Technique of the Week: Distress Oxide Smooshing

You may have heard me say that I don't think you can do anything wrong with Distress Oxide inks. Honestly, I like everything I have done with these inks, and I have actually tried to mess it up (such a putting orange onto purple, or yellow onto blue); but nope! Still like what I have gotten. And they are SO MUCH FUN to play with! Oxide inks are a fusion of dye ink and pigment ink. The dye ink soaks into your paper and the pigment ink sits on top. This combination gives your finished product a matte, almost chalky look that is soft and beautiful. Blending Oxide inks is a dream, and they react with water even more interestingly than regular dye based Distress inks.

I have been playing a lot with blending Oxide inks, but I wanted to try smooshing with them. There are different types of what I would call "smooshing", which I would describe as getting wet ink onto your paper in a somewhat messy, unpredictable way. For other smooshing posts go here, here and here. You could put the ink onto acetate or a piece of saran, and apply said inked plastic to your paper...

OR you could put ink on your work surface or craft mat, spray it with water to wet it and drag your paper into it. This second type is what I did for this card. I assembled some oxide inks to apply to my craft mat: Wilted Violet, Broken China (my current favorite combo); then also Cracked Pistachio and, just to be a rebel, Fossilized Amber.

I started with Wilted Violet and Broken China, and rubbed them firmly onto my craft mat. I spritzed each one with pearly water (mix 2 oz water with 1/4 tsp Perfect Pearls powder).  I love how these inks look when you spray them. They bead up and look opaque. That's because of the pigment in them. 

Distress Oxide inks:
Wilted Violet & Broken China

I used a piece of 5.5" x 4.25" Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock for this project, and placed it onto the ink on my mat and picked it up.

Beautiful colors!

I kept "smooshing" the color from my mat onto the watercolor cardstock, and I just love the combination of these colors.

I then dried the panel and cleaned my craft mat and added the Cracked Pistachio and then the Fossilized Amber colors and sprayed them. 

Distress Oxide inks: Fossilized Amber & Cracked Pistachio

I placed my panel into the new colors and "smooshed" it around. The colors beneath did re-activate somewhat, even though I had dried them. The result was that I got a little muddiness, but I actually really liked the effect.

I spritzed some water drops onto the panel and picked up some more of the ink from my mat. I was super happy with the colors on my panel, so I decided to make it into a card.

I cut my panel to 3.75" x 5" using the largest die from the Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Stackables die LF768. I chose my Zen Dragonfly from Magenta (44.018.K - and yes, all Magenta stamps come in cling, so just put a "C" in front of the number for cling). I chose the "Have a Beautiful Day" sentiment stamp that I also designed for Magenta (07.969.F). I stamped both of these stamps with Versamark ink, using the MISTI stamping tool.

I embossed the stampings with White Diamond embossing powder from JudiKins. The panel was mounted onto a piece of So Silk Fair Blue cardstock and onto a base card of 110# Neenah Solar White cardstock. I added a few sequins and it was all done.

This was a VERY fast card to make, and you could use this background for almost any kind of card. We have the Zen Dragonfly and the "Have a Beautiful Day" stamps in stock at Art 'n Soul right now; and we will be ordering more of the fabulous Oxide inks very soon.

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).

44.018.K Zen Dragonfly

07.969.F have a Beautiful day!

Other Products Used:

Distress Oxide inks:

Wilted Violet, Broken China,

Cracked Pistachio, Fossilized Amber

Versamark Ink

JudiKins White Diamond embossing powder

Perfect Pearls Pearl powder

Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock

So Silk Fair Blue cardstock

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock

Various sequins

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

Technique of the Week: Smooshing

In conjunction with the Art 'n Soul Technique of the Week newsletter article, I have a step by step tutorial for "smooshing."

Smooshing is a technique made popular by Laura Bassen, that uses ink and water to make a background. It's somewhat similar to the acrylic block stamping technique that I showed on my blog here, but it's a little less tidy.

I like both techniques.  All you need for smooshing is:

1) A good dye ink in a couple of colors (I prefer Distress because it reacts so well with water, and there are so many colors).
2) A piece of acetate. You can use a piece of packaging you have saved, or a piece cut off a sheet that you have left over.
3) A spritzer bottle with water. Those of you who know me, know that I will have Perfect Pearls powder in my spritzer bottle as well (1/4 tsp Perfect Pearls powder to 2 oz water).
4) Watercolor paper. I prefer 140# cold pressed; but I often use the Tim Holtz pre-cut paper, because I like that it's already a handy size, and also that it's white. If I'm going to cover the whole piece, then the color doesn't matter.

Apply ink in at least 2 colors, from the pad direct to the acetate.

Spray the acetate liberally with pearly water.

Place the acetate, ink side down, onto the watercolor paper.

This is where the "smooshing" takes place. Rub your fingers over the back of the acetate to let the color soak into the paper. 

Move the acetate around to put color in different places on the paper.

You can be finished at this point, and let it dry, or you can dry the paper, clean off the acetate and apply another color. 

Sprintz and smoosh again. (I never thought I'd be writing a sentence like that). The colors won't get "muddy" because you dried the first application of color.

Once you're happy with your background, stamp something you like on it, and make into a card. I chose to die cut my page using the Memory Box Stitched Rectangle Layers (largest die of the set)

I then stamped the panel with the Magenta Zen Butterfly (44.019.K) - One of my new stamp designs with Magenta! I also added one of my favorite zen sentiments "Happiness is the Path" (07.912.H).  I mounted the panel onto a piece of glossy black paper, and then onto a piece of craft foam that I cut slightly smaller than the panel. The panel was applied to a white base card, and the craft foam popped the panel up off the base card slightly.  A few enamel dots were sprinkled onto the piece at the end.

I hope you try this technique. It's a fun, fast way to make a beautiful background.

Magenta Stamps Used:

Zen Butterfly 44.019.K

Happiness is the Path 07.912.H

Distress Inks: Peacock Feathers; Mustard Seed; Picked Raspberry

Memory Box Stitched Rectangles Dies 30009

Acetate

Perfect Pearls Powder

My Mind's Eye "Chalk Studios 2" Enamel Dots

Tim Holtz Watercolor cardstock

Black glossy cardstock

white craft foam