Technique – ink blending

Featuring ink blending

Shimmer and snow

Hi everyone!

It’s been a long busy week with no time for crafting. Hoping to carve out some time to get crafty today… but first I want to share my next DT card for Crafts-U-Love!

I was delighted to receive a couple of die sets from the John Next Door Christmas collection this month. Aren’t they pretty? I couldn’t wait to use them.

Apologies in advance for the quality of some of my process photos in this post. I was having a few lighting problems…

I decided I’d make a shaker card and showcase the dies against a blended distress ink background… of course once I sat down at my craft table, the card evolved a bit differently…

When I sat down, I spotted a couple of bottles of Nuvo Shimmer Powder that I bought a few weeks ago and still hadn’t tried, so I decided to use them to make a background rather than my distress inks.

Step 1 – prepare the surface 

As I knew I’d be adding a TON of water and heat drying the background, I decided to use watercolour paper and taped it to a wooden chopping board I use when I create inky backgrounds before ‘painting’ a coat of water.

I’ve since tried the powders on regular cardstock and they work just as well, although the card did get more warped during the wetting/drying process.

 

 

Step 2 – sprinkle the powder(s)

I then gently sprinkled the powders randomly across the paper. A little goes a long way!

Step 3 – spritz with water/blot as desired!

The pigment from the powders didn’t flow as much as I wanted as my paper had started to dry so I spritzed water onto the paper to spread the pigment a little more across my background. I added a few more sprinkles of powder where I had a lot of white and then started to dry the background with my heat tool.

I also blotted some of the ink to lighten the background a little. I ended up with a very shimmery paper towel and was worried that I’d removed the shimmer from the background. I needn’t have worried! The background was still super shimmery!

Once I finished the background, I started to assemble the card. At this stage, I was still planning to make a shaker card so I cut a square frame and adhered the die-cut snowdrifts to the top and bottom of the frame. As I was holding the frame against the background, I realised that the shimmer wouldn’t be as obvious in a shaker so I decided to simply frame the background instead!

I cut down the background and adhered the frame using foam. One of the snowdrift dies from John Next Door also includes a single whole snowflake so I cut that MANY times and stuck them across the card. Then I added the fabulous sentiment.

I was originally going to use the sentiment cut from mirror card, but when I tried this against the background, I thought a white die cut would stand out a little more. So I cut the sentiment from white cardstock a few times and adhered them together before adding it to the card.

I wanted to add EVEN MORE sparkle so I applied some Nuvo aqua shimmer to the snowflakes and sentiment and some gems across the card. After all, you can never have too much sparkle and shimmer can you?!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG

Supply List

Here are the links to the products I used on my card. Products marked with an asterisk (*) were kindly sent to me to use.

John Next Door – Snowflake Edges die set*

John Next Door – Festive Greetings die set*

Nuvo Shimmer powder  

Nuvo Aqua Flow pens – glitter gloss

Papermania adhesive stones*

If you decide to buy any of the products I’ve used after reading this post, please let Crafts-U-Love know by using the drop down menu on the checkout page and selecting ‘Design Team’. Please note this is simply to help Crafts-U-Love and I do not receive any compensation if you choose this menu option. I do not use affiliate links.

 

Enjoy your day

Hi everyone!

Today I have my next DT post for Crafts-U-Love using the ‘Always Flowers’ stamp set by Pink Fresh Studio. As usual, links to all the products are at the end of my post.

I noticed that my past couple of DT cards have been rather pink, so I was determined to use a different palette this time!

Step 1 – ink blending

Over the past few years, my style has definitely changed and I always tend to make my own backgrounds. My piles of pretty patterned paper are quite unloved, but I just can’t bear to part with them. I’m sure I’ll end up using them at some point (maybe!).

Anyway, when I started on today’s card, I hadn’t decided the size, so I used a larger piece of cardstock and blended three distress oxide inks. This ink is fabulous for blending!

 

Step 2 – stamping

Once I was happy with my blending, I randomly stamped images from the stamp set.

Step 3 – ink lifting

One of my favourite techniques with distress ink (regular and oxide) is ink lifting. I usually do this with larger images, but it’s easy to do with smaller images too.  I simply ‘painted’ water onto each image and then blotted it off to remove the ink. As usual, when working with smaller images, it’s best to use a small brush for all that detail work, and also ensure that the brush isn’t too wet. I also made sure to wipe off my brush at regular intervals – otherwise I’d start applying some of the colour I’d just removed!!

