Technique of the Week: Distress Stain Daubers Two Ways

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

I played with some of my Distress Stain daubers, and I have to say that this stuff is so much fun. One of the things that I wanted to try first is to see what would happen if I applied stain to a stamp.

This is a pretty simple one layer card, but it was fun to make, and I love how the colors turned out.

Distress Stain comes two different ways, spray and dauber bottles. I like both of them, but they are very different in how the finished product appears. I like the sprays, but they are just that. The daubers seem to be more versatile. For this project, I chose Cracked Pistachio, Mermaid Lagoon, Fossilized Amber and Abandoned Coral. I also chose a Magenta stamp, 85.020.N Swirly Leaves, chosen partly for the amount of solid rubber on the stamp

Of course I used the MISTI tool when stamping, because I did think that I would want to ink and stamp more than once.

And I was right. I think I inked and stamped about 3 times, and I really liked the results.

The stain really beads up on the stamp surface, but I wasn't worried, knowing that I could stamp in the same place as many times as I wanted to.

The first stamping was pretty, but I wanted more definition to the image. I added the colors in rainbow order so that even if I added one adjacent ink over another, it would not make mud, but it would blend in a pleasing way.

I really like the watercolor-y look this gives and I will use the stain daubers to ink my stamps more often. I put a little of the Mermaid Lagoon stain on my mat and picked it up with a paintbrush to flick some specks on the image also.

I wanted to use the daubers in a second way, so I created a background using them. (First, while I had the stamp in the MISTI, I stamped a second panel to use with the background).

To make the background, I tried just dragging the daubers over first regular cardstock, and then over watercolor cardstock. The stain really soaked into the regular cardstock pretty quickly, so it was difficult to do much blending of the colors.

When I rubbed the daubers over watercolor cardstock however, I sprayed it with pearly water (1/4 tsp Perfect Pearls powder mixed with 2 oz water) and the colors blended beautifully.

Once my panels had dried, I put the two cards together. For the first card, I stamped it with the Magenta sentiment stamp 07.869.D Thinking of You. I used Mermaid Lagoon Distress ink for the stamping so it would match the color in the image. 

I decided to use the rejected regular piece of cardstock to mat my card. I had tried putting some water splotches on it and I think my wet baby wipe got on it too, but none of that would show. I cut my stamped panel to 3.75" x 5" using the Lawn Fawn die LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables; and I cut the matting panel with Die-Namics MFT-463 Blueprints 13 (which has a die that will cut a stitched rectangle to 4" x 5.25")

This is what the panels look like together, and I think it's a good use of the rejected piece of cardstock. (And yes Eion, I reversed the colors between the front panel and the mat on purpose).

I adhered the pieces to a base card and added some sequins for added interest.

For the second card, I stamped the Swirly Leaves stamp onto the background with Mermaid Lagoon stain. I then stamped the Magenta sentiment 07.962.F Happy Birthday Little in the corner with Versamark ink and embossed it with White Diamond Embossing powder.

Since I didn't want to cover too much of the background, I cut the original stamped panel into a smaller piece 4" x 1.75" using Die-Namics MFT-470 Horizontal Stitched Strips, and cut a slightly smaller piece of craft foam to adhere to the back of the panel, and popped it up on the background piece.

Here's the finished second card. The focal image is spotlighted with the same image repeated on the background. I added some sequins for bling.

I hope this will encourage you to try using Distress stain daubers. There are other things you can do with them as well, including mixing colors and die-cutting, and using them to make "splats" I will try to explore other uses in future posts.

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 or product name below each image, or you can visit the Magenta online store here).

85.020.N Swirly Leaves

07.869.D Thinking of You

07.962.F Happy Birthday Little

Other Products Used:

Distress Stains: 

Mermaid Lagoon, Cracked Pistachio, Fossilized Amber, Abandoned Coral

Die-Namics MFT-463 Blueprints 13

Die-Namics MFT-470 Horizontal Stitched Strips

Lawn Fawn LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables

Tim Holtz Watercolor paper

Perfect Pearls powder

Versamark Ink

JudiKins White Diamond embossing powder

white craft foam

Various sequins

Chose Happiness Shaker

Magenta has a number of round masks or stencils, which I love. I especially love the bird ones. There are a lot of mediums you can use with these, but for this project I chose Distress ink blending. It's especially easy to blend ink through a stencil. You normally don't tend to get any harsh edges from your blending tool. I used Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet and Blueprint Sketch. Once the ink had dried, I added some white spots with a Uniball broad white gel pen.

