Distress Inks

Show us a cute dog

Hi there. I am hosting the current challenge at Cardz 4 Galz, and a chose the theme of ‘cute dog/s” as it is national dog day today. I personally have two cats, and would to have dogs, but this isn’t feasible at the moment. So come and share with us your ‘cute dog’ creations – girlie them of course – and try to persuade me otherwise…..

Here is my card:

For some strange reason, I ordered this Simon Says Stamp die a while back – don’t ask me why – definitely on a whim. I do love SSS animal and critter dies

I die cut the little doggy, but I did create a background for me to add all the little bits onto, then fussy cut it.

The pink ink smooshed background is from my stash – loving the Kitsch Flamingo – and die cut, with an extra white die cut rectangle for added interest.

The sentiment is from Heffy Doodle.

I hope you can come and join us with your girlie and doggy creations. I’m looking forward to seeing what you create. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

INTAAS – CAS

Happy Little Stampers – atg with dies

Cute Card Thursday – atg cute

Thinking of you….

The Alphabet Challenge has started a new challenge. Having reached the letter ‘I’, Dawn has chosen the theme of Insects on your creations. Here is my card:

Having been successful with using ink on an embossing folder for the first time, I decided to have another go using a couple of colours:

The embossing folder is from Simon Says Stamp, and I used Distress Inks on the inside, before running it through my die cutting machine. I haven’t had much success with this technique in the past – but for some reason it worked this time – no idea why……

The butterfly is from Tim Holtz, a Bigz die, which also comes with an embossing folder for the two butterflies. I added a simple sentiment and stuck down onto the card base. I didn’t stick the butterfly down completely, I like the wings to be a little raised, some movement.

I hope you can come and join us and show us what you can create using insects in your projects. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

The House That Stamps Built – anything goes

Krafty Chicks – anything goes

Aud Sentiments Challenge – anything goes with a sentiment

I can’t wait to see how far you fly…

Cardz 4 Galz has started a new challenge, and this time the theme has been chosen by Helen, who wants to see you use dies or punches in your girlie creations. Here is my card:

Having received a few new orders with Altenew products, I decided to use some of them for this card. I stenciled the card base using Altenew ‘Terrazzo Tile’ stencil – these are layering stencils, and you don’t have to be particularly precise with this one – just place them as you want them.

The bird is die cut out some ink smooshing with Distress Inks – Wilted Violet I think – and I gave some dimension to the feathers, some movement, as it were.

The thin grey frame was attached, and the sentiment heat embossed in white.

I hope you can come and join us this time round – I look forward to seeing what you create following our theme. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Always Fun Challenges – use stencils

Tuesday Taggers – feathered friends

The House That Stamps Built – stenciling

Addicted to Stamps and More – die cuts or stencils

I Hope Your Day Is Fabulous

Hello there. I was lucky enough to be picked as random winner for The Color Throwdown recently, and was given the opportunity to be Guest Star Stamper. Well, of course I jumped at the chance. Here are the colours for the new challenge:

And here is my card:

I used a combination of Time For Tea Designs stamps and dies to create the scene.

The car, paper plane, and panda’s were stamped then coloured with Copics., and die cut with their matching dies. The little paper plane has a little slit in the middle so you can insert your critter.

The background has clouds stenciled with Kitsch Flamingo. The first sky I stenciled I was a little heavy handed with the ink, so I did that again with a lighter hand.

The hillside scene was stamped and then coloured with Copics. Colouring larger areas with Copics is a struggle for me – I never know when to stop with the darker shades – how much to do – but I went with it – just a little darker shade when the hills seem to merge, and a little darker in the centre of the trees.

I hope you manage to come and play this week with the bright and fun colours. As usual, the Color Throwdown Team has a variety of inspiration for you.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Creative Knockouts – use die cuts

Just Add Ink – choose two – sky, trees, sea

Beyond The Blue – stencil time

Creative Fingers – anything goes

Time For Tea Designs July Challenge – anything goes with using their products

Happy Everything

Hello once again. There is anew challenge started at The Alphabet Challenge. We have reached the letter ‘H’ and Debbie has chosen the theme of ‘use the word Happy in your sentiment‘. Here is my card:

Do you think the word is bold enough?

