Watercolor with Coffee

What?  Watercolor with COFFEE?  Yes.  Heather Hoffman shared the idea over at Unity Stamps a few days ago, and I could barely stand the wait for my stamps to get here.  I used the most recent Unity Kit of the Month, called Hope in Uncertainty/April 2020.

I love the Unity Kit of the Month stamps, because it's a huge collection of images that may, or may not, go together - but I love the variety.  The coffee cup image in this kit is lovely.

How do you do it?  Easy!  Stamp your image in a waterproof ink on watercolor paper.  Important:  watercolor paper.

I used amalgam inks for these.  Oreo (Taylored Expression) on one, and Chocolate Truffle (Gina K) on the other.  I wanted to see the difference between black and brown inks would look.  Not a huge difference.

So stamp that image down, and maybe heat set it (I did not, and I got some bleed).  Then, use a paint brush and real coffee to watercolor around it.  This is my first coat, all around.  Then I dried it with my Tim Holtz mini drying thing - looks like a baby hair dryer.

I ultimately went around the coffee cup three times with the coffee.  Dry in between each application of coffee.  You get more stain marks, the more you add.

This is the brown one.  I used Early Espresso and Soft Suede card stocks.  I also roughed up the edges of this one.

This is the black one.  I do think the black-inked image stands out more.  I finished both with some Oyster grey Nuvo drops (I love that stuff!), Icicle Stickles on the spoons, and some different ribbons.

What's cool is that it also SMELLS like coffee - just a little bit.  Not a ton.  Enough.   I LOVED it, and will definitely  make more of these!

Supplies you'll need to create these (Stampin' Up, unless otherwise noted.  Items may be retired.):

Stamps: Hope in Uncertainty (Unity Stamp Co KOM, April 2020), Warmest Regards

Ink: Oreo (Taylored Expressions), Chocolate Truffle (Gina K0

Paper: watercolor paper, Whisper White, Basic Black, Early Espresso, Soft Suede

Other: Coffee, paint brush, Oyster Nuvo Drops, Icicle Stickles, Early Espresso Quilted ribbon, Black corduroy ribbon, mini stapler.

Thanks for visiting, and Happy stamping!

Toni

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