Road Test Friday - Ranger's Specialty Stamping Paper with Amira

Hi everyone! Welcome to another Friday Road Test! We'll be giving our Road Testers new products to try out and reporting back the results and (hopefully) great experiences.

Today Amira plays with Ranger's Specialty Stamping Paper and finds out what it's great (and not so great) for.....

Hello Crafty Friends,

I was so excited to sit down to get some cards done for my project for the February kit.

I grabbed my Specialty paper, my Lawn Fawn Ink Pad and these gorgeous Lawn Fawn Stamps and I started stamping away!!

I also grabbed a few of my alcohol markers: KaiserFusion, Chameleons and my Inktense water soluble pencils, to add color.

The first thing I noticed was that this ink did not absorb into the paper fast enough. Even after a full minute, it still looked like it was wet on the paper.

You can see the shine here on the corner of the envelope.

As soon as I started colouring with the alcohol marker, it just smudged very badly!

I was shocked!

I tried both types of alcohol markers I had and they both smudged the black ink.

I then tried using the Inktense pencils (dry) and although they did not bleed, I had to press hard to get a rich color and I could see I was making marks in the paper as well as getting bits of crayon all over my work. 

Hmmmmm...detective cap comes on!

Here is exactly what the back of the ink pad says:

And here is exactly what the back of the Ranger Paper said:

Further more, when I die-cut the stamped images out with their co-ordinating dies, the plates pressed against the stamped images causing further smudging.

Not good!

So I did end up resorting to .... 

yup you guessed it- 

fussy cutting!

I was confused!

Was it the paper?

Was it the ink?

This called for further investigation!

I pulled out my Neenah Solar White card stock (110lb) and stamped the chicks on with Ranger Ink and then coloured them in with Kaiser Fusion alcohol markers (on the right) and a yellow Chameleon marker (on the left).

They did NOT smudge and looked great!

I then used the same Neenah paper and instead stamped out with the Lawn Fawn Ink and once again used alcohol markers to color them in.

And they did NOT smudge and also looked great. 

So my conclusion is that it's the Ranger Paper!

I just cant find a suitable ink to stamp it with without smudging it!

The Ranger Ink smudged when using alcohol markers,

the Lawn Fawn Ink also smudged when using alcohol markers.

As for all those images I stamped out in the beginning, I ended up colouring them in with Inktense pencil marker and tried not to press too hard into the paper so as not to leave a gauge mark.

So, if I couldn't stamp with Ranger's stamping paper, what could I use it for?

I pulled out my watercolours and started dripping colors on it and had fun making shapes and seeing characters in my end product.

So at first, this looks like a hot mess!!

But look closer!

Bottom left corner!

Do you see him?

He's an Aussie for sure!

Koala or wombat?

You tell me.

A few cute ears and he's done!

Next to him was a red blob- well she turned into Ms Kitty Meow.

And on and on!

Do you see the kangaroo and the crocodile?

So much fun!!

Do you see the platypus?

He's so cute!!

Some art is about play and not really about amazing works of art that everyone wants to buy for hundred of dollars.

I then pulled out my Ranger alcohol inks and had a TON of fun dripping them on and watching them spread and mix. 

I only have a baby collection of inks but what I've got I love.

I then pulled out some fairy stamps (works best with block out stamps and black ink) and stamped out a fairy scene.

I added some white signs pen squiggles to fill in some of the background.

Mounted it on a 4" x 6" card base and voila!

Cute card!

Thank you so much for tuning in.

I do have a process video for you here

I hope you have found some answers here and a bit of inspiration to play.

xxAmira