Vintage Postcard Sunday - Vintage St. Pats & Vermont Maple Sugar Time

Hey Guys!

Hope you've all had a wonderful weekend so far.

It's good to see you all interested in the new Distress Inks...I have been working on a few design projects so I haven't had a chance to further play with them but maybe this week!!

Today I have some Vintage St. Patrick's Day postcards as well as some fun Vermont Maple Sugar postcards for you!

Please feel free to use these cards in your art but please don't compile and sell them as collage sheets.

St. Patrick's Day....

Vermont

Maple Sugar Time!

Enjoy!!

Tim Holtz Distress Inks - New vs. Old

Actually, not really a "vs." type of thing....

more like old compared to new.

So, I inked & stamped a bunch of tags using the old colors and the new colors just to show how varied the colors are. There are a couple new colors that I just L*O*V*E and some that are just o.k....very close to old colors but maybe after I use them a bit I'll like them more.

Anyway, here we goooooo.....

Tim Holtz Distress Ink

New vs Old

Color Comparison

(going at this the old ROYGBIV style)

(New colors have a blue splat on them.)

Reds

New = Spun Sugar, Victorian Velvet & Barn Door

Old = Tattered Rose, Worn Lipstick, Fired Brick & Aged Mahogany

Orange

New = Rusty Hinge

Old = Dried Marigold & Spiced Marmalade

Yellow

New = Wild Honey

(I actually debated about adding this to the orange family as it is very close to orange but it fits well here as well. It's a nice compliment to the two original colors of yellow.)

Old = Scattered Straw & Mustard Seed

Green

New = Bundled Sage, Crushed Olive & Forest Moss

Old = Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint & Pine Needles

Blue

New = Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky & Chipped Sapphire

Old = Weathered Wood, Broken China & Faded Jeans

Neutral

New = Pumice Stone

So, what do you think of the new colors vs. the old?

Any new favorites?

I have 3 new favorites which I think are must haves....

Blue Sapphire

(OMG ~ simply awesome color of blue)

Crushed Olive

(isn't that such an interesting color...lots of potential)

and

Barn Door

(yes, believe it or not a red must have color ;) LOL!!)

The colors I wasn't sure about are....

Victorian Velvet, Tumbled Glass & Stormy Sky

They are all very similar to another color in the same group...I can just about make those colors using the Ink Blending Tool and more/less layers of ink.

Be sure to let us know what you think!

Have a great day!!

Ever Heard of Meadville PA???

Hmmmm - not sure where the video went but here's a link to it....

Comedian from Meadville PA

OMG ~ Got this from my uncle....Meadville PA is where my mom's family is from and it's so funny to hear this lady talk about it. My uncle and much of mom's family still lives there (or close by) so we go back every so often. I recognize lots of places they show in the video. To hear it described like this is just way too funny!
If she thinks that's bad she needs to come to Albion (Indiana) ~ we don't even have a dry cleaners...oh but we do have lots of cows - LOL!!!

Ink Stained Sketch 3-5-10

Hi Everyone!

I hope you've all had a wonderful Friday! I know I've had a pretty good day...got to play with some very special goodies today, finished up my laundry and the sun is shining!!

I wanted to chit chat a bit before I get to the sketch...

Distressed Tissue Roses ~

I'm glad everyone has for the most part excused my ink stained fingers in the video ;) LOL!! I never seem to keep them clean for very long at a time. I was actually looking forward to some nice photos in tutorials this coming week since my nails are finally looking really nice (all the same size, filed, etc..) but wouldn't you know it ~ I broke 3 today!!! Grrr...Oh well, it's good to know I don't have to be a nice clean hand model to do this ;)

Q - Someone asked if regular tissue paper would work for this ~ it sure will! I just have a huge stack of old patterns and rather than use my white tissue paper up it's just as easy for me to recycle what I have on hand.

Idea ~ I was going to post on the instructions that you could also stamp the tissue prior to twisting to give it a bit more distressed look. I have a nice script stamp that I like to use but really anything goes. Whatever tickles your fancy. This also can add nice contrasting color depending on your ink choices.

Mousse Me Technique ~

I'm so glad you all got a kick out of this technique! I figured some people might think it was the shaving cream technique I shared a while ago but nope...gotta keep it fresh and try some new things. That's why I love experimenting. You just never know what you're going to come up with!

