Thursday, February 19, 2015

Playing with Distress Inks/ Valentines (Projects 1-7)

Hey everybody, long time, no blog.  I can’t believe how long it has been since I last posted. This past holiday season about did me in.  Between the beginning of November and Christmas, I made about 50 cards, 14 wreaths, 6 table top trees, 5 calendars, 6 dozen cupcakes, 16 dozen cookies, and I hosted Thanksgiving and a holiday party.  This left little time for blogging.   Then I spent January recovering.  I’ll post picks of some of the projects I’ve worked on while on a blog hiatus in the weeks to come.

Now, I have a confession, I fell off the no shopping wagon big time.  So I’m restarting my shopping moratorium.  No more craft shopping until I post 50 projects on this blog, unless I run out of something, like cardstock or adhesive.

Before I get to today’s projects, I want to point out that Artsy Inkers is getting ready to have another party starting on Saturday.  There will be challenges, and prizes and lots of fun to be had.  So you should swing by and sign up on the message board and join the fun.  Once again, I’ll be hosting a challenge called Color My World.  But if you want to know the details and play along, you need to join us over at Artsy Inkers.  We are a great bunch of stampers/cardmakers/crafter and we have lots of fun.
 
Now on to the main attraction.  I saw a post on the Hero Arts blog using a cool technique for creating backgrounds.  Here’s the link.   The jist is that you add color to watercolor paper, spray water on a stencil, and put the stencil on the paper so that the water leeches off some of the color.  Well, I did not have much success with it.  I wish I had remembered to photo the backgrounds I created before turning them into cards, but I forgot.
Here is one of my first attempts, and you can hardly see any of the hearts from the stencil, which I created with my silhouette. 

For the focal image, I stamped the heart with Versamark ink and embossed with clear embossing powder.  Then I inked it with Distress Ink in Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick and Picked Raspberry.  I also spritzed it with water.  The image is by My Favorite Things, which is located not too far from where I live.  The ribbon and button flower are from my stash. 

On this one, you can’t see any hearts at all.


The images are by Inkadinkado and I stamped them with Brilliance ink.  I used Distress Ink in Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick and Picked Raspberry for the background.  And the ribbon is from January's ribbon club by Really Reasonable Ribbon (RRR).  The gems are actually a light grey.


Given my lack of luck with the technique, I decided to start playing with the stencil and water.  On this one, I colored the base with Distress Ink in Spun Sugar and added Distress Ink in Picked Raspberry with the stencil and then spritzed with water before removing the stencil so the hearts would bleed a little.
 
The focal image is by Inkadinkado.  I added glossy accents and stickles to the heart.  The dies are by Spellbinders.  And this is another ribbon from January's Ribbon Club from RRR.


Then I took the stencil, flipped it and stamped onto another piece of paper to create this background.

For the focal image, I again stamped the heart by MFT with Versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder.  I swiped Distress ink in Shabby Shutters, Picked Raspberry and Worn Lipstick.  The ribbon is from RRR's February Ribbon Club.  The heart is chipboard and I covered it with liquid pearls.


Then I made several backgrounds by doing basically the opposite of the HA technique I was trying.  I put the stencil down and spritzed the paper with the stencil in place.  So instead of leaching the color from around the hearts, the color was leeched from the hearts.

For this one, I used Distress Inks in Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick and Picked Raspberry. 

Then I made a couple of cards in red, using Distress Inks in Barn Door and Fired Brick.


The image is by Inkadinkado and stamped with ColorBox Pigment ink in Cranberry.  I created the stitched hearts using the Sew Easy tool, which is a complete lie.  It does not do a very good job of punching the holes in cardstock.


On this one, the focal image is by Stampabillities (which used to have the license for House Mouse but now it is Stampendous).  I colored them with watercolors and added some gem brands to the corners.

Thanks for stopping by and please come back again.
 
 

4 comments:

  1. So many adorable cards! I love the backgrounds! I don't know why my blog reader thing didn't update when you posted. I will have to check into that!

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  2. WOW! You HAVE been busy! What a lovely selection of cards. xx

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  3. Sarah, No wonder you were burnt out on blogging with all the holiday activity. Good for you on all the projects & you deserved to have a rest. I laughed at fess-up time. I think all of us should form a Craft Anonymous & do a 12-step! (not likely!) Actually I was intrigued with each of your backgrounds. Even though you didn't get the 'sharp images' it sounds like you were attempting, each background is beautiful. I like the marbling of the colors on each one, even though I could see your progress in the successive photos. I think that #1 is just really pretty - very Monet like, and the way you stamped the embossed white heart - oh that background was perfect for that image.The black mat makes it pop too. I'll try to find time to check out the link (and TFS for that), because I think this is a fun technique I'd like to try! You did well! TFS & welcome back. Thanks for your visits & sweet comments.

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  4. Ohhh la la ...fabulous colours. I love these combinations...especially the lime and pink!!!
    Wonderful cards, Sarah!

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