Technique of the Week: Distress Crayon Resist

This post is in conjunction with the Art 'n Soul Newsletter Technique of the Week.

One of the interesting things about Distress Crayons is that they act as a resist. To explore this technique, I used one of the newest stencils from Magenta (coming soon!). You need a stencil that has decent sized openings for this to work well. This leaf stencil was designed by one of the Magenta Design Team members, the very talented Carole Dion. It's absolutely beautiful, and perfect for this technique.

First I cut a panel out of Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock to 3.75" x 5" (using the largest rectangle in the Lawn Fawn die set LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables).

I taped the Magenta leaf stencil (TM190) to the panel and using the Picket Fence (white) Distress crayon, I colored into all of the openings and smudged it with my finger until I was satisfied that it had covered the whole opening.

Magenta Stencil TM190 Designed by Carole Dion - Isn't it beautiful?

Once I had applied the white Distress Crayon into all of the leaf openings, I dried the panel with a heat gun. The resist properties of the Distress Crayons work best if the crayon has dried.

Next I started blending Distress Inks over the design. I began with Mustard Seed, and continued with Wild Honey; Spiced Marmalade; Rusty Hinge; and finally with Barn Door. As the color on the panel got progressively darker, the image showed up more and more.

Step 1 - Mustard Seed

Step 2 - Wild Honey

Step 3 - Spiced Marmalade. The image is really beginning to pop

Step 5 - Rusty Hinge

Step 6 - Barn Door

I wanted a little bling, so I went over each part of the stenciled image with a clear Wink of Stella glitter pen. This lightened the image even further, and added a beautiful sparkle that is impossible to capture in a photograph.

I stamped the Thinking of You sentiment with Versafine Vintage Sepia ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder. I sprinkled droplets of water over the image to add interest. It was at this point that all was almost lost, since I dropped two very large splats of water onto the panel by mistake. Since it was 1:00 a.m. by this time, I covered the offending splats with large sequins. This is always an option! In the photo below I also show how I'm choosing a sentiment that will fit in the space.

The panel was mounted onto a mat of Stardream Bronze cardstock cut to 4" x 5.25" and all was mounted onto a base card of Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock.

This is a fun technique that you can try with Distress Crayons, and is one of the many ways to use them.  You can go here to a previous posting to see another technique using Distress Crayons.

Magenta Products Used:

(If you are local, please look for products at Art 'n Soul. If you are not local and wish to find Magenta products, you can click on the link in the stamp name below each image, or you can visit the Magenta online store here).

Magenta Leaf Stencil TM190 (available soon)

07.869.D Thinking of You

Other Products Used:

Distress Crayon: Picket Fence

Distress Inks: Mustard Seed, Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge, Barn Door

Versafine Vintage Sepia ink

Clear Wink of Stella

Lawn Fawn Die LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables

Clear Embossing powder

Stardream Bronze cardstock

Neenah Solar White Classic Crest cardstock 80# & 110#

Various sequins

Technique of the Week: Stripe Inlay

This post is in conjunction with the Art 'n Soul newsletter's Technique of the Week article.

This technique is from Jennifer McGuire, and I absolutely love it! This is a great way to use up your scraps of paper.  Here is my first card, and I love how it turned out.

I already save strips of paper, but if you don't have any, cut any of your scraps of paper into random width strips. 

I especially save strips from my watercolor or Nuance projects. I absolutely do not throw them away, and now I'm very glad to find a great use for them. I sorted through my strips and pulled out all of the blue ones (there were a lot).

To start I got a piece of printer paper (text weight paper) and cut a piece 3.75" x 5". I wanted this to be the size of my panel. I covered one side of the paper with Stick-It adhesive, and pulled the release paper off the back. 

I set the panel on my table with the sticky side up and started laying the strips onto the sticky paper diagonally, with each strip snugged up the previous. I chose the strips completely at random.

Once the panel was completely covered, I turned it over and trimmed off all of the excess strips from the 3.75" x 5" piece. 

I took the striped panel and die cut it using 2 dies: Impression Obsession DIE311-R Santa's Sled and Memory Box die 99545 Snowdrift Breeze.

Once the piece was die cut, I covered the back of the panel with score tape. You could also use Stick-It, but I wanted to be sure the adhesive was very strong. 

The advantage of applying tape to the back is that it stabilizes your die cut piece; and also, when I turned the panel back over to the front, all of the open die cut areas had adhesive in them. 

Next, I die cut the 2 dies out of Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock. These pieces are for inlaying into the areas that the blue pieces came out of. 

This process is not very difficult, and actually goes surprisingly quickly since there is already adhesive in all of the openings.

Once the white pieces had all been inlaid, I added some Stardust Stickles to all of the snowflakes and Santa's hat. I then mounted the panel onto a piece of So Silk Fair Blue cardstock that was cut to 5.25" x 4". The piece was then mounted onto a base card of Neenah Solar white 110# cardstock.

I had so much fun doing this card that I made another one out of pieces saved from Nuance projects that are red, pink, gold and green. I used the Impression Obsession Merry Christmas DIE439-J, and Curious Metallics Super Gold cardstock.

I will make additional cards with the pieces that I cut out of these cards. Check back here on the blog in a few days for those, or come by the shop and see all of the cards in person. The photos do not actually do them justice.

Magenta Materials Used:

(If you are local, please look for products at Art 'n Soul. If you are not local and wish to find Magenta products, you can click on the link in the stamp name below each image, or you can visit the Magenta online store here).

Magenta Nuance

Other Materials Used:

Blue Card:

Impression Obsession DIE311-R Santa's Sled

Memory Box die 99545 Snowdrift Breeze

Strips of watercolor cardstock from previous Nuance projects

Neenah Solar White cardstock (80# and 110#)

So Silk Fair Blue cardstock

Stickles Stardust

Red Card:

Impression Obsession DIE439-J Merry Christmas

Strips of watercolor cardstock from previous Nuance projects

Neenah Solar White cardstock (80# and 110#)

Curious Metallics Super Gold cardstock

Various sequins