Category: Distress Inks

Tuesday with Wendy, July 16th

7/20/2019

The cards from the last Tuesday with Wendy class were so WONDERFUL!!!!

The first card that Wendy designed was inspired from this stamp from Hero Arts, Border Messages as well as this stencil from The Crafter's Workshop, Script Dots

To make the card:

Start out with 2 colors of Colorburst, Wendy chose a purple and a blue. Squirt out a FEW PARTICLES onto your silicone craft mat. Spritz the particles with water and then smoosh a small piece of white watercolor paper (If your watercolor paper has a torn/deckled edge, that's even better!!) onto the surface of the silicone craft mat. This will pick up the color from the mat onto your watercolor paper. Heat-set the colors with a heat-gun so the paper is COMPLETELY dry.
Next, put on some gloves! Put some fresh bleach into a mini-mister. Place your Stencil on top of the paper you just decorated with Colorburst. Now spritz your Bleach Mini-Mister on top of the stencil/paper. When you do this, you will SLOWLY see the circles appear and they will be a slightly lighter color than the rest of the colorized paper. **The reason why this works: The pigment of the Colorburst actually DISAPPEARS when bleach is applied to it, removing the colorburst from the paper**
Now, stamp the sentiment, "Thank you" with Versafine Clair, Nocturne ink onto white card stock. Rip the paper above and below the sentiment so it creates a rough edge. Then take a purple ink pad (Wendy used the Distress Ink Wilted Violet) and rub the ink pad along the ripped edge of the paper, giving the sentiment a nice, vibrant border above and below.
Adhere your sentiment to the front of your colorized background using double-sided tape or Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive. Mount this onto a piece of black paper and mount it all onto a piece of light blue card stock as your card base.

I love how vibrant this card is!! What a fun and creative idea!!

The next card that Wendy created was inspired from this embossing folder from Cuttlebug, Mary Ann Embossing Folder as well as this die-cut from Memory Box, Scribble Frond Background

To make the card:

Start out with a piece of the Maid 'O Metal Goldtone decorator foil. Cut foil in half so you can cut your die-cut leaf frond out of the gold decorator foil. Now take ALL 3 PIECES of the decorator foil and put them in your embossing folder and run it through your Home Die-cut Machine. This will texturize the goldtone foil as well as the foil leaf.
Then, use a piece of handmade textured paper and a piece of gold/cream ribbon and layer the pieces to create a fun design on your ivory card base.
Place the leaf-frond on the front of the card and use Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive to adhere the leaf design to the front of the card.

I love how elegant this card is... and the tone-on-tone with the metallics looks SO BEAUTIFUL!!!

The last card that Wendy created was inspired from 2 Fred Mullett designs.. Fish Skin and Bluegill

To make the card:

Start with a piece of white card stock. Use Prismacolor colored pencils to run some color HORIZONTALLY across the card. Wendy chose greens, yellows, and blues. Then, once you have put some color down, take some Gamsol (mineral spirits) onto a piece of paper towel and using your finger, rub the paper towel across the colored pencil HORIZONTALLY on the card stock. When you apply the Gamsol to the color, the colors blend together and become very vibrant!!
Next, stamp your fish stamp (the Bluegill fish) a couple times on top of the Prismacolor Pencil background. **CREATE A MASK by stamping your fish out onto a piece of copy paper, fussy-cut the fish image out and place it ON TOP of the fish you just stamped. You will need to create 2 fish masks so you can cover up both of the fish you stamped out**
Once you have laid your fish masks in place, stamp your Fish Skin stamp on TOP of the fish. What happens is the masks block-off the fish stamps you stamped out earlier. When you remove the masks, you are left with the Fish Skin stamp as the background and the fish images as the forefront.
Apply a coat of Detail Clear embossing powder to your stamped images and heat-set it with a heat gun.
Once you have heat-set your image, take a piece of fine mesh ribbon (Wendy chose a piece of light green mesh ribbon) and used double-sided tape on the FRONT of the card to hold the mesh in place. Wendy also put some tape on the backside of the image to make the ribbon wrap around and adhere to the back as well.
Then take your Versamark ink pad (the clear ink pad for embossing) and press it across the entire front of the card, including across the mesh ribbon. Then cover the entire front of the card with a layer of Detail Clear embossing powder. Heat-set the image with a heat-gun.
Finally, mount the image onto a piece of dark green card stock and then onto a light green card base.

