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Posh Impressions Inkabilities Rainbow Sponge and Inks
Ramie Ahlstrom - Scrapping Design Team LeaderThe Posh Inkabilities Rainbow Inks and Sponges are a fantastic product designed by Dee Gruenig. (www.poshimpressions.com) For over 20 years, Dee has been designing fantastic backgrounds for cards, scrapbook pages, and gift wrap (to name just a few) using the Inkabilities sponge and inks. The inks come in sixty-two colors, available in sets of six or eight, and include pastels, brights, earth tones, and metallics. There are four types of sponges available in four different sizes. They also have a product called IrRESISTible Ink that resists the colored inks, so you can make spaces between them on the sponge.
The inks come in small bottles, with a specially designed needle nose applicator at the top. These dye inks are acid-free and non-toxic. To apply the ink to the sponge, simply remove the cap and squeeze a generous amount onto the sponge. A spot about 1/4inch in width should do the trick, unless you want your “line” to be wider. . . then just extend your ink spot. To use more than one color, just add them carefully next to the previous color, making sure not to overlap them. To extend the life of the inks on the sponge, simply spray with a light mist of water, and continue on. Note: the colors will be slightly muted when misted with water.
The sponges are specially designed for the inks, and are more dense then the typical make-up sponge. They hold more ink and distribute it more evenly because of their density. The sponges can be washed with water, and reused!
Dee has released several “how-to” videos (available on VHS and DVD) in which she demonstrates how to use the Inkabilities Rainbow Inks and Sponges. When I started playing with these inks, I watched two of these videos, and found them very informative. Dee explains an acronym that she came up with to help people better use their inks and sponges.
SPONGE stands for:
Surface
Plenty of Ink
Over the Top
Never Give Up
Graceful
Edge
--A coated glossy SURFACE will work best. Glossy cardstock, vellum and even glossy photo paper work wonderfully. An absorbent cardstock or paper will absorb more ink, requiring you to re-ink more often, and waste more ink, but can be used, and creates a totally different effect.
--When adding ink to your sponge, be sure that you use PLENTY of ink. A saturated spot on the sponge will allow you to cover an entire sheet of paper.
--There are an endless number of designs that you can create. Allow your imagination to go OVER the TOP and try as many things as you can think of. Then try a few more!
--As the saying goes... Practice, Practice, Practice! NEVER GIVE UP. Using these inks and sponges takes practice, and once you get the hang of it, you’ll be playing forever.
--Be GRACEFUL as you slide the sponge across the paper. Don’t stop in the middle, to avoid creating a darker place in your design.
--Be sure to start and stop off the EDGE of your paper. This allows for a continuous design. Be sure to have some scrap paper underneath your project! (I’ve found that freezer paper works wonderfully for this.)
Some of the things you can create with the Inkabilities include striped (straight and squiggly) and plaid backgrounds, tiled (stamped) designs, checkerboards, shaving cream backgrounds, and polished stone backgrounds. I’ve only tried a few of these, but the possibilities are endless for scrapbookers and stampers alike!
For a striped background, ink the edge of the sponge with several colors. The colors can be close together, or separated by IrRESISTible ink (to create a space between the colors). For this layout, I used Metallic Silver and Metallic Charcoal inks, separated by IrRESISTible ink, to create lines on black cardstock. The metallic inks work fantastically on black paper, but work wonderful on white (and other colors) also.
To create squiggly lines, simply wiggle your hand as you drag the sponge across the paper. You can create wavy lines, or swirls... anything is acceptable! For this layout, I created a wavy line on a piece of vellum, using Denim and Metallic Gold inks, separated by the IrRESISTible ink. Combining the metallic inks with the regular inks increases the number of possible color combinations by hundreds!
Creating the perfect plaid background has never been easier. Simply sponge some stripes onto your paper, turn the paper ninety degrees, and sponge stripes on perpendicular to the first set. It took me several practice attempts to get my lines straight, but once I did, I fell in love with the ease of having plaid designs that matched my layouts perfectly! Wavy plaid would be just as easy, and probably not require as much practice!
Tiling, or stamping, with the Tileabilities sponges is easy and fun to do. Drawing your own image, or creating your own design gives you the freedom to create anything you want, and be able to recreate it over and over again, by “stamping” it on your background. In her “Much More Magical Rainbow Sponge” DVD, Dee shows viewers how they can draw an image on the sponge with a pencil, go over it with the IrRESISTible ink, then fill the image with color, to create a stamp. You can easily create endless borders and tiled backgrounds like this. By turning the sponge, you can create designs that meet at the corners, or are reversed... all with the ease of a stamp, but with any design you create!
I’ve created a diagonal striped border for this layout, using the tiling (or stamping) technique. I inked the sponge with diagonal lines and simply flipped the sponge ninety degrees each time I stamped.
The shaving cream and polished stone backgrounds can both be achieved by substituting the Inkabilities inks for the dye-based re-inkers.
Some other products available to enhance your experience with the Posh Inkabilities Rainbow Sponge and Inks are Magic Resist Paper, Metallic Accent Pens, the Super Scenic Sponge, the Inkabilities Tool (a pen like tool for directing the placement of ink), as well as Dee’s Magical Rainbow Sponge Book.
The backgrounds and papers created with the Inkabilities inks can easily be trimmed to fit your needs, punched with hand punches, or used in a die cutting machine, such as the Sizzix. As you can see, the Posh Inkabilities Rainbow Sponge and Inks are very versatile. The possibilities are endless!
I hope this article has sparked your interest in, or helped you further your abilities with, the Posh Impressions Rainbow Sponge and Inks. Be sure to check out Suzanne Saupe’s article about the Posh Inks in this edition of S.S. Reflections.
Happy Scrappin’
Ramie Ahlstrom
ramieahlstrom@ssreflections.com
Scrapping Design Team Leader
S.S. Reflections, Inc.
