Rainbow Inchies! (pic heavy ~ tute P3)

[Orrkid]

I have been avoiding paper crafting like the plague, mostly because I am so OCD nothing would ever be just right. But every time I see something like really colorful like this, I start to crack (the rainbow did me in - Jenicat is right, they do flow better!) - so, I'm going to break my own rules and give something like this a try, on one condition: you must write a tutorial! I think I can figure the measuring part out but as for the color and your inspiration for composition, what type of paper and ink(? paint? pens?) you use, and what makes certain things work together...well, there I'm kind of stuck. Help a fellow craftster out, pretty please?

Oh, and I guess I forgot to actually say it - these are amazingly beautiful!

[imafundork]

They are beautiful! I love how they are arranged in the first photo.  I agree completely with Cealy!   

I think you should keep every last one for yourself!
Use mounting tape that gives the 3D look and put them together like the first picture in a poster frame! Very quiltish looking!

LOVE IT!

[Phizzychick]

Thank you! These rainbow ones are pretty straightforward. They looked so pretty when I was making them that I even took progress shots, so here ya go!

1. Measure your paper (I used heavy watercolour paper) into 1 inch strips.

2. Paint each one a colour of the rainbow using watercolours.

You'll see that I also painted two rainbow strips for some variety too.

3. When they're dry, cut into 1 inch squares.


4. Add some more paint to the edges of some of them (those middle ones). Ink the edges using a black ink pad. I just press them into it a few times (okay exactly 4 times each side, I have some counting issues ). This gives them a nice graduated, grainy edge, but you can swish them across the pad too for a different, smoother edge.


5. Start to cut small images and bits out in matching colours and play around with the layouts till you're happy. I find it easier to work on lots at a time rather than concentrate on just one.


That's about it really, easy peasy!

[danirene]

Thanks for this mini-tute! your inchies are so beautiful!

[Persephone Hazard]

Thank you for this, you did it in a way that I'd never have thought of by myself. I'm totally going to do this tomorrow, when I'm less drunk than I am just now :-D

[Orrkid]

Looking at these once more, I've fallen in love with them all over again. I especially like the ones with outlines - again with the OCD, ha ha! >.<

4. Ink the edges using an ink pad. I just press them into it a few times (okay exactly 4 times each side, I have some counting issues ). This gives them a nice graduated, grainy edge, but you can swish them across the pad too for a different, smoother edge.

Do you ink them with just an ink pad of the same color, or did you use one of those aging ink thingies (or whatever they're called), or something else entirely?

Also, how'd you do the white bits? They really pop out at you.

And thanks so much for posting a tutorial - I never would have imagined these would be so easily accomplished!

[Phizzychick]

Ooh yeah, I added that bit in. I use a black ink pad for them all.

I'm not quite sure what white bits you mean, but I think they're just the bits that have been collaged on? Some dots I have used a white gel pen in though to make them stand out, so you could mean that maybe?

The circles in strip 4 were cut from another piece of paper that I'd randomly painted and drawn on. A bit like this, but not in my journal, on a plain piece of paper...



Hope that helps!

[Lmcbride]

I'd love to see some pictures of how people display their inchies collection.  I have been thinking about doing this for some time now but have resisted, mainly because I fear that it would be so much fun I would not be able to stop until I covered a whole wall with them or something.  Do folks generally mount the inchies on a bigger piece of something and then hang that on the wall?

[EmilyJumbleBugs]

These are all so wonderful and whimsical!

My fav is the yellow one with the elephant, so lovely!

[tanechka]

Phizzychick, you seriously rock!

Thankyou for sharing!

Can I ask what kind of water colours you use?