I LOVE the vibrancy of this card!!!! And the mesh inclusion is just SO FUN!

Thank you to EVERYONE who attended the last class... we had a whopping 49 students attend!!!

If you have any questions about the cards or techniques, feel free to give us a call at the store 360-647-9663 or send us an email at stampadoodle@gmail.com

Background Ideas with Stamps and Stencils

6/28/2019

Last week for Demo, Bekah was the demonstrator and she showed us some AMAZING and clever ideas for using stamps and stencils to create background designs.

Background designs are great for doing card making, collage art, or just for fun!!

Check out some of these great ideas!!

Creating background designs for card making is nice because you can use stencils AND stamps to create a themed-background.

Check out here where Bekah used this Knitting Stamp set from Hero Arts and this swirl stencil together... I love the collage-style background!! It works PERFECTLY with her focal point image on the front of the card!!

You can EASILY create this look!!

Start by laying down a stencil on your card stock. Then use your Large Picket Fence Blending Brushes to apply a soft layer of Distress Inks. Bekah brushed on Distress Inks Wilted Violet, Chipped Sapphire, and Blueprint Sketch.
Next, arrange some clear stamps on an acrylic block so they look good together. Then, using the SAME COLORS OF INK from the background design, stamp your image across your stenciled background (stamp with purple ink on the purple section of the background and stamp with blue ink on the blue part of the background). When Bekah did this, she liked to turn her stamp 90 degrees so she got a fun repeating design across the page.
When you are done stamping you will see the amazing design you have created!!

Look what a fun design this is!!!

You can also create a background using a word/sentiment set!

Bekah used this Whittle Sentiment word set from Poppy. She arranged several of the words on an acrylic block and stamped it on her piece of paper with Distress Ink, Pumice Stone
THEN she went back in with a leaf-patterned stencil and a Large Picket Fence Blending and brushed on a very soft layer of Peeled Paint Distress Ink
Bekah then TURNED the same stencil by 90 degrees and brushed on a soft layer of Pumice Stone Distress Ink.

Ok, Check out the AMAZING idea creating your VERY OWN TURNABOUT STAMP!!!!!

Cut out a piece of 6" x 6" paper
Use your Tim Holtz Platform. Lift up the platform and lay your 6" x 6" paper down ,
Arrange your clear stamps ON THE PIECE OF PAPER to fill a space that fills 1/4 of the 6" x 6" piece of paper (so just a 3 x 3 section of the paper), Just like the picture below:

Now press your Stamp Platform closed so it picks up the stamps. Ink the stamps and STAMP THE IMAGE. You should see it stamped down like the picture below:

Now, lift up the Stamp Platform and turn your paper by 90 degrees
Now, peel off a few of the stamps and lay them down MATCHING THEM UP with the stamped image you just stamped. Once you have laid down a few stamps, press the Stamp Platform down and PICK UP the stamps you just laid down.

Now, lift up the Stamp platform and turn your paper 90 degrees AGAIN. Again, peel off (from that original block of stamps) a few of the stamps and stick them down onto the stamped image. Press the Stamp Platform down and pick up the stamps you just laid down.

Lift up the Stamp Platform AGAIN and once again turn your paper 90 degrees. Peel off a few more of the images (from that original block of stamps!) and lay them down onto the stamped image. For the last time, lay down the Stamp Platform and pick up those stamps

You should now have stamps going across your Stamp Platform in a way that appears hap-hazard. And when you ink-up the image, and stamp it, you will get something like this the first time:

When you turn your PAPER 90 degrees, and ink-up the stamps with a DIFFERENT COLOR INK, you'll see that the images ALMOST overlap, but instead the images are snug-up against each other!

Just LOOK HOW STUNNING this is when the images are stamped 4 times with 4 different colors of ink!!!

With that concept, there are SO MANY WAYS to create a Turnabout Stamp!! **Keep in mind if you use several different brands of polymer stamps that they may have different thicknesses, so be aware of that!!*

If you want some more instruction on how to make your OWN TURNABOUT STAMP, stop by the store!! We would love to help!!

