Showing posts with label Distress-Inks-etc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Distress-Inks-etc. Show all posts

Monday, June 11, 2012

"One, Two, Three... Get Loose, Now!"

Do you like that loose relaxed style that seems to be all the rage, now?

I love it! But I find it totally im-possum-ible, so I'm trying
to get a little more chilled out in my card layouts...

purple onion designs hometown Bakery card

Not sure if this little card qualifies as relaxed, but it felt that way
when I was making it. ;-) (It's a 4-1/4 inch square card).




- a splatter using the inner mechanism of a spray bottle

Step 1) Print subtle graph paper & add some splatters. This is some Distress Ink spray that I made: tumbled glass & distilled water, but instead of spraying, I flicked the inky water on using the mechanism-thingy from the inside of the spray bottle.

1 Put the SRM sticker on your project and sand off some of the text

Step 2) Stick an SRM sticker on the paper and sand off some of the black ink.

It will take away some of the sticker ink leaving a funky distressed texture and softer look:

2 It will take away some of the sticker ink leaving a funky distressed texture and softer look

You could sand the sticker before you add it to your project to reduce the chance of smudges but I just stuck a piece of low tack painters tape on...

3 You could sand the sticker before you add it to your project to reduce the chance of smudges but I just stuck a piece of low tack painters tape on and

... and when you lift the tape, the black dust from sanding lifts right off:

4 when you lift the tape the black dust from sanding lifts right off and doesn't smudge onto your paper

It gives you a nice clean look and the black dust won't smudge onto your paper.

Another trick with tape that surprised me:

Distress Stain on washi tape

If you put picket fence Distress Stain on washi tape it will stay put
and it gives you a lovely texture:

washi tape painted with Picket Fence Distress Stain

Step 3) Stick the tape onto cardstock & make a little tag shape.

a purple onion designs hometown bakery  stamped and layered with acetate window

Step 4) Stamp the Bakery hometown stamp. (I heat embossed it with black pigment ink & clear embossing powder. One of the nicest things about the hometown building stamps is that they are not too small. (This little Bakery is just under 2.5" tall.) Makes it easy to colour!

I stamped it 2 times.

Once to cut the window out of to add a bit of acetate & layer it up:

c acetate window purple onion designs hometown Bakery

I also stamped the Bakery image a second time to cut the awning out:

b purple onion designs hometown Bakery awning dimension built up out of grey cardstock layers

(The handy thing is that I could use the same image I cut the awning from to also cut out the yummy contents of the window to pop in behind). The layers in behind the whole thing are all grey cardstock. I like that better than foam dots since it's sturdier and looks like a shadow.

To layer it, I did this schtuff:

A) Stamped the image & cut the window out with a hobby blade.
B) Glued 3 pieces of white cardstock together (a bit smaller than the size as the image to fit in behind it).
C) Temporarily adhered the 3 layers of cardstock in behind the stamped image with the window cut out of it.
D) Cut the window out of the layers that are in behind -- using the first window cutting as a guide.
E) Cut a little piece of acetate & glue it in behind the stamped image. Permanently adhere the layers for dimension.
F) Add the awning (coloured & cut) with layers of grey cardstock in behind.
G) Add the bakery window contents in behind the little acetate window.

Step 5) Stick it all together:

purple onion designs hometown Bakery card

Step 6) Add a little paper to the inside of the card
and line an envelope to match:

inside card and lined envelope

It's just simple printed digi paper, with faux stitches drawn in pen.
(I'll add the three digi papers I used for this card in the next day or two).

The tutorial for lining an envelope in a big old hurry, is here.





a purple onion designs hometown bakery  stamped and layered with acetate window





Hope your day is a sweet one!



P.S. On an extra personal note: Sorry the posts around here continue to be random. I've been working on managing my energy levels and diet (anemia and the no gluten or dairy or egg etc...) It's has been a bit of a struggle. I'm a regular zombie, I tell ya (and oh man my house is a big old MESS!) :-) But Charles is more patient than a saint, and we've been enjoying days here and there spent in the community garden and spent with our amazing family. I am starting to have some non-zombie days and my migraines are fewer! Yay!!! I hope you and yours are feeling oh so well, and are as lucky as we are.

P.P.S. "One, Two, Three... Get loose now!" Got that song stuck in your head? Here's "It Takes Two make a Think go Right" (for my fellow the Rob Base & D.J. Easy Rock fans). :-D And of course, "Joy & Pain" too!

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Wrinkle-free Distress Ink technique

Digital stuff is a delight, but don't you just love the
pure fun of getting inky with rubber stamps?

Purple Onion Design balloon on the wind

"let the wind take you away!"

You might not be able to tell from the usual style of cards around this joint that I am obsessed with Distress Inks. I just finished making 44 custom spray inks with Distress Ink refills that I can't wait to show you, in detail.

(Not to mention all kinds of obsessive organizing
that just makes my heart sing with happy):

Distress Ink - labels - DIY sprays - reinker indexing

card


The sky background: This card is my real first try at the wrinkle free Distress Ink technique invented by Tim Holtz. I tried it way back when, with other inks, but it is much more vibrant and textural with Distress inks. I used these inks: Pine Needles, Tumbled Glass, Broken China, and Iced Spruce.

painted clouds

To make the clouds...

- I doodled some cloud shapes & cut out them out.
- Swiped over them with white acrylic paint & let it dry.
- Adhered them to the Distress Ink background.
- Pierced & stitched the outline with white thread.

purple onion designs stitched balloon

To add the balloon...

