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Watermark Pads in Scrapbooking

© Merrideth Chenoweth

So what is watermarking? According to the VersaMark product's company website, "VersaMark is: Easy for beginning stampers to use, but versatile enough for experienced stamp artists to create unparalleled masterpieces." That doesn't really tell you anything, but basically it's a stamp pad that does some really cool things! A watermark pad gets quite a bang for your effort, its acid free so it's safe to use in your scrapbooks. This tool is so versatile that you really ought to have it in your collection of scrapbooking supplies.

(Quick side note here: a watermark pad is the same thing as a VersaMark pad and Ranger's Perfect Medium!)

There are four basic techniques for using a watermark pad: watermarking, resist, embossing and chalking. I'm going to save the resist technique for another article and concentrate this one on watermarking, embossing, and chalking.

Watermarking

The supplies you will need are:

Watermark pad

Colored cardstock

Stamp

This technique calls for nothing more than stamping your image on the card stock. Instead of colored, the stamp will appear a couple shades darker than the cardstock. This is good for creating backgrounds on pages, or for shadowing stamped images.

Embossing

For this next technique you will need the following supplies:

Watermark pad

Stamp

Cardstock or paper

Embossing powder

Heat gun

Load your stamp on the Watermark pad, and apply to paper. Sprinkle with embossing powder. You don't exactly have to hurry through this step. The Watermark stays tacky longer than a regular stamp pad would. Tap off the excess embossing powder returning to the jar. Heat with heating tool until all the embossing powder is liquefied. Allow to cool.

This is nice because if using a clear embossing powder you only see the raised image of the stamp in the same color as the cardstock or paper. It's a nice subtle touch to your scrapbooking layout.

Chalking

The next thing to try is using the Watermark pad with scrapbooking calks. You'll need:

Watermark pad

Stamp

Cardstock or paper

Scrapbooking chalks

First Technique
Load the stamp on the Watermark pad, and apply to paper. Follow this with a few swipes of chalk, and the image will appear darker in a patch of the chalk.

Second Technique
The second way to do this is to lightly smudge the chalk on the paper first, then load the stamp and apply over the chalk. Both these give the same effect. The last way to try it is to load the stamp with the Watermark, then stamp directly on the chalk itself to pick up the color there. Then apply the chalked Watermarked stamp to the paper. It will retain the color of the chalk without the extra smudges of chalk around the stamped image.

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