Re-inker + Artbooking = Love

Make your own background paper using this great re-inker technique.

One of the things I love most about going to Close To My Heart events is the ability to see artwork up close and personal.  I absolutely fell in love with this mini-album when I saw it at the Artbooking Album Retreat in October.  Close To My Heart had several tables filled with artwork from the Artbooking Made Easy video series.  I took photos of every page of this mini-album because I love the colors, style, re-inker technique, sentiment, stamps, Artbooking shapes…really…everything about it.  Well, minus the binding.  I’ve never been a fan of loosely bound albums.  When I recreate this, I’ll remove the holes from the pages in Cricut Craft Room before cutting and then use my Bind-It-All to bind it with coils.

Artbooking makes it easy to cut the pages, overlays, photo mats, and icons for a wide variety of layouts and mini-albums.

It’s nice to be able to take detailed photos of the pages to capture the details I may miss in the video.  For instance, the photo to the right includes the heart overlay (Artbooking pg. 48) that uses the re-inker technique described in the video below.  It also includes black stitching on the hearts that I may have missed without seeing the page in person.

You can get these sneak peek privileges by joining my Studio Scrapping team and attending the Close To My Heart convention or other regional events with me!  Ask me about the exciting event taking place in Sea-Tac at the end of February…you don’t want to miss it!

Now, on to the Artbooking Made Easy video.

Re-inker Technique

There are so many great re-inker techniques that range from simply dying ribbons/flowers to creating your own paper by pairing re-inker with shaving cream or marbles.  Paper crafters are a creative bunch!  I’ve used re-inkers as watercolor with a paint brush, but I hadn’t used a sponge dauber to paint or create giant paint splats before.  Check out these awesome re-inker techniques in the Artbooking Made Easy video below:

Create giant paint splats by saturating a sponge dauber in a re-inker and water mix and “splat” on your page.

Do you find this re-inker technique as amazingly fun as I do?!  It makes me want to create splats in every color of re-inker I own.  I have 41 re-inkers, btw…I felt the need to count them all!

Use re-inker with a CTMH Spray Pen to create your own mists to perfectly match your projects.

Another re-inker technique used in this mini-album but not mentioned in the video involves creating mist by mixing re-inker and water in the CTMH Spray Pen.  There are so many fun and trendy looks you can achieve with mist.  When I’m misting, I also like to use a small paint brush to dip in re-inker and water to create slightly larger splats of paint that aren’t quite as large as the sponge dauber technique.  Simply fill your brush with re-inker and water, tap the handle against your hand, and watch the splats of ink fall.

Paint a portion of the background page using the re-inker technique and cover with an Artbooking overlay.

The key with these techniques is to expect it to look messy.  Once you start adding photos, embellishments, and journaling, it will start to look the way you want it.

Please leave me a comment below to let me know how you plan to use these re-inker techniques!  Once you make something, feel free to post your project on the Studio Scrapping Facebook page.