Hi everyone, today I’m showing you some idea’s how you can use the wonderful Lindy’s Stamp Gang Squirts. But what are these Squirts to begin with? These are painting inks of a thicker consistency than the LSG Sprays and the colours are super vibrant and opaque. Because they are of a thicker consistency they come in a screw top bottle and not in a spray bottle. After shaking the liquid, so that the shimmer particles can mix, hold a tissue over the nozzle, twist the nozzle and your Squirt is ready to go. When closing the bottle hold a tissue over the nozzle again because there can be some residue left in the top.
Step 1:
I love creating gradient backgrounds using LSG Squirts. For this I use thick watercolour paper and for today’s project I picked three warm and three cool colours that go well together. Each panel will look different and unique and results will vary depending on how much water you add to the panel.
I used each colour one time on each panel, do you see what I mean with super vibrant! I totally love how these background panels turned out!
To start die cut the panels to a size two sizes smaller than your card base, using watercolour paper. I love to use a textured paper for this technique, use whatever you have and like! For my warm colour combo I choose LSG Squirts in Poutine Gold, Maple Syrup Bronze and Oh Canada Crimson. Work on a craft sheet or a glass mat that you can easily clean.
Start with the lightest colour which is Poutine Gold, hold the panel towards you in a slanted angle. Add the liquid to the corner area and spray with water, which makes the colour run. The colour will go where the paper is wet, if you don’t want to have the colour across the whole panel then don’t wet the entire panel. Let the liquid run from one site to the other and back and dry the panel with your heat tool while you do this, dry the area next to the white part first and keep tilting the panel back and fort. You do this until the entire panel is dry again.
I used the colour that is between the yellow and the red to merge the two together lastly, so now I first use the red one which is Oh Canada Crimson. Apply and dry this colour in the same way you did with the yellow one.
Next merge the two previous colours together using the middle colour with is Maple Syrup Bronze.
These applications are only one go with each colour, these Squirts are fabulously vibrant! But if you like to use more layers then you of course can do that too!
Step 2:
For the cool colour combination I proceeded in the same way. This time I used Emerald Eh?! for the lightest colour, Banff Blue for the bottom colour and Loonie Toonie Teal to merge the two colours together.
Step 3:
This way I created four panels: two square ones (one in cool tones and one in warm tones) and two rectangle panels (one in cool tones and one in warm tones). As you can see each panel looks different.
Step 4:
Next I’m working on the focal points for each card: for the warm toned cards I used stamped images that I’m going to colour using the Squirts as watercolour paints. I used the butterfly image from the Crafter’s Companion Newspaper Collage stamp set and one of the flower images from the Altenew Needlework Motif stamp set. I stamped the images onto Strathmore Bristol Smooth Surface Paper using Versafine Onyx Black ink and I clear heat embossed afterwards using Lindy’s Stamp Gang Clearly Clear embossing powder. This way my lines stay crisp and black no matter how much water I add.
Add the colours you want to use on your project onto a palette and fill a different container with clean water. Now you can pick up the colour with a small brush and paint in the images, fading the colour out by using more water. Add layers until you are happy with how the image looks.
I used four of the colours that I used on the background panels: the yellow, orange, red and bright green. As you can see you only need a drop of each colour.
When the colouring is done you can add some highlights using a white Gelly Roll pen.
Step 5:
For the cool toned cards I choose to use some die cuts as my focal points. I added the same colour gradient to some pieces of left over watercolour paper and then die cut the star shapes (use any star shape die you have) and the happy word (Winnie & Walter In a Word Happy Cutaway) from this.
Step 6:
For my sentiments I used one from the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Small Talk stickers set and the others are a combination of stamps from the Winnie & Walter The Big, The Bold & Party stamp set. I first used an anti-static powder tool on black card stock, then stamped the sentiment using VersaMark ink and heat embossed using Lindy’s Stamp Gang Purely White embossing powder.
Next I fussy cut the sentiments or die cut a banner shape around them using the My Favorite Things Slanted Sentiment Strips die set and the Lawn Fawn Everyday Sentiment Banners die set.
For all four cards I used a black background panel, slightly larger than the watercolour panels.
Step 7:
Now I’m ready to put my cards together: starting with the warm toned ones I adhered the black panels to the watercolour panels using liquid glue (this is the moment to put them in a thick book if your watercolour panel is slightly warped).
For the rectangle panel I adhered the sentiment and the butterfly together using liquid glue and then adhered this combination to the combined background panels using one millimetre thick foam tape. Then I wrapped the banner to the back on the right hand side and adhered there using regular tape. To finish the card I adhered this combination to my card base using one millimetre thick foam tape.
For the square card I adhered the banner to the flower image also using liquid glue, adhered this combination to the combined background panels using one millimetre thick foam tape and then finished the card by adhered this combination to a card base.
Detail pictures:
Step 8:
For the cool toned rectangle card I adhered the star shaped die cuts to the same shapes die cut from black card stock, using liquid glue. This combination I adhered to the combined background panels also using liquid glue and then adhered the sentiment on top of the bottom star after matting it on black card stock.
For the square card I also added a black layer to the happy die cut, added liquid glue to all the sentiments and adhered them to the combined squire panels using liquid glue. To the star die cut on this card I added another layer of white card stock, adhered the star shapes together using liquid glue and adhered this combination to the card panel using liquid glue. And to finish this card I adhered this combination to a card base also using one millimetre thick foam tape.
Detail pictures:
And that’s it for today’s Squirts project! Creating backgrounds, die cuts and painting with them is only a small part of what you can do with them!
I wish you a creative day!
Lindy’s Stamp Gang products used:
Squirts: Poutine Gold, Maple Syrup Bronze, Oh Canada Crimson, Emerald Eh?!, Loonie Toonie Teal, Banff Blue;
Embossing Powders: Clearly Clear, Purely White
