Hi there, Susanne here with two fun mixed media index cards using Distress Inks and Oxides for the background and some stamped rice paper for collage. To create the collage paper I used some of the…

12 easy techniques to use Distress Inks on craft or paper projects like art journal pages, cards and scrapbook lyouts

Hi everyone! My name is Peley Renata and I have prepared for you two very sweet mixed media tags inspired by the Sketchy Birds 1 stamp set from the Rubber Dance using Distress Oxide Sprays to creat…

Rubber stamping, mixed media, collage, scrapbooking, altered arts, jewelry, ink arts, cardmaking and more.

I'll show you how to create a handmade Halloween card using embossed images on embossable plastic so the blended ink background of your card shows through.

Hi there, Susanne here with a mixed media background tutorial using Distress Inks and our brand new Mix It Up 5 and Mix It Up 6 stamp sets! The new products are all 10% off until Sunday, May 5th!

Hi all! Kristina Werner here. :) Today I have a video and card for you featuring the use of Distress …

12 easy techniques to use Distress Inks on craft or paper projects like art journal pages, cards and scrapbook lyouts

Hi everyone! As I enjoyed this process so much, I am playing in my watercolor journal today again using Distress Inks with some of our stencils. This technique creates a lovely layered background t…

Hi there, Susanne here with a mixed media index card using our Mini Ink Dots stencil for the background together with one of our Sketchy Leaves stamps as my focal point. Today I am using the stenci…

Hi everyone! Susanne here! I am playing in my watercolor journal today using Distress Inks and Distress Oxides together with some of our new stencils. This technique creates a lovely layered backgr…

Hi there, Susanne here with some fun greeting cards using our brand new Looser Florals clear stamp set on a Distress Ink background, that is textured with our Marks 3 stencil and images from Mix It…

This cool sunset overlooking the ocean is easier to ink blend than it looks. Using distress ink and blending tools, you can achieve this effect too! Starting out with my favorite cardstock for blending, I

12 easy techniques to use Distress Inks on craft or paper projects like art journal pages, cards and scrapbook lyouts

Hi everyone! As I enjoyed this process so much, I am playing in my watercolor journal today again using Distress Inks and Distress Oxides with some of our stencils and stamps. This technique create…

This week Heather Tracy shows us 7 marvelous Distress Ink Techniques! Great for Card Making, Crafts and Mixed Media Art!

I have a tutorial for you over at Simon Says Stamp today! I hope you will pop over to see what I created using Grungepaper, Textured Surfaces and Sizzix dies. I think you will be surprised with an easy technique to change up a certain Sizzix die to make a great little book...and I'm not talking the Adventure Word Block Thinlit die you see here! Intrigued? Well pop on over to Simon Says Stamp to see! carry on, paula

Hi there, Susanne here with a mixed media index card using the lovely flower stamps from our Pencil Marks 6 set on a Distress Ink & Distress Oxide background. To frame the composition is made …

Hi there, Susanne here with some fun greeting cards using our brand new Looser Florals clear stamp set on a Distress Ink background, that is textured with our Marks 3 stencil and images from Mix It…

Hello! It's a cold, wet & rainy Monday here So I thought a picture tutorial would Brighten up the day:) Many of my Lovely readers have asked how I created this card from this post, using the Penny Black Promenade 25-001 STENCIL. Remembering the steps was a bit of a challenge for me because the initial Background was a practice piece from The OLCC Watercolor for Cardmakers back in May of this year. I don't throw card fronts away thinking they may be useful later. I picked up this front and added other stamping and sponging techniques to make up the finished card. Here are the steps: Sponge your color on a card front. Leave some white space:) Using the Penny Black Promenade 25-001 stencil and small applicator sponge the leaves, vines and blooms. Make sure the ink is heavily sponged! Ink up the BACK of the stencil...make sure it's the BACK--opposite side of what you just stenciled through. Spritz the stencil with water and place it on the card front just off to the side of your sponged blooms. ****Here is the hard part...Just let it sit and air dry!! The water will pool and move under the plastic stencil. Magic happens when it dries on its own. See the Magic? Splash gold color shine as you wish. Ink and stamp the Penny Black sentiment in black archival ink. Re-ink the sentiment in another distress ink color and stamp off to the left of previous sentiment. Yes, It looks blurry. Take a brush and clean water and gently brush over the sentiment to bring the shadow together with the black sentiment. Place a strip of washi tape on the fold of your card. Trim the front down and adhere to the card base. Add sequins and WALLLA!! Your card is finished! Here are the original and the second card side by side. Each lovely in their own way... yet similar in technique. Hope you enjoyed the tutorial and PLEASE ask if there is anything that is not clear. Give it a try...I'd LOVE to see what you come up with:) I'll be linking up to the SSS Wednesday Challenge : Use Watercolor. Thanks for stopping by! LauraJane:) You can also find me: Instagram @mammacooksalot YouTube: Mamma LauraJane.

