Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Using Your Smooch: Part 1

In addition to trying to use all my stamps through the Use-Your-Stamps Challenge, I'm also trying to use my other stuff as well. I realized that I have a bunch of Smooch but haven't used it much lately. It was time to pull those adorable little bottles out and see what I could do with them.

Like I said, adorable. Smooch is opaque, shimmery, water-based ink. If you don't have Smooch, you will be able to adapt some of these techniques to other supplies. I'll try to point you in some constructive directions as we go.

The applicators that come with the bottles are perfect for making dots...which made me think of Celtic book illumination, of course. Remember, my masters degree is in medieval literature and I got sucked into paper crafts via calligraphy and medieval-style illumination.

Weird, I know.

So of course thinking about dots in art made me go Celtic, because Irish manuscripts are often full of dots...usually red ones, but of course I went more, um, subtle. Mistakes are less noticeable that way.

Is that artistic cowardice? Perhaps, but I like the results nevertheless.

The cross stamp is an old one from Stampabilities. I colored the lines and knots with a Bic marker (tranquil teal) and then added an outline of silver Smooch dots. In one area, the dots got too far apart, so I went back and tried to add some, and the results were not good. If you try this, do not make my mistake. This will look hand-done unless you're a robot, so go with the flow and let the spacing look like a human did it.

Also, if you are of a certain age and your eyes aren't the best, reading glasses will help. My contacts are bifocals that work great most of the time, but I still found myself going cross-eyed here and grabbing my reading glasses. So much easier.

Alternative Approaches: Tiny paint brushes can be used to put down paint in dots, but having tried this back in my illuminating days, I can say that it's definitely easier said than done. Some pens will work, but the dots will likely be bigger than the ones shown here, unless you use a fine-tip technical pen. I have some and have never used them. If you try it, please let me know if it works. ;-)

stamps: Stampabilities
ink: Memento black
paper: Papertrey White
accessories: Bic tranquil teal marker, dimensionals, silver Smooch


  1. The dots look amazing, Susan. Since you need good eyes ans a steady hand, I'm pretty sure I couldn't do this. But I love the beautiful detailed look.

  2. I'm also pretty sure I can't do this. My hand isn't steady enough. When I saw the title of your post, I was going to offer you all my smooch bottles, but then I saw YOU HAVE ALL THE COLORS! So, never mind. I might just have to use mine now.


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