Ink Pad Dragging Technique ~ World Map

Today I wanted to share one of my favorite coloring techniques with all of you…the ink pad dragging technique!  It’s a quick and simple background coloring technique that gives your project a unique style and look! Check out page 23 of the Annual Stampin’ Up! catalog! as they have a short picture tutorial there as well!

Wanna make this card?  Well here is what you need to do:

1. Supplies you will need: Cut a piece of early espresso cardstock for the base of your card. Cut a 5 1/4 x 4 inch piece of whisper white cardstock. Cut a 1 x 4 inch piece of co’redination cardstock, tear it and sand it. Cut a 3 x 1/2 inch piece of crumb cake cardstock (for stamping your sentiment). Grab some linen thread, naturals buttons, neutrals candy dots and a little word window punched out of early espresso cardstock.
2. Stamps & Ink:  World Map Stamp Set. Ink colors:  Tangerine Tango, Crushed Curry, Old Olive and Early Espresso.
3. Take the piece of whisper white cardstock and the tangerine tango ink. Lay the ink pad, upside down, on the cardstock and drag it across the cardstock. The more pressure you apply, the darker the color will be. You may want to practice the ink dragging technique on a scrap piece of paper before apply it to your project.
4. Repeat the ink pad dragging technique with the other 2 colors: crushed curry and old olive. Drag the ink in a random fashion to add color all over the cardstock. If you want more color in certain spots, then just grab that ink pad and drag it over the area you would like to add more color to!
5. Once you have dragged a few different colors of ink on your cardstock…ink up the world map stamp with early espresso ink and stamp the image over the top of the cardstock you just colored.
6. Put your card together and embellish!  I added a bit of co’redination cardstock, some linen thread, and a naturals button to the bottom of the card. I also stamped a little sentiment on the crumb cake piece and cut it into a pennant. On the top right side I simply punched out the word window (using early espresso cardstock and wrapped it on the upper right side of the map…then I added a little candy dot (you can substitute brads for candy dots).

Here is the final product!  I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial!