Watercoloring With Distress Christmas Poinsettia

 I often watercolor with Distress Inks. I think I go to them because I know what I'm going to get. I want to get as familiar with my many kinds of watercolors as I am with Distress, but that will probably happen in a quieter time than right now.

I started with a stamp that has been in my collection for awhile, but I had not used before, the beautiful Poinsettia Sketch stamp from Impression Obsession. Since this is a large stamp, and my card panels are not larger than 4.25" x 5.5", part of the design is lost.

This is how I store my large stamps, most of which are backgrounds. I stamp it onto chipboard so that I can see the entire image stamped out. The stamp is behind the chipboard, standing up in a basket. This method makes it easy to see what I have, and also easy to pull them out and use them.

I also stamp a white tag and that gives me a good idea of what the stamp would look like on a smaller panel.

To make this card, I first selected the red mat color, and then the Distress colors I would use. I like using Distress stains, because they are undiluted ink and easy to use for watercoloring. Unfortunately, these dauber versions of the Distress stains are no longer being made, although there are spray versions.

I stamped 10 panels of Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock, and embossed them with gold embossing powder. Although I planned to watercolor on them,  I did not plan to get them very wet. I used the wet on wet technique, and worked with one petal or leaf at a time. When I was finished with the painting, I let them all dry and then flicked gold paint on them. I die cut them with the Penny Black Antique Frame die set to give them a deckled edge.

The gold embossing is very hard to highlight in a photo, but it adds a lot to the cards in real life.

This is one of the panels before I stuck anything down. I tested out several colors of red cardstock before I settled on the one to use for the mat and sentiment. The sentiment is the lovely small Merry Christmas die from Elizabeth Craft.

I hope you like it!

Products Used:

Impression Obsession Poinsettia Sketch CC220

Penny Black Antique Frame die PB51-397

Elizabeth Craft 1599 Merry Christmas Small die

Distress Stain: Candied Apple,

Mowed Lawn, Twisted Citron

Versamark Ink

Ranger Gold Embossing Powder

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock

PTI Pure Poppy cardstock

Super Saturday at Magenta: Distress Blending & Masked Sentiment

Hi everyone! I'm over at the Magenta blog today, and you can see that post here. It's that time of year again to say Happy Birthday to my friend Fred from The Netherlands. Unfortunately I only have one stamp that says Happy Birthday in Dutch, so I pull it out every year, but I'm sure he doesn't mind. At least the card is always different.

To make this card, first I made a sample on a piece of typing paper cut to the size of the card I planned to make. I sometimes either do sketches, or actually stamp it out to see if my layout will work. I decided to stamp this one because I was using just 2 stamps, one large and one small for this project, and had to stamp and emboss them multiple times.

Masking off a space for the sentiment, I used my MISTI to help plan where the stamps would go. My plan was to use this as a map to help lay out the images on my card.

To prepare my panel, I first die cut it with the Greetery's Crimped Frame die. I then masked off a 1/2" strip, and blended Distress Ink in blues and purple onto the panel. I flicked a little water on the blending to make speckles.

Once the blending was done and dried, I put my panel into my MISTI and placed the sample paper over it. I then one by one put the stamps onto  the image on the paper, picked them up with the MISTI, and stamped them onto my cardstock with Versamark Ink. I did this with each image, stamping with Versamark ink each time. I had to place a little extra piece of paper in a couple of places where I didn't want stamping, to get the look I wanted. I also had to remove part of the mask to get stamping into the white area on either side of the sentiment. 

I embossed the images with gold embossing powder. Last, I removed the rest of the mask and stamped the sentiment. Honestly, in my mind it was much easier than it actually turned out to be, but it was well worth the trouble. Happy Birthday Fred! I hope you like your card!!

Magenta Products Used:

42.184.J Samara Branch

42.185.E Samara

07.907.L Multilingual Happy Birthday

Other Products Used:

Distress Ink: Speckled Egg,

Salty Ocean, Wilted Violet

Versamark Ink

Ranger Gold Embossing Powder

The Greetery Crimped Frame die

Super Gold Curious Metallics cardstock

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

1/2" masking tape

Gelli Plate and Die Cuts Merry Christmas

 I'm still playing with my Christmas/Winter die cuts, and using them with various backgrounds that I have had a lot of fun making.

For this card, the background was made with a Gelli Plate and Distress Inks. I had always used my Gelli Plate with acrylic paint in the past. I got the idea to use Distress Inks from Jennifer McGuire, and you can see her post here. She calls it Gell Press, but it's basically the same tool. Using dye based inks such as Distress so SO much easier than using acrylic paint.