To make the top panel, I cut a piece of Neenah solar white cardstock to 5.5" x 5.5" square and cut a 3" circle out of the center. I have a Doily stencil mask from Magenta, and thought it would make a great embossed design. I centered the circle on the stencil and ran it through my Big Shot machine.

I loved how it turned out and thought I would pop it up off the inked panel. It was at this point that I realized that it needed to be a shaker card. I cut a piece of craft foam 5.25" x 5.25" and cut a circle out of the center. I adhered a piece of acetate to the back of the white embossed panel, and then adhered the craft foam piece over that, centering the circles so that the foam would not show at the front.

I adhered a few sequins to the inked panel and sprinkled a few extra sequins and some small beads on it as well. I carefully put Scor tape around the circle of craft foam, and around the edges of the foam as well. Centering the circles carefully, I stuck it down to the inked piece.

I stamped my sentiment onto a strip of So Silk Passion Purple cardstock using Versamark ink. I embossed it with JudiKins White Diamond embossing powder and cut notches in the strip. I added the sentiment strip to the front of the card, along with a few more sequins.

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 or product name below each image, or you can visit the Magenta online store here).

MC36 Five Birds on Wires

MC25 Doily

07.845.G Choose happiness

Other Products Used:

Distress ink: Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet, Blueprint Sketch

Hero Arts DI199 Infinity Nesting Circle die set

Uniball Broad white gel pen

White craft foam

Versamark ink

JudiKins White Diamond embossing powder

So Silk Passion Purple cardstock

Scor tape

Sweetheart sequin mix from Neat & Tangled

Technique of the Week: Smooshing Revisited

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

Made with Nuance by Magenta

I have shown you "smooshing" before, but this time I'm taking it up a notch. You can view my previous posts on smooshing here and here.

Made with Distress Ink

Smooshing is applying ink onto your panel using a piece of acetate. It creates very interesting backgrounds on which you can stamp. The piece of acetate I used was cut from some packaging.

This time, instead of applying color to a blank panel, I stamped and embossed an image first, using White Diamond embossing powder by JudiKins.

My panel was cut from Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock, using the largest die in the set LF768, Lawn Fawn Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables. This die gives a stitched edge around a panel 3.75" x 5". If you don't have this die, you can just cut your panel to this size with a paper cutter. this is the perfect size to be able to mat with a colored piece of cardstock before you mount it to an A2 size card.

Also of note is that I like the Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock because it's white. When I mount it onto my base card, which is also white, it coordinates well.

Note in the above image that I'm using one of the new MISTI Creative Corners. I LOVE these! This way if I'm using a large stamp, and it comes close to the edge of my panel, I can set it away from the ruler edge of the MISTI. I don't seem to get a good image when my stamp is close to that edge. This corner is being used in the mini MISTI by the way, and works just fine.

I also decided to try Smooshing using Distress ink on one panel and Nuance on a second panel with the same stamp. I'm using Distress first.

Magenta Stamp 14.639.P Three Flowers, Distress ink in
Wilted Violet, Blueprint Sketch and Cracked Pistachio

Another difference this time is I applied the ink to my craft mat and sprayed it with Pearly Water (1/4 tsp Perfect Pearls Powder mixed with 2 oz water). Last time I applied the ink directly to the acetate and sprayed it there. I think this new way I can get better control over which color I'm using at any given time.

Wilted Violet first

After picking up the ink with the acetate, I dabbed it around on the panel, taking care to apply it to the embossed flower areas.

Picking up additional colors with the acetate, I continued to dab ink around the embossed image.

As the ink is added, the image pops out of the layers of color. I noticed that the Distress ink has a transparent look to it so that you can see layers through layers.

Next I decided to try Nuance, used the same way. I chose Raspberry, Cerulean Blue, and Aquamarine.

I tapped the powders onto my craft mat and sprayed with Pearly Water.

The first thing I noticed is that the colors are darker and more vibrant. You can probably get lighter colors if you spray the powder with more water. In order to get the colors to spread out onto the embossed areas, I occasionally scraped the puddles of water with the edge of the acetate.

I continued applying the different colors. I noticed that the Nuance seems more opaque than the Distress ink. I love the vibrancy of the Nuance.

