Sometimes, they just sit there,

waiting for your magic touch.Rainbow ink pads are like that.

You probably have some of those mul-ticolored ink pads sitting in a drawer,right now, and you’re not sure what todo with them.

If so, you’re not alone. But don’tdespair! There are several keys to un-lock their full potential—for back-grounds, watercoloring, accents andother techniques.

Rainbow pads also are idealwhen you want to create a quick, yet

colorful card, but don’t want to botherwith markers, pens or paint. Or glitter,chalks, pencils or embossing, for thatmatter.

Further, by using the same rain-bow pad for background and focalimage, you’re guaranteed a color-com-patible, successful match. Simply layerwith matching papers and you’ll have astriking card.

Let’s take a look at some differ-ent techniques for both backgroundsand focal images, as well as a few ideasfor accents.

BackgroundsSimply stamping images, words

or phrases (like a birthday cake or“Happy Birthday to You”) repeatedlywith rainbow ink makes for easy andattractive backgrounds. This works foralmost any occasion. Stamp hearts forValentine’s Day cards, and pumpkins—in earth-tone orange, tan and yellowhues—for Thanksgiving or Halloween.Stamp images randomly or in a plannedpattern, with no worry over their pre-cise placement. Or use a stamp largeenough to cover the entire panel orcard, for the quickest approach.

These same techniques work wellwith more sophisticated or complex art,too, as with mixed-media and collagecards, pop-outs, window-panels and al-tered books. A field of stamped“Dream” impressions in light rainbowtones can be compelling with a diary orvisual journal.

Brayers and rainbow pads areperfect companions. There are enoughmonotone and other brayering tech-niques to fill a book, and any of themcan be done using rainbow pads. Bray-

By Viveca Eliscu

TTOO TTHHEE SSKKYY

The interplay of design elements, from the feather shape and ornamentation to the notched cardstock, creates dynamic appeal.

(Stamp credits: All—Magenta. Art by Viveca Eliscu, Los Altos, California.)

ers can be rubber, foam or acrylic, butit’s best to start with a standard rubbermodel with a 3- or 4-inch (7.5- or 10-cm) roller. [Editor’s note: See the Re-sources sidebar for more.]

Generally, use coated card-stock—glossy Kromekote is onebrand—for brayering everyday dye inkonto its surface, as it will render themost vibrant results. But there is noth-ing that says you can’t use matte card-stock when you’re after a softer or

more textured look. As always withstamping, experimentation provides in-sight into materials and technique.

To begin, ink a brayer on a rain-bow ink pad and roll it onto cardstock.Go in just one direction for a rainboweffect, or create a checkered pattern bygoing both horizontally and vertically.You also can brayer in diagonal or ran-dom patterns for yet a different look.

When inking a wide brayer on aKaleidacolor ink pad, which has mov-

able strips of color—narrow verticalink pads, in effect—you can keep thestrips separate. Snapping them togethermay make the pad narrower than thebrayer. The colors will blend seamless-ly when brayered onto paper, however.

TexturesFor a mottled effect, use a fine-

mist spray bottle to spritz tap or dis-

TTHHRREEEE FFRRIIEENNDDSS

Simple layering and square components, along with cohesive a color scheme, contribute toa very sophisticated card. (Stamp credits: All—Magenta. Art by Viveca Eliscu, Los Altos, California.)

BBaacckkggrroouunnddss TTeexxttuurreess

IIddeeaass......IIddeeaass......IIddeeaass......IIddeeaass......IIddeeaass......

WWaatteerrccoolloorriinngg

Easy backgrounds are made byusing the rainbow pad and stamping

images or words repeated acrosscard. Stamp images randomly or

in a planned pattern.

For a soft effect, sponge rainbow inkonto your background. Repeat

process working from light to darkcolors. Sprinkle salt on for more pro-nounced blotching after ink is down.

Wipe off salt when dry.

sponge rainbow

IIddeeaass......IIddeeaass......IIddeeaass......IIddeeaass......IIddeeaass......

Drag a blank CD over a rainbow padto pick up ink. then spritz water onCD then roll an acrylic brayer over

the ink. Then brayer on to card.

water

blank

tilled water onto cardstock after you’vebrayered it with rainbow ink. For morepronounced blotches, sprinkle the wetpaper with salt, and wipe it off after it’scompletely dry, as seen with the nearbyTo the Sky card. Kosher salt, which iscoarser than regular table salt, worksespecially well. It’s always a surprise tosee the final result!

Another way to create texture isto sponge over the brayered back-ground with a moderately wet sea (orother) sponge. This was done with theThree Friends card.

For a softer effect, sponge orstipple rainbow ink onto your back-ground. Work from lighter to darkercolors to avoid “mudding” them.

Combine any of these techniqueswith masking techniques for some trulyinteresting results. For masks, use ordi-nary copier paper with a temporary ad-hesive, or for greater masking controland coverage, use tape that’s made forthis purpose.

Lay down strips of masking tapeto create borders, stripes or checkeredpatterns. Cut or punch out shapes—paper punches work fine—and placethem on the cardstock before brayering,sponging or stippling. There’s plenty ofroom for experimentation!

