Splodge mat, brayer and Clarity

 This is my second post of the day.  If you want to see what is on my desk today, just scroll down to my WOYWW post below.

After watching Barbara Gray using and demonstrating the Splodge mat, I decided it was a no brainer - I needed it to save me money.  It might seem strange to spend money to save money but I reckon this bit of kit will do just that.  I know you can run the excess ink off the brayer onto copy paper and even use that as backgrounds for future projects, but it does not work if you need to blend two colours together to get the shade you need.  The Splodge mat does work for that.  

This card was done following Barbara's classroom teaching, with three stripes of different colour.  I didn't have the pinky colour I needed, but I was able to blend two colours from a Big and Juicy without damaging the ink pad.  The other big advantage showed itself when I was interrupted and had to leave the project overnight.  I did not have time to clean the mat, which worked out really well.  When I came back to it the next day, I tried the ink left on the mat and it was still useable and I did two more toppers and an insert, without going back to the mat.

The stamps are Clarity - the Birdcage set, which are very adaptable.  I thought very hard before buying yet another set of stamps, but these are really worth the outlay with so many elements to play with.  I stamped with Adirondack black onto Clarity silk card, and coloured with Promarkers.  I used the slate Promarker to draw the dark edge around the topper, with the ruler upside down so that the chisel end of the marker could slide tightly underneath and stay straight.  Once it was dry, I polished the whole thing with a piece of kitchen paper to bring up the shine.

The background of the card was achieved with the same three colours in random stripes on Clarity paper.  Then I sprayed a piece of clingfilm, and scrunching it down onto the top of the brayering and moving it around a little, before leaving it to dry naturally.  I did two backgrounds this way and I really love the "watermark" effect it produced..

I had three different toppers and two backgrounds to choose from.  In the end, I chose my third favourite topper and married it up with the background I had not really liked to begin with.  The background was used as a wrap on a piece of Centura Pearl (glued with Crafters Companion Stick and Stay), with the topper glued in the same way.

The insert used similar techniques, and the same set of stamps.  The supersmooth white paper was lightly brayered with the ink left on the Splodge mat, and the wording was computer generated - my writing is dreadful.

Just a little warning if you treat yourself to a Splodge mat - clean it with water only.  NEVER use baby wipes.