Silhouette stamps are perfect for crafters who love to create backgrounds. The solid figures, usually printed or stamped in black, are a beautiful contrast against a bright star-filled sky, a riot of colourful blossoms, or whatever background captures your imagination. Today I want to share a technique for creating an aurora using water-based inks and a blending brush. I'm going to start by working the colour from the bottom to the top, which means I'll need to turn my cardstock 180 degrees to make it easier to add the colour. (Please forgive my messy scrap paper... I hope it's not too distracting as we progress through the tutorial.) I'm dragging light blue ink (Tumbled Glass) from the edge of the cardstock to the top. For this effect, we don't want to over-blend too much... we're after a streaky look. I'm adding a darker blue (Broken China) over the light blue in several places, again dragging from the edge of the cardstock to the top. Now spin the cardstock all the way around and work from the top down. You want to add ink right across the top of the cardstock, taking care not to cover all the lighter blue at the bottom. I'm introducing a touch of green now with a darker ink (Evergreen Bough). I'll deepen the darker blue, keeping most of the pigment at the top of the cardstock. My final colour is a dark blue (Faded Jeans), which will be even darker when it's applied over the previous layers. Keep most of the colour at the top of the cardstock so it looks like the aurora is rising up from the ground or horizon line. The last step is to add some stars with a white gel pen. You could flick white paint if you prefer, but I tend to go a little overboard with my flicking and end up with a definite paint spatter... hence the gel pen! My background is ready to use. Check back in a couple of days to see where it ends up. Stamps:

Hi everybody! I’m sharing an art journal tutorial today using one of my favourite techniques to create a background. I am using stencils together with Distress Inks. By layering up different …

This week Heather Tracy shows us 7 marvelous Distress Ink Techniques! Great for Card Making, Crafts and Mixed Media Art!

Hi everybody! I’m sharing an art journal tutorial today using one of my favourite techniques to create a background. I am using stencils together with Distress Inks and Distress Oxides. By la…

Hi there! Susanne here and today I have some exciting news. We have two new clear stamp sets in the shop! One is the clear version of our Carved Collection 3 and the other is a brand new stamp set …

12 easy techniques to use Distress Inks on craft or paper projects like art journal pages, cards and scrapbook lyouts

