I'm in distress

That's distress mode...one of my favorite styles! Today I am going to show you a messy and fun technique that I haven't done in a long time, but it was so much fun that I can't wait to do it again! I have used Sweet Peas and chosen the smaller image from the set. This way it was easier to color up 3 samples quickly and I wouldn't feel so bad if I ruined one...and I did *blush*

So here we have Distress Ink in Tea Dye, a re-inker and a pad, and a Mini Mister filled with water. I also use a disposable rectangle aluminum pan.


First I stamped my image with Memento Tuxedo Black dye ink (waterproof!) on Flourishes Classic White Card Stock and colored with Copic markers.


Next I crumpled it up! Yes, I said I crumpled it up. Go ahead...you can do it! Done? Not so bad, right? Scary yes, but it felt kinda good...I know it did.



Now pull out that pan I mentioned and place the image in the center and give it a good misting with water. And I mean good. I don't want your paper to be completely limp and fall apart, but you want the water to start soaking in so that the next step will flow easily. You can kind of see that there are tiny puddles in the folds of my paper.



Okay, put the image aside just for a minute while you add a couple of drops of ink to the pan. Now mist those drops really well and swirl the pan around until you see blobs of diluted color like in the picture below.

This is a small image I am using. I have been known to add lots more ink and water, mixing colors, and really soaking my image. Even dropping the ink directly onto the paper and letting it run. That's really messy-but the results are gorgeous!


Okay, now if you thought crumpling was scary just see what you have to do now! Take the image and smoosh it face down into the ink puddles. Yes, smoosh and swirl, and keep picking it up and turning it over to make sure you have sufficient ink coverage. You might like the whole thing covered or just some of the image. I like to cover the whole thing! Add more ink if necessary until you like the results.



Now you just need to let the image dry. Or if you are like me and impatient, then you can hit it with the heat gun. I usually do that and then re-ink if I want to deepen the color. This is what it looks like dry.



Okay, just one more scary step, I promise! I slightly crumple the image again, it will fold in all the same creases originally created, and then I lightly swipe the ink pad over the top just highlighting the folds.



Now you are ready to use your image on a card or project. This is what mine looks like all finished.



This is really fun and the result are never the same twice! Give it a try!

A fun afternoon project!

If you've been searching for just the right gift for your mom or grandma this Mother's Day, I (Julie) thought I'd share an easy project that makes an artist out of anyone!

All you need is a unfinished wood frame (I bought mine for $1 at Michael's), your favorite stamp set (I picked up my Sweet Pea set ), StazOn ink, some acrylic paint, a fine and a fine line black permanent paint.

I started by giving my frame a white wash - which is just painting it with watered down white paint. After it dried, I stamped my Sweet Peas in each corner. With StazOn, you want to make sure that you clean your stamp right away! This is a solvent based ink. It's ok in short spurts, but leave the ink on your polymer stamp and over time, it could damage the polymer!

Here's a look so far!
And, here's a close up....
These are the colors of paint that I picked - two shades of green, two shades of pink and some white....(they are all "well loved" bottles of paint!)

Then, I started to paint with a fine tip paint brush, making sure to darken the areas I wanted shadows and lightening highlighted areas with dabs of white.

While the look above is "OK," I knew I wanted to see the definition in my flowers. So, I grabbed a permanent file line black pen and started to outline the stamped image - like this....

Now I was in a quandary because I thought it didn't look soft enough! So, I let the permanent black pen ink dry and then I took my white wash paint (watered down paint) and I took a foam sponge and sponged the white wash over my entire frame. When this was done, I took a large dry brush and dipped it a bit into ivory paint and added some antique streaks. Its a great way to get a hand painted look without being an artist!! :-)

When it was done it looked like this....

I just love that picture of my daughter and her Nana! So did my daughter! It now sits on the shelf in her room.

Hope you enjoyed this little project. Like I said - all you need is a fun stamp, some paint, a picture frame.... and an afternoon!