Quick, easy and effective! Once I finished, I almost stopped and started to assemble the card as I love the effect so much!

Step 4 – colouring

But in the end I decided to watercolour the images using my distress inks, diluted with a bit of water.

After colouring the images, I felt that the gaps between the images was a little too large so I stamped a couple of images from the Pinkfresh Studio ‘Happy’ set.

I then cut down the panel to fit on a square card base. I stamped a Hero Arts sentiment onto a strip of card which I adhered to the base. (The remainder of the background card will go into my ‘bases box’ as I know I can use it on another card!) I then stamped, coloured and fussy cut a couple of flowers and adhered them and a few gems to finish off the card.

I’m also entering this card into the current Pinkfresh Studio challenge as I was inspired by their summer theme and loved their colour palette (although I was determined to stay away from pink!)

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

 

Supply List

Here are the links to the products I used on my card. Products marked with an asterisk (*) were kindly sent to me to use.

Pinkfresh Studio – Always Flowers stamp set*

Hero Arts – Happy Birthday Messages stamp set

Pinkfresh Studio – Word series stamp set – Happy*

Distress Oxide ink

Distress ink

Brilliance ink

Papermania adhesive stones*

Just keep swimming!

Hi there!

Two posts in one day! I can’t believe I forgot to post my card for the current Poppystamps challenge (‘make a splash’) earlier, but I’m glad that I remembered before the challenge closed!

I decided to use stamps from Poppystamps’ ‘Yes I whale’ set. As it’s the end of summer and people are heading to new schools, unis, jobs etc, I thought it would be appropriate to make an encouragement card, so I paired the whales with a stamp from Avery Elle. After colouring the whale images, I had to fussy cut them because the coordinating dies have gone AWOL – so annoying!

I then created a watery background using the faux alcohol ink technique demonstrated by Tim Holtz/Jennifer McGuire using glossy cardstock, distress oxide ink, water and distress glaze. I really like how this turned out. As you may know, I can’t use the alcohol inks as the strong smell triggers migraines so I love that I can still create a similar look! (I’m actually wondering if I should enter this into the current Ellen Hutson challenge (which is about alcohol inks) – as an alcohol-free alternative!!)

I used the Ellen Hutson strands die to cut a piece of white card which I stuck on top of my watery background before adhering the whales and sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Dancing Snowmen

Hello everyone!

I’m so pleased that I’ve been able to make quite a few Christmas cards over the past couple months – and it’s helpful that some of my favourite challenges have had Christmas themes this summer!

Today I’m playing along with one of them – the Memory Box challenge where the theme is ‘keep cool and carry on’.

I used the fabulous Frostyville Wreath die to cut a background I’d created from some distress oxide inks and them adhered it to a couple of wreaths that I’d cut from plain white card to add some dimension to the wreath. I then cut the fabulous Memory Box/Open Studio Dancing Snowmen from glitter card and altered card and adhered them inside the wreath on a square card. I toyed with adding a sentiment, but I actually felt the card looked fine without one! Besides, I can always add one later before I send it!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Mod Tree

Happy Friyay people!

My mojo appears to have gone AWOL. I’ve tried to craft so many times this week, and have failed miserably. But look! I finally finished a card today! Hurrah!

I decided to use the colours from this week’s Color Throwdown challenge (lime green, green, aqua and eggplant) to create another Christmas card. The tree die is one of my very first Simon Says Stamp dies. I think it’s retired now, but I still love it!

I cut the tree and Savvy Stamps sentiment from eggplant cardstock although it looks quite brown on screen. It actually looks much closer in colour to the small bits of eggplant ink I added to my background panel, but they look quite different here.

Anyway, I’m also entering this into the current CAS Christmas challenge (tree).

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Thinking of autumn colours

Hi there everyone

It’s time for another guest post for CAS Colours & Sketches challenge.

This week, the team has come up with a beautiful autumnal colour palette for us.

As I mentioned before, the team uses Stampin Up! colour names as a reference which always made me a little reticent to play in the colour challenges as I don’t have any Stampin Up! inks. Luckily, this month it’s proving quite easy to match up the colours quite well using distress oxide inks.

I created a blended background using Wild Honey, Fired Brick and Candied Apple. I then cut an oval from some white cardstock and adhered the frame to the blended background. I added a Memory Box die cut (the fabulous Arboscello Tree) and a stamp from an older Hero Arts set to complete my card.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.