- I stamped the Purple Onion Designs balloon on patterned paper (Crate paper Paper Heart 6x6).
- Then to make a quick template for stitching the string out of black thread, I cut a scrap of clear plastic from some packaging and stamped the balloon again (in stazon so it would be permanent) pierced holes in the plastic:

balloon string piercing template

- Then I laid it over my card, and pierced holes where the string would be... and hand stitched the balloon string with a needle and black thread.
- Finally, the balloon itself is covered in clear lacquer glue to make it shiny & popped up on foam dots for dimension.

To add the sentiment...

- I stamped the sentiment in silver on tracing paper.
- Then heat embossed it with silver embossing powder.
- Finally I cut it out & adhered the tracing paper to the bottom of the clouds with gluestick and added a couple of hand stitches at either side to anchor each word visually.


(white Distress Stain edging)

Ever feel like the edges of the card need something
to tie all the elements together visually?

Sometimes white paint is just the thing, but sometimes pure paint is too bold.
The one Distress Stain I've tried out (the white one Picket Fence) is perfect...

Distress Stain card edges to finish them

If you swipe it around the edges once you get a soft white look
& you can go around a couple more times, layering it for bolder white.

If you have white Distress Stain, you might be interested
in this
Painted Distress Ink tutorial:
Purple Onion Designs Harlequine card DIY acetate tag4 Soften ink & blend with picket fence distress stain over it a little or a lot since you can build the layers






  • Stazon ink & clear plastic packaging for piercing template
  • Paper piercer, needle & black and white thread
  • Patterned paper: Crate paper Paper Heart 6x6
  • White cardstock, white acrylic paint, and Tracing paper
  • Silver pigment ink, silver embossing powder, a heat gun
  • Distress Inks: Pine Needles, Tumbled Glass, Broken China, and Iced Spruce.
  • Scor-Pal Stay Put Craft Mat
  • Distress Stain (white) Picket Fence


Here's hoping your day is delightful one,


P.S. If you're curious about the wrinkle free Distress Ink technique you can see Tim's video for it here. And he has many more videos on his new site here.

P.S. Downloading excitement!!! Thank you all so much for liking the overlays. You all made my week with your kind words! Sorry about the downloading troubles in Chrome or Explorer. If you check that overlay and other freebie posts, you'll find that downloading from any browser just got a lot simpler. Thanks again, Suruha You're the best!

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

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

3 Clean And Simple cards (with SRM stickers)


You guys may know that I was tragically born without the gene
that let's you achieve a Clean And Simple card. ;-)
Not sure why I find them so stinkin' difficult to do, but boy do I!

Do you find clean and simple
easy or tricky?




Since I love these stickers:


I didn't want to miss
this Clean & Simple challenge:


(CFC43 until Wed. 14th at 11:59 pm)

The first two cards may not
be truly clean and simple, but if the third one
isn't too clean, then I'll eat my stamps! :-D




A small & tall card
(6-1/4" tall x 3-3/8" wide)

1 hero arts large flower background

The flower image is my new number one stamp fave:
Hero Arts Large Flower Background cling stamp

Technique details:

1) Stamped on Kraft cardstock using Colorbox White pigment ink.
2) Heat embossed with white embossing powder.
3) Painted with Distress Inks (Broken China, Tumbled Glass, Victorian Velvet, Forest Moss, Pumice Stone)
4) Intensified the colours with Copic markers & then painted over with Perfect Pearls

Such a fun technique to do...
Hopefully you can see some of the shimmer in this photo:

1c White heat emboss Hero Arts large flower bkgrd stamp on kraft cs -Distress ink painting with perfect pearls

Do you like creating sayings for cards?

Sentiments are where I get lazy.
They make me cringe since I can never stamp
them perfectly. Let's just say Hooray for Stickers!

This sticker is just cut up & stuck on watercolour paper:

1b SRM thank you sticker cut from circle on watercolour paper and cardstock

(and it's on some blue cardstock too). Super fast!




A square & sloppy card:
(5 inches square)

2a SRM sticker coloured with copic markers - Hero Arts large flower background stamp in white

The background stamping is that Hero Arts Large Flower background again
(masked off & stamped messily in Colorbox white ink (with rough lines
drawn around it in black pen & splatters of watery white paint).

---

The "... I love you ..." sticker is stuck on a little bit of printed
(miniscule) text & I used Copic markers to colour on top of the sticker:

2b SRM sticker - Over printed text in tiny typewriter font then coloured with Copic markers

I just smudged the Copics while they were still wet, with a finger tip.
Then added a bit of black hand stitching on the tag.




An ultra-simple A2 card:
(5-1/2" tall x 4-1/4" wide)

3a super simple stitched SRM thanks sticker card

The white "thanks" sticker stuck on black cardstock &
pierced & stitched:

3b Stitched SRM sticker

I was surprised at how easy it was to stitch letters using the sticker since it makes
the paper stronger (and I found it made the stitched letters look so much tidier too!)
Plus, how cute is that font, hey?

The hearts are from a teeny punch that was $1.50 at Michael's:

3c detail SRM thanks sticker

I stuck a piece of Distress-inked paper under them (inks: mustard seed,
broken china, spiced marmalade).



Here are the stickers I used, in case you're curious
(they're highlighted in turquoise). I cut the brown "thank
you" out of the circle for the first card.

We've Got Your Sticker - Thanks:



Sticker Sentiments - Love:





Hope you are having the

most delightful of weeks!



P.S. full disclosure: I received the SRM stickers for free back in the day as part of design team work.

P.P.S. The coloured sticker on card number 2 was inspired by this amazing scrapbook page by Corrie Jones on the SRM blog.