Technique of the Week: Distress Blending/Emboss Resist

This post is in conjunction with the Art 'n Soul weekly newsletter article, "Technique of the Week"

This is a super easy way to make lots of backgrounds to have on hand for your cards. I made quite a few in one sitting, and have already used some of them for cards I needed to make.

First, choose a background stamp that will cover your panel. I used 80# Neenah Solar White cardstock, cut to 5.25" x 4". I have a great many Cover a Card stamps from Impression Obsession. these stamps are 5.75" x 5.75" square, so they should cover any A2 size panel. For this example I chose "Medallion" CC032.

The first step is to ink your stamp with Versamark ink. Your MISTI tool would work well for stamping your panel, but I find it just as easy to turn my stamp face-up on the table, ink it, and put my cardstock panel onto the stamp.

I cover the whole thing with a piece of scrap paper and hold it down with one hand, while rubbing the paper with the other to press the cardstock onto the stamp. This will nearly always give a good impression.

I used JudiKins Iridescent Sparkle embossing powder to emboss my panel, but you could also use Clear, Opaque White, or White Diamond. I wanted my panel to sparkle, and Iridescent Sparkle really does. Unfortunately this is very hard to capture in a photograph.

I chose 3 colors of Distress Ink for the example shown here: Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet, and Shaded Lilac. Using blending tools, I started blending the colors onto the embossed panel. 

With this method, you don't have to worry about pressing too hard and making splotches. You can press hard right from the start. The more ink you add, the more the embossing will pop.

After blending the colors, I cut the panel to 5" x 3.75" and adhered it to an A2 size base card made from 110# Neenah Solar White cardstock.

I cut a frame from So Silk Passion Purple cardstock and adhered it to the panel to frame the card.

Out of the same Purple cardstock I die-cut the word "happy" using Hero Arts DC150 "Happy Stamp & Cut". This set from Hero Arts has coordinating stamps, so I cut a small banner from the So Silk cardstock and stamped "birthday in Versamark ink. I embossed it with JudiKins White Diamond embossing powder.

I adhered the "happy" die-cut to the panel and popped up the banner with the "birthday" sentiment using foam tape. I scattered a few sequins at the end.

I.O. Small Swirls CC117; Tapestry CC024; Mesh Circles CC161; Tapestry 2 CC025

I chose a number of background stamps to make more of these panels in the same way, choosing lots of other distress colors for blending. They were easy and fun to make and now I have background panels that I can use to quickly make a card. I hope you will give this technique a try.