I made a lot of backgrounds when I was playing around. I mainly just used a brayer to add ink onto the plate and pressed panels of cardstock down onto the wet ink. I also brayered the excess ink onto additional panels directly. Some of the panels were textured and some smooth, and I got a lot of different looks.

On this particular card, I used Distress Ink in Peacock Feathers, Wilted Violet, and Faded Jeans. The cardstock was smooth and I love the texture I got. 

I added the Snowflake Edge die cut from Hero Arts, and the Merry Christmas Text die from Paper Rose. The Paper Rose die came with a second die that allows you to add a background around the sentiment, and I cut that out of vellum. 

At the end, I added some glitter dots from Elizabeth Craft. I really like these for added sparkle. I am sending my cards all over the world, and I don't want to have bulky embellishments on them.

Products Used:

Hero Arts DI533 Snowflake Edge

Paper Rose 17823 Merry Christmas Text

The Greetery Crimped Frame die

Gelli Plate

Distress Ink: Peacock Feathers,

Wilted Violet, Faded Jeans

PTI Enchanted Evening Cardstock

Vellum

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

Elizabeth Craft glitter dots

Shaving Cream and Die Cuts Merry Christmas

 Here is another card using the shaving cream technique that you can see here, here and here. This time I'm using panels that I made using red Distress inkers.

The inker I used for these panels is Festive Berries Distress Ink. I noticed that the longer I worked with the inker infused shaving cream, the lighter it got, and the more pink it became.

I just love this technique for making a lot of interesting panels to work with.

For this card, I cut the panel out with the Greetery's Crimped Frame die. I die cut the sentiment using the Elizabeth Craft 1056 Merry Christmas die, from Stardream Jupiter cardstock. The mat for this card was cut from the same. I mounted the panel on a base card and it was done. Super easy fast and festive.

I made more of this card, but to make it more sparkly, I die cut the sentiment from red glitter cardstock, and the mat is Hopsack Red cardstock from The Paper Cut.

I kind of like the glittery one; which one do you like?

Products Used:

Elizabeth Craft die 1056 Merry Christmas

The Greetery Crimped Edge die

Festive Berries Distress inker

Stardream Jupiter cardstock

Simon Says Stamp Red Glitter cardstock

Hopsack Red cardstock from The Paper Cut

Neenah Solar White cardstock 80# and 110#

Shaving Cream (any will do, but not gel)

Holiday Greenery with Prismacolor

Another set of Christmas cards done! I love to color or paint, especially when I'm listening to podcasts or audio books. These cards were a lot of fun. I made 5 with gold and 5 with red.

I stamped the image using the MISTI stamping tool first, with green ink, and left the stamp in the MISTI.

After coloring, I replaced the panel in the MISTI and stamped it again with Versamark ink and then embossed with gold embossing powder.

After embossing, I flicked gold paint all over the panels

I couldn't decide between the green and the gold sentiments and mats, so I went with both. Which one do you like best? The sentiment is from Penny Black. I love this one because the waste piece between the upper part of the "s" and the "t" in Christmas is shaped like a heart. I like to use it for the dot over the "i". I added a couple of peel-off glitter dots from Elizabeth Craft in the center of the greenery. I hope you like these; more Christmas cards to come.

Products Used:

Memory Box CL5244 Holiday Greenery

Penny Black die 51-248 Merry Christmas

The Greetery Crimped Edge Frame die

Prismacolor Pencils: PC928 Blush Pink,

PC926 Carmine Red, PC924 Crimson Red,

PC1004 Yellow Chartreuse, PC1005 Limepeel,

PC912 Apple Green, PC909 Grass Green

Memento Bamboo Leaves Ink

Versamark Ink

Ranger Gold embossing powder

Finetec Gold watercolor

Curious Metallics Super Gold cardstock

PTI Poppy cardstock

MISTI stamping tool

Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue

Elizabeth Craft Be Creative Tape 

Die Cut Merry Christmas

 I've been so busy that I had not had time to start doing Christmas cards until recently. I got out all of my Christmas dies because I suspected that I had not even used quite a few of them. I kind of thought that the reason for that is I couldn't quite envision how they would look on a card. I decided to just start die cutting them out of white paper to see how they look. 

As I was die cutting, I started putting things together and ended up with some Christmas cards that were all die cuts and no stamping at all. As the days go by, I will be posting these cards.

This one is placed over a panel I made using the shaving cream technique that you can see here and here. I made a huge stack of shaving cream panels in blue - some using stencils and some without.

The ones without stencils make a really pretty snow background. You will probably be seeing the ones using stencils on future cards.

