Gesso Resist Technique

Hi friends! Kim here today to share a quick and easy technique for creating amazing backgrounds....Gesso Resist! Here are the materials you're going to need:



I'm using a piece of watercolor paper (you'll need a heavier cardstock for this technique), gesso (Liquitex is my fav), a sponge, and background stamp, I'm using the Typewriter Text background stamp.

Put some gesso on a non-stick craft sheet and use the sponge to apply a thin layer of gesso on to the stamp. Use a light hand to apply the gesso as too much will create a puddle of paint and will keep the edges of the design from being crisp. (You can see how the top of the stamp has a little too much paint)

Stamp onto the piece of watercolor paper. You'll see that some of the archival ink, that was on my stamp 'cause I never clean my stamp, came off with the gesso. This won't affect the results. Be sure to clean your stamp immediately after stamping as the gesso will harden and effect the use of your stamp.

Next, grab a few Distress Stains and a water bottle. Apply the Distress Stains to a non-stick craft sheet, you can see my bottles above each color, and then spritz the stains with some water. This will allow the color to freely move over the watercolor paper.

Swipe the cardstock through the ink. Be careful not to move the cardstock around too much or your colors will become muddy (well, my colors would 'cause I'm using colors on the opposite side of the color wheel! LOL!). Spritz your cardstock with more water if you want the color to move around more.

Check out these results! Ohhh...love it! The gesso resists the stains, making the background design pop out...love it! You can see how I allowed the stains to drip off of the page. I had originally intended to cut a shape out of this piece of paper, but I loved the drips so much I use the entire piece!

I finished my card by adding a flower from the Lovely Lotus stamp set, colored with Faber Castell watercolor pencils, a few dragonflies, from the same set, and a sentiment.

Hope you enjoyed today's tutorial!!

Distressed Wild Flowers

Hi, it's Beate again.

For this post I thought I share a card I created to update an older tutorial on Splitcoaststampers. The Foxy Oxi Technique. I created it back in 2004 when OxiClean was a pretty new product. I was wondering if it would act just like Bleach. Well, it does and it doesn't. Depending on what ink and paper you use, the results vary.

For my sample I used a shipping tag and Distress inks. Distress inks don't bleach out all the way, the get darker spots. When I created the tutorial, I used Stampin' Up! Classic inks and Whisper White cardstock. That combination bleached out into white spots.

I sponged my shipping tag with Peeled Paint, Broken China and Wild Honey Distress inks before I sprinkled OxiClean over it and sprayed it with water. After the tag dried, I cut it with a Petite Oval Nestabilities die and stamped the main image from the Wildflowers set in Jet Black Archival ink over it.

The oval was first layered on a slightly bigger white oval, then on a piece of black cardstock that had been cut and embossed with a Label 18 Nestabilities die.

The pieces of My Mind's Eye Lost & Found Sunshine paper were stitched to a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of black cardstock. The bottom corners were rounded. A 4" strip of white cardstock was cut and embossed with a Lacy Doily Accent die. It was adhered over the horizontal patterned paper strip.

A doily was cut apart, sponged with Antique Linen and adhered under the Label 18 layer. White Organdy ribbon was run under the main image and tied around the layers. It was topped with a button that was tied on with Linen thread.

The sentiment is also from the Wildflowers set. It was stamped on a piece of white cardstock that had been cut and embossed with one of the Fancy Tag labels and sponged with Wild Honey Distress ink.

To finish the card off a Pearl swirl was cut apart. The bigger part was adhered to the top right, the smaller one to the lower left of the card front. The layers were adhered to a 4 1/4" x 11" piece of Kraft cardstock, folded in half.

Here is a video I created for this technique for the visual learner:


Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a wonderful day!
Hugs and smiles