All Good Things are Wild and Free

Hi everyone,

I had another inky playtime session to do a bit more experimenting with my new DO inks. My colour scheme this time  inspired by the current Less Is More challenge, and I wanted to try making a simple card involving inks blended in an irregular shape (in this case my Spellbinders peony die) overstamped with silhouette images.

Initially I tried doing a one layer card, and cut myself a DIY stencil using some acetate in my stash. This didn’t work out too well for 2 reasons … my card base wasn’t really the best for blending, plus when I activated the ink with water spritzing the card buckled! So … I then went with die cutting a shape using Neenah smooth cardstock and blending my inks onto that, so I could the affix to my card blank. I am still experimenting with colours and found my purple DO (Seedless Preserves) was not as deep a shade as I anticipated, but as luck would have it I do also have a few older original DI’s including Dusty Concord, so I smooshed some of that on top to add a bit more depth and interest. My new stamp positioner made it easy to stamp my focal image onto the inked panel and then remove it to stamp again directly onto the card blank so I got a crisper image where the 2 surfaces meet. .. I really am loving my Press to Impress 😀

Finally I did my first experiment with splattering paint onto the finished piece. I wanted gold spatters so experimented with making a little puddle of paint on acetate using my Perfect Pearls and a little water, which I then spattered onto my inky background and card blank with a small paintbrush. I’m not too displeased with how it looks, though I wonder if acrylic paint (which I don’t currently have) would be better .. any advice much appreciated!

Stamps: flowers - Unity Stamps “Insightful Meadows”; dragonfly and sentiment - Summer Meadow set free with craft magazine;

Media: Tim Holtz DO inks (Fossilized Amber, Shaded Lilac, Seedless Preserves), and Distress Ink (Dusty Concord); Perfect Pearls “Perfect Gold”;

Tools: Spellbinders Nestabilities “Peony” die.

Challenges I would like to enter:

C.R.A.F.T. #613 - Anything Goes

Creative Moments #224 - Anything Goes

DRU #178 - Anything Goes using a die brand sold by DRU

(I used Spellbinders)

Happy Little Stampers (Dies): October - Anything Goes with Dies

Less Is More #453 - Purple and Yellow

Simon Says … - Happy World Card Making Day (4th entry)

The Flower Challenge #61 - Use A Shape

That’s me done for today. Thanks for visiting, and hope you have a good weekend whatever you’re doing

Hugs,

Fanfare

I'm feeling really excited right now, as having got back into crafting over the summer I have now decided to get some new playthings to take my crafting in new directions, and have ordered some TH Distress Oxide inks, stencils and masking sheets.  My first order of distress oxides arrived yesterday,  so I just had to have a play with them!  

I have been watching numerous online tutorials recently about blending techniques etc. including one on Craft World which involved layering stamped distressed card on top of a non-coloured image as per the following photograph.

 that is what broadly inspired today's card. 

This was a really simple card - I stamped my main image directly onto my base card, then cut a panel of smooth Neenah cardstock which I distressed with my 3 inks and splattered with water to get some resist effect. I then stamped my image again onto the distressed panel, and sliced it to create the effect where the image beneath can be seen peeking through.  Finished off with a few scattered gems and a simple sentiment - voila! 

I have to say at first sight I am really blown away by distress oxides and will definitely be using them a lot more in future ... I can see why they have taken the craft world by storm over the past 3-4 years when I was pretty much out of the crafting loop.

My main image is an old Penny Black wood-mounted stamp; but I also used my brand new stamp positioning tool to place my sentiment directly onto the base card. On Monday I took delivery of a Press To Impress tool  and it's absolutely fab - don't know how i managed without it! In fact I'm now wondering about converting my old woodblock stamps to unmounted for future use!