The background is ink smooshing onto Distress Heavy card stock – part of a bunch of these backgrounds I made whilst restricted a few weeks ago. Because this background is so vibrant, I decided the sentiment ought to be big and bold and black…….

The sentiments – the big word and the embossed word – are from Uniko, as is the little gold party hat added to the first letter……

I hope you can come and join us. I’m looking forward to seeing your ‘happy’ creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Watercooler Challenge -occasions

Love To Craft Challenge – anything goes

Crafters Castle – anything goes

Crafty Creations – anything goes

How’s It Going, Friend?

Hello there. I am hosting the new challenge at Cardz 4 Galz, and I chose the theme of ‘Things With Wings’. I chose a very broad subject matter, leaving the choice of what things with wings you wanted to use – as long as it’s towards the girlie genre – you’re good. Here is my card:

The blue background is a water-colour smooshing technique using Distress Inks. It seems to have got a little contaminated with yellow on the edge – but I think it adds a certain interest – and I liked the over-all colour so much I used it anyway.

The square blue butterfly is a die from Simon says stamp, which was cut out of the main panel – I gutted the base blue card, as they say, and the same goes for the blue under the sentiment.

The white card base is one from a previous virtual class, using a Simon Says Stamp red rubber background stamp, where we were heat embossing and then ink smooshing – but this panel was left without anything doing to it, so I used it here as the flowery base for the butterfly.

So – ink smooshed base layer, white heat embossed flower layer, and then the sentiment and butterfly for another layer – and yet it seems so CAS still to me.

I hope you can come and join us with our ‘Things With Wings’ challenge – I look forward to seeing where your creativity takes you. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Pearly Sparkles Challenge – CAS

Mix It Up Challenge – mixed media with 3 or more layers

Die Cut Divas – Tic Tac Toe – middle vertical line – emboss it, friendship, blue

Stamplorations May CAS Challenge – CAS atg – option copper and yellow not taken

Thanks For Being You….

Cardz 4 Galz has a new challenge starting, and for the theme of ‘Mother’s Day USA or for a Special Person/Day’ I explored my mixed media side – here is my card:

I stuck down some patterned paper to the 5 x 7 inch card base, then used a dotted stencil, some embossing ink, clear embossing powder and even added some Tim Holtz embossing glaze to it. I then blended some Tea Dye Distress Ink to create more of a shadow over the dots:

Turning to the flower and leaves – I used a piece of Yupo I had already created in the purple/yellow tones with some gold highlights, and die cut the base flower. The layers were die cut out of the same piece of Yupo, some black card stock, and a base black flower to create some shadow and making the flower stand out just that little bit more.

The leaves were created by spraying a piece of water-colour card with Rustic Wilderness Distress Spray Stain, smooshing with the same colour ink pad adding just a touch of Twisted Citron, drying, then adding some Rustic Wilderness Embossing glaze over the top – whilst heat embossing, I threw in some gold embossing powder too – you can’t have enough gold!

The sentiment is from an older Stampin Up stamp set – Avant Garden – and just fit perfectly (in my mind) for the person I am giving this card to……..she loves purple, she is quite dramatic, but she has been my rock over the past year – my absolute rock! By ‘just being’ her – she has enabled me to remain as sane as I usually am – I’m not completely sane – but neither is she – and she has made the past year tolerable and bearable – she has been a major boon to my mental health.

So – she is the special person I am giving this card to……..

I hope you can come and join us this time round – I’d love to see what you create – and perhaps give us a little story about how this person is special to you – I’ll make sure I have enough tissues handy! xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge – anything goes mixed/multi media

Always Fun Challenges – anything goes

TTCRD Challenge – anything goes

Mix It Up Challenge – anything goes – option no stamps

Lot’s Of Birthday Wishes

Hello there. I am very pleased and excited to announce I am going to be a Surprise Party Guest and Design Team member at Seize The Birthday for the next couple of months.

Here is my party guest invitation and challenge theme for the next two weeks, followed by my card:

The invitation to join this challenge came just a day or two after I had received this ‘Lift Flap Grid‘ die from Mama Elephant – it’s almost fated…..