Q - I was asked what the paper felt like (if there was residue) after I was finished. There is no sticky residue if you completely melt the mousse. It actually feels quite smooth and silky ~ almost like that cool silky paper from Club Scrap. Along these same lines depending on your mousse it may have a lingering scent as well. Just depends on what type of mousse you use.

ROFLOL @ Brians comment about the little girl with mousse & curlers in her hair ;) Yep, that's me ~ through and through!

Q - What type of re-inkers work with this? Well, I would think it would work with just about any re-inkers. I used Distress, Adirondack Dye & Nick Bantock re-inkers since that's what I own.

Ink Stained Card Sketch

03-05-10

and my card....

These are all Studio G stamps and Distress Inks!

Tomorrow I'm hoping to share some fun examples using the newest Distress Inks!!!

I have to tell you they are wonderful!

The card above used 3 new and 3 old ;)

Sunday of course I'll have more fun vintage postcards to share and next week I'm going to be working with the much requested glazes!

Hope you have a great weekend everyone!!

Mousse Me ~ A Fun Background Technique!

O.k...I was so uninspired today...nothing I wanted to do was working out. I *wanted* to share a fun little box to hold candy and such but I tried and tried to come up with a pattern that would work to no avail.

So I decided to give it up and experiment.

I thought and thought about it and finally decided to play with re-inkers and "stuff"...basically anything I could get my hands on.

I tried some things using Vaseline...had moderate success but still not a look I wanted to share just yet.

I tried some hand lotion ~ again not what I was looking for :(

I was getting discouraged until I pulled out my Mousse! Now, I don't know about you guys but I curl my hair every single day. I have since I was in high school and I think I will till I die. I just love curling my hair...call me weird but I really enjoy it. Anyway, I have pretty straight hair so I use mousse on it every day as well.

I figured why not give it a try....I did and it worked!

Here is what I came up with!

Mousse Me!

Background Ink Technique

Supplies:

Mousse of your choice

Re Inker

Heat Tool (a must)

Cardstock

Instructions:

1. Spread a thick layer of mousse over your piece of cardstock. It needs to be pretty substantial ~ like 1/4" (.635cm) thick or more. I tried thinner layers and you just don't get as nice color distribution as you do with thicker layers.

2. Add one drop of ink. You seriously don't need anymore than that. If you use too much your colors will turn black in the end. Trust me on this. I added 4 drops to one piece and ended up with black streaks everywhere.

3. Mix the ink into the mousse. I used a paint brush handle and my finger once (now I have a blue finger). Stir the ink until virtually all of the mousse is colored for an all over look. The areas of mousse that are still white or almost white will finish that way.

4. Begin to heat the inky mousse with a heat tool. You're going to melt all of the mousse but it's going to take a while - 1-3 minutes depending on how thick your layer is and the type of mousse you have.

This is about 1/2 way through the heat time. You can start to see the patterns emerging where the mousse has been melted away.

And this image is about 95% of the mousse melted. You can still see small peaks of mousse yet to be melted.

Here is the finished product!

You can actually see where the layers of mousse were thicker and left behind more colors. In addition to the layers of color you will also notice where the tiny mousse bubbles popped and left behind little round inky signatures! In person (didn't show up so well in the photos) you can also see where the color layers overlapped each other for a cool faux texture look.

These are a few more examples using different colors....

So there you go...

You'll never look at your Mousse in the same way ;)

I don't however recommend you try this in your hair....if my fingers are any indication LOL!!!

Distressed Tissue Roses

Here is the video on how to create the Distress Tissue Roses!
Enjoy :)

Tissue Paper Roses

As promised today I wanted to show you how I made the tissue roses from the Explore canvas I shared with you yesterday.

Tissue Roses

Supplies:

Distress Ink

Mini Mister (optional)

Non Stick Craft Mat

Clothing Pattern Tissue Paper

NOTE: There are two ways you can dye your tissue before you use it...one using a Mini Mister and the other using the Non Stick Craft Mat.


Instructions:



Dye the Tissue Paper

1. Tear the pattern paper into strips approx 2" wide.

(Mini Mister Instructions)



2. Add a drop or two of ink to the Mini Mister, fill with water and shake.

3. Place the strips of tissue paper on the Non Stick Craft Mat and mist with the ink/water mixture. Let these strips dry naturally or speed drying using a Heat Tool.