See you soon!
360-647-9663

Doodle Ideas and MORE!

6/8/2019

This last week for Demo, we had to have a *quick* last minute change due to someone feeling under the weather... so it was Wendy's turn to come up with an idea on the fly!!

Check out these ideas!!

I love what Wendy creates when she is in her Element!!!

So this first idea is really clever... Wendy wanted to create a fun art piece. She started with the 140 lb. Cold Press Watercolor Paper

Wendy took a large kitchen platter and traced a circle onto her piece of watercolor paper.

THEN Wendy went online and found a public domain image of a Raven and printed it off A FEW TIMES.

Wendy cut out the Raven first...

I love this idea using the ORIGINAL SHAPES as her stencils so she new how to create the bird shape!
When you cut out the RAVEN ONLY you end up with a basic stencil! (for a sturdier stencil, you can print your image onto card stock). Wendy TRACED THE RAVEN so she got the basic bird shape in the middle of her circle.
Next, Wendy cut out a wing of the Raven, laid it down in the middle of her Raven tracing, and traced the wing
Then, Wendy cut out the other wing shapes, laid them down, and traced them. She did the same with the beak.
Wendy ended up with a line drawing of the bird shape... THEN she filled the shape with doodles!!!
Wendy used one of her FAVORITE doodle pens, the Black Glaze Pen

I love how she created her own branch and filled the space with some "woodgrain" shapes and then filled the other negative spaces with small dots, geometric shapes, swirls, and MORE!!

Just look at the detail!! What a FUN concept!!

The other idea that Wendy had was making an Interactive Card in a NEW WAY

Wendy started out by stamping her Stampscapes Pine Tree Stamp along the bottom edge of her card. She created the background using her Picket Fence Blending Brushes and circle for masking off the moon. Wendy likes to use Distress Inks for creating this effect because the colors blend BEAUTIFULLY together.

To glaze the image, Wendy used Versamark Ink and Detail Clear embossing powder.

Wendy taught the "glazing" technique from a past Tuesday with Wendy class and you can find the step-by-step up tutorial in this previous blog post: https://www.stampadoodle.com/stampadoodle-blog/tuesday-with-wendy-may-21st

Wendy created a gate-fold card and placed the glazed piece at the TOP of the card so that when you lift up the flap you see a gate fold hidden underneath!!

I love how Wendy used these Tree Line die-cuts from Memory Box and CUT THEM IN HALF so that half of the tree lines are on the left gate fold and half of them are on the right gate fold.

She arranged the layers so that the trees on the RIGHT overlap the trees on the left.

On the inside of the card she placed this Oval Tree Frame that I love SO MUCH!! Perfect place for writing a sentiment!!

What a fun card idea!! (And a great card for men! Hunting, camping, fishing.. the themes are endless!!)

Stop by and see us for FREE Wednesday Demo!! It is offered every Wednesday from Noon to 1pm here at the store in the Atrium.

You don't need to sign up for Demo, you can just stop by and learn something new!!!

See you soon!

360-647-9663

Tuesday with Wendy, June 4th

6/7/2019

I love how fun the cards are from this last week of Tuesday with Wendy card making class!!!

This first card was inspired by the Nesting Circles and Nesting Rounded Rectangles die-cuts from Hero Arts!!

To make the card:

Start out with a piece of thick Vellum. WEAR GLOVES while you colorize your piece of Vellum with Alcohol inks. To do this, pick up a small piece of wool (for Alcohol Inks) and apply a little bit of Alcohol Blending Solution to the wool. THEN apply a couple drops of 2 colors of Alcohol Ink onto the wool (Wendy chose 2 colors from Ranger, Turquoise and Limeade). Smoosh the piece of wool onto the surface of the vellum until the vellum is covered in color!
Now use your home die-cut machine to cut a piece of black card stock with one of the larger Rounded Rectangle die cuts
Now, take the piece of black card stock that you just cut with the die-cut machine and cut out a series of circles. Wendy used the Nesting Circle Infinity Dies because you can get SO MANY SIZES of circles!! When you overlay the piece of card stock (that has the circles cut out of it) on top of the Alcohol Inked Vellum, you get the color peeking through.
On each of the circles, press them into on of 2 Distress Oxide ink pads (the Distress Oxide inks show up on black paper). Wendy chose the Distress Oxide ink colors Twisted Citrone and Peacock Feathers
Now, it's time to put the card together!! Start with a teal-colored card base. Next, adhere the BLACK CARD STOCK TO THE VELLUM (yes the piece of black card stock with the circles cut out of it). That way you can apply the adhesive onto the vellum in the areas that are covered up by the black card stock. Wendy used the Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive to adhere the Vellum to a piece of white card stock. Wendy used a pair of scissors to trim the piece of white card stock to be the same size as the vellum. Then Wendy used double-sided tape to adhere the layered pieces to the front of her card base.
Finally, layer the circles on the front of the card arranging them in a fun way! Wendy used pop dots for dimension and added in gems for an extra *bling* element!!

