Painted Distress Ink emboss-resist technique (on a P.O.D. Challenge card)

Here's a simple wedding card or an anniversary card
or just a schmooshy-mooshy love card...

(with a painted emboss-resist technique
using Distress Inks and stain).

-1-


Do you love challenges?
It's been ages since I've played along with one, so...

Lilly Pad Cards has a colour challenge going:

(until Thursday March 15th)

with one of my very favourite companies as the sponsor:

Definitely different colours than I'm used to
(since they're not turquoise) ;-)
but such a good challenge & such a soft combo.

Though I did add a little touch of blue like some
of the sample cards from their design team.



(The tag is made using: a metal rimmed tag with the paper removed;
A piece of printable acetate cut & glued onto the metal rim; a rub-on from the Cosmo Cricket Ever After line; and teensy little flowers left from a Fiskars edge punch that I pierced holes in and glued on with clear lacquer).


-2-

(Distress Ink heat emboss resist
blended with white Picket Fence stain)

I'm still learning how to work with Distress Inks &
I realized that (so far) I don't really use them very much.

It's the blending that throws me a little, so I was excited when
I tried the Picket Fence white distress stain over them &
it turned out to be an easy and fun way to blend Distress Inks quickly...

Step 1) Heat emboss in clear: Stamp in clear Versamark ink, sprinkle with clear embossing powder & heat set with a heat gun.

(Traditionally, the "emboss resist" technique is done on glossy cardstock, but I much prefer it on regular white cardstock.) I used Purple Onion Designs' background set Harlequin.



Step 2) Ink over the clear embossing with distress ink colours & let the ink dry a little.

For these diamonds, I used Antique Linen & Brushed Corduroy and Iced Spruce (the seasonal Christmas grey-blue which was an oh so thoughtful gift from the ultra lovely Lisa) as well as Brushed Corduroy & Victorian Velvet.

There's no need to worry about blending:



You can have inking that's nice and dark and messy,
since the next step will tone it down...

Step 3) Swipe over the Distress Ink with Picket Fence white Distress Stain
(just wipe the excess stain off of the clear heat embossing to remove any stain that is sitting on top of the glossy bits and won't dry).

If you don't have Distress Stain, you could use white paint or gesso watered down, but I find that the distress stain is nice since it doesn't warp the paper as much as more watery mediums might.

The stain can give you an interesting wood grain
or streaked texture:



And you can add more stain if you want it lighter, since it
becomes increasingly opaque as you layer it.

-3-

(rubber stamps used here...)

P.O.D.'s Harlequin:


One of my favorite things about the P.O.D. Harlequin stamp
set is the blank diamond:



you can use it with any of your stamps. I used it
with an older P.O.D. calendar stamp that
still works despite the date because it gives the most unique texture:





And with my favourite script background
(it's from Purple Onion Designs too).

Hope you can play along
with the challenge too!

P.S. I also used the new Hero Arts Large Floral Background stamp with the blank Purple Onion Designs' Harlequin stamp (on the pink diamond pieces).