Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Distress Ink Watercolour (+ a trick for labeling the Tim Holtz Palettes)

So, my BFF Kimmy wanted to make a card for her friend's
wedding shower, but she just had shoulder surgery.
Good excuse for me to pull out a flowery stamp fave, hey?

Hero Arts flower card mel stamps

It's stamped on 140 lb watercolour paper
and I used Distress Ink refills to paint with.


These are the two Distress Inks
That I used to paint the flowers:

Distress Ink Palete label close up mel stampz

Spun Sugar and Worn Lipstick (some watered
down & some full concentration Distress Reinker).

The leaves were done with Shabby Shutters mixed with
a bit of watered down Broken China:

shabby shuttersbroken china


The white heat embossing makes it
quite easy to watercolour with the Distress Inks:

Hero Arts flowers mel stampz

The colour stays put in those raised lines nicely.



And I thought that those of you who like Tim Holtz product
might like to see how I've added the
labels to my Distress Ink reinker palette:

Distress Ink palette labels mel stampz

It can be tricky to tell one shade of reinker from another.
They often look black since they are so concentrated.
(I would have labeled the lid, but it is so much
easier to grab the right colour if the label is beside the ink well).


...label a Distress Ink palette

1) Painted a piece of paper on one side with acrylic paint (to strengthen it).

2) Cut it up & inked it with all the distress ink colours using the foam applicator.

3) Punched small circles out of the distress inked paper (1 inch).

4) Punched again with a larger circle to create rings (1-1/4 inch).

5) Wrote the name of each Distress Ink on the rings.

6) Cut them in half, so they would fit around the palette sections.

7) Adhered them with a clear lacquer glue around each section.

8) Sealed them with it to prevent staining, and that's it.





The envelope (and the inside and back of the card)
are all lined with the lime medium striped diagonal paper
from this free paper set...



(Not sure how to download from flickr?
There's a tutorial here.)


...using the technique shown in this super
speedy envelope lining tutorial:
PDF TUT lining an envelope_mel stampz


Thanks for checking this out.
Hope you're having a colourful day!





P.S. The palette is a fairly new product from Tim Holtz through Ranger. Scraptime put together a video of him demonstrating the palette here: http://vimeo.com/27020796
and here too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2elcdAAFXk

24 comments:

Tasnim said...

This card is so beautiful! Love the way you water colored the flowers and the leaves. It is elegant and perfect for the occasion!

Annie Rose said...

This is so awesome! I love the labels. Thanks for the inspiration! :)

Luvs,
Annie Rose

Joan B said...

wow, this card is gorgeous

Tracy said...

That is one gorgeous card Mel! I love the softness of coloring with DI. Thanks for the great labeling tip too. Hugs!

Leslie Hanna said...

Wowza! Just wowza!!! Amazing card. And those labels are inspired!

pescbrico said...

Your card is SO beautiful!!! WOW! and the way you labeled those is so clever!

Lin said...

Absolutely gorgeous! Love how the embossing stands out!

Rufus said...

Gorgeous! I always forget about embossing with white! Neat trick for labeling your re-inker palette.
R/

Bumblebee said...

This card is beautiful, I would never have thought to white heat emboss and colour like that! So inspiring! And your reinker labelling is just genius!

Hussena said...

Gorgeous card ..love the way you have colored the flowers !!!

Margie said...

Lovely card and envelope Mel and thanks for the freebie paper - building up quite a collection now! I really like the embossing and the way you've done the colouring, you must have a very steady hand LOL Margie x

Dawn said...

beautiful card kiddo!!
fab tip on the reinkers too, clever you! and more paper!! woohoo!!

hugz!!!

iene said...

beautiful, looks like vintage wallpaper,
Evelyn

Holly M said...

Every time I say I'm not buying another stamp, I see a beautiful card like this one. So lovely, Mel! Thanks for all the great tips, too.

Becky said...

wow Mel, this is gorgeous..

linda from arizona said...

Beautiful card! I always enjoy seeing what you do. It inspires me so much!

Kim Etherington said...

I am the lucky gal who this card was made for me to give away. I'm so happy I had the excuse of my shoulder surgery, because it is way better then what I could ever do. Stunning as always Mel. Thank you sooo much!

scrapgala said...

magnifique !!! merci

Patricia said...

thank you very much... this card is fabulous!

Erum Tasneem said...

gorgeous! very very beautiful! Thank you for the freebies!

alexandra s.m. said...

Dear Mel,

Not only is your card pure delight, I'm head over heals about the palette you created! This is pure genius!!
I just put my watercolor box away...now I want to paint with my Distress Inks thanks to you!

I have and treasure your email, I'd like to not be rushed to respond and thank you so much for your comments, you are such a dear!

Hugs from rainy Chicago~

MaRyKaY said...

wow what an awesome idea. I dont have one of these yet but will definitely do this when I do get myself one. I am just wondering though? How long do your ink's usually last in those palette's? Do you frequently use them? Or do they pretty much stay good and juicy for a while?
What an awesome thing.

That card you made is elegant. I love the embossing. Much prettier than any you could have bought. Your friend is lucky to have a friend like you. a talented one at that. thanks for sharing all this

Nancy B. said...

Wow, Mel, this is really beautiful and I really love the effect of using the distress inks!

kim said...

I really do like this but being a newbie to this could you please tell me how you got the embossing done as well as the tiny tiny flower patterns on the card?