Use the link above to quickly cut out the extra images I created for the CWH cards. In my set I used four 1/2 sheets of cardstock. One each of Blue Belle, Peach, Fern & White Daisy.
There will be a series of videos showing how I assembled the cards and used the extra images. Hope you enjoy!
I have long admired those paper artists that are able to pull off mixed media or the grunge look and create something incredible. I struggle to put layer upon layer and hide most of what I did previously and I think because of that I miss the mark with these art forms.
There are ladies that create amazing cards with ink blended backgrounds and I have tried and I have been able to teach others, but my own work did not soar as others did. All that being said, I think Distress Oxides just might enable me to do some creating of my own!
Learning new techniques is a passion of mine and I have been told I dive into with scientific methods. So of course the first thing I did before even opening one of the distress oxide ink pads was to do some research. I watched youTube videos, read what Tim Holtz had to say about the ink and talked to my oldest child who is an artist.
Knowledge in hand, I dug out some paper, tools and a few different mediums to learn how this hybrid die and pigment ink, that reacts with water, would act with different preparations of papers.
I had received a nice set of watercolors for Christmas along with a Watercolor Ground. So I took the ground, borrowed a jar of Gesso from my in house artist and under the recommendation of my eldest grabbed a bottle of basic white acrylic paint. Taking these three mediums, I went about applying a thin layer to 3 different types of white cardstock. The YouTube video goes into more details.
I learned a lot. First, the watercolor ground prepares cardstock to be able to withstand water-coloring and allow more playing with the colors before the paper starts to pill and gives a nice texture to the regular cardstock. It does not however create a good environment for trying to achieve smooth ink blending as the texture works against that. The Gesso and the Acrylic paint however both made blending the inks easier and I felt like if I can do it, anyone can. Plain cardstock wasn’t as easy to get a seamless blend, but I did manage it.
Now that I had played with the distress oxides ink, it was time to see what water did to it, and then find ways to apply the water in different patterns. The card at the very top of this post is my favorite. I sprayed the back of a stencil and pressed it on the inked cardstock. You can see the details and I really like it. I feel it could be a gateway to adding more textures and layers.
I even got out my crimper to add some texture behind the feature imagine. If I would have thought of it, I should have ripped the crimped cardstock to really kick it up a notch! Maybe next time.
Here’s another card I did. I pulled matting cardstock and the stripe of yellow for the background along with the black cardstock scrap to balance the stamping of the flowers. This is one of the samples that was sprayed with water and created all the faded water marks.
I’m looking forward to creating more inked backgrounds and finding new color combination. What is your favorite thing to do with distress oxides? I would love to try another new technique!
Have you received your free copy yet? Any order you make with CTMH will include the new core catalog & and September/October idea book. But in the meantime, here are some of the great things you may find once you get your book!
New Color of the Year! Blue Belle
Craft With Heart Cards Sept – Dec 2020
The subscriptions are great. You can make them just as they are designed, or modify them to be exactly what you need!
September Craft with Heart – ScrapbookOctober Craft with Heart – ScrapbookNovember Craft with Heart – ScrapbookDecember Craft with Heart – Scrapbook
How great would it be to have a year in review all done before the summer’s end? Two double-page layouts arrive at your house. Add some adhesive and photos and you have a complete album!
New ink colors!
Before I wish you happy crafting. I have to share one more new product and a card I made when I was able to play with them!
I would not win any awards with the layouts that I managed to do this month, but they definitely accomplished my goal. I had not done any scrapbooking with photos for our family albums in close to 2 years. It is my goal, as we are able to unpack our stuff out of storage, to make photo organizing and scrapbooking a priority.
I came across one small packet of photos that I could scrapbook. After looking up the dates the photos were taken, I looked through the small portion of the papers I had access to, and found some that worked great!
Normally I pick my photos, chose my papers, find a layout or inspiration item to use to create the double layout, and go from there. This time it all started well, but then I went backwards. . . .
So, where may you ask did I go backward? This is a pretty straight forward, average layout in my book. Well, if you watch the Youtube video of my process of creating this, I picked my photos, chose my papers, then started to create embellishments, normally the last step. I wonder if I had done the paper cutting and put the layout together first, if I would have added more embellishments at the end. As I remember doing it, I think I was out of the embellishments I had created and was just happy to have completed some scrapbooking.
The layout is “shinier” in person as if you look closely you can see a trail of tiny stars from the upper left trailing through both pages to the lower right, and I used glitter paper as matting behind two of the photos.
Also, again, it’s hard to see in the above photos, but I did create photo hinges and anytime a page is interactive I think that’s a great thing!
If you want to learn more about creating photo hinges, check out the youtube video. The first hinge explanation happens around the 9-minute mark on the video.
With all the noise and activity in the house from the workers, I’ve been struggling to focus and be creative. I’ve dabbled with this and forced myself to glue flowers to the front of cards, but wasn’t feeling it until yesterday.
Distress Oxides, Stencil & A Million Little Things (D1925)
I had tried learning more about the distress oxides ink and made some little samples on different papers with different products. Today when sleep eluded me, I decided I was going to do SOMETHING with them. a quick glance on pinterest and I had some inspiration.
This is the card that inspired mine.
My craft desk has been strewn with pieces parts of of various projects, current and from years ago. I had decided I wanted to use some things up in the employ of cards for happy mail.
At first I was distracted by interruptions, the thoughts in my head and the colors of the flowers on my desk. I gave myself permission to discard any piece that was blocking me from creating. It’s funny. I removed dark flowers and leaves that had been punched from orange cardstock. Once those were no longer in my way, I was able to create. . . .
Most of these pieces were leftovers from our August Club Night cards. I added some silver and white pieces and the blockade gave way and I was able to create!
If you have the Art Philosophy Image Set, you should be able to cut out your own card pieces. Here is the link.
Also there is a video for some of the techniques used in creating it here.
There are still more pieces on my craft table. I’m going to see what I can do with them! Happy Crafting!
