing" some nekkid wood veneer shapes with colorburst, which worked really well, actually! i did have to go back and re-outline (with a sharpie) the incised words "right here" on the little banner piece, b/c the color soaked right into the wood and you couldn't read it, but otherwise, it worked perfectly and i know i'll do this again!

need more ideas of how to use ink without coloring? check out the fabulous work of my design team darlings over at shopping our stash! ♥