Time to Give Thanks!

Today's post is a good example of what NOT to do (and one remedy if you DID)! 

Since Psalms 100 is all about thanksgiving, I thought of this stamp I had (Antique Autumn Tags One from JustRite).  I started by using green StazOn to stamp the image on the page.  Then I colored the image in with my Scroll & Brush markers.

Unfortunately, I had NOT applied clear gesso first.  Imagine my horror when I turned the page and realized the green ink had bled through the page VERY badly - so badly you couldn't even read some of the words on the back of the page! 

Now, I had used StazOn successfully in the past without bleed through, but that was a black pad that had seen a lot more use.  Perhaps I got away with it in the past because the pad was drier?  At any rate, I now had this TERRIBLE bleed through on the back side of the page & had to figure out what to do about it!  

I decided to use white gesso to cover it.  That covered the bleed through - but also covered some of the words.  After it was dry, I went back & filled in the words with a very fine (01) Zig Millennium pen.  It's very obvious where I have done so as my printing is far from identical to the original page, but at least you can read it now! (I actually had to go on-line to see what some of the words were supposed to be!!!)

Naturally, I only applied the white gesso to the margine & the portion of words where there was bad bleed-through.  If I had been more experienced, I would have followed this with a layer of clear gesso over the whole before doing the lettering.  Since I did not do this, I'm a little nervous about doing any illustrations that extend beyond the margin.  I'm afraid if I add clear gesso now, that the writing might bleed.

Well, like I said - this was a "what not to do" page, and I hope it helps prevent a similar problem for your work!