Another art journal page

I've just completed what looked like on paper to be the prettiest page for our art journals with Hero Arts Mixed Media stamp-a-long. I was in a bind whether to do it or should I wait and buy some reactive inks to do it but decided to just do it with my Distress Inks and then decide whether I should outlay some more cents/dollars.

Well I was really pleasantly surprised my page turned out so brilliantly. This was the first page we taped down to help prevent warping but it made the first step white embossing the Rough Dots Bold Prints (HA) slightly interesting as obviously we also stamped on the tape with the stamp and embossing ink but it meant we just had to brush it off before heat setting it. I also worked on a bigger piece of watercolour card stock so I had lots of room to trim to size at the end. This class was taught by Channin Pelletier.

After this stage we swiped our ink pads and then misted them all wet and blew with an air blaster or a straw. 

When dry we stamped in a waterproof black ink the Encouragement Sentiment Strips stamp (HA). Allow to dry naturally or heat lightly with a heat tool and check dry by placing scrap of paper over and rubbing lightly to see if any black ink on scratch paper.

Let dry then apply some Hero Paste through the Stacked Circles stencil (HA), let dry then re-swipe with same ink pads, re-mist and blow again to fill in all the gaps. 

Allow to dry again and I added a wee touch of Gold Hero Wax to some of the stenciling. A die-cut word and a sentiment strip, plus a few drops of Hero White Pearls to finish off. I was lazy and used one word die-cut, Channin had a sentence plus I placed my sentiment strip where I had a straight line from my random stamp of rough dots.

I used the following distress inks; first swipe, Kitsch Flamingo, Saltwater Taffy, Squeezed Lemonade, Peacock Feathers and Mermaid Lagoon. I changed the 2 blues for the 2nd swipe as I thought they were too "greeny-blue" and used Salvaged Patina and Salty Ocean instead and that looked so much brighter even if they were on top of the other blue approximately. I think Channin's panel is brighter than mine so if possible I'll get some reactive inks when I can afford them PLUS the biggie question I also need to find somewhere to store them. I tried a friends when I was working out what supplies I should buy for my add-ons. I could see/feel how well they blended and how fantastically they reacted with water. They are a bit like Distress Oxides without the chalkiness but I decided that I could live without them in my stash for the moment.

✿ Karen ✿