I started with a piece of Distress white heavy card stock and ink blended three Distress Inks, then cut that with the lift flap grid. I initially placed a piece of white card behind the back, but I thought this was going to be a little stark, so I used some ‘Dove‘ card stock from Concord & 9th.

The white grid I had die cut – I do this just to see how things cut and how they look – I placed on the grey card, drew a little pencil line around each opening – so I knew where I wanted to put each of the tiny little sentiments.

I hunted through my stash – using the CML app – and found a multitude of tiny sentiments – I was stuck deciding on which to use – but just went with it.

I then stamped a few of the images from ‘Little Cat Agenda’ – well I stamped them all actually and picked which I wanted to use -then coloured as you see – quite muted colours, but I think they stand out well on this flap background.

The theme of this challenge is always birthday, with an optional topping each challenge. I am looking forward to be a part of this challenge, and I look forward to seeing you in the gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Watercooler Challenge – occasions

Simon says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

Lil red Wagon Challenge – Happy Birthday

Die Cut Divas – window or aperture card

Bee Happy…..

Hello once again. The Alphabet Challenge has started a new challenge, and having reached the letter ‘Y’ – Dawn has chosen ‘Yellow’ as the theme for the card. Here is my creation:

I really enjoyed creating this card. I recently attended a Jenn Shurkus online class about Distress Inks and Distress Oxides. During that class, we made lots and lots of different background ink smooshing, blending, water-colouring with both, and also used Distress water-color card stock, and also Distress heavystock – which I have never used before. I learnt to dry between each layer, to not think too much about what goes where – and just to play….

That class reminded me how brilliant the Distress products are – and how much fun it was to create a background – and to have an inky mess. Now I just can’t stop myself – any excuse to get inky and messy – loving it!

This yellow layer is using two Distress Inks – and layering at least 5 times…….just two colours of yellow. I was also ‘Jennabled’ to purchase the Ranger Heat Tool – so much better than trying to use my embossing tool – much gentler, less warping.

The honeycomb die was cut from white card stock, and those greeny/browny pieces? Well that was another messy ink layered background also die-cut with the same die, and just adding some of the pieces. The white was too stark on it’s own.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations featuring yellow – I look forward to seeing you there. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Addicted To Stamps – Die cuts or stencils or both – die cuts for me

Crafty Sentiments Designs – anything goes

We Love 2 Create – atg mixed media – (lots of ink smooshing, splattering, watering – inky messing!)

Mix It Up Challenge – atg mixed media with option inlaid die cut – option not taken

Crafty Creations Challenge – anything goes

Long Distance Fox Hugs

Hello there. I have a CAS card to share today using masking, water-colouring, ink blending, stamping:

It took me a while, and a lot of thinking, on how to create this card. I knew I wanted to use this stamp set, knew I wanted some ink blending, knew I would need to do some masking – but once I had decided what needed to be stamped and ink blended in which order – off I went.

I’ve tried a ‘gallery’ setting to demonstrate the process – does it work ok?

I first stamped the fox and light images onto Distress Water-color card stock – smooth side – using Gina K Amalgam ink, stamped again and created a mask for the images, Then a circle stencil added from Honey Bee Stamps, lots of masking tape so I didn’t go outside the circle, ink blended Spun Sugar then Picked Raspberry, and removed the masks to reveal the images again. I always love that part – especially when it works!

I dried that with the Ranger Heat Tool – I was ‘Jennabled’ by Jenn Shurkus after doing a few of her online classes. The use of Distress Inks again for colouring, and the use of the heat tool – well worth it. I can’t seem to stop using them. I then used the other two colours of Distress Ink to water-colour the images.

After drying the water-colouring again, I stamped the sentiment which comes in the same stamp set.

I currently like to send ‘just because’ cards, as we haven’t been able to meet our friends for quite a while. I have found that making these kinds of cards helps me to have a reason to create, and also sends just a little bit of love and best wishes.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – Turquoise, rust, pink, megenta

CASology – FOX

Jan’s Digi Stamps challenge – anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

Colour Crazy Challenge – anything goes colouring (week 7)

As You Like It Challenge – favourite reason to send a card and why