I love how fun and funky this card is!! Of course, the added Gems are always fun for adding focal points!

The next card that Wendy created was inspired from this *Wonderful* stamp set from Altenew, Everlasting Happiness

To make the card:

Start out with a piece of black card stock. Using your Tim Holtz stamp platform, stamp the largest floral circle onto the front of the card base using Versafine Clair, Nocturne
Then, use Prismacolor Pencils to color the florals, leaves and sprigs
Next, put your piece of black card stock back into the Tim Holtz stamp platform and stamp down the largest floral circle AGAIN and it should land in the same spot. Then use Detail Black embossing powder across the entire image. Heat set the image
Then, stamp the the sentiment, Celebrate Life, onto a strip of white card stock. Using a fine line black pen (such as a Le Pen) and a ruler, add a thin line above and below the sentiment to add a focal point.
Wrap the strip of white paper around the front of the black paper and use double-sided tape to adhere it to the back of the card stock. Mount this onto a piece of aqua-colored card stock and adhere it all to the front of a purple card stock base

Just LOOK HOW STUNNING this card is!!! I love the pop of color!!

The last card that Wendy created was ALSO inspired by the Altenew stamp set, Everlasting Happiness

To make the card:

Start out with a half-sheet of yellow card stock. Score the paper at 2 1/8" from the left AND 2 1/8" from the right to create a gate-fold card.
Use your home die-cut machine to cut out 2 ivory circle shapes. Also cut out a pink polka dot circle and a purple polka dot circle of the same size. Stamp the small floral circle onto each of the ivory card stock circles. Inside the circles, stamp a sentiment. Wendy stamped "Love Grows Here" and "Dream" inside each of the circles with the same color of stamp ink, Versafine Clair ink, Medieval Blue
On the LEFT gate fold, AT THE TOP, adhere the purple polka dot circle and one of the floral circles, making sure to make them off-set
On the RIGHT gate fold, AT THE BOTTOM, adhere the pink polka dot circle and the other floral circle, again making sure they are off-set.
On another piece of ivory card stock, stamp JUST THE FLOWERS part of one of the small floral circles. Wendy did this by using an acrylic block and lining up the flowers on the top, left, and right side. Then, Wendy pasted the card stock with the florals on the INSIDE of the gate fold.
To finish off the card, Wendy took a piece of decorative floral paper and scored it at the top so that it folds over the top to the back just slightly (about a 1/4" overlap). The piece will fold over the front.
The last thing she did was fold the card closed and made a 12" strip with yellow card stock, about an inch wide, and adhered it with double-sided tape. Wendy tied a sheer coral-colored ribbon around the yellow strip and tied a knot on the front.

I love how bright and summery this card is!!

I love how fun it is to interact with all the flaps and openings!

Join us for the NEXT Tuesday with Wendy card making class!! It will be offered on June 18th.

PLEASE CALL to sign up!! 360-647-9663

See you soon!!

Aqua Shimmer Pen, Painting Ideas

5/31/2019

What is the Aqua Shimmer Pen?!?

Aqua Shimmer Pens are made by Tonic/Nuvo. They are shimmery brush pens with a VERY FINE iridescent glitter that runs through it. The glitter is SO FINE in the pen it is hardly seen... but as you catch the light you can REALLY SEE the shimmer come to life!!!

We carry the Aqua Shimmer Pens in 2 colors... Glitter Gloss (which lands more "silver" in color) and Midas Touch (which has a more "gold" tint to it)

For Demo this week, we talked about painting with the Aqua Shimmer Pens!!

