5 Incredible Inking Techniques

I share how to make beautiful cards with your own handmade patterned paper using inking techniques and more in this article. Looking for inspiration for new ways to create your cards? Just keep reading.

I wish that I could take credit for these awesome techniques but I just finished taking Altenew’s Irresistible Inking Techniques course as part of the Altenew Educator Certification Program and that is where I learned them. I did however take what I learned and made it my own and I am going to share how I made this card with you now.

To start off we select two colors of ink that will be used for the card.

There are five inking techniques that we will use for this card.

Inking Techniques Using a Mini Brayer

We’ll start by creating the green patterned background using a little two-and-a-half-inch brayer, ink, and white cardstock. We begin the first by smooshing some of the green ink onto our media mat and then spritzing it with some water. We then pick up the ink with the mini brayer and roll it onto a piece of white card stock. And we repeat this until we are happy with the pattern created on the cardstock. Hint: You don’t always have to roll in the same direction. Set that aside to let it dry while we go on to the next technique.

Direct to Paper Inking Technique

For the pink patterned cardstock, we just apply the ink directly to a piece of white cardstock by lightly swiping it across the cardstock creating a beautiful striated effect. Hint: You can vary how light or dark the color is by how hard you press the ink pad onto the cardstock. Set it aside to dry too.

Ink Stamping

To create the focal point we stamp the beautiful hibiscus image onto yet another piece of white cardstock this time using black ink…and the sentiment too.

Watercoloring With Ink

We smoosh some of the same color ink that we used when creating the Direct to Paper patterned cardstock onto our media mat and then use a wet brush to dilute it a bit and then paint it onto the image that we just stamped. We let it dry and then add another layer to add some depth. Hint: a little bit of white space left unpainted is ok.

Edging with Direct to Paper

At this point, there’s just a bit of preparation that we need to do before we assemble the card. We’re going to make the card a mini slimline to take advantage of the beautiful patterns that we just created. Using a white mini slimline card base we trim the green patterned cardstock to 1/4″ inch smaller than the base on all sides. Then we trim the pink background after having trimmed the sentiment. Our final inking step is to edge the two colored pieces with the opposite color by applying the ink pad directly to the edge of the trimmed paper and running the pad the whole length of each side.

Assembly

To finish off the card we center the green patterned piece on the card base using a glue runner. Then we attach the focal point using a double-sided foam sheet cut just smaller than the square with the flower on it and attach it to one side of the green cardstock. Then once I have the square attached I add the sentiment also using a little piece of foam sheet just under where the sentiment doesn’t overlap the focal point.

One little final step to give the card the pizzaz it needs is we use an embossing pen to add a couple of dots of sticky ink to the center of the flower, sprinkle sparkly black embossing powder on it, and then heat emboss it.

Supplies for Card Using Five Inking Techniques

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Class: Altenew Irresistible Inking Techniques

Cardstock: Neenah Classic Crest 110lb Solar White

Stamp: Altenew Wild Hibiscus

Dies: Gina K Designs Master Layouts 7; Gina K Designs Master Layouts 3

Inks: Altenew Crisp Inks – Cotton Candy, Forest Glades, Jet Black

Adhesives: E-Z Runner Grand, Scrapbook.com Foam Sheet

Embossing Powder: Brutus Monroe Rainbow Sparkle

Embossing Pen: Ranger Tim Holtz Distress

Brayer: Ranger Tim Holtz Distress

Want More Inky Card Making Ideas?

Check out How to Cardmaking Technique Using Faux Watercolor to create gorgeous cards. You’ll love, love, love it!