I die cut the Hero Arts Snowflake Medallion die out of white cardstock and stuck it down onto the shaving cream panel. I added the sentiment and snowflakes that I die cut using some Impression Obsession dies and Memory Box glitter cardstock. Super simple, and it will be easy to make a lot.

Products Used:

Hero Arts DI789 Snowflake Medallion

Impression Obsession DIE330-R Merry Christmas

Impression Obsession DIE100-F Small Snowflake Set

Distress inkers: Broken China,

Faded Jeans, Speckled Egg

Memory Box Jewel Glitter cardstock

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

So Silk Glamour Green cartstock

Magenta Card Exchange October: Distress Blends and Mandala Dreams

 This is the third card exchange sponsored by Magenta in which I have participated, and it's so much fun. This month, I coincidentally got the name of the person who got my name last month. So I'm getting a chance to send her a card this time.

The front panel of this card was blended using brushes and Distress inks, with Picked Raspberry, Abandoned Coral and Worn Lipstick. I stamped Mandala Dreams and Sending Hugs with Versamark ink and embossed with gold embossing powder. It was mounted onto a mat of Super Gold cardstock from Curious Metallics, and then onto a white card base. I'm super happy with how it turned out. I stamped Mandala dreams on the inside and also the envelope, and enclosed a couple of extra panels from stamps I designed.

I did the same design as a birthday card for a family member overseas. I think it works as a guy card too.

On this card, the only difference is that I used Distress Inks in Faded Jeans, Cracked Pistachio and Wilted Violet. Instead of just flicking water onto this one, I also put some of the Wilted Violet on my palette, wet it, and flicked that onto the panel as well.

Shaving Cream technique update:

The above cards were originally going to be done on a couple of my shaving cream background cards. When I tried to gold emboss on those though, part of the embossed areas turned dark.

They also had what I considered excessive pitting or bumpiness in the gold embossing. I even tried two types of powder to be sure it wasn't just the powder, and I tried embossing twice, which only made certain areas too thick and did not solve the darkness problem. The problem was immediately solved when I moved to using blended Distress Ink panels as my substrate.

In talking to Pam, who first brought the shaving cream technique to my attention (see my previous shaving cream card posts here and here), it seems that I missed the step of wiping off the panel with a cloth after scraping off the shaving cream. I didn't do that, and there was probably some shaving cream or sort of a soapy reside left on these cards. At this point, since they are all dry, the only solution I can think of is to spray them with a fixative, and I may try that, and let you know. I can also use them for die cutting and for putting die cuts onto.

Magenta Products used:

14.679.Q Mandala Dreams

07.971.F Sending hugs

07.1028 Happy Birthday!

Other Products used:

Distress Ink: Picked Raspberry, 

Abandoned Coral, Worn Lipstick,

Faded Jeans, Cracked Pistachio,

Wilted Violet

Ranger gold embossing powder

Versamark ink

The Greetery Crimped Frame die

Super Gold Curious Metallics cardstock

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

Super Saturday at Magenta: Shaving Cream with Stencils

 Hi everyone, Happy Saturday! I am over at the Magenta blog today and you can see that post here.

I have been playing pretty much non-stop with the technique that Pam introduced us to using shaving cream. This is not a new technique, but fairly new to me. You can see Pam's video on this technique here, and another post by her here. My first attempt at this technique is here, and these posts explain pretty well how to do this technique. I used Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock for these panels.

Here's my latest attempt. I made a bunch of backgrounds with shaving cream and green Distress inkers.

I was also playing with stencils and using the green shaving cream as if it was stencil paste. Once I took off the stencil, I scraped the shaving cream completely off, and it leaves ink behind. This is really addictive.

After making a lot of regular swirly backgrounds, I put all of the shaving cream in a little jar that was on my desk. From there it was easy to load on to a palette knife, and apply it to the stencil on my panel. I experimented with putting the leaves onto white cardstock, and cardstock that already had swirls on it.

For today's card, I took a panel that already had green swirls. I added additional cream using the leaf stencil, but I felt that the leaves were rather lost in the swirls. I put the stencil back down and added some Distress Crackling Campfire ink using a small blending brush.

To complete my card, I die cut my panel with the Crimped Frame die from The Greetery. I matted the panel with PTI Terracotta Tile cardstock, and adhered it to a base card. I colored the leaves with Wink of Stella clear glitter pen, and added some gems.

I love this technique and have continued playing with it and making cards in lots of colors, so there will be more cards using it with and without stencils.

Magenta Products used:

TM322 Tumbled Ash Leaves

07.969.F have a Beautiful day!

