Lucky Is A State Of Mind

Happy St Paddy's Day!

What better way to celebrate the day then with an wee Irish  hipster monkey.

I stamped my image on watercolor paper and colored it with Distress Oxides. The hat and 'shamrock' were made with stamps from the Tim Holtz Crazy Things stamp set.

The background was made with Scattered Straw, Cracked Pistachio, Peeled Paint & Faded Jeans Distress Oxides and gold Perfect Pearls. I used the smooshing technique to get this lovely background.

You're How Old? Birthday Card

Happy Friday, my crafty friends!

I love the new Tim Holtz Hipster stamp set from Stampers Anonymous.

They are hilarious!

I stamped my image on to watercolour paper with Versafine Ink & coloured it with Distress Oxide Ink & my water brush then fussy cutting it out. The card background was made by splattering Distress Oxide ink on to a piece of 4"x 5.25" watercolor paper.

I stamped  "CRAY" on to a scrap of watercolor paper then watercolored it
with some Distress Oxide Ink. I cut it out and inked the edges up with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.
The sentiment is layered of an image from the Dina Wakely Circle Patterns stamp set
from Stampers Anonymous.

I just love how bright & cherry this cards looks even with the very serious Hipster cat.

Distress Oxide + Art Journal

Welcome to my blog! 

Today I have an art journal page to share with you - using Distress Oxide Inks.

These pages are in an old Calculus Textbook from the 1950's that I made into a journal.

I first prepped my pages by  applying  a light layer of gesso.

Next I used molding paste with a Carabelle Studio stencil.

Once the molding paste was completely dry I started to apply my Distress Oxides.
I first put some Vintage Photo Distress Oxide ink on my craft sheet then used my water brush to loosely and liberally apply the colour over parts of the stenciled image.

I sprayed the ink while at the same time drying it with my heat tool. I did the same technique again but this time with Faded Jeans Distress Oxide Ink.

I used up the leftover ink from my craft sheet by splattering it over the pages.

Lastly I added the Creativity Quote stamp from Darkroom Door.

This was a pretty quick and fun journal page to do and I love the way the Distress Oxides turned out.

More Distress Oxide + Perfect Pearl

Hi there! Welcome to my blog. I'm so glad you are.

I am sharing another card that is similar to another card I shared last week,

You can take a look at that card here.

This card uses the same Carabelle Studio stamp, Wilted Violet & Cracked Pistachio
Distress Oxides and Perfect Pearls.

I used the smoosh & drag technique to apply the ink to my watercolour base.

To get a nice crisp, dark stamped image I used my Misti. I find its the perfect way to get a great image especially on watercolour paper. I added a sentiment from the Occasions Small Talk book from Tim Holtz Idea-ology.

Distress Oxide + Perfect Pearls = Follow Your Heart Card

Hello & welcome to March!

It's time to start thinking about spring - gardening, listening to the birds,

 warm days. I can't wait!

I created this card while thinking warm spring thoughts...

I am really loving the new Distess Oxides from Ranger Ink and thought it would be fabulous to pair them up with Perfect Pearls. A little shimmer is always nice.

I started with a 4.25"x 5.5|" piece of cold-pressed watercolour paper.
I decided to use a small piece of acetate to apply my inks to the paper.
I pressed my stamp pad to the acetate then gave it a couple spritzes of water.

After applying the Spiced Marmalade I added the Fossilized Amber & Perfect Pearls.

The stamped image is from Carabelle Studio and to get a sharp stamped image I used my Misti. I think I stamped it 3 times in total. The words are from the Chit Chat stickers book from Tim Holtz Idea-ology. I added some Hickory Smoke Distress Marker around the words to add a bit of dimension.

Check out that fabulous shimmer. I will definitely be using my Perfect Pearls with the Distress Oxides again.

Playing With Crayons - Tim Tag March 2016

I was beyond excited when my Distress Crayons arrived last week but was so busy I didn't have a chance to start playing with them until yesterday. Well, let me say they were worth the wait. 

After a bit of play time on random paper - with some success and some hot messes -  I jumped into the creation of my Tim Tag for March.

Here is Tim's gorgeous tag

I realized that after I die cut the corrugated cardboard & the base tag that most of the 

details would be covered up - note to self: better pre-planning.

The Distress Crayons blend beautifully on a surface prepped with

 gesso - so smooth and easy to blend. 

I wasn't happy with the blank space that would be showing through the feather on the right so I decided to add a stamp. I also stamped the corrugated layer so it would line up with the image on the bottom layer.

My brad embellishment is a Flower Wheel Brad  from Emerald Creek. I rubbed  the Mermaid Lagoon Distress Crayon over the brad and used my fingertip to push the crayon into the grooves. I really like how it turned out. 