At the end, I used a paintbrush just a bit on both the Distress and Nuance panels to be sure color got where I wanted it around the embossing.

Here are both of the panels, Distress on the left and Nuance on the right. They are completely different, and I love them both.

I added the sentiments last, using Magenta stamp 07.954.G Think about you often (one of my favorite sentiments). On the Nuance panel, I stamped with Nuance and embossed with JudiKins White Diamond embossing powder, just as I had for the main image. This step could easily have been done when I stamped the flowers. 

On the Distress card, I decided to stamp the sentiment with Wilted Violet Distress ink to match the main image. One of the many things I love about the MISTI tool is that now we can actually stamp with Distress and not worry that it will be too faint or blotchy. You just keep inking and stamping until you are happy with the color. 

Note that here I am again using one of the MISTI Creative Corners (in the mini MISTI). This sets the panel away from the hard side and bottom of the MISTI and allows for a better stamping.

I hope you try this smooshing technique to color your stamped and embossed images. It's easy and it's fun, and you can probably use things you already have around.

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 or product name below each image, or you can visit the Magenta online store here).

Three Flowers 14.639.P

Think about you often 07.954.G

Nuance colors:

MNU007 Raspberry

MNU011 Cerulean Blue

MNU020 Aquamarine

Other Products Used:

Tim Holtz Watercolor cardstock

Distress ink: Wilted Violet, Blueprint Sketch, Cracked Pistachio

Perfect Pearls Powder

Scrap of Acetate

Versamark ink

JudiKins White Diamond embossing powder

Lawn Fawn LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables

So Silk Fair Blue cardstock (for matting)

So Silk Passion Purple cardstock (for matting)

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock (for base cards)

sequins from Neat & Tangled

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

Background behind the heart and the "happy" die cut is stencil stamped Distress in Peacock Feathers and Picked Raspberry. Postage Stamp die cut is popped up with fun foam. Sorry it's not a great photo, but I don't want my hubby to see this before tomorrow! Hope your day is lovely, whether you celebrate Valentine's or not!

Materials Used:

Distress ink: Peacock Feathers, Picked Raspberry

Pearly water

Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock

Simon Says Stamp S412 Corbel Heart

Memory Box 30049 Postage Square Layers

Memory Box 30038 Stitched Square Layers

Hero Arts DC150 Happy Stamp & Cut

Concord & 9th 10129 Happy Words

Magenta Design Team Call

Magenta is putting out a call for new Design Team members! Now is your chance to be on the best design team ever! Here are the details:

Magenta is looking for new Design Team Members and will be accepting applications through March 12th, 2017.

New design team members will be announced once they have been contacted and accepted the Magenta Design Team offer.

GENERAL INFORMATION

We are looking for people who:
•have a passion for paper arts (cards, scrapbooking, art journaling, collage, mixed media, altered pieces, etc.) and are team players
•have strong photography skills
•have an active blog
•have the ability to write tutorial blog posts in either english or french or do video tutorial instructions
•post their creations regularly and are active artistically on at least one other form of social media besides their blog (e.g. Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, Twitter)

SUBMIT 2 RECENT ORIGINAL CREATIONS

for the paper arts category/categories you wish to be considered for 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

Your main function as a Design Team Member for Magenta is to represent and market our products.
As a Magenta DT Member, you will promote Magenta whenever possible. It is required that you have an active blog, where there should be a link to our website/official blog and other DT member’s blog. DT Members are encouraged to submit to calls for scrapbooking/art magazine(s) of their corresponding location.
You will be responsible for submitting and posting a minimum of 2 projects of your choice (scrapbook layouts, cards, ATCs, art journal pages, canvases, altered pieces, etc.) per month to the Magenta Blog.Your commitment to the Magenta DT is for a period of 1 year.
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED PLEASE, e-mail your 2 projects with the following information to:
helene.magenta@gmail.com

Email subject: DESIGN TEAM CALL

•Name and Mailing Address including your country
•Links to your blog and other social media sites where you post your creations
•A brief bio of yourself 

Include the answers to the following questions in your email:

•1) Why are you interested in a DT position with Magenta?
•2) What do you hope to get out of being a Magenta DT member?
•3) Have you ever designed for another manufacturer/company/retailer/kit club/challenge site or group? If so, who?
•4) Have you been published? If so, where and when?

If you have any questions or require further information, please email us at

helene.magenta@gmail.com

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.