Other Products used:

Shaving cream - any (must be cream, not gel)

Distress inkers: Mowed Lawn, Twisted Citron,

Crackling Campfire

The Greetery Crimped Frame Die

iCrafter mini brushes

Wink of Stella clear glitter pen

Lucy's Little Things Rainbow Jewels

PTI Terracotta Tile cardstock

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock

Card Exchange: Stencils and Shaving Cream

I'm participating in another fun card exchange at Magenta. This time, it's done like a chain, so the person I send to isn't the same as who will send to me. I got Carole Dion to send to, and no pressure! She is one of the best in the Magenta DT, and also a friend.

Another friend of mine, Pam Nelson, has been experimenting with making videos of interesting art and craft techniques. One of them is a technique using shaving cream to make really interesting and beautiful backgrounds. You can see that video here. (Please remember to click "thumbs up" if you like it, and thanks so much

Pam recently thought of a new twist on the shaving cream technique, using stencils. She has done a post on that twist, and you can see her post here. I tried using her technique on this card, and while I didn't do as well at it as she did, I had fun!

To start with, I put some shaving cream on a cookie sheet and added drops of Distress re-inker. I used the new Crackling Campfire, Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey, and Mustard Seed. I knew that I wanted to use the Maple Leaf Trio stencil from Magenta, so I was going with Fall colors.

I used a palette knife to move the colors around a bit. Does this look some kind of crazy dessert to anyone else?

I wanted to just make some backgrounds to start with, since I hadn't done this before. I placed a piece of cardstock on top and pressed it in well. I was using 110# Neenah Solar White.

This is what the panel looked like when I picked it up off of the shaving cream! 

After scraping off the shaving cream with a scraper, I was left with this really interesting background. I continued making background after background and became fascinated with this process. I didn't want to waste any of the shaving cream, and even the cream that I scraped off, I put back onto the pan and continued to use it. That resulted in panels that were a big more muted and blended, but also wonderful

I wanted to use a stencil in this technique as well, and I chose this one from Magenta

I had trouble getting a clear image of the maple leaves in the several times I tried. I thought maybe that it was that the leaves were too large to work, but later learned that this was just operator error! Be sure to check out Pam's post to see how she did this.

I ended up using the shaving cream like stencil paste. I put the stencil on my panel and put lots of the shaving cream on it, scraped it off the stencil, and leaf shaped piles of shaving cream were left when I pulled the stencil off. (I somehow did not end up with a picture of that, sorry)

I let the shaving cream sit on the panel for a bit, and then once I scraped it off, I was left with this. I blended some Wild Honey Distress ink onto the panel, and splattered it with gold Liquid Peerless watercolor. I was pretty happy with how it turned out in the end.

I stamped the sentiment, and die cut the panel with The Greetery Crimped Frame die. The panel was matted with So Silk Black Style cardstock and mounted to a base card. I added a few gems at the end.

This was a lot of fun, and bonus, the cards smell really good! I hope you'll give it a try.

Magenta Products used:

TM319 Maple Leaf Trio

07.969.F Have a Beautiful day!

Other Products used:

Any shaving cream (not gel)

Distress ink re-inkers: Crackling Campfire,

Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey, Mustard Seed

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Peerless Liquid Gold watercolor

The Greetery Crimped Frame die set

Lucy's Little Things Rainbow Jewels

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock

So Silk Black Style cardstock

Super Saturday at Magenta: Blended Distress Background

Hi! I'm over at the Magenta blog today and you can see that post here.

Awhile back I made a lot of masked blends using Distress Ink. I had lost my mojo and this activity helped me get it back. You can see that post here. I really have used a lot of the backgrounds I made that day, and this is one of them.

This is a very simple, almost one layer card. I made the blended circle using the Magenta MC27 Round Mask stencil  and 3 colors of Distress ink.

I used brushes to blend the colors, and then flicked a little water on it to add speckles. I stamped the Magenta Tranquil Buds stamp into the circle, and added the Thinking of you sentiment (from the Magenta Sally Penley Calligraphy collection), at the bottom using Versafine Onyx Black ink. I cut my panel with The Greetery Crimped Frame die and matted it with a panel of So Silk Black Style cardstock. I added a few gems from Lucy's Little Things Rainbow Jewels.

Here are the other round blends I made that day, and I also made many other blends using different stencils, which have all come in handy.

Magenta Products used:

MC27 Round Mask

42.093.M Tranquil Buds

07.982.E Thinking of you small

Other Products used:

Distress Inks: Spun Sugar;

Picked Raspberry; Festive Berries

The Greetery Crimped Frame die set

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

So Silk Black Style cardstock

Rainbow Jewels  from Lucy's Little Things