Houndstooth Heart: Stretch Your Supplies with Reinkers

Hello! I am excited to announce that I am a Guest Designer for Imagine. I am so honored to be working with this amazing company again. I love to stretch my craft supplies, so finding new ways to use things always makes me happy. In today’s post, I will share a fun way to use your reinkers. This particular card was made for Valentine’s Day, but you can easily use it for many other occasions. You can easily change out the colors, shapes, and stencil to suit your needs.

Skill Level: Beginner
Time: 30 Minutes

1. Start by placing your Gel Press Petite on to your work surface. I’d like to note that if you don’t have any of the Petites, but you do have a Gel Press, you can easily free-hand cut or die cut a shape of your choosing after you’ve made your print. Apply a drop or two of the Electric Pink Radiant Neon Inker on to the right side of the heart, and the Electric Coral Radiant Neon Inker on the left.

2. Smooth and blend the colors with a brayer.

3. Lay the Houndstooth stencil on top of the heart and lay a piece of copy paper on top of that. Press the paper with your hand to lift the color from the open areas of the stencil. Pull the paper off, and you have the beginning of a print for a later date.

4. Leave the stencil in place, while you apply a few drops of the Silvery Shimmer Inker on to the heart. Roll out the color with your brayer.

5. Lift the stencil off of the heart and apply a new piece of copy paper on to the heart. Smooth the paper on to the heart with your hands (or you can use your brayer), and pull the print. Now you have the positive and negative spaces filled with color, using only reinkers! once the print is dry, you can cut the shape out. You may want to use a heat tool for this, since this ink is pigment ink and takes a long time to dry.

This photo shows how the ink looks on the plate, before lifting it.

This photo shows a few prints, made with various Gel Press Petites, and the same reinkers.

6. For the stenciled panel, cut a piece of black cardstock to 4″ x 5 1/4.”

7. Lay the Houndstooth stencil on top and apply Silvery Shimmer ink (I used the pad) to the center of the panel with a blending brush. I kept the color heavy in the middle, and faded it as I worked my way out in circular motions.