Challenges Entered:

Tim Holtz: 12 Tags Of 2016 (March)

Distress Ink & Watercolour - My Current Obsession

I love watercolour and have made a lot of cards using watercolour techniques
but I recently became completely obsessed with a no-line watercolour
technique I saw on Scraps & Stamps.
You can check out Nicole's blog post about no-line watercolouring here.

Nicole uses a combo if Distress Ink & Peerless  Transparent Watercolours.
Her finished project is gorgeous but it got me thinking - why couldn't I just stamp the image using Distress Inks and then blend the ink with my detailed watercolour pen?
Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

I stamped the koi image from the Nicole Wright Designs Upstream stamp set
on to 140lb cold-pressed watercolour paper using Twisted Citron & Carved Pumpkin
 Distress Ink Pads. Now it was time to grab the water brush and start blending.

It doesn't take much to get a beautiful watercolour effect and it's oh so simple & quick.
To get a bit more definition I took my Distress Markers in the same colours and added more colour to the fins before blending with water..

To protect my images before the next step I applied a layer of Distress Micro Glaze.

The final step was to swipe the paper through some Distress Stain for a water effect.

My completed card - I love the water droplets made with the stain.

Here is another card made using the same steps but this time when I applied the
Distress Micro Glaze I made sure to spread it a bit past the image. I wanted to have more a 'halo' effect when I applied the stain layer.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today!

~~stay crafty~~

julia

Emerald Creek Dare - Ring In Spring

It's time for another challenge at Emerald Creek Dares!

Show us your Spring-themed projects - think bright & colourful. We want to see your cards, canvases, art journal pages, scrapbook layouts or home decor.

My project is a hexagon frame from Kaiser Craft. 

I prepped the frame pieces first with a coat of gesso then using matte medium applied Tim Holtz tissue paper. I applied another coat of matte medium over the top of the tissue paper. Once everythig was dry I assembled the frame pieces then gave the entire thing another light coat of gesso.

I used Tim Holtz Distress Stains in Spiced Marmalde, Squeezed Lemonade, Picked Raspberry & Cracked Pistachio to colour my background. I first applied small pools of the stains on to my splat mat and then used a small brush to apply small amounts over the tissue paper. 

I painted the outside of the frame with Scattered Straw Distress paint and distressed the edges with sandpaper. To further deepen the colour of the frame I used my ink blending tool to apply Rusty Hinge Distress Ink over the frame.

I used my Jumbo Tattered Floral die from Sizzix to make my focal point. What better way to signify Spring than some big colourful flowers! I die cut my flowers out of 140lb cold-pressed watercolour paper and coloured them with Distress Stains. While the paper was still wet I shape the flowers by curling the petals around my fingers. I then let the flowers dry naturally before layering 4 dies together and securing them with a Flower Wheel Brad from Emerald Creek.

The leaves were made with by applying Vintage Ivy Embossing Powder from Emerald Creek.
I love this embossing powder ~ after its heat set it leaves a soft, velvety texture.

I found this sentiment on Pinterest and thought it was perfect for this project.

Here is my finished project ~ a little bit of Spring inspiration to enjoy while I wait for the snow melt.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! Now head over the rest of the Emerald Creek DT
blogs for more Ring In Spring inspiration.

Claudia Neubacher
Shilpa
Katelyn
Diana
Cathy Potosky
Pam Bray

Head on over to Emerald Creek Dares to show us your Spring projects for a chance
to win a $25 credit to the Emerald Creek online store.

4 Quick Cards - Spring Edition

Ah...can you smell that? It's the sweet smells of SPRING!

Today I'm showing you the make & take I taught at the Paradise Lost One Day Crop on Feb 27.

I based it on another blog post I did back in December - 4 Quick Christmas Cards. 

I start with a pallet of spring colours - Squeezed Lemonade, Carved Pumpkin & Picked Raspberry 

Distress Stain ~ and a sheet of 140lb cold press watercolour paper 9"x11".

I start by smooshing my 3 colours of Distress on to my splat mat and giving them a good spray of water. Then I start laying my watercolour paper on top of my stains. The middle picture shows the first & the right photo is about the 5th. I dry between layers and keep adding stain and water until I like what I've got. I don't worry about the white spaces and you'll see why in the next step.

This layer is all about Distress Paint & Ink Pads. I use all the same colour and start layering these on over the stains. I give this layer a really good dry with my heat gun before trimming my paper to 4 - 4"x 5.25" panels. This will leave a few small scraps that I toss in my scrap bucket to be used for future projects.

I add a stamp image (SA/Tim Holtz - Flower Garden)  and a sentiment (SA/Tim Holtz - Crazy Talk) to each card front before using my blending tool to ink the edges. Lastly I ran my Black Archival Ink pad along the edges to 'frame' them. 

I really enjoy this technique to make a set of cards - I get to combine my love of a large mixed media surface and cardmaking. 

Thanks for dropping by my blog today & I hope I was able to inspire you!

~stay crafty~

julia