This is the technique that is advertised on the back of so many stamping magazines in the Colorbox ads, and used in the Magenta video. There are many different facets to it, but basically it's just using your pigment stamp pads to apply color directly to the paper (either to a stamped image or to a background), rather than markers, chalks, pencils, etc.

Cat-eye stamp pads are wonderful for this technique - they are small, have pointy edges for small places, and can be 'swooshed' across the paper so as not to leave hard edges. The sections from the round boxes of Colorbox pads also work, as do the sections from Colorbox II (the long rectangular ones) pads, but these tend to leave edges (which is sometimes a desirable thing.) You can also use Dauber Duos, although you have to be careful to use them lightly so you don't just put dots of color on (unless of course that's what you want!)

The first technique is just to use it on a background. Select 3-5 coordinating colors - my favorites are marigold, topaz, a reddish burgandy (there's no color name on my kaleidescope, sorry), and a dark green. Take a dark yellow-gold piece of cardstock, and start smearing the lightest color over it. You don't need to cover everything, and it won't show up very much anyway. Then work with the darker colors, adding each one. Use light 'swooshes' with the stamp pad so you don't leave any definite 'stamp pad' impressions. I usually use an accenting color (the green in this case) at the very end - just in a few places. Then if you like, use gold either from the stamp pad, or on a background kind of stamp (fern leaves are nice.) There, you have a lovely background! Layer to your heart's content.

The second technique is to use it to color an image. Stamp your image on Matte Kote (you get a nice crisp Magenta image, but your pigment inks will dry, which they won't on Krome Kote), or you can do it on other cardstock, but some are too porous to get a crisp image off a Magenta stamp. (Again, you may not WANT a crisp image; this is up to you.) Waterproof ink is good, but not mandatory; you just have to wait a little longer if you use a regular ink. Then, pull out your stamp pads and start coloring. Keep in mind the look that you are after is an 'impression' of coloring, not exact coloring like you would with markers or pencils (you wouldn't be able to get that anyway.) So don't worry about going over lines or not filling completely in - you want that kind of blurry effect. Layer your colors as before, light to dark. (Your pads will get other colors on them, but it's not as bad if you go from light to dark.)

I hope this helps some of you that are interested in this technique. I'm not claiming to be any sort of an expert; I still don't get things to look the way I want them half the time. I highly recommend the Magenta video - it's got some great technique ideas in it! I've watched mine about 5 times already!

Kindly contributed by: Karin C.