This is what your tissue will look like after it has dried. Notice how there are light and dark areas where the ink has pooled in some places. LOVE this finished look. Adds so much to the finished flower.

OR



(Craft Sheet & Ink Pad Instructions)


2. Pounce the Distress Ink Pad on your Non Stick Craft Mat several times.

3. Mist the ink with water.

4. Gently smoosh the tissue paper around in the ink/water mixture until the paper has been covered completely. Let the tissue dry naturally or speed drying using a Heat Tool.

Making The Rose



1. Fold one end of the tissue over and crease. This will give you a nice crisp beginning to your rose. It will really help define the center of the flower once you get going.

2. Begin wrapping the tissue paper around it's self creating a nice tight spiral as shown.

3. Once you have reached the end of the creased tissue gently fold the tissue in half. DO NOT crease at this point. You want the fold to be full and open. This will begin to add volume to the flower and create the petal look.

4. When you reach the end of the tissue, twist the bottom very tightly ~ this will secure your flower and keep it from unraveling.

5. Wrap each flower with green dyed tissue paper for the leaves. When you add these flowers to a project, add extra green tissue here and there to fill in the area as demonstrated on the Explore Canvas pictured at the beginning of the post.

and a closer look at the flowers....

Tomorrow if I can get everything going in the right direction I'm going to try a video showing how to make these flowers. It's so much easier to see them being made than it is to tell you. It's really quite easy to understand the folds/wrapping once you see it done.

It's finally sunny here in Indiana and a hint of Spring is in the air! I hope it's just as nice where you are.

Hope you're all having a wonderful day!!

Mystery Technique - Explore Canvas!

Well I hope you all had fun trying to guess what products were used on this project!

Before I tell you who the winner is I thought I'd share the complete project with you....

Explore Distressed Canvas

Supplies:

Distress Inks

Distress Stickles

Distress Re Inkers

Distress Crackle Paints

Adirondack Acrylic Dabber

Grunge Board or Grunge Paper

Archival Ink

Ink Blending Tool & Foam

Mini Mister

Ideaology Mini Mask

Pattern Tissue (from clothing patterns)

Ephemera (background paper on the canvas)

Large Vintage Brads

Aleene's Quick Grab Tacky Glue

Rubber Stamps

6x6 Canvas - Canvas Concepts

Instructions:

1. Add one drop of Broken China Distress Ink into a Mini Mister - fill with water. Shake well to mix. Apply a good coat over the entire canvas and paper ephemera. Let dry naturally or speed drying using heat tool.

2. Add one drop of Walnut Stain Distress Ink in Mini Mister - fill with water & shake well to mix.

3. Place mask where desired on the canvas. Mist with Walnut Stain. Remove mask & let dry.

4. Glue the paper ephemera on two corners using desired liquid glue.

5. Cut butterflies, swirls, swish (from butterfly), and label from Grunge Board or Paper. I free-hand cut my elements but I'm sure you can find loads of patterns on the net.

6. Paint the flourish, swish & label with Distress Crackle Paint and let dry.

7. Ink all parts of the butterflies with Distress Inks & let dry. Stamp the butterfly wings with various rubber stamps and Archival Ink.

8. Once the crackle paint has dried, stamp sentiment on the label.

9. Accent the flourish, swish & label with Distress Stickles.

10. Cover the Butterfly bodies with Black Soot Distress Stickles.

11. Assemble the butterflies by gluing bodies to wings.

12. Attach all of the Grunge Board pieces to the canvas.

That's where we'll stop for today.

Tomorrow I'll show you step by step how I created the tissue roses!

Now for the winner....

TrixR4Kids!!!

trixr4kids said...
Okay, here's my guessYou said to guess at least 3 products so here I go-Stamps (Obviously) :)-Distress/Adirondack ink-Alcohol inks-Grungepaper-Stickles (Original/Distressed) -Tissue paper/Mulberry Paper/Phonebook page?-Embossing inkHope I'm at least close. This is just so much fun. Thanks Roni
February 28, 2010 8:48 PM

Congratulations!!!!

Please send me your snail mail addy so I can get your goodies out in the mail to you!

Thanks for playing everyone!!