Check out these fun ideas!!!

One of the EASIEST ways to paint with the Aqua Shimmer Pen is to use Color Burst!!

In an empty watercolor palette, add in a few particles of Color Burst. I decided to use these warm tones for coloring my flowers!!

Because the Aqua Shimmer Pens are wet on the tip, you can easily pick up the Color Burst Powder and start watercoloring!!

When I watercolor with the Aqua Shimmer Pens, I always start where in the "shadow" might be... in the corners or edges of the flowers...

To do a color-wash, I squeeze out the shimmer from the pen into the palette so it thins the Color Burst. Then I take my Aqua Shimmer Pen and paint with the diluted color to fill in larger areas!

I LOVE this card!! This stamp set, Everlasting Happiness is from Altenew and the images are just STUNNING when watercolored with the vibrant Color Burst!!

I also LOVED the idea of watercoloring with the Distress Oxide Spray Inks!! To do this, just spritz some color into your blank watercolor palette.. Then use your Aqua Shimmer Pen to watercolor like usual!!

Just look how VIBRANT these colors are!!

I like to stamp and heat-emboss my images with the Ivory Embossing Powder from Stampendous.. When you watercolor over the white embossing the images COME TO LIFE!! When I was done watercoloring my image, I still had some ink on the tip of my brush and I flicked the brush over the paper and added a SHIMMERY SPLATTER across the entire page!!

I used an X-acto knife to cut out the middle of the card so I could add in my own sentiment!!

One of my favorite ways to watercolor with the Aqua Shimmer Pen is to color DIRECTLY from the watercolor palette.. HOWEVER if you do this keep in mind that your water colors will be SHIMMERY FOREVER!! (I have dedicated one of my watercolor palettes to be a "shimmery" one because I love this effect so much!)

I always pick up the color and then start with the underside of the image so the darkest colors are the shadowed areas!

When I was all done painting the strawberries I squeezed out some shimmer so I could do a color-wash on the background.

Just LOOK HOW SHIMMERY the paper is!!!

This Three Strawberry stamp from Impression Obsession is PERFECT for Summertime!!!

Did you know you can also watercolor with the Distress Oxide Inks?!?!

To do this, just smoosh the inks onto a piece of Acetate (or a craft mat) and then watercolor as usual!!

You can always squeeze out some of the shimmer to thin the inks to get dark and light tones

I love this Vulture stamp colored with Distress Oxide inks Wild Honey and Faded Jeans

I LOVE Distress Oxide Inks because they are SO VIBRANT on the white card stock!!

This swan stamp is such a beautiful image!!!

I like to do the mirror/reflection stamping technique for creating the 2 swans looking at each other... you can view that technique by viewing one of our past blogs!! https://www.stampadoodle.com/stampadoodle-blog/reflections

Now for using Distress Inks (yes, the standard ones!!)

Did you know that if you stamp with Distress Inks onto Kromekote Paper that the image becomes resistant to water?!?! The reason is because the surface is "permeable" meaning the image falls BELOW the glossy finish.

This is great because you can stamp an image.. LET IT DRY... then smoosh inks onto Acetate (or a craft mat) and watercolor the image you just stamped. What happens is the ink you stamped in IS PERMANENT and won't move!!

So you can stamp and watercolor with the SAME INK.

I also love watercoloring with Tombow Markers.... this is my personal favorite way for watercoloring!!!

Color onto a piece of Acetate (or a craft mat) and spritz a little bit of water. Then, watercolor like usual!!

I always start my watercolors where the shadows might be (for example, the underside of the swan) and that is where the ink will be darkest.

Once again, I did a color-wash here with the Tombow Markers and the Aqua Shimmer Pen and it is SO SHIMMERY!!!! I just love the effect!!

You can also PAINT ITEMS with Acrylic Paint!! I like to squeeze out a *tiny bit* of Acrylic Paint onto my craft mat and then paint with my Aqua Shimmer Pen.

Below, check out how I painted one of these Wood Veneer Flying Keys with a little bit of Black Acyrlic Paint and the Aqua Shimmer Pen... the Flying Key is now SO GLITTERY!!!