Lets talk Distress Oxides. Part 3.....

Slightly later than I had planned, but after nearly 5 days stuck in bed with some awful bug (gee thanks for that one kids!) I will give this a whirl!

So where were we ah yes this little beauty...

I just love this effect, it is so easy and so versatile! All you need is Distress Oxides, spritzer/water, a paint brush (and a stamp or two!).

So here goes, start with a plain piece of white card and trim it so it is 2 cm smaller than your finished card. Then start to add your colours, I started with the palest colour first, salty ocean then seedless preserves and wilted violet (i think these are the colours!). I added them in random patches all over the piece of card making sure to apply very thickly.

Using your background stamp I used our Splat stamp. Spritz the stamp so it is wet but not dripping! Stamp onto your card leave in place for a couple of seconds - if you are using a clear stamping block you can see the water doing its thing - So fab!! lift the stamp off and dab your piece of card, keep doing this until you are happy with your background.

Yes you can second generation stamp with the water BUT 1) it wont remove as much ink (looks good though) and 2) remember Distress Oxides like to contaminate (they are messy monkeys!) so you will transfer some of the colour you have just removed.

Make sure your background is dry and stamp your image I used our Amazing Funky Flower using black Archival Ink.

When the flower is dry, using a paint brush and water "paint" the flower blotting it with kitchen roll until you are happy with your finished image.

Can you tell I have lost a photo - Whoops!!!

Then stamp your sentiment and mount it onto a black piece of card and then onto your base card. really simple to do but wow you can create some stunning effects, I used 3 Oxides but it works just as well using 2.

Let's talk Distress Oxides Part 2....

So who wants to make this card?????

Again this is soo easy to do but takes no time at all!!!

First up I trimmed an A5 piece of white card down by 2cm on each side so my piece ended up 13.5cm by 20cm. 

I always use heavy weight card about 300gsm! Why? well I am a messy crafter I love to throw lots of inks, paints, anything really at my cards and I want to know it isn't going to buckle of worse if its a card not stand up, so I use 300gsm when and where I can. But that being said each card blend is different and you will have your preferences too! So I guess what I am trying to say is you will find what works best for you and your style - I hope that helps!

Next I chose my colours I went for fossilized amber, wild honey, cracked pistachio and for contrast on the flower peeled paint and seedless preserves.

I then stamped the Mini Distressed square Poly Plate in fossilized amber about an inch in from the top and left hand side. I cleaned my stamp (make sure you remove all ink as Distress Oxides will contaminated really easily!), then I stamped the wild honey and finally cracked pistachio.

Next I spritzed some water into the palm of my hand and flicked it at the card. If I had spritzed my card directly I would have just got tiny dots this way I get the big blobs. Dab the water off with kitchen roll - the longer you leave it on the more colour will be "bleached". Keep doing this until you are happy with the result.

Fab hey! Next I stamped the Amazing Funky Flower in black Archival in ink onto the card and onto a spare piece of card too.

Paint the leaves of the flower on the card in peeled paint. And on the spare add the seedless preserve to the flower heads - I used a scrunched up bit of kitchen roll to do my colouring/distressing.

Next I found a sentiment that fitted into the bottom square and stamped it in black Archival Ink.

Mount this onto a 1cm larger piece of black card and mount onto an A5 base card. Cut out your flower heads out and glue or tape them in place. I used foam tape on mine. I also think I needed to some gems in the flower stamens just to finish it off .

Let's talk Distress Oxides! Part 1.....

We recently ran a couple of quick workshops using Distress Oxides, each card we made, we built on our techniques we had learnt on the last one and I think everyone walked away with 3 stunning cards, but importantly a head full of inspiration, so I thought I would share them on here too...

Fancy hey! But sooo easy to do

First up we are going to look at the tiled card, for this we are going to concentrate on painting and stamping using our Distress Oxides.

Lets begin by cutting a piece of white card slightly larger than your stamp, (I used Funky Flower - Amazing for this one, the saying is from another set - I got them all muddled up lol!). Stamp your image onto the piece of card in Archival Ink.

Onto a glossy surface (I used the back of my stamping block) stamp a little bit of the Distress Oxide I used peeled paint, peacock feathers and fossilzed amber. I painted one colour at a time so I didn't contaminated my ink pads. Next to the stamped ink spritzed a little water (you need the water to allow the ink to move whilst you are painting). Then colour in your image.

Make sure the Distress Oxides are dry then cut the image into four pieces (I was going to do six but the maths got the better of me!).

Mount the pieces on to a piece of black card leaving a small border and gap between the pieces. Trim the piece of black card.

Place the tiled image onto a card and layout where you want the sentiment to be. Remove the tiled image and stamp the sentiment I used peacock feathers to tie in with my flower. Make sure your stamp is clean before you ink it up as the Oxide will pick up any ink from the stamp that is not permanent and dried on! Also be sure to clean your stamp well afterwards.

See I said it was really easy and quick! So why not join me on Wednesday for some more Distress Oxide fun!

Boo!!!

We are back!

As most people will know the last 6 months has been incredibly busy but we really can't complain it keeps us out of trouble and I get to escape to my little crafty haven!

We have a new website where we are currently running a 20% off any stamps offer to celebrate, so if you fancy 20% off any stamp set* or two all you have to do is hop on over to our website pop your stamps in your cart and then before you checkout add NEWWEB2018 where it says promo code it really couldn't be simpler.

* Please note: Monthly Make Kits, subscriptions and stamp only sets are not included in this offer! Offer runs until Friday 26th January 2018.

Anyway with the new website I was hoping to move our blog across there too as it really is letting me do things our previous one didn't, but for all the amazing and wonderfully useful things the website can now do it seems when it comes to blogging you can't really beat blogger, so here we shall stay....

We also have a number of new monthly "clubs" or more like craft-alongs that will be using our Monthly Make sets these are nearly ready to go - I just got a little carried away so things have taken me a little longer to do than planned (isn't that ALWAYS the case lol!). So whilst I get these pesky ducks in a row here's a sneaky look our January's TAG-IT