Did you know that you can stampwith water? Here’s how: Cover a pieceof cardstock with ink by brayering,sponging or stippling. Spritz water ontoan uninked stamp (a pattern or texture

image is a good choice) and stamp ontothe cardstock. Immediately lay down apaper towel and pat gently to absorbthe water. Remove the towel and you’llsee the stamped pattern emerge as aghost image Create more depth byover-stamping with the same (or differ-ent) stamp and rainbow pad.

It’s both efficient and fun to cre-ate a whole bunch of backgrounds inone stamping session. Pull out yourrainbow pads and brayers and play! Ata later date, when you need to make aquick card, you’ll have a stack of back-grounds at hand. Tip: Make a note onthe back of each panel of which rain-bow pad you used, so you don’t have toguess when you want to stamp a match-ing focal image.

Focal imagesAlthough simply stamping a

focal image with rainbow ink is per-fectly satisfactory, you can go a step ortwo further for a bit more fun.

A blender pen is another terrificcompanion to your rainbow ink pads.Stamp an outline (line-art) image withrainbow ink. With a blender pen, “pull”the ink from the outline into the openareas within the image. Again, workfrom lighter to darker colors.

Color an image by picking up inkwith a moist watercolor brush orblender pen directly from the rainbow

pad, as was the case with the To theSky card. Wipe the tip clean on a papertowel between color changes. You maywant to color only selected areas of animage. See the beaks on the ThreeFriends card.

Stamp or emboss an image on arainbow background panel. Cut it outand glue it to a card, or use foam foradded dimension and impact.

WatercoloringUsing a rainbow ink pad to wa-

tercolor is probably not what firstcomes to mind, but it works beautifully.

Drag a flat acrylic block, plasticplate or discarded (or blank) CD over arainbow pad to pick up ink. Make sureto go in the same direction as the colorstripes. You now have a palette of col-ors to use for painting and blending, asyou would with regular watercolors.Watercolor paper will give you the bestresults, but recycled cardstock workswell, also.

Use this technique to color yourfocal image and then, after you’re fin-ished, create a cool, matching back-ground with the ink that’s left on yourtemporary plastic palette. Spritz wateron the palette, roll an acrylic brayerover it to pick up the wet ink, and bray-er onto cardstock. Repeat the processtwo or three times until you have usedup all the ink.

AccentsSometimes it’s fun to use the

scraps you have left over from trimmingyour backgrounds, to add pizzazz toyour cards. Note these helpful points:

• Use strips to create borders oraccents. One fun way is to layer a cou-ple of strips of different widths on topof each other, with the colors going inopposite directions. The Three Friendscard illustrates this technique. The sameprinciple can be used with other shapes,such as circles, squares and ovals.

• Cut strips with specialty scissorsand use them for borders. This is an ef-fective way to enhance your art’s over-all theme.

• Punch or cut out shapes to glueonto cards.

• Use strips for paper weaving andsimilar embellishment.

Putting it togetherOnce you have your background

and a focal image to go with it, findsome matching papers or cardstock,maybe some embellishments, and put itall together as you please. You can’t gowrong!

Be careful when gluing paper thathas water-soluble ink all the way out tothe edges. Liquid glues are likely tomake the ink bleed. In this case, it’s bet-ter to use double-stick tape, a laminating

device or a glue stick.Once you start playing with rain-

bow ink pads, you’ll no doubt come upwith some techniques and ideas all yourown!

Viveca Eliscu grew up in Swedenand in 1988 came to California, whereshe married and started a family that

now includes her husband and their twodaughters. She has been a stamper since1991.Copyright RubberStampMadness 2011

RReessoouurrcceess

• RubberStampMadness: See the feature article on brayer techniques inissue #113, September/October 2000.

Major ink pad manufacturers offer a bountiful array of rainbow prod-ucts. Check your local stamp store or mail-order or online resource for more.The manufacturers:

• Clearsnap: ColorBox, Crafters and Paintbox pigment rainbows are incombinations ranging from three- to 12-color ink pads, some with removablesections, for customizing. The Vivid eight-color dye rainbows come in sixcolor-families. Visit www.clearsnap.com.

• Tsukineko: The 20 Kaleidacolor dye rainbows feature sliding sectionsthat, when left apart, keep ink from bleeding from one pad to another. Slide thepads together for a quick rainbow pad. VersaColor pigment rainbows are inthree- and five-color formats. Visit www.tsukineko.com.

• Ranger: Dye rainbows include the Big & Juicy oversized pads, theStampIt standard-sized pads and the four-color Adirondack family. Visitwww.rangerink.com. Ranger also offers related Rainbow Sponge & Ink Kitsand a companion video (DVD or cassette version), as well as a book. Theseitems are available through Posh Impressions, too. Visit www.poshimpres-sions.com. Lots of online projects are here, as is a video sample.

• Stewart Superior: Several five-color Memories dye rainbows, five-color Craftprintz pigment rainbows, and three- and five-color Imprintz pigmentrainbows are available. Two child-safe dye rainbows, too. Visit www.stewart-superior.com.