Stamps: Penny Black "Fanfare" (3946K); sentiment - unknown;

Media: TH Distress Oxide inks - Picked Raspberry, Kitsch Flamingo, Salvaged Patina;

Gems from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Time Out #197 - Inspiration Quote

(I have been inspired by the ideas of flowers and friends)

A Bit More Time To Craft #145 - Anything Goes

A Gem of a Challenge #20 - Anything Goes

Crafter's Castle #45 - Anything Goes

Creatalicious #219 - Anything Goes with option of Friends

Cute Card Thursday #692 - Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers (Watercolour): September - Anything Goes

NBUS #30 - Use Never Before Used Schtuff (2nd entry)

(mine is my Distress Oxide inks and stamp positioning tool) 

Penny Black Saturday Challenge (September) - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Anything Goes

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

That's all for today, but I will be back soon with more inky experiments. My question for the rest of this afternoon is ... should I play some more with my distress oxides or tackle my large basket of ironing??  Hmmm ....

'Til next time - thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Splatters and Splodges!

Hi everyone,

I decided to have another inky play yesterday afternoon, this time getting out my distress ink pads and following a Youtube tutorial to create a three-tone splattered effect on a piece of cardstock. This then developed in a fairly organic way into a card ... I allowed the background panel to dry and stamped my flower stamp onto it, then enhanced the spatter background effect by using a "splodges" mini stamp to create additional shadow spatter marks both on the image panel and on my base card using a co-ordinating Versamagic chalk ink and Colorbox Cats Eye pigment ink. I also used a swirly mini stamp from the same set to create a few shadow swirls round the edge of the panel. A couple of simple sentiments and that was it .. job done! It did take half the afternoon though, most of which was taken up by experimental trial runs!

I am having a lot of fun trying a few new things with the stash I already have ... it always brings on a longing for new crafty purchases though!

Stamps: main flower - Unity Stamps "Insightful Meadows"; splodges and swirls - Butterfly Kisses clear set; sentiments - unknown.

Media: Tim Holtz distress inks - Tumbled Glass, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint; Versamagic chalk ink - Aegean Blue; Colorbox Cats Eye pigment ink - Pistachio.

Challenges I would like to enter:

A Perfect Time To Craft (September) - Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps and More #413 - Birthdays

Allsorts #640 - Anything Goes 

(does not include option of "for the love of my life")

Crafter's Cafe #273 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Crafty Calendar (September) - Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers (September -Watercolour) - Anything Goes with watercolour

Simon Says (Monday) - Stamp It!

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Stamp It! (2nd entry)

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

We Love Chocolate Baroque (September) - Anything Goes with option of celebrations

Hope you're having a great day and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Insightful Meadows

Hi everyone. Since I restarted crafting a couple of months ago I have focussed almost exclusively on cute images coloured with my Promarkers, pretty papers and embellishments .... and long may it continue!!  This week however I have been feeling in the mood to try something different, and fancied trying some inky background blending. Initially I searched out my old Tim Holtz distress ink pads and at the weekend I treated myself to  blending tool, and this afternoon I sat down to have a play.  

Here's the result.

In the end I didn't actually use my distress inks, but instead sponged a background using some Versamagic chalk ink pads I found in my craft box. I also created a stamped wildflower meadow by using a variety of stamps from a couple of different sets of silhouette stamps. I then just matted the result onto two co-ordinating border layers and that was basically it... no papers, no ribbon, no flower embellishments (I needed a lie down after that!). Of course I couldn't completely leave this CAS card alone so I added a bit of glamour dust to the bee's wings and two teeny aqua gems to the sentiment.

I'm not actually tremendously well set up with supplies for this type of project, so I'm seriously thinking about buying one or two stencils and masking sheets so I can take things a bit further. However, despite a little accident right near completion where I got a bit of glue on my background I'm not too displeased with this first attempt.  

Stamps: Flowers - Unity Stamps "Insightful Meadows"; leaves, bee and sentiment - "Summer Meadow", free with Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine;

Media: background sponged with Versamagic chalk ink - Aquatic Splash, Sea Breeze and Aegean Blue. Image stamped with Memento ink.

Challenges I would like to enter:

A Gem of a Challenge #18 - Anything Goes

Allsorts #639 - Clean and Simple

Crafter's Cafe #273 - Anything Goes

Crafty Creations #425 - Anything Goes

Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes

Creatalicious #218 - Anything Goes

Simon Says (Monday) - Glimmer and Sparkle

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Stamp It in STAMPtember

Sparkles #143 - Monochromatic (2nd entry)

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

So that's my crafting done for today. Thanks very much for visiting.

Hugs,