Distress Ink "Lifting"

When I saw this fab card of Jen McGuire's I just had to try it as I loved the colours, unfortunately I don't own the beautiful hydrangea stamp (yet) but I can report the technique worked beautifully on my azalea stamp.

In a nutshell the technique removes the distress ink colour with the use of water, then you add complementary colours back in. This really reminded me of bleaching panels but the colours you achieve with the distress inks is so much prettier than bleach - almost Monet-isque.

Recipe:
Stamps: Best Thoughts (Stampin' Up!), Banner Greetings (Stampin' Up!)
Distress Inks: Background & flower : Blueprint Sketch, Pickled Raspberry, Mowed Lawn. Butterfly : Pickled Raspberry, Wilted Violet, Mustard Seed
Card: Whisper White, Ranger Watercolour
Other: Embossing buddy, Versamark ink, white embossing powder, round 4 watercolour brush, dimensionals, gold Wink of Stella brush pen (touch on the flower stamens)

I made this card for my dear friend Judy who's birthday it was on Wednesday but I really enjoyed the technique so much I may make a few more to have in my birthday card stash. Thanks Jen for such a fabulous technique too.

Hope you all have a go too at the technique, you won't be disappointed.

✿ Karen ✿

Birds go Crazy for Love

Happy Valentine's day all, Pete & myself take a low key approach to V-day but any excuse to make a card & share chocolate is always a good day.

 I have to say those crazy birds from Tim Holtz are perfect for sharing a wee bit of love with. My card's final dimensions are 4" x 7" (so I used a piece of Smoky Slate 8" x 7" & folded at 4"). The DSP is 1/4" smaller on all sides.

I followed California Girl Richele Christensen colouring techniques as I think her Bird Crazy birds are the best on the internet.

So I stamped my wee bird on watercolour paper & then die cut her out. "She" was wetted with water, then coloured in with distress ink smeared on my craft mat & watercolour paint brushes.

 I covered the bird all over with Tattered Rose, then used Aged Mahogany to colour the lower body & her wing.

At the top I used Scattered Straw & Wild Honey.

I also used Vintage Photo to add a bit of shadowing & to colour around the edges of the cut-out.

The eyes were coloured in with Tumbled Glass, the wee beak & feet were Fossilized Amber.

I then spritzed the top with Wild Honey & the base of the bird with Aged Mahogany.

I popped up the wing & the eyes on dimesionsals & added Crystal Effects to the eyes to make all glossy.

The heart I stamped in Hero Arts Soft Granite (as it's a waterproof ink), then coloured all over with Tattered Rose again, the bow was a combo of Worn Lipstick & Aged Mahogany. When the heart was dry I covered all over with my clear Wink of Stella pen to give it a wee bit of sparkle.

Recipe:
Stamp sets: Bird Crazy & Crazy Things (Stampers Anonymous), Good Greetings (Stampin' Up!)
Ranger Inks: Archival Jet Black, Tattered Rose, Worn Lipstick, Aged Mahogany, Tumbled Glass, Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Fossilized Amber
Other inks: Soft Granite (Hero Arts), Smoky Slate (SU!)
Paper: Watercolour (Ranger), retired DSP from SU!, Soft Sky (SU!), Smoky Slate (SU!)
Others: Dimensionals, Crystal Effects, Spritzer, clear embossing powder, clear Wink of Stella pen, round 2 & round 4 brushes, Bird Crazy matching framelits, sponge, craft mat.

Well we're off to see Deadpool at the movies which should be a nice end to V-day.

✿ Karen ✿

Pretty in purple

It's a long weekend in New Zealand as we celebrate our National Day but I'm working through on a shift at the hospital, but I sincerely hope kiwis enjoy the 3-day weekend & have some free crafting time.

I'm loving the Stampin' Up! free Sale-a-bration stamp sets on offer this year, so love the size of the lettering & the font.

My dear friend Sally had her birthday this week & anyone that know her knows she LOVES purple, so I wanted to make her a purple card.

I decided to make a watercolour wash background using my Distress Inks. I love how it turned out & will be making a few more cards like this in other shades.

1. I used Scotch painters tape to hold down the watercolour paper to a board which is why it has a wee "border" if you look closely at the top layer. 
2. I then used a wide paint brush to wet the paper (flat 1). 
3. The inks I just rubbed on my craft mat & added the lightest colour first with another paint brush (round 10). 
4. The Ranger inks really blend well & I tilted the board to get some mixing going going on as well.
5. Then dried it all with my heat gun. 
6. I then sprayed my hand with water & threw droplets at the background which I then dabbed with a paper towel to make the splotches. 
7. Then dried again with my heat gun. 
8. I then rubbed an embossing buddy all over the background before embossing "hello" in black. Rather than using Versamark & black embossing powder I used Versafine Black Onyx & clear embossing powder so I didn't get stray black embossed bits on the card - much cleaner.
9. I added various purple & gold sequins using Ranger Matte Multi Medium which I have in a small bottle with a precision tip needle to just add a wee dab where I want the sequin to stick.
10. The "- birthday girl-" also comes with the stamp set and is white embossed on the black card stock. I used one of my square punches to make the banner.

Recipe:
Stamp Set: Hello (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark
Distress Inks (Ranger): Victorian Velvet, Dusty Concord, Seedless Preserves, Wilted Violet
Card: Strathmore cold pressed watercolor, Neenah Solar White, black
Embellishments: Various companies including SU!, Lucy's bright copper kettle, CTMH sick-on purple glitter gems
Other: Clear & white embossing powder, embossing buddy, heat gun, various paint brushes, dimensionals, square punch, craft mat, Ranger Multi Matte Medium.

The Hello stamp set is only available free until February 16th from your Stampin' Up! demonstrator with a $110 order. So if you love it too, you only have 11 days to go to get your own.

Enjoy your weekend & hope you get your fingers inky!

✿ Karen ✿

Bright & Cheerful Balloons to kick start 2016 & blogging again ....

Hi everyone just a very quick post to kick 2016 off.

It was my dear friend Debbie's birthday yesterday & as she is a Stampin' Up! demo I thought I'd better make her a card with one of the new stamps from their latest Occasions Catalogue & I also got to use one of the Sale-a-bration stamp sets I earned for FREE after spending $110, even though I have too, too many stamp sets in all honesty the Sale-a-bration stamp sets are just fabulous this year.

I found this awesome card on Pinterest which was created by Cornelia Janssen from Denmark - I pin so much it was great to actually go & case & KReate it.

When I first started stamping a few balloons I wasn't too sure about it but when all the colours were down I just loved it!.

Recipe (all products Stampin' Up!):
Stamp sets: Balloon Builders, Botanicals For You
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Pumpkin Pie, Rich Razzleberry, Daffodil Delight, Rose Red, Smokey Slate, Versamark
Card stock: Whisper White, Vellum
Others: Gold EP, glue dots (to stick down the vellum overlay), dimensionals

Cutting dimensions:
Whisper white 9 x 13.3cm, 9.5 x 13.8cm, 1/2 A4 - thick whisper white (mountain fold)
Vellum 6.5 x 13.3cm

Inside I stamped a happy birthday message.

Love, love the font of the Just For You and as it such a big stamp it made making a card very easy.

✿ Karen ✿