Hello all and lovely to have you drop in here at A Vintage Journey. It's Astrid here and as it's Monday you may know, every second Monday one of the creative guides shares a project, technique or inspiration piece. So today it is my turn again and as I was thinking about what to write for what I have done, I came to the conclusion that Destination Inspiration is perhaps not quite the right title on this occasion, maybe it should be Destination Exploration, for when I started I had no idea where I would land up, as really I was just experimenting.... But I hope that what I am about to share, may give you some inspiration along the way too to explore and discover.... So I decided to play with the new Tim Holtz Distress Sprays and try them out on as many different substrates and texture pastes as I could. I created a series of 9 different tags, I will number them, show you the different effects and give you a quick view of the tags after I had completed them. The full details of some of the finished tags I will show on my own blog in the days to come, for otherwise this post would get far too long. If you are planning to play with the sprays, I highly recommend to get a large cheap sketch pad and lay it on top of your work surface. It will soak up all the excess spray, and will give you amazing results that can be used for die cutting or journaling or what ever you please. So here goes: Tag 1 Sprays on a plain manila tag: Colours used: Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, Walnut stain. Adding some stenciling with Walnut Stain Spray and stamping. The completed tag. Tag 2 Sprays on a Black tag: This is the result of a first spraying, I used two of the metallics, Tarnished Brass and Antique Bronze and spritzt with lots of water. As I was not too excited with the result, I gave it a second spraying: This time I added Picket Fence and Peacock Feathers. Because the Picket Fence is quite opaque, you get a wonderful patina effect when mixed with the metallics and the Peacock Feathers. And here is the finished tag. The leaf was cut from the mop up excess on the pad I keep underneath, as explained above. I also added some Remnant Rubs and was interested to note that they are easy to apply onto the sprayed tag, unlike an inked pad, for as Tim has pointed out, the resins in the inks, stop the rubs adhering, therefore it is better to use them before inking, as I have found out to my cost on many occasions.. but on the sprays they work just fine! Tag 3 Using Wendy Vecchi Crackle Paste through a Layering Stencil: It's a good idea to choose a stencil with big opening so the cracks are more visible After spraying with Tea Dye, Iced Spruce, Peeled Paint and Evergreen Bow. As you can see the crackle paste absorbs the sprays pretty well. The finished tag. Like I said, I will post full details of the finished tags on my blog in days to come. Tag 4 Plain Manila Tag run through an embossing folder for texture: After spraying with Brushed Pewter and Black Soot: Love how the Brushed Pewter mixed with the Black Soot almost gives a sort of bluey effect. If I did this again though, I would colour the tag first, dry it and only then run it through an embossing folder, as quite a bit of texture gets lost in the spraying process, because it is all quite wet of course. Love though how the black Soot puddles in some of the indented areas. Here is the finished tag: Again details to follow in days to come, but just to mention, the large snowflake was another embossed piece that I simply cut out. Tag 5 This one I call my mixed media tag: Plain Manila tag, Gesso scraped over with a palette knife After spraying with Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers, Broken China and Faded Jeans. I found that though the colour appears to hold quite well on top of the gesso, a baby wipe, will immediately wipe it off and it tends to pool in certain areas. I really wanted a darker blue, but alas there is no Chipped Sapphire spray yet, so I decided to make my own by mixing a few drops of re-inker in a spritzer bottle with some water. It worked just fine and I am not sure really whether there is much difference between that and the ready sprays. Here is the tag after adding strips of tissue wrap, more stencilling with paste and paint, like I said, mixed media, and of course great fun to do. And here finally the finished tag: Well, just over half way there, - hope you are still with me.... Tag 6 Using Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste through a Layering Stencil After Spraying with Rusty Hinge, Barn Door, Fired Brick and Walnut Stain: The paste holds the darker colours better than the lighter ones. And here is how I finished this tag: Tag 7 Using Wendi Vecchi Clear embossing Paste through a layering stencil: After Spraying with Brushed Pewter, Iced Spruce and a little Picket Fence and Black Soot: I did this in two goes, drying once in between. Love the icy snowy effect of this colour combo. And here the finished tag: Tag 8 Using Ranger Embossing Paste through a Layering Stencil: After spraying with Tattered Rose, Tea Dye and Walnut Stain: The Ranger Paste is slightly thicker than the Wendy Vecchi paste which is produced by Dreamweaver. I did not feel though that it holds the colour any better than Wendy's paste, but again it holds the darker colours quite well. The finished tag. Here I used the sprays also on some emboss resist paper on the ticket behind the flowers. As you can see, it absorbs the sprays really well. And now finally Tag 9 Using Wendy Vecchi Gold Embossing paste through a layering stencil: After spraying with Faded Jeans, Dusty Concord, Salty Ocean and Tarnished Brass: Not surprisingly really, the gold paste completely resists the sprays, but that of course can be a good thing. Below is my final finished tag. So that is the end of my exploration into the possibilities of the sprays in combination with various embossing pastes. I was lucky in that it was my birthday this month, so I got the full set of sprays and I have to say I have loved playing with them. I love the subtlety of their colours and the way they mix and pool as only Distress Ink products will do. If you are thinking of getting the sprays, but don't want to splash out on the full set, I highly recommend you at least get the metallics and the Picket Fence, they give brilliant results mixed with just about any other colour. Thank you so much for visiting and sticking with it and I hope you will give these sprays a try!

I hope you enjoyed seeing the new Expressions In Ink products and the fun card I shared on Wednesday. Today I'm sharing some super simple cards that I made with four of the patterned papers in

We'll teach you how to use Distress Oxide inks to create incredible crafts! Journey into paper crafting with Distress Oxide Inks!

Hello my wonderful friends! It's time for another Unity hop! (and sale!) If you are arriving here from Kary's blog y...

12 easy techniques to use Distress Inks on craft or paper projects like art journal pages, cards and scrapbook lyouts

Are you ready for a brand new color for your collection of Distress Ink pads? Time Holtz has done it again and created this fabulous Uncharted Mariner for Ranger Ink and you are going to absolutely love it! This Uncharted Mariner Distress ink pad is water-based, acid-free, nontoxic, and fade-resistant ink. This Uncharted Mariner Distress Ink will create an aged look on fibers, photos, papers, and more. You will love creating beautiful projects with this Uncharted Mariner Distress Ink. This ink can be used for cards, scrapbook pages, tags, journal and planner pages, and other paper crafting and mixed media projects. There is a reinker available for this Distress Ink Pad (sold separately).  This Distress Ink pad is made in the USA.

Hi everyone! I’m sharing a spread in my watercolor journal today, playing with collage, Brusho powders, stamps and some mark making. I am creating botanical collage elements with Brushos and …

12 easy techniques to use Distress Inks on craft or paper projects like art journal